I buy ready made stocks to use in an emergency but I know that homemade is better. Here is my go to recipe for vegetable stock.
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Vegetable Stock ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
Nothing beats using a real stock. I buy ready made stocks to use in an emergency but I know that homemade is better. This challenge saw the stock first boiling over and meant I had to clean the stove. And then, the tuffy bag did not seal properly and the stock leaked out, all over the floor behind the stove. Which meant a lot of moving and cleaning.

Vegetable Stock
Ingredients
- 15 mls butter
- 20 mls olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 leeks, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 black peppercorns
- 1 large handful flat leaf parsley
- 1 small handful fresh thyme
- salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Method
- heat the butter and the oil in a large pot
- sauté the onion, leeks, carrots and celery
- toss to coat the vegetables, place the lid on the pot and cook for 2 minutes
- top up the pot with cold water to ensure a clear stock
- bring to the boil and skim the surface of any scum
- reduce the heat and add the balance of the ingredients - be very generous with the seasoning
- simmer for at least 1 hour
- pass the liquid through a sieve and gently press the solids to extract all the liquid
- refrigerate or freeze when cooled
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Ingredients for my vegetable stock:
- Butter – I use unsalted butter for my recipes, unless stated. If you use salted butter be sure to adjust the amount of salt you add to the recipe.
- Olive oil – I use extra virgin cold pressed olive oil in my recipes. Be sure to store your olive oil in a dark container in a cupboard. Exposure to light could make it go rancid.
- Onions – Make sure your onions are firm with no green spots. Once an onion has been cut you need to cook the entire onion. If you don’t need all of it, place the cooked onion into a sealable container and use when needed (within a few days).
- Leeks – use nice fat, firm leeks, cutting the white part only. Be sure to clean them if you can see sand in between the layers.
- Carrots – I peel my carrots before I use them but if you don’t want to make sure they are properly scrubbed. Make sure they are firm and trim the ends before using.
- Celery – celery needs to be fresh and firm. If stringy you can peel them first.
- Bay leaves – I buy dried non-irradiated bay leaves and store them in a glass jar.
- Garlic – buy firm garlic cloves and use even if they sprout. If this really bothers you then plant the sprouted garlic and harvest your own.
- Peppercorns – I use a mixture of black, white and pink peppercorns. But you can use what you have to hand.
- Flat leaf parsley – commonly known as Italian parsley, I prefer to use this rather than curly parsley. It is a matter of taste so use what you prefer.
- Thyme – I grow my own and have a few varieties in my herb garden. This makes for a great herb to plant between pavers.
lmao @ the automatically generated ‘possibly related posts’!
Home made stock is really well worth the effort.
Friday greets: Hello David.
clearly stock is not a good word! Friday greets back 🙂
hahaha i can see your frustration !! great idea though.. wonder if one can reduce this stock to what Nomu is doing as well.. hmmmm think i will try this out
you too have a great weekend!!!!
I have never used the NoMu stock – let me know if you can 🙂