Frugal freelancer Maria Rainier drops by DG with a bit of kitchen inspiration that’s creative, eco-friendly, and kind to your grocery budget, all at the same time –
Read on!

Lately, I’ve been faced with the following 2 problems:

1. Vegetable broth is expensive, especially if it’s organic, and what with horror stories of pesticides and artificial fertilizers going into my mouth and/or Mother Earth, I insist on organic.
2. You know that composting is good for the earth (vegetable scraps take next to forever to biodegrade in a landfill since they’re sitting up against plastics, metals, and other trash instead of dirt).  Still, your town doesn’t do it and you don’t have your own yard.

The solution is pretty apparent here: make your own vegetable broth out of vegetable scraps you normally throw in the trash bin (or at your dog hungrily waiting outside the kitchen).  Did you wait too long to have that spinach salad now wilting in the refrigerator?  How about the ends of onions, carrots, or celery you don’t want in your stir-fry?  For now, you can freeze them in a large yogurt container or even a plastic bag until you have enough to throw into a boiling pot of water.

Don’t leave out the following gems from your stock, either:

1. Egg shells.  Sounds weird, but you’re going to put the contents of your broth through a fine wire colander, anyway.  Egg shells can actually add calcium to the stock.
2. Apple peels and cores and peach cores.  They add a bit of sweetness to the stock.  Go easy on other fruits like lemons or bananas, though, since their flavor can be overpowering.
3. Parsley, rosemary, and thyme either from your personal herb garden or dried add lots of flavor to a vegetable broth.  Be sure to add a bay leaf or two as well as a tbsp of olive oil.
4. If you’ve got some bones lying around (from last night’s emergency grocery store rotisserie chicken, perhaps?), throw them into the pot, too.

Once you have a decent amount of frozen scraps, put them in a pot with enough water to cover the scraps and then boil.  When boiling, turn down to and keep at a simmer for at least an hour.  You can’t make a hearty broth in less time.

Pass the contents through a sieve when you’re done.  If you’re patient enough, pick the egg shells and inedible parts of the now cooked scraps out and pulse the edible pits in your food processor.  Add to the broth for more flavor and nutrients.

What to do with your cooked, nutrient-free, puny broth leftovers now? Composting is still provides the best end result.  Nearly a fourth of landfills are made of food, but since there’s no oxygen in landfills, it gives off methane (a greenhouse has 20 times more harmful to our ozone than CO2).  Even if you live in an apartment, you can compost.  Check out the Bokashi bin that allows you to compost under your very sink, and mull over the idea of vermicomposting if this isn’t your cup of tea.

Photo: _nur

You know all these cans of vegetable broth lined up on the supermarket shelves? — a quick way to start a soup, or make a sauce, or juice up a simple casserole, sure enough. But while the convenience factor is tempting, I’ve never actually broken down and bought a can.

Why?

Because some things are thrifty, and some things are easy, but to go out and buy something in a can makes no sense to me (or my wallet) when you can get the same thing cheaper and just as easily, right in your own kitchen. Bonus, no extra packaging waste to burden poor Mother Nature!

Here’s the thing: You already know that the best way to cook vegetables is to use as little water as possible, right? That keeps all the vitamins and other nutritional goodies from getting washed away. Roasting, stir-frying, steaming — these are all great ways to cook your veggies.

But sometimes, you’ve just gotta boil. Mashed potatoes, just for one example. Or to cook carrots that will be mushy enough to make a batch of Becca’s Uber-fabulous Carrot Souffle, for another example…

So here’s what I do — a kitchen tip I picked up from my ultra-frugal mother, and her mother before her.

Make you own vegetable broth!

Instead of draining away the water you use to boil the vegetables, simply save it in a plastic container and pop it in the freezer. Save your vegetable cooking water for a few meals’ worth — any vegetables will do, the cooking water can pretty much all go in together — and you’ve got yourself a stash of vegetable broth to pull out, thaw, and cook with the next time you want to make wonderful homemade soup or a casserole dish.