Upcycle Stock

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I was recently reminded that a good way to reduce food waste is to use all the odds and ends to make stock. What I didn’t know was that you can actually save onion and garlic skins and use them in stock. I’m sure many people do this, but I had somehow never heard about it before. And it works. So now, I keep a freezer bag with vegetable scraps and when it’s full, I simmer it all in water for some hours, together with bay leafs and spices, and then I bottle or freeze it. And just like that I have a constant supply of good quality stock made from things I would otherwise just have thrown out.

You can use pretty much anything, as long as it has not gone bad and isn’t dirty. I’ve used corn cobs (I got that idea from Vivian Howard’s A Chef’s Life), fennel tops, lamb bones, chicken bones, carrot peel, and kale stems. I’ve noticed that many people say to avoid crucifers, but I haven’t had any problems with the small quantities I’ve been using. What I have had, though, is lots of delicious stock.

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