Taking Stock of Making Stock by Jill Nussinow- The Veggie Queen!

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 Editor’s Note: I’d like to welcome Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, a.k.a. The Veggie Queen to Recycle Your Day. As a monthly contributor she will bring much insight on pressure cooking, and vegetables while also covering green topics. Jill is the author of of the award-winning The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment cookbook with more 100 seasonal vegetable-based recipes. The Veggie Queen is also a Pressure Cooking expert – featured in Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes 75 minute DVD, featuring 14 plant-based recipes from breakfast through dessert. Jill Nussinow is an educator, author/writer, speaker& consultant. The Veggie Queen is the vegetable, vegan, and vegetarian expert!.Visit her site for recipes and much more. Also, be sure to check out her blog for tips/ideas, recipes and a wealth of information on healthy and sustainable eating!

Making stock is a great way to recycle or reuse ingredients. My stock pile (ever wonder where that term came from?) consists of unused ends, pieces and peels of vegetables such as onions, carrots, leeks, potatoes, squash, garlic and more.

I avoid cruciferous vegetables such a broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and the others, to minimize any gaseous or sulfur order. Almost everything else is fair game. Those possibilities include mushroom stems, corn cobs, green bean ends, tomato tops, asparagus stalks and more. Inedible but still viable (not old or moldy) vegetable pieces go into the stock bag that stays in my vegetable drawer. At the end of the week, I either make stock or freeze the bag.

Sonoma county chef John Ash says that the best stock comes from the browning, or roasting, the vegetables. He thought that I’d agree with that, and I do in some instances. If your stock-making includes stove top simmering, then roast for more intense flavor. If you use a pressure cooker, it extracts the essence of the vegetables so well, that roasting is unnecessary, but still possible.

To make roasted stock, combine part of the vegetables with a couple of teaspoons of oil and roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, until browned. Use the directions below.

Combine at least 4 cups of roughly chopped vegetables including your bag of “stuff”, an onion, a carrot, some celery, a bay leaf, a sprig or 2 of thyme (or herbs that you like but be careful of the rosemary which can be very strong) and a few peppercorns, with a couple quarts of water. Pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure or simmer on stove for at least an hour.

I always have a bag of stock makings in my refrigerator or freezer. I use stock for everyday cooking and for making taste-laden soups. It gives my vegetables a second chance before the compost pile.