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If you haven’t been making your own homemade vegetable broth, now is the time to start! It’s easy, nutritious, practically free (if you’re using food scraps), and better for the environment. Even though we compost, I’m always looking for new exciting ways to utilize my food scraps. Making vegetable broth with food scraps is a classic and always timely way to get the most out of your veggies. In this post and video, I’ll show you how you can easily make a very simple vegetable broth, and a more bold mushroom seaweed broth. Both can be used in any recipe that calls for broth. I even like sipping on the mineral rich mushroom broth like a savory tea.
If I don’t make my own vegetable broth, I go through so many jars of Better Than Bouillon paste. I love that stuff so much, but even better is making your own broth. I keep a food storage container in my freezer and add scraps to it as I cook throughout the week. When that container gets full, it’s time to boil the scraps for broth. It’s really that simple! Boil, strain, and done.
Not every vegetable scrap is suitable for veggie broth, however. You want to stick to clean tops, bottoms, and peels from non-starchy veggies like onions, leeks, garlic, celery, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, and greens. Don’t plan on making veggie broth with the starchy bits from your potatoes and sweet potatoes. Compost those guys 😉
My favorite veggie broth is one that is made with plenty of mushroom bottoms. Mushrooms can be pricey, so I’m extra intentional about using every centimeter of this nutrient dense food. You can make a mushroom-only broth, or mix them with other veggie scraps. Get creative with your veggie broth mixes. You can even experiment with adding flavor boosters like tomato paste, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and dried herbs. But for now, I’m leaving you with two very simple and delicious recipes to get started. Let me know if you’d like to see more vegetable broth recipes in the comments below!
Mushroom Seaweed Broth | Money-Saving Homemade Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 2 cups mushroom bottoms, try to use more flavorful mushrooms like maitake, shiitake, & oyster
- 1-2 tbsp dulse seaweed flakes or 1 piece of whole dulse
- 1-2 pieces of wild wakame seaweed, also called alaria
- 6-8 cups water
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.
- Immediately reduce the heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
- Allow it to cool, then use or store in glass containers.
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Simple Vegetable Broth | Money-Saving Homemade Vegetable Broth}
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups vegetable scraps
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1-2 tsp dried thyme
- 8-10 cups water
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients in a large pot, and bring to a boil.
- Immediately reduce the heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
- Allow it to cool, then use or store in glass containers.
LOVED THIS VIDEO, RECIPE AND HER PRESENTATION. I’m a broth fan & nerd and have done my version also. I also incorporate previously done broths of all flavors (mushroom, chicken, beef, etc) instead of tap water, to incorporate into random soups and creations, and even a couple of envelopes of unflavored gelatin towards the end of “simmer” for it’s contribution to body needs. Even reduced starchy potato boiling water to use with my homemade bread. Video and her wonderful presentation skills can assist in our good health and better living. Just my opinion!
Just found your site and can’t wait to try Mushroom Broth, Watermelon Rind Relish,
Vegetable Broth. My husband has a bad kidney and can’t have more than, 1,500 mg of salt a day…….that is any kind of salt. Sugar less than 13gm in things because of his diabetic. It has been hard to cook for the last year and find we are eating the same things all the time. Can you give me any ideas?? It seems to me that without Salt or Sugar you lose a lot of taste. Do NOT GIVE MY EMAIL OUT TO ANYONE or I will block them. A friend told me about you… https://sweetpotatosoul.com/wprm_print/6878