Into two crock pots, I put zucchini, carrots, onions, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, whole garlic cloves (and cilantro steams, because I happened to have them on hand. Instead of throwing them away, I put them in the broth.) I used all the small pieces and ends of vegetables I had saved and froze from the chopping at the start of meals. I also put in some fresh, whole vegetables I had in the fridge. I filled the crocks up with water and put them on low for ten hours.
At the end of the time, I let the broth cool a bit, strained the cooked vegetables out, discarded them, and poured the broth into pitchers in the fridge. I am freezing the broth into Souper Cubes, so I can store them in the freezer until they are needed. This vegetable broth will be perfect for our curried chickpeas, a dish we make once a week and eat over rice for lunches. I also used some of this broth mixed with beef broth in a beef stew, since the beef stew had many of the same flavors as the vegetable broth- garlic, onion, and carrots, etc.
Making my own vegetable will save several dollars per meal, because I won't have to buy boxes of vegetable broth from the store. Note: My whole family remarked at how good this broth smelled, and we know it will taste great. I make chicken and beef broth all the time, but this is the first time I've made vegetable broth. Until now, we didn't have any recipes that called for vegetable broth, but now that we are eating more healthily, we eat a few meals that need vegetable broth consistently.
