How To Make Vegetable Stock

Vegetable stock is the backbone of a lot of soups.  If you have vegetable stock handy, a nice healthy soup can be served quickly, putting in some beans, pasta, vegetables and herbs.  You can make a large quantity of vegetable stock and freeze it till you need to make a soup.

There are many different recipes for making this humble stock.  You can actually use whatever root veggies you have in hand, going from the pedestrian onion, potato, carrot to a more gourmet route with leeks, celery, et al.

Here's a simple recipe for vegetable stock:


Yields 10 cups of stock

Ingredients:
2 onions chopped
4 potatoes scrubbed and cut in small chunks (don't peel them!)
4 cups of chopped mixed vegetables like carrots, leeks, celery (whatever you have....some recipes include tomatoes too, but I don't like it because it makes the stock a little sour in taste.  You can use tomatoes if you like)
a handful of fresh herbs (again go with whatever you have - coriander, parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage....)
a few whole peppercorns
1-2 bay leaf
2 ltr water

Method:
1.  Place all the ingredients in a large pan with fitted lid.  Bring to a boil and let it simmer covered for an hour or so after the first boil.
2.  A speedier way is to put everything in a pressure cooker and let it cook for 15-20 minutes after the first whistle on low flame.
3.  Strain the stock in a wire mesh strainer and cool.