Here are some ideas for vegetable stock and soup base from my neighbors.
My next door neighbor saw one of my blog posts where I deposited the tough ends of my asparagus in the compost. He advises: do not throw out the ends of the asparagus. “Clean, trim, and boil them to create a very vegetal soup base. Add cubed potatoes, chick peas, fruity olive oil, pepper, and a bit of garlic for a rather nice soup.”
My egg lady says that for vegetable soup base start with onion, celery, and carrots, but you can use any vegetables. She tosses any combination of vegetables and end pieces (like cabbage cores) in olive oil and roasts them all in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The roasting adds depth to the flavor of the stock. Put everything in a pot and cover with about 8 cups of water. Bring the pot of water to a boil then turn back to simmer. Add bay leaves, peppercorn, and parsley and simmer for at least 45 minutes but up to two hours is better.
Now, egg lady doesn’t remember this, but her daughter throws in about everything but the kitchen sink (and I have the picture above to prove it). One time I saw her starting to make stock while she was preparing for a dinner party and she even threw in the tops of strawberries. When you’re done simmering, you strain the mixture into another large container and (finally) compost the solids.
If it takes you a while to collect enough scraps to make stock, save them in a freezer bag until you have at least 3 cups. You shouldn’t have a lot of peels in there because most of the peels on vegetables (potatoes, cucumber, eggplant, etc.) you can leave on when you use the vegetables. After you make the stock, it can be frozen for later too.
