DIY: Vegetable Stock

I never cook with a different stock. You know the reason.

Okay! so, I use vegetable stock to make various dishes like spicy rice, sauces, et cetera. How do I make my vegetable stock?

Basically, I throw vegetables I find around into a pot with water and boil them for about an hour. My stable vegetables for this are onions, ginger and tomatoes. The last time I made vegetable stock, I noticed I had run out of a lot of vegetables so I went in search in the fridge, freezer, pantry till I finally found some stuff. I threw in two tomatoes, about a whole medium-sized onion, sweet corn (found it in the freezer and it didn't look like anyone wanted it), frozen peas, ginger, I think I added a bit of a green bell pepper too, thyme, Italian Seasoning (herbs), salt, bay leaves and two red, "hot" peppers. Like I said above, I boiled them for about an hour then I poured the contents of the pot into a sieve and stored the liquid (stock) in a bowl. I actually used all the stock when I was cooking then, but if I don't use it all, I save it in a bowl and put it into the freezer.

You can easily make vegetable stock by storing random things from vegetables in a bowl. For example, if you get a liquid out of a tomato (say it was frozen and you defrosted it), you can put it in the bowl and use the tomatoes for what you brought them out for. If you don't use all of a carrot or you have a bit of the carrot left on the....I'll call it stub.....you can toss it in the bowl, if you have spinach you use all, but a little bit of an onion, toss the rest in the bowl, if you open a tin of sweetcorn or a bag of peas and you don't use it all, you can toss the rest into the bowl or just pour a bit into the bowl and keep the bowl in the freezer. When you're ready to make some stock, pour the contents of your bowl into a pot, add water to it and boil them for about an hour! Simple!

Even with the above, I believe the perfect vegetable stock should be made with onions, tomatoes, ginger, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage and some herbs (and maybe a bit of a green vegetable too).

As usual, just toss 'em in a pot, pour in some water, turn on the heat, put a lid on the pot, let the water boil with the vegetables for about an hour.

Stocks are best used fresh, but if you don't use it all, remember, store it in a clean bowl in the freezer.

*When defrosting your stock, pour a bit of water over it in the pot your defrosting it in so it doesn't evaporate, or leave sticky burns at the bottom of your pot as it melts.