Today is National Homemade Soup Day! Soup is my favorite food! It is so versatile, easy, quick, and cheap! Just stick whatever you have leftover in the fridge into it and you are good to go! However, all good soups need to start with a good stock or broth! I never settle for store bought broth. It is way too expensive and broth can easily be made at home for cheap by using leftovers and scraps. Here are some of my favorite tricks for making the best homemade stock for your homemade soups.
- Always save veggie scraps! This includes carrot ends and peels, potato peels, onion skins and the root, celery ends, literally everything! Why waste all of these nutrients by throwing them into the trash? I like to save all of my scraps in ziplock bags and I store them in the freezer. Whenever I am cooking, after rinsing off my veggies, I just stick the trimmings into the bag and when I am done pop the bag into the freezer.
- Always save bones! Don't throw out your turkey carcass from Thanksgiving, instead freeze it! Save some money by buying a whole chicken instead of just the chicken breasts. You get more meat for cheaper and you can use the leftovers on the bone for stock as well. Freeze all of the bones until you are ready to make stock.
- Roast or sautee the veggie scraps. This is so important for getting the most flavor out of those scraps. When your bag of veggie scraps is full either roast the scraps with some olive oil and seasoning or sautee the scraps in a stock pot before you add in the water. This brings out all of the flavor of the vegetables before you get started on the stock. If you are roasting, when done add everything into a stock pot including all of the juice and then add in the water and boil. You should roast them for about 20 minutes at about 325 degrees or sautee them until you can smell the onion peels.
- When making meat stocks with any type of meat you simply strain the stock when it is done. You will have the bones and veggies left over. This is where you see the real bang for your buck. You will see a lot of the meat falling off the bone. It takes time, but you can easily pull off any extra meat and save it for when you make your soup later. This happens with chicken, turkey, beef, anything! The rest (bones and veggies) you can throw out.
- For veggie stocks after your stock is done (I like to boil my veggie stocks for about 30-45 minutes) you strain out the stock and all of the veggie scraps get discarded. You are left with delicious stock.
- The circle of soup: When you make your soup with your homemade stock don't forget to save all of those scraps from the veggies you put into your soup! Sometimes when making hearty soups you will have enough scraps to make more stock!
Why make homemade broth/stock? Besides the fact that it is super cheap, helps eliminate waste, and the fact that you know exactly what goes into it, broth also has many different health benefits. Bone broth is very high in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, as well as many other different nutrients. Veggie stocks also share similar characteristics. Broth allows many of these vitamins and minerals to be easily absorbed by the body.
Happy soup making!
-Jess
