Good stock makes a soup delicious and flavorful. I’m a fan of making stock when you can. I’m sipping some vegetable turkey stock as I write this and it’s absolutely delicious.

When purchasing vegetable or chicken stock, please read ingredient labels. Stock can have many questionable ingredients- yes even the organic brands-  like natural flavors, also known as MSG, yeast, gluten, poor quality oils and more. It also adds up and gets expensive if you need a lot.

Making your own vegetable stock can be as simple as saving all the bits and pieces of vegetables you would normally toss- onion tops/bottoms, carrot tops/bottoms, green stems, potato and butternut squash peels, mushroom stems, etc.

Keep a ziplock bag in the freezer and add your bits and pieces of veggies and bones
(it prevents wasting food!) When the bag is full, add that to a soup pot, fill it with water to about 3 inches above the veggies and bones, add some dried herbs of choice like rosemary, thyme or oregano and an onion chopped in quarters. Carrots and peels from butternut squash add a lovely sweetness. If using bones, add a splash of apple cider vinegar.

Immune boosting foods to add. Mushrooms of all kinds add a delicious body to soups. Ginger adds a spicy flavor and immune boosting warmth. Slices of fresh turmeric adds anti inflammatory support, root veggies like daikon radish, turnips add body. All of these ingredients along with your favorite dried herbs add flavor and health.

Let’s make the stock. Simmer 2-4 hours on the stovetop, or overnight in a slow cooker, or 4-6 hours at high pressure in an instant pot. I usually set my instant pot for 4 hours at high pressure, then again for 2 hours. The longer you simmer or pressure cook it, the tastier it gets. I don’t recommend adding salt to it until you are going to use it.

Veggies NOT to add to stock. I have found that too much celery or parsley can make the stock bitter. Some kale stems are great, too many makes it bitter. Don’t use brussels sprouts or strong tasting veggies like broccoli rabe.

Strain and pour into Ball Jars, leaving at least 3 inches of space at the top, and once it’s cool, freeze and pull out when needed.

If you don’t have time to make / buy stock, and you want to make soup, be sure to add an extra chopped onion to the soup recipe, along with a bay leaf and 2 teaspoons of your favorite dried herbs, or a few sprigs of fresh- this will create the foundation flavors that stock provides. I often purchase fresh herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram at my local grocer and dry them by leaving them out on my cutting table for a few days to dry. Once they are super dry, keep them in glass jars and pull out sprigs to enhance your soups when you’re using water instead of stock.

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