I’ve become expert at making chicken stock. I’ll do two kinds: the complicated sort where you save up all your bones and caracasses for months and then make an enormous batch of stock, even straining it through cheesecloth and clarifying it with eggshells. (Recipe here: Chicken Stock.); and the easy sort where you throw an onion and a celery stalk in with some leftover roast chicken and have a simple broth for soup the next day.
But I’ve never done vegetable stock! So I came up with this vegetable broth recipe for the holidays. It also happens to be vegan, too.
Vegetable Broth Recipe
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 leeks, well cleaned and diced
4 carrots, chopped
4 parsnips, chopped
1 bunch Swiss chard or kale, chopped
Thyme
Parsley
Bay leaf
Peppercorns
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a very large stock pot. Saute the onion, celery and leeks until translucent and nearly browning, about 10 minutes. Add carrots and parsnips and cook about 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add chard and stir.
Fill the stockpot with water. Bring to a boil. Add thyme, parsley, bay leaf and a handful of peppercorns. Turn the heat down and simmer, about 2 hours.
Turn the heat off and let the stock cool. Strain into bowls and store in plastic bags in the fridge.
Yield: about 10 quarts.
