Description
Fresh stocks are an essential and vibrant foundation for any soup, stew, tagine, or sauce. A stock full of flavor and fresh ingredients will improve any dish, and most stocks are easy and economical to make. Use simple vegetable stock when cooking rice, risotto, and couscous to enhance the grains. Roasted stocks add depth and richness of flavor to all soups and stews — they are truly worth the effort.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 gallon-size freezer bag full of veggie trimmings
or - 2 large onions, peeled and diced
- 4-5 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 leeks, carefully cleaned, trimmed, and quartered lengthwise
- 1-3 celery stalks, diced
and - 2 Tbsps olive oil, if roasting
- 3 quarts of water
- 1 bunch parsley stems or 1 bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 6-8 stems parsley, and 6-8 stems fresh thyme, loosely tied together with kitchen twine)
- 3 good turns of freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- If roasting, preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large roasting pan, add the freezer bag of veggies or the onions, carrots, leeks, and celery. Drizzle with olive oil, toss to coat, and roast for 45 minutes.
- For the simple stock or the next step for the roasted stock, fill a 4-quart stockpot three-quarters full with cold water, and add veggies, herbs of choice, and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Carefully strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl, but do not press down on the solids, as this will make the stock cloudy.
Notes
- Add the carcass from a chicken or leftover fish bones to turn this into a meat stock.