How to make Veggie Scrap Broth – delicious trash to treasure

Growing up we always had a compost pile.  It never occurred to me that one would throw out fruit and vegetable scraps.  All trimmings, pits and anything which went bad before being eaten was tossed in the compost pile. 

When I moved out, I realized it wasn’t easy to compost in an apartment. My fruit and veggie scraps started going in the garbage.  And I felt incredibly guilty. 

(In case you wonder why it is so important to compost, check out this article!)

Giving Veggies Scraps a Second Life

I decided I had to get creative and find ways to prevent all that organic matter from just going straight into the trash.  That is when I started making my own vegetable broth. If I remember correctly (this was nearly two decades ago), I first read about the idea in a Martha Stewart Living magazine.  

Then I discovered compost services.  For a reasonable fee, someone would drop off a 5-gallon bucket (with a tight fitting lid) at my house.  I would fill it with all my compostable food waste. And each week they would pick-up the full bucket and replace it with an empty one. 

My food scraps were then taken to a farm where they were composted with the compostables from many other households. A few times a year I was invited to pick-up a share of the nutrient rich soil created through this process.  What was left after pick-up was used on the organic farm which handled all the composting. 

Even if I didn’t collect my share of the soil, I knew all of my compostables were creating nourishment for plants in my community.

When you don’t have the option to compost

And then we moved to Missouri, and for the first time in over a decade, I no longer had access to a compost service. 

So after a month or two of tossing all of our vegetable scraps and trying to convince Adam a vermiculture (worm farm) set-up in our basement was totally reasonable (he was not convinced), I decided it was time to start making veggie scrap broth again. 

While the vegetable scraps do eventually go into the garbage, at least this way, I get a little more use out of them before they make their way to the landfill.

Veggie scraps in the crockpot ready to cook down into a rich broth.

Once I got started again, I wondered why I had ever stopped.  This is a really simple process, and you can still compost the scraps after making the broth. 

It produces delicious vegetable broth which has no added preservatives and you can control the amount of sodium in it (I usually make it without any and add salt when cooking with the broth). 

I also recently read an article where someone noted that veggie scrap broth is incredibly rich in minerals and other nutrients which are concentrated in the skins and outer layers of vegetables that we often discard.

To make your own Veggie Scrap Broth

To make the veggie scrap broth, you will most likely need to save your vegetable scraps over a period of time.

Even if you meal prep each week, you would need to be cooking for an army to have enough scraps from a week of cooking.  It usually takes me 2-3 weeks to get a full bag (you aren’t putting all of your compostables in here, only the ones that would make a delicious broth). 

Designate a gallon freezer bag as the repository for your veggie scraps. Keep this bag in your freezer to prevent the scraps from going bad during the collection process.  

This is what it will look like after cooking – the light is playing a little trick, while this batch did have a nice glossy look, I think that is steam coming off it.

Into your freezer bag toss the discards of anything you would use in making a vegetable broth (or a vegetable soup).  Some of the scraps I collect are: herb stems, carrot tops and tips, celery leaves, onion and garlic peels and ends (not the root end), mushroom stems, zucchini ends, corn cobs, and more. 

You want to avoid anything dirty (therefore, no onion root ends – I can’t get them clean), and anything which has gone bad.

The items being collected are those not usually eaten because the texture is inedible (usually too fibrous/tough) and not because they are past their prime.  That being said, if you do have some herbs which are starting to wilt and you know you will not use them before they go bad, this is a great way to keep them from going to waste – wash them off and toss them in the freezer bag.

Once you have a full gallon bag of scraps, you want to empty them into a crockpot large enough to contain them and fill the crockpot up with water to cover the scraps.  You will cook your broth on low in the crockpot for 6-12 hours. The longer you cook the broth the stronger it will get, taste your broth throughout the cooking process and turn off the heat once you get to a depth of flavor you like.

I went the ladle route on this batch – here is the broth with the sediment settled to the bottom ready to be scooped out.

Allow to cool slightly, then place a large pot in the sink and a colander in the pot.  Line your colander with either fine cheesecloth or a clean dishtowel you don’t mind staining.  Pour the contents of the crockpot into the colander and allow the stock to drain through into the large pot. 

I use a wooden spoon to squeeze out the last of the brothy goodness from the vegetable scraps before bagging and disposing of them. If you do have access to compost, these can be tossed right in your bucket or pile.

If you don’t have cheesecloth and would rather not stain your dish towels, you can also use a colander to strain your broth and then allow it to cool and the sediment to settle (I usually do this in the fridge overnight). Once the sediment has settled to the bottom, use a ladle to spoon out the clear broth from the top of the pot. You may need to let the sediment settle a second time to get as much broth as possible out.

Once you have your broth separated from the sediment, simply use it in a recipe or place in mason jars (leaving at least ½” headroom) and freeze for future use.  I used the broth in these pictures to make a delicious lentil soup.

Electric Pressure Cooker Option

If you have an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot) you can make this broth faster and easier!  You would follow the same process as the slow cooker directions above, but instead cook it in the pressure cooker for 30-45 minutes on high pressure.  Allow it to naturally pressure release for at least 30 minutes, then strain as above.

Update

We now have our own compost bin, but I still make this veggie scrap broth, only composting the scraps once finished!  I also find myself using the pressure cooker technique a lot more often, making broth the day I need it (usually at lunch for cooking dinner) instead of planning it out in advance.  And I usually use the dishtowel straining method to again speed things up.  I have a few I have designated for this purpose that I don’t mind being stained.

Wishing you the opportunity to get every last drop of goodness out of your vegetables!