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“Oops, I forgot about those carrots.”
Making broth is also a great way to use up vegetables that have been hanging out in the crisper drawer or on the counter for a little longer than you planned. Just toss them into your ugly broth bag and back in the freezer. Please don’t put rotten vegetables in your ugly broth bag, but those forgotten carrots that are a tad on the limp side will still make great stock.
We all get busy, and sometimes food gets forgotten. Using produce that isn’t all that pretty is much better than throwing it away.
Here’s a list of vegetables and their scrappy bits that work the best for broth:
Onions
Onions sliced on a cutting board with a knife laying next to them.
Onions are the base of any good broth.
The tops and bottoms are great, as well as the skins. I always save the onion skins for stock, as it gives it a lovely golden color. If the very outermost skin is dirty, I’ll toss that into the compost bin. You can also use shallots in the same way.
Celery
Sliced celery tops on a cutting board.
Whether or not you like to eat celery, it’s flavor always improves broth.
Most folks chop the tops of their celery off and pitch it. The pale inner leaves and stalks have such a lovely flavor, so they go into the ugly broth bag too. You can use the bottoms too, but I prefer to cut the very bottom of the celery stalk off so that the stubs are in pieces instead of one large chunk. (Or you can save the bottom and grow some more celery.)
Carrots
A cutting board with carrots and carrot peels and tops.
Onions, celery, and finally, carrots – these three veggies are the basis for great broth.
Sometimes the top part of the carrot (where the fronds grow) can be bitter. That part of the carrot usually gets put in the compost bin. However, the tip of the carrot and the peel are both parts that I put in my broth. When I’m peeling carrots, sometimes I’ll peel a little extra just for the broth bag.
These three veggies tend to make up the majority of my bag each month, as that’s what I use most when cooking. Lucky for us, those are the best veggies for broth too. Here are some other things that I toss in my ugly broth bag as well.
Mushrooms
A bag of mushrooms spilled over a green cloth napkin.
Mushrooms are a wonderful addition to broth.
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