Making Homemade Vegetable Broth with Kitchen Scraps

Hello everyone! TGIF! Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

As I transition to a low-waste lifestyle, I realized that most of my trash is vegetable scraps. Unfortunately, I do not have a yard or space to compost or access to a compost program, so there is no other way for me to dispose of them. I thought about how I could somehow reuse these- vegetable broth! Vegetable broth is a staple for me and for so many other people. Why not save money by making my own? It was time to find out if it was easy to do, and most importantly, if it tasted good.

I began collecting my vegetable scraps and put them in the freezer to store until I had enough. It took me about 1-2 weeks to get enough, which isn't very long at all. My scraps included carrot peels, kale stems, sweet potato skins, onion, and celery. Once the bag was about half full, I decided I was ready to try making homemade broth! I also wanted to use the broth immediately to make soup (keep reading for a kind-of-recipe).

I also picked up some dehydrated mushrooms at the store, and I thought they would be a perfect addition to the broth and another smart way to reuse. Fresh mushrooms would also work.

I filled a large pot with about 2.5 L of water. I turned the heat on high to bring it to a boil, and then I added the mushrooms.

While the mushrooms rehydrated, I began chopping vegetables for my soup: carrots, celery, and onion. I would also use these scraps for making the broth, too.

After boiling for around 5 minutes, the mushrooms were rehydrated. I used a slotted spoon to collect the mushrooms and keep them in a container to use another time. I'm going to use them for ramen this week! As you can see, the broth was already a deep colour and smelled delicious.

Now it was time to add the scraps.

I left the scraps to gently boil for around 30 minutes. You could probably do it for longer if you wanted. This is what I looked like:

The broth looked to be a dark, rich colour. It was very fragrant. I poured it into a colander to strain the liquid and collected the broth into a bowl to use later. As you can see, it looks just like store-bought vegetable broth! I disposed of the scraps, but if you have access to compost that would be ideal.

I used this broth to make a vegan "hamburger" soup. It had 1 onion fried in olive oil, a small package of Yves Veggie Cuisine Ground Round, carrot, celery, a can of diced tomatoes, noodles, and salt, nutritional yeast, black pepper, parsley, and garlic powder. Keep in mind that the homemade vegetable broth has no salt in it as store-bought would so adding salt is very important.

So, how did it taste?

This vegetable broth tasted absolutely amazing in this soup. I had lots of flavour, and the only difference was that it was less salty than store-bought. Oh, and this was basically free to make! I was genuinely surprised by how easy it was. I'm definitely going to make it again and again.

This particular soup was a huge hit with my partner, who is not vegan. Usually, we eat completely separate meals, but he really liked this. I would recommend it for vegan and non-vegans alike.

I love how easy a low-waste lifestyle is. As this recipe shows, it's not an inconvenience, in fact, it can save you money and the time spent taking a trip to the store. For me, reusing vegetable scraps was a beginner step in making more homemade foods and finding ways to reuse things in the kitchen.

Thanks for reading! I hope you find this helpful.

-Skylar