vegetable stock Archives

…turn them into something tasty, like this Cream of Asparagus Soup! I’ve previously written about saving your vegetable trimmings to turn them into a tasty stock, but asparagus stalks I save in another bag by themselves. We’ve eaten a lot of asparagus in the past few months, so I had well over a pound of trimmings saved in the freezer. At the first burst of chilly fall weather, I decided to turn those asparagus stalks into a hearty Cream of Asparagus Soup.

This was a two day process for me because…you guessed it: I decided to make my own chicken stock for the soup base. I save chicken bones like I do vegetables, adding to gallon freezer bags as I go. When I have carrots or celery, on their way out or not, I’ll stick a few in my vegetable or chicken stock bags so that I really only have to empty the bag into a pot and add water. I also cook with fresh herbs weekly, but still seem to have some left over. Before those herbs go bad, I pop some in those bags of veggie trimmings and chicken bones – anything goes: parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary – whatever you have on hand will lend itself to the flavor of your stock.

This particular time, I made chicken stock the day before I was going to make my asparagus soup. I let the chicken stock chill overnight so that I could easily skim the hardened excess fat from the top before I cooked with it.

Once skimmed, I added my asparagus trimmings and let them simmer to create this recipe (tweaked from epicurious), adding two 12oz. packages of frozen asparagus spears for more flavor:

2 pounds green asparagus

1 large onion, chopped

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

Add asparagus pieces and onion to chicken broth and simmer for approximately an hour (the longer it cooks, the more robust the flavor will be). Add salt and pepper to taste. Use an immersion blender or purée soup in batches in a blender until smooth, transferring to a bowl (use caution when blending hot liquids), and return to pan. Stir in heavy cream. If you are using asparagus stalks as I did, be sure to strain your soup before serving to remove any leftover strings/twiggy pieces.

What’s your go-to fall soup?

Save veggie trimmings in a freezer bag

This is a no-brainer, I know, but I only recently began making my own stock. I tried my hand at composting last year (and failed miserably), and have a garbage disposal, so all of my discarded vegetable bits were literally going down the drain (wasteful, I know). I now keep a gallon ziploc bag in the freezer with all of these wonderful tidbits, adding veggie bits after I prep (root vegetables work wonderfully) and when the bag is full I make a batch of stock – super easy!

Fill 3/4 of the way with water

Make sure that you have some carrot, celery and onion pieces in there to give it great flavor (you can add garlic and shallots for a deeper flavor). I dump my gallon bag of veggie bits in, add a couple of bay leaves and some fresh herbs (tarragon, thyme, etc.) if I have them, and at least a teaspoon of salt (depends on what size pot you’re using) and fill 3/4 of the pot with water.

Simmer for at least 1 hour

I have a large dutch oven, so I use more salt. I typically let my pot come to a boil and cook for at least an hour (I like my stock to reduce a lot for more flavor).

When you’re done, strain out veggie bits and portion into freezer safe containers — super easy and super tasty! I’m currently cooking a batch of brown rice in some of my homemade vegetable stock – yum!