Vegetable Stock

Hello,

No pictures or recipes today, just a word on stocks. I use vegetable stocks at least once or twice a week in my cooking, most often as a base for soups and gravies, but it can also be used instead of water when you boil rice, beans etc. As a vegan it can occasionally be quite hard to get ready-made stock cubes, as they sometimes (often) contain milk products, or in some cases, meat products! I heard a rumour that some Knorr vegetable stocks contain flavouring from beef, of all things, but don't quote me on that! Even where I can find vegan stock cubes, I really prefer to avoid them due to the high levels of salt, and the flavours are often so strong that you can barely taste whatever you have cooked with the stock.

So where does this leave us? Well, I make my own stock, and it's not difficult or even time-consuming.

My method is this - whenever I'm preparing food with vegetables, I take the trimmings and peelings and put them in a sandwich bag. I then put the bag in the freezer. I keep adding to this bag every time I cook until it's full or I need a stock. Then, I simply empty the bag into boiling water while I'm in the kitchen cooking something else, and let it boil furiously for as long as can! That's it!

After I've drained the stock, I sometimes let it boil a bit longer to reduce it if there is too much liquid. After that, I let it cool and either use it or put it in the freezer. Easy, healthy stock available whenever I want it!

I've recently started doing this in a pressure cooker (my new favourite toy!) because I hear that this helps to retain more vitamins in the stock.

My favourite things to put in are peelings and trimmings from carrots, courgettes, celery and mushrooms, because these give a very earthy and flavoursome stock (especially the mushrooms). I avoid potato peelings, because these are a bit too starchy for my liking. What you put into your stock is entirely a matter of personal taste, or may be affected by what you intend to do with a stock. For example, a delicately flavoured soup requires a delicate stock, so you may wish to avoid fennel, or other strongly flavoured items.

So, never buy stock cubes again! There is truly no substitute for making your own custom stock - it's healthier, tastes better and gives you that little bit extra satisfaction!

Yours,

Callum

PS. More recipes coming soon - I just bought a powdered egg substitute for the first time, so I feel a bit of baking coming on to try it out!