Vegetable stock can replace any stock in most recipes. You can make a more richly flavored stock (the color will let you know, but don't be afraid to taste it) for a beef or sausage dish. A lighter yield is fine for chicken dishes and for a vegetable dish it is up to your tastes.
All those tough parts of vegetables that get thrown out or into the compost can be used in a stock. Herb stems, the woody ends of asparagus. The only things that wont impart much flavor or could water down a stock would be a lot of lettuces, like romaine hearts and stems. You can add dried herbs to the stock but it is best to not too intensely spice your stock until you know what role it will play in your dish. Be careful with any hot peppers and their seeds, they can add a delightful boost to a stock but they can also make it inedibly hot. Herbs that will keep it savory are cilantro stems; parsley stems and leaves, celery stems and leaves, thyme sprigs. Carrots and onions make the best base to the stock and beyond that you can make it your own. With squash pieces, chard, garlic.
You can roast the vegetable scraps to get a roasty flavor... I usually skip this as it is the caramelization and carbonizing that gives the stock the roasted flavor. I just do that in the final meal if I want that taste.
Storing up to make a stock:
You can keep a jar, zipper baggie or plastic sealing container in the fridge for tossing in scrap vegetables. If you don't have a lot of scrap on a daily basis then keep the stock container in the freezer to add to it slowly and then boil at your convenience. What you make can be frozen, kept in the fridge (for a couple weeks) beyond that it will spoil. The bottom of the refrigerator toward the opposite end of the door is usually the coldest spot. It is good to keep it frozen in amounts that you'll use it, so freezing it in 1 cup amounts or in icecube trays can help you control the frozen amounts. Whether you use ice cube trays or muffin tins to get your stock cubes made they should go into a container after to prevent the freezer from flavoring them further!
A stock is a tremendous way of putting to use the trimmings, stems, onion layers that you may not otherwise use. Save yourself money, and add flavor to meals.
- olive oil (extra virgin)
- chard stems (save leaves for other meals)
- cabbage heart, brocoli, cauliflower and tomato bits should be used sparingly as they can rule your stock's flavor
- onion
- celery, including some leaves
- even peels from apples, pears can impart a delicate sweetness
- carrots
- green onions,purple onions, chives
- cloves garlic
- mushroom stems
- beans including the snapped ends
- peas
- potatoes
- peppers
- sprigs fresh parsley and stems (they are lighter in flavor than the leaves)
- cilantro stems (save the leaves for other dishes)
- sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 quarts water
- peppercorns if the stock is meant for a darker flavor
- smoked dry peppers are excellent for meat dishes which require stock
- pepper seeds if it is meant for a spicy dish or a tortilla soup
I don't make meat stocks. You cannot help but create MSG the old fashioned way when making a meat stock. Because it is just broken down protein and boiled too long. The marrow in bones and the skin of birds is what gives the stock its flavor and you can make a good soup without it and without the stomach aches later. Also you've find gorging happens a lot less with homemade vegetable stock rather than a meat stock or any store-bought stocks.
If you've made a tasty vegetable stock, no one will be the wiser they'll just ask you "How do you do it!?"
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