veggie stock

I use veggie stock in many of my recipes, and as the base for most of my soups.

A can of prepared stock costs about $1.50 and I need at least 4 cans to make a pot of soup. Being $6 in the hole for broth alone kind of defeats the purpose of homemade soup, so I make my own.

Here's my base recipe, it can be adapted to whatever you've got on hand:

1 large onion, quartered with the peel
2 celery ribs with leaves, coarsely hopped
2 carrots, peeled & coarsely chopped
2 potatoes, unpeeled & sliced
2 garlic cloves, unpeeled & crushed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped parskey
2 T tamari (or soy sauce)
2 bay leaves
1/2 t whole peppercorns
1/2 t salt

Place everything in a stock pot and cover with 2-3 times the amount of water. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

If I'm in a time crunch, I pressure cook it instead for 20 minutes.

Once it cools, I strain it into this super classy Carlo Rossi jug for easy storage and pouring!

I actually drank a $10 jug of wine to get the bottle; my thriftiness knows no boundaries (or shame, apparently) ;)