Healthy soup stock recipe

Making healthy soup stock is right up there with boiling water, where skill is concerned. It’s incredibly easy and will provide the basis of many a healthy meal. I think some people are of the opinion that it’s either difficult or time consuming. While the stock will need to simmer a while, you don’t have to watch it while it does that. As for being difficult, as you will see, that’s not true either. And best of all you will save money by using up odds and ends of meat and vegetables that you already have instead of buying stock.

Start by filling a large pot with about 12 cups of water and bring to a boil. While the water is heating up you can assemble the ingredients.

Bones:

Whenever ever possible I buy chicken or turkey breasts bone-in. Then when I have finished eating the meat I throw those bones into a freezer bag and store for future use. There is no need to thaw, just pull a couple out of the freezer and toss them into the pot. Same idea for beef bones. Save whatever is leftover from steaks or roasts and simmer in the pot.

If you prefer you can buy some meat especially for this purpose, chicken thighs for instance, and cook them at this point in the stock water. Or you could throw in some cooked chicken or beef, shredded, to enhance the flavor.

Another alternative is to simply ask the butcher to sell you some bones. You may have to ask in advance for the chicken bones as poultry goes off very quickly and the butcher is unlikely to have that hanging around for long.

Vegetables:

Some vegetables should not be used in stocks as their flavors become stronger the longer they are cooked. These include brassicas such as cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. I wouldn’t include spinach (could turn your broth too green) turnip (strong flavor), squash or potato (too starchy) at this point either. Save those for soup making.

Otherwise almost anything goes. I would include vegetables that are almost past their best-before-date -- not rotten, of course, but might be blemished and perhaps considered unsuitable for regular cooking. Trimmed properly there is no reason not to use them for stock. There is still plenty of flavor and it’s a shame to throw them out. Just make sure they are washed well.

Vegetables that work well are:

-whole garlic cloves, flattened but don’t worry about peeling them

-onions, any kind, chopped and add the skins too: they add color to the broth

-outer stalks of celery complete with leaves but trim the white bottoms as they tend to be bitter

-washed carrots, trimmed but unpeeled

-portions of red or green peppers, no seeds

-a few green beans that might be a bit limp but not yet moldy

-head, leaf or romaine lettuce

-a chopped tomato, with the seeds

Seasonings:

-a couple of bay leaves

-a dozen or so whole black peppercorns

-a smattering of chili pepper flakes

By the time you have sorted through, washed, chopped and added whatever ingredients you have, the water should be at a boil. You can turn that down to a simmer, put the lid on and forget about it for an hour. In fact I sometimes let mine go longer than that, especially if raw meat was used. You want to extract as much flavor as possible and as long as you stay away from strong-flavored vegetables, you can’t do any harm.

When you think it’s as strong as it’s going to get, turn off the burner and let the stock cool a bit as a safety precaution. Then pour into a colander placed over a large bowl. That will remove most of the solid contents which can be discarded. Let the stock cool in the bowl so that any fat can be easily skimmed.

Once cooled it should be strained once more through a double layer of cheesecloth. I usually affix some to a fine metal sieve with an elastic band and place that over the storage containers. Gradually pour the stock into the containers, leaving space for expansion if you are planning to freeze.

When selecting containers think ahead to how you will be using the stock. I use containers no larger than 2 cups for ease of use. A good idea is to freeze some of it in ice cube trays, and when frozen pop those out into a freezer bag.

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