Easy!

So, today, it's real exciting. I'm making veggie stock for a soup! Yay! Can you contain yourself? I didn't think so. Those of you that know me, know I am a health nut, a bit of a food geek & I LOVE to cook and bake. One area though I have never been confident in is with soups and stews. Nope. No confidence. Until a few weeks ago...

My friend went on a soup kick. She's a stay-at-home mum and in an effort to be healthier, decided to start making her own soups (I've tried some of them and they are delicious!). I was inspired by her and decided to do the same thing. So far, I've made a couple different lentil soups and they have turned out delicious! You might be wondering why I was so impeded in this area. It was stupidly simple...I didn't want to use store-bought veggie broth because of all the crap they put in it and I just assumed making your own veggie stock/broth took hours.

WRONG!!

Thanks to this awesome vegan recipe book called "How To All Vegan", I found out how easy it is:

Awesome vegan recipe book!!!

Yup, this book is awesome! My friend lent it to me and I'm thinking of picking up a copy at some point. I've made a few things out of it (including vegan french toast which Jere loved!) and they've all been delicious! Okay, so back to it...

Yes, so thanks to this book I have found out how simple veggie stock is to make. Take veggie trimmings (all those parts of the veggies you don't eat...like celery leaves, although those are good in salads, carrot ends, broccoli stems, pieces of onion, etc), throw it in a pot with water, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. The flavour is drawn out of the veggies as they simmer and VOILA...you have homemade veggie stock that is sodium free, does not have MSG or any other additives. If you wanna add some herbs, a bit of salt or pepper, garlic, go ahead. When it's done, you just strain the veggies out and you are left with your stock to make some delicious soups, stews and even chili. 

I stay away from store-bought stocks because often, they contain MSG (watch out for autolyzed/hydrolyzed extracts; those are forms of MSG), added sugar, nasty preservations & SODIUM! Some broths have over 40% of the recommended in take of sodium. I've also tried store-bought veggie stocks and the flavour is nothing in comparison to a homemade broth.

Yes, I realize it takes time to do this but once you get it started, it just simmers away on the stove. If you've been chopping lots of veggies and you're gonna be home, why not throw them in a pot with water and make some veggie stock? I'll seriously get this stuff going and go play videogames, clean, work on my plan to take over the world or write a blog post, while it simmers away! Oh, and you don't have time to make soup? RELAX! You can freeze this stock and when you're ready to make soup, you've got it!

I know. Not the most exciting entry in the world but for you foodies out there, maybe I'll inspire you!