Sunday, January 13, 2013

Soup Sunday - Vegetable Broth

Well, since I totally screwed the pooch and forgot about Mama Pea's Soup Sunday last week, I guess I should share one this week.

This has got to be the easiest, albeit a bit boring, soup to make.  Well, except for maybe opening a can of Campbell's, but I'm thinking we're all looking for the Mmmmmm, Mmmmmm, HOMEMADE good kind'a soup.

As a few of you are aware, I'd been doing a juice fast last week.  And in order to do a juice fast, you need tons, and I mean TONS of vegetables.  And since I had veggies (veggies, veggies, veggies, veggies.....embrace it Susan) coming out of my ears, I figured I might as well make some vegetable broth.

I cut up carrots, onions and celery and put them in a pot with three cloves of crushed garlic.  Added a little glug of olive oil to the pan and sauteed the bunch for about five minutes, until the onions just started to soften.  The I dumped in about 8 cups of water, a teaspoon or two of parsley and a few bay leaves.

Bring the soup up to a boil, then reduce heat and keep on a low simmer for several hours (I think I had mine on the stove for 2 1/2).  Some of the water will evaporate during the cooking time, so make sure to add some back in every once in a while and add salt to taste.

Normally I would keep all those good vegetables in the soup, but this time I wanted to make a simple broth so when I took it off the stove I strained everything through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth.

This is also a good way to use up all your vegetable peelings.  Because you DO keep all those peelings in a zippy bag in the freezer until you've got enough to make soup, right?!

That's what I thought.

Oh, and for something totally unrelated, I give to you my first RCP (Random Cat Picture):
Evil Kitty, not entirely happy about being wrapped up in a scarf.

7 comments:

  1. LOL! Love the photo! Unfortunately, I don't save scraps for broth. The goats get them.

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  2. The kitty does look evil! Great photo.

    I have never made vegetable broth. Looks very good.

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  3. Gosh, your veggies (are you still with us, Sweeze?) look scrumptious!

    Tell Evil Kitty those are definitely her colors and she should go with them.

    Papa Pea and I were just contemplating going on a one day a week juice fast. Now you're setting a goal for us to work up to. How has it gone??

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  4. Kristina, normally the scraps go to the chickens / goats, but I'll occasionally throw some in a zippy bag in the freezer for the humans.

    gld, This was actually my first time. Not too bad, either!

    Mama Pea, It went ok. I managed to go a full five days on the juice & vegetable broth. Although if you want a really "Green" juice, it gets horribly expensive. I think the $2.99 bag of spinach yielded like 3/4 oz. of juice. We used mostly carrots, apples, cucumber, sweet potatoes (sounds weird, I know, but it was good), celery, pears and some broccoli stalks (saved the tops for Rhiannon). Oh, and ours always turned out like the color of cat vomit. Bottom's up!

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  5. Carolyn,

    I throw some of my scraps to the freezer bag and the rest to the compost pile. I also throw all my bones in a bags too for making soups and broth.

    Poor Evil Kitty, lol

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  6. I was thinking of going on a juice fast. I have psoriasis and it's horrible right now! I've heard that a juice fast clears your skin since it's easier to digest but I haven't tried it yet. Did you feel full? And more importantly did you lose weight? I'm also like five pounds over my normal weight right now!

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  7. Okay, I will never live this down, right? And how long after that RCP was taken did the scarf get totally shredded? I do, actually, keep my vegetable trimmings in a zipper bag in the freezer. Doesn't everyone?

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