Three assumptions, hold the blood and the booze

The recent posts that have gotten the most traffic here were the result of marketing (a.k.a catchy titles on Facebook and other social media). So it’s obvious what drives extra traffic to this site, and it ain’t canned carrots. But too bad. Until you start paying a subscription fee to view this wonderful blog, I’ll put up what I please. That brings us to today’s topic — drinking pigs blood.

Okay, this isn’t about drinking pigs blood. It’s not even about meat. Or booze. It’s about vegetables. But don’t discount the fibrous food group. I’m going to make three quick assumptions about you. The first is that you cook with vegetables. At the bare minimum onions, peppers and garlic. I’m also going to assume that you want to be as unwasteful as possible. Lastly, I’m going to guess that you think homemade stock tastes leagues better than the stuff in a cardboard box.

Now that the assuming is out-of-the-way, let’s get to the nitty-gritty. Take the scrapes of those vegetables you cook with, throw them in a gallon plastic bag and stick that in the freezer. Keep on adding to the bag until it’s full. Like this:

Now that you’ve got a gallon bag full of veggies, throw them into a stock pot, like this:

Fill the pot with water, enough to cover the veggies and then some. The only thing you really need to add is bay leaves, 2, and some salt. Anywhere from 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup, depending on how salty you like things.

Bring the whole mixture to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 45 minutes. Now you have a few quarts of vegetable broth. Use it to make soup, rice, savory oatmeal, to roast meats with, the options are pretty open.