Trash Soup

Trash Soup (aka homemade vegetable stock)

Ingredients: leftover onion peels, carrot tops, parsley sprigs, celery ends, garlic peels, potato peels, apple cores, egg shells (they leach calcium into the stock), almost anything that would be good in a soup/compost (all rinsed of dirt and debris)
(Veggies to avoid: bell peppers, broccoli, citrus, tomatoes, eggplant...)

fresh or dried herbs, spices (bay leaf, dried rosemary/basil/thyme/whatever)

salt/pepper (to taste)

water

tupperware containers or plastic freezer bags for storage

Instructions:

In the weeks prior to making your Trash Soup, save and freeze your end pieces in a bag in the freezer (like onion peels, carrot tops - not the green part though, potato peels, parsley/herb stalks -very nutritious, apple cores, egg shells, etc. Avoid anything that has gone bad or is browning, and the veggies mentioned above. Pretty much anything that would normally go in a soup or is okay to boil forever without a weird taste - broccoli and peppers I hear turn bitter after awhile, and I generally avoid anything that's sort of "soft", too, like eggplant or tomatoes.)

Once you have amassed a large quantity of frozen veggie "trash", find the biggest stock pot you own and fill it with water. If your veggie pieces aren't clean, make sure to rinse them off well. Add your veggie "trash" to boiling water, along with spices, herbs, salt/pepper. Feel free to add more fresh vegetables to the stock if you'd like - sometimes I throw in some extra cloves of garlic, or if anything is about to go bad in my fridge and would be okay to use for stock, but not so great to eat fresh.

Boil your Trash Soup for as long as possible, at least 4+ hours. (Feel free to do it all day long if you can, or save it in the fridge covered and boil it again the next day.) The water should be colored a nice rich brown at this point. Strain out the broth, saving the liquid in a separate pot. At this point you can throw away the boiled veggie trash or save it for compost. Sometimes I put it right back in the freezer in the original freezer bags to avoid it stinking up my trash until trash day.

You can now use your delicious, cheap, homemade veggie broth (TRASH SOUP!) to make anything! Boil your taters in it for mashed potatoes, or make soups or sauces of all kinds. It will be better tasting than anything you can buy at the store, I guarantee you. Store in tupperware or heavy duty plastic bags in the freezer until ready to use.

WAA-LAA! Bon appetit.