Making My Own Veggie Stock

Yesterday I decided it would be a good day to make some veggie stock. I ran out of what I had in the cupboard (store bought) and decided to do it myself. Why? Two reasons really. 1) It's much cheaper. 2) I know what's in it, and as of yesterday Hubby has to watch his sodium intake*.

Cost Comparison:
Store bought: 2.00 (best sale I could get, on sale with a coupon) for a 1 quart carton.
Home made: 1.39 celery + 0.75 carrots + .01 onion = 2.16 for 6 quarts. Add in the cost of the water, olive oil, salt and pepper and gas to heat it all and we're looking at 2.50 at THE MOST. Awesome.

So how did I get an onion for a penny? I don't know. I went to the Asian grocery store last night to pic up veggies for this and some Panko since it's on my way home. The only veg that had for this was the onion, and they were out of Panko, but I did get some noodles my Hubby has been requesting. The noodles were marked 2.99. I handed they guy my noodles and the onion and my total was $3.01. He told me not to worry about the penny. I'm sure the noodles were discounted somehow, but since I didn't get a receipt and paid in cash, I'm assuming the onion was one penny :)

The recipe below calls for white wine, which I used only because I had an open bottle, but it isn't necessary. It adds to the cost, but it's still less than store bought (on sale and with a coupon).

However you look at it, it's much more cost effective and I know exactly what went into it. Also, the packages stock comes in from the store are very difficult to recycle, and most places, including my village, won't take them. So now I get to use my own containers, freeze whatever I want, and it's super cheap! Plus I have some wonderful veggies to add to my compost pile. I can't wait for spring to start working on it and make it into beautiful nutrients for my garden!

Recipe:
1 lb carrots
1 lb celery
1 lb onion
2 T olive oil
1 T salt
1 T black pepper
1 c white wine
6 quarts water

Directions:

• Chop veggies into about 1" pieces.
• Toss in a large bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Make sure all pieces are coated.
• Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and heat oven to 400F
• Roast veggies for about 1 hour.
• Remove from onion and move from baking sheet to stock pot at medium heat.
• When veggies start to sizzle, add white wine and let it soak in/reduce.
• When it's fully reduced, add 6 quarts water and let simmer for 1-1.5 hours. Veggies should no longer have much of a taste when they're done. All of the goodness goes into the stock!

Chopping veggies.

Make sure oil, salt and pepper is coating everything.

Place in one layer on cookie sheet.

If you don't have a huge one like this, you can use two.

Yummy roasted veggies ready for the stock pot!