Sunday, August 26, 2007

Vegetable Broth


I've searched for a commercially prepared vegetable broth without celery, and there's only one that my husband doesn't react to (Health Valley Fat-free Vegetable Broth). I decided to just make up batches of my own and freeze them in Ball Canning Jars. I learned my lesson about filling them too full after I broke four jars, and this time I only filled the jars with 3 cups of broth. I used 6 cups of coarsely chopped vegetables (carrots, yellow squash, leeks, green bell pepper), 1 onion, fresh parsley, thyme, salt, black pepper, garlic, fresh bay leaves, and 8 cups of water.

I just let it simmer for 2 hours, then I juice the cooked vegetables in my juicer to extract the maximum liquid and combine it with the broth. Then I let it cool, refrigerate overnight, label and freeze.

What I have to get better at is thinking ahead for when I will need it so it has time to defrost. The canning jars unfortunately won't fit in my small microwave.

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