Easy Vegetable Broth
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Looking for a way to use your vegetable scraps so they don’t go to waste? Try this super simple and easy to make, Vegetable Broth! Made with everyone’s favorite vegetables that have been roasted to really get the most out of all the flavors, then cooked down with some water and fresh herbs to create the most delicious broth! The best part? It’s not only a wonderful and flavorful broth, but it’s also a great vegan/vegetarian option, helps give your favorite soups and stews that little bit extra flavor, AND it’s a so much easier to make than traditional stocks and broths! So. GOOD.
About The Recipe
So far this year, we have really been cooking/baking with a lot of vegetables. It’s been SO much fun, but we’ve been having a lot of vegetable scraps as of late. We hate to waste and typically use our vegetable/food scraps as compost, but we realized that we could be doing SO much more!
A staple in our pantry over the past few years has been vegetable broth. We keep it on hand, as it genuinely suits other foods more than meat based stocks or broths.
So, with a fresh batch of vegetable scraps from baking and cleaning out the fridge, we knew what we needed to make!
Though, making this stock super flavorful wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. We have made so many different versions over the last month or so! Our broth always seemed to just taste like water.
In a last ditch effort to make this broth work, we decided to throw in some less than stellar tomatoes we bought at the farmers market two weeks ago, some corncobs we shucked the day before, and some fresh garlic.
The broth finally worked!
It was flavorful, tomato-y, perfectly balanced, and (most importantly) NOT. WATERY. Honestly, I could eat this just as a soup. It’s so good and we’ve already used it in so many of our favorite dishes.
Reasons You Will Love This Vegetable Broth
- Naturally vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free!
- A great way to use up vegetable scraps.
- Requires very little effort to make.
- Full of flavor and not watery!
- Freezes really well.
- Adds a wonderful depth of flavor to all of your favorite dishes.
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
(Full ingredient amounts and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post)
- Large Carrots
- Celery Stalks
- Large Onion
- Large Mushrooms
- Corncobs
- Garlic Cloves
- Olive Oil
- Thyme Sprigs
- Bay Leaves
- Whole Peppercorns
- Salt
- Water
How To Make Vegetable Broth
Step 1: Combine
Toss carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn cobs, and garlic with olive oil.
Step 2: Roast
Spread onto a baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
Step 3: Cook down
Place the roasted vegetables in a 12 quart stock pot. Add thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook until reduced by half, about 1 ½ – 2 hours.
Step 4: Strain
Strain out vegetables.
What To Make With Vegetable Broth
The great thing about vegetable broth is that you can use it in anything that stocks/broths are typically used for! Here are a few of our favorite recipes to use this broth in.
- Vegetable Soup
- Minestrone
- Tomato Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Tomato and Cheese Tortellini Soup
- Cornbread Dressing
- Mushroom Risotto
How To Store
If you don’t intend on using your vegetable broth right away, you need a way to store it! Make sure you let it cool first, but we recommend storing it in 1 cup measurements in a freezer safe zip top bag. This makes for easy measuring when you’re using it to cook later on!
Expert Tips
- You can use this as a great plant-based alternative for so many dishes!
- This recipe can easily be doubled to make more or halved to make less.
- You can use about an 1/8 of a teaspoon of dried thyme to substitute for fresh.
- You can easily freeze this recipe for later use.
When you make this Easy Vegetable Broth, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.
Easy Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 4 large carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 4-5 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 large onion, cut into eighths
- 4 large mushrooms, quartered
- 7-8 medium tomatoes
- 2-3 corn cobs
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ cup olive oil
- 6-8 sprigs thyme
- 4 bay leaves
- ⅛ cup whole peppercorns
- 1 Tablespoon salt, or to taste
- 6 quarts water
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Toss carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn cobs, and garlic with olive oil.
- Spread on a baking sheet.
- Roast for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
- Place vegetables in a 12 quart stock pot.
- Add thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, and water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat.
- Cook until reduced by half, about 1 ½-2 hours.
- Strain out vegetables.
Notes + Tips!
- You can use this as a great plant-based alternative for so many dishes.
- This recipe can easily be doubled to make more or halved to make less.
- You can use about an 1/2 of a teaspoon of dried thyme to substitute for fresh.
- You can easily freeze this recipe for later use.
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Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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