Homemade Vegetable Scrap Broth

Remember those butternut squash peels, ends, and onion scraps I told you not to throw away?

This is why.

One of my favorite ways to get more out of the food I buy is to keep the clean vegetable scraps I accumulate throughout the week and turn them into homemade vegetable broth.

Instead of buying another carton at the store, I'm using food I already paid for — including parts of the vegetables that would normally end up in the trash.

Or, in my house, eventually fed to the chickens.

Why Make Vegetable Broth?

Besides reducing food waste, homemade vegetable broth is an easy way to get a little more nutrition out of the vegetables you're already buying.

As vegetables cook, some of their water-soluble vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds move into the cooking liquid. Normally, when we boil vegetables and dump the water down the drain, some of those nutrients go with it.

With broth, we're keeping the liquid.

Depending on the vegetables you use, your broth can provide small amounts of nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and other minerals and plant compounds. The exact nutritional content will change with every batch — which makes sense, because my scrap bag never looks exactly the same twice.

Broth can also be a gentle way to add fluids and some nutrients when your digestive system isn't particularly interested in doing a lot of work.

The vegetables have been cooked until very soft and then strained out, leaving behind a nutrient-containing liquid that requires very little mechanical digestion. For many people, liquids like broth can be easier to tolerate than a large serving of raw or fibrous vegetables.

But here's an important distinction:

Vegetable broth isn't a replacement for eating your vegetables.

Most of the fiber stays behind in the vegetable solids when we strain them. We still want the soluble and insoluble fiber, phytonutrients, and variety that come from eating whole plants.

Think of broth as another tool — not a substitute.

And Your Ingredients Matter

One of the things I love about making broth from scraps is that every vegetable brings something a little different.

Carrots and butternut squash contain carotenoids, including beta-carotene.

Onions, leeks, and garlic contain sulfur-containing compounds and other phytonutrients.

Celery and zucchini contribute additional minerals and plant compounds.

Turmeric contains curcuminoids and adds both flavor and additional plant compounds.

And if you choose to use properly cleaned and heat-treated eggshells, they can add calcium to the cooking liquid.

Put them together, add water and heat, and instead of throwing all those odds and ends away, we're giving them one more job.

Start a Vegetable Scrap Bag

As I'm cooking throughout the week, I save clean vegetable scraps that will add flavor and nutrients to my broth.

Some of my favorites are:

• Butternut squash peels and ends

• Onion ends and clean outer layers

• Leeks

• Garlic

• Carrot peels and ends

• Celery ends and leaves

• Zucchini ends and scraps

• Bay leaves

You aren't limited to these vegetables. Part of the fun is using what you already have.

Just make sure you're starting with clean produce. Wash your vegetables before peeling and chopping them, especially when you know you're going to save the outside portions for broth.

And obviously, we're saving scraps — not spoiled food. Moldy, slimy, or rotten pieces don't belong in your broth.

Don't Let Your Scraps Hang Out in the Refrigerator Forever

If you're going to make broth within the next few days, you can keep your scraps refrigerated in a covered container.

If you aren't going to use them within a few days, freeze them.

I keep a freezer-safe bag or container and add clean scraps to it as I cook. When I have enough, it's broth day.

This makes it incredibly easy to reduce food waste without having a container of questionable celery ends hiding in the back of your refrigerator.

What I Use

There really isn't an exact recipe because every batch is a little different depending on what I've cooked that week.

My usual combination includes:

• Butternut squash scraps

• Onion scraps

• Leeks

• Garlic

• Carrots

• Celery

• Zucchini

• Bay leaves

• 1 teaspoon turmeric

• Filtered water

• Optional: properly cleaned and heat-treated eggshells

You can add other vegetables and herbs you have available, too.

What About Eggshells?

I sometimes use properly cleaned and heat-treated eggshells as an additional source of calcium.

Eggshells are largely calcium carbonate and are very calcium-rich, but this is one ingredient where I don't recommend simply taking a shell from a raw egg and throwing it into your scrap bag.

Eggshells can carry bacteria, including Salmonella, so they need to be handled carefully. If you choose to use them, clean the shells and boil them for at least 10 minutes before adding them to your broth scraps. Keep the sanitized shells separate from raw vegetable scraps until they're ready to be used.

And more isn't necessarily better.

If you need to limit your calcium intake or have been advised to monitor calcium, skip the eggshells. Your broth will be perfectly good without them.

Step 1: Fill Your Instant Pot

Add your vegetable scraps, bay leaves, turmeric, and any properly prepared eggshells you're using to the Instant Pot.

Add filtered water, being careful not to exceed your Instant Pot's maximum fill line.

Because you're pressure cooking, always follow the maximum-fill instructions for your specific Instant Pot model.

Step 2: Pressure Cook

Secure the lid and pressure cook on High for 30 minutes.

After the cooking cycle finishes, I let mine sit in the Instant Pot for a few hours.

This gives everything plenty of time to steep while the pressure releases naturally.

Don't leave the finished broth sitting warm or at room temperature indefinitely. Once you're finished steeping it, strain and cool it promptly before refrigerating or freezing.

Step 3: Strain

Place a large bowl in your sink or on the counter and set a fine-mesh strainer over the top.

Carefully pour the broth through the strainer.

Pressing the vegetables lightly can help you get some of that remaining liquid out.

Now you're left with a bowl of homemade vegetable broth and a strainer full of vegetables that have officially given you everything they have.

Discard or compost the scraps...

Or feed them to your flock of chickens like I do mine.

Just make sure anything you feed your animals is appropriate and safe for them.

Step 4: Cool and Store

Allow the broth to cool safely and transfer it into clean, airtight containers.

Keep homemade vegetable broth refrigerated and use it within 3–4 days. I personally aim for three days.

If you aren't going to use it by then, freeze it.

One of my favorite tricks is an ice cube tray.

Pour your broth into the tray, freeze it, and then transfer the frozen broth cubes into a freezer-safe container or bag.

Now you don't have to thaw an entire container every time you need a little broth.

Grab a cube or two for:

• Soups

• Sauces

• Cooking vegetables

• Cooking grains

• Adding moisture while reheating food

• Any recipe that calls for a small amount of broth

For simplicity, I try to use my frozen broth within about a month for the best quality, although properly frozen broth can remain safe longer.

A Note for Sensitive Digestive Systems

Broth can be easier for some people to tolerate, but easier to digest doesn't mean everyone will tolerate every broth.

If you're sensitive to FODMAPs, compounds from garlic, onions, and leeks can still end up in the broth.

If you're sensitive to histamine, freshness and storage may matter. Rather than keeping a large batch in the refrigerator for several days, portion and freeze what you aren't going to use right away.

And if you need to monitor your calcium intake, leave out the eggshells.

Everyone's tolerance is different, so pay attention to your own response.

This is something I come back to over and over again:

A healthy food isn't necessarily a healthy food for every person at every stage of healing.

One Vegetable, Multiple Uses

This is one of my favorite things about cooking with whole foods.

The butternut squash from the last recipe gave us a fiber-rich side dish with beta-carotene and vitamin C.

Then the parts we normally throw away became ingredients for another meal.

Wash it. Eat it. Save it. Freeze it. Turn it into something else.

Homemade vegetable broth gives us a simple way to add flavor, fluid, minerals, and some of the nutrients extracted from our vegetables to soups, sauces, grains, vegetables, and other meals — while getting one more use out of food that otherwise would have been thrown away.

Healthy eating doesn't always need another expensive powder, supplement, or specialty product.

Sometimes it's just learning how to get a little more out of the food already sitting in your kitchen.