Vegetable Stock

So....as promised I thought I would post a blog on the vegetable stock I make and mention in my posts.....

I have a carton of veg stock in my fridge at all times (and several in my freezer) and I use it in different ways depending on what I am making. I started making my own because I was reluctant to spend 1sp on a stock cube (even though it was being used in a recipe that would serve 4-6 people....don't judge me...!!

There are a million recipes for vegetable stock out there and I won't insult anyone by giving ingredients or amounts......but I will share with you my method for making it because I just think that it can be so simple and such and effective way to be confident that there are no hidden points in your food....also it can be a great way to use up any left over bits of veg....as I found when I googled it!!
So whilst I was in the veg aisle in Tesco debating with myself what veg I should buy I noticed a stew pack with a variety of veg in so I thought...why not ....so I got it and a couple of other things.....

 .....I actually reduced the amount of carrot from this pack and increased the onion....only put in one leek, two sticks of celery and four of the mushrooms. Some recipes say chop finely where others say don't chop at all....however I took the middle ground and rough chopped them all!! Again a lot ofrecipes say bring to the boil and simmer for an hour......me.......I chucked them in my slow cooker.....

....added a few extras like salt, black peppercorns, thyme and bay leaves (from my garden)....you can vary it up in any number of ways to suit your own taste....add some garlic.....chilli.....pretty much anything you like.....

 I filled the slowcooker up to the brim with water and put it on low overnight.....the result was this.....

How good does that stock look...?
These are 250ml tubs....so that gives me 1.75l of lovely fresh 0sp vegetable stock for use in my sauces, caulisottos, broccolisottos, soups and stews....one of these goes straight into the fridge and the rest are labelled and go into the freezer.

When I googled recipes for stock to make sure I was getting the best stock I could I found some people (can't credit them because I forgot which sites I was on) who kept a plastic bag in the freezer and added all the offcuts of veg and then when the bag was full they made stock....sounds like a plan to me....in fact when I made my spiralised butternut squash last night  I chucked in the last bit of butternut squash that wouldn't go through the spiralizer....and in the days before Broccolisotto I used to freeze the stalks of the broccoli and put those in too. I don't know about you but I'm not a big lover of raw celery  and can't eat a lot of it so I also chop the rest of the celery into about 100g portions and freeze that for use in stocks and soups.