Vegetable stock I mean! Seriously. Why would we cook with a vegetable stock that was not good enough to drink. Most of the supermarket stocks are just salty and un appetising with a list of chemical ingredients a mile long. They tell me there are some tasty ones, but I have not found any yet. And I like my food Clean! So I make my own vegetable stock and freeze it.
Most of the vegetables in the garden are past their best and just laying about making a nuisance of themselves, so I have begun to make the vegetable stocks. 
Like the summer sauce I make the stocks with whatever I find in the garden that day. You can even make stock using the clean vegetable peelings from your dinner preparation. I often save the water I pour off the peas, beans, cauliflower or potatoes and freeze it to add to a stock later on. Just label well.
Chop all your vegetables roughly. Yesterday I tossed sliced onion, garlic and celery in a little hot oil until they began to scent the kitchen. Then I threw in a roughly chopped potato, fennel bulb, a capsicum, one hot pepper, and an unpeeled chopped butternut. Let all that heat, rolling it about in the hot oil, then I added the fragrance – yesterday was basil leaves, fennel seeds, peppercorns and a little sea salt. (If you want a really clear broth then skip the braising in oil) Cover the vegetables with boiling water (or your reheated vege water) then add another inch or two of fluid. Bring to the boil again then turn the heat way down and simmer slowly for about 40 – 60 minutes with the lid on. Don’t let the vegetables over cook. Strain through a colander, then put a cheese cloth in the colander and strain again.
Good enough to drink! While we watch the colours change.
The stock was cooled and poured into small cup sized plastic recycled containers, labelled and frozen. Remember – label well. You can make stocks with hot peppers, or not. Or add herbs that you will be needing to taste in your winter cooking. I make some with a thai influence for the thai soups. Just write all over the container or plastic bag. I often set a plastic bag into a container so the stock will freeze into a stackable shape, then pull the full frozen bag out and reuse the container.
We need about a hundred cups of vegetable stock for a years supply. The chicken and beef stocks I make in the winter.
What do you think Jed, shall we add a little pepper vodka?
Later in the day there was opportunist hay making (with the grass on the bank) and more soy bean fields turning gold. 
and SNAP, caught you in my grapes!
Bad peahens.
Good morning. I hope you all have a lovely day.
celi
Oh here is a funny little story from On the Beach about the day I set my brother’s hair on fire. It’s ok it was just a little fire!
The Kitchen's Garden 
64 responses to “Stock that is good enough to drink”
Yum. what a nice way to use the last of the harvest.
I start most every soup with those three ingredients, and some sauces…love that scent filling up the kitchen.
If you don’t have time to stand over the skillet, chop, oil, and roast in the oven at 400 for an hour or so. Pull the pot out, give it a good stir, and add your liquid. Finish it on the stovetop, just like you always do…gives the veggies a different kind of depth of flavor, too…
So funny, I just noticed that my veggie stock supply was down to 1 so I was making note to make a fresh batch for freezing!! Now I suppose since I drink green juice, why not veggie stock ? 🙂
That really makes me want to make soup. What a perfect idea for fall. Thanks C!
Wonderful! It’s fantastic to have some fresh stock to drink and frozen stock to see us through the winter.
I was with you until the stock in the wine glasses. Only wine in those for me 😉 t
Freezing in a bag, in a container – that is the best tip I’ve heard in absolutely ages! Thanks Miss C, yet again.
My Granny used to make beef tea for us when we were ill, when little. I love vegetable stock now, and agree with you about the chemical patties labeled as stock in the supermarkets – no deal.
Laura
So true! I’m sure they make commercial stock with muddy water and salt.
I make stock every Sunday for gravy, to go with the juices of whatever meat I’m cooking. I’ve got a pressure cooker, so the whole vegetable stock process takes about 30 minutes.
I have tried drinking my beef gravy with a shot of vodka and it’s great 😉
When I was a practicing Midwife delivering babies at home, I used to make a ‘potassium soup’ for the labouring mother – just a drinkable vegetable stock ……. Then I would give the older children the cooked veggies to eat!
I love that you use whatever there is available at the time. So there’s no recipe to follow, nothing to measure, and nothing to get wrong. But it will never taste the same any two times in a row, since the ingredients will change.
Your pictures of the fields took me back to when I lived in west central Illinois and would ride my bicycle past the fields along the river bottom. The view is long there 🙂
What naughty peahens!
love, love, love this concept of making veggie stock from tired produce and then freezing it. Big juicy kisses at ya, Celi. -Nikki
I followed your recipe last night and it worked perfectly in the new soup. So nutritious and yum! Thanks, Nikki
I love your vege stock, and it would be delicious just a light broth to sip, which in winter is a loevly with a toasted sandwich for lunch. I don’t have a huge freezer or a vege garden but it’s rare a vegetable gets thrown out. Even if they’re just quickly sauteed, they go into a bag or container and into the freezer to be added to something. I think your homemade vege stock is something I can accomplish pre-winter 🙂
you and i would do well in the kitchen together.. c