REMEDY: Too many veggies, not enough eaters (Veggie broth)

I accomplished two things today. A great flavorful veggie broth and a picture I can live with. I had not done veggie broth before and I was inspired by Cafe Fernando and his wonderful photos and use of veggies to make a broth. I followed his tips and preferences for making a fat free broth by not browning the vegetables in oil first. I just cut them up in a rustic manner meaning since I wasn't presenting these on a plate or dish, they don't need to be pretty but they do need to be cut. Sorry for the lack of exact quantities but frankly, it doesn't really need to be exact.

3/4 lb baby carrots, chopped (I had two partial bags that I combined. One was a little dried but nevertheless, once they were submerged in the water they came alive again).
4 stalks of celery with ends sliced off and chopped
half of an onion chopped in to large peices
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 TBSP chopped garlic
1 TBSP kosher salt
generous amount of black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 container of organic mushroom broth


Throw it all in a stock pot with about 8-10 cups of water. Bring to a boil then let simmer for at least an hour. If you like a richer broth, let it reduce more. I would add salt and pepper minimally until you strain and give it a taste first. I wanted mine to be a little more rich so I went to Sprouts and bought a container of organic mushroom broth and added to it AFTER I strained it. I have a good strainer for broths that catches all the large peieces of pepper and garlic leaving me with a nice clear broth. Discard the veggies or find something to do with them. I guess you could puree them and use them for a veggie gravey. Since I'm not a vegetarian (yet), I got lazy and *gasp* threw them out. I know. I suck. Extremely disappointed in myself.

Bring broth to room temperature. Divide in to 1 or 2 cup storage containers or place in ice cube trays. Read Cafe Fernandos pointers. They are really awesome. (The link is at the top).

Homemade Chicken Broth

I know its easier to buy Chicken bouillon cubes than to make your own - well thats what you say at least. But bouillon cubes are about 1.50-2.00 a package depending on where you live. The small cubes make 1 cup, the large ones make 2 cups. Let's assume that it costs 2.00 for a pack of 6 cubes and that each cube makes 2 cups of broth. The joke in my house is that I am the math wiz so it won't be any surprise if I fudge this up in the process. This would mean that this pack of bouillon would be about .17 per cup. (Store bought - 12 cups for 2.00 - no chicken, high sodium)

I purchased a 4 lb chicken from Target for about 5.00. I boiled the chicken with sea salt, pepper and some random seasonings that I had on hand. (Cover chicken with Water about an inch above) BTW, the chicken was frozen. When you boil it, it will thaw on its own! Anyway, I boiled it on low for about 4 hours and then turned it off enough to cool but still be warm (due to safety reasons). I took the chicken out, in pieces due to the tenderness), then poured the remaining broth through a strainer into a bowl. I then poured the brother from that bowl in to individual containers to freeze. I got 5 containers, 4 cups each. Now lets do the math. 1 chicken - $5.00, 20 cups of broth, plus a chicken to eat :) So each cup of broth came to .25 vs .17 cents. However, you have half the sodium based on my research and recipe and I have an entire chicken to eat as a result of that 5.00 as opposed to a bunch of blocks of yellow stuff that I'm not entirely sure of what its made of!