New World Harvest Broth

A lot of the recipes that I make call for vegetable broth.  Boxed broth keeps pretty well, but it's not cheap, and I never seem to have it around when I need it.  So I decided to make my own and freeze it for later.

This broth isn't based on any particular recipe.  If you don't own a juicer--and I don't--it's still pretty easy to make broth from whole or sliced vegetables.  I used:

• 1 medium tomato (halved)
• 1 medium jicama (peeled and cut into four or five chunks)
• 2 medium-small sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into two to three chunks each)
• 2 medium-small zucchini (peeled)
• 1 bunch (8 or so) green onions (white and light green parts only)
• 1 8 oz. package (10 or so) button mushrooms (roughly chopped)

Everything on this list is of New World origin, except for the green onions, which as I've mentioned before are my go-to substitute for ramps (wild leeks).

I threw all of the vegetables into a 4-quart pot with 8 cups of water and brought the mixture to a boil.  I then simmered covered on low heat for an hour, followed by another hour uncovered.  I then strained the vegetables and broth through a fine strainer into a large, deep bowl, discarding the cooked vegetables.

I covered the broth and allowed it to cool for about 30 minutes. I then transferred 1 cup portions into individual heavy-duty 1-pint freezer storage bags.  I placed a large cookie sheet in the freezer and laid the broth-filled bags on them so that they would freeze flat.  After an overnight freeze, I was able to stack the flat bags to save space.  This recipe yielded about 5 1/2 cups of broth all told.

It's generally not advisable to thaw and refreeze broth, so freezing in these relatively small portions works great.  You can place a single bag in a microwave-safe bowl and zap it for 30 to 60 seconds to thaw it as needed for use in recipes.