I use kitchen food scraps to make homemade stock & soups. That’s a great waste to reduce food waste as well as be resourceful in your kitchen and even save money on buying store bought broth. Also, homemade broth is great immune-boosting food and should be consumed regularly if you want to stay healthy.

During a month or two I collect veggie peel & scraps (as well as mushrooms, pieces of old dried cheese, bones from cooked meats like grill chicken or turkey roast). I keep them in a freezer in a bag (I prefer to use a silicone bag like Stasher or anything similar) and when the bag is full I make them into stock.

What kitchen scraps end up in my freezer bag and can go into stock making?

Most of the veggies:

  • From when you peel your veggies: peels from carrots, potatoes, turnips, onion peels (yes!) – obviously wash those peels
  • all veggies that you forgot in the fridge, and they got dry or soggy (carrots, radishes, celery, cabbage, broccoli, onion, kale, tomatoes) – soggy and dry is okay for the soup! (actually even better)
  • garlic (leave the skin on unless it’s already rotten or moldy)
  • lemon rinds and
  • mushrooms – cuttings or forgotten pieces
  • any herbs (dried will work too, just discard the rotting ones)

Non-veggie leftovers:

  • Pieces of dried cheese (the ones that become hard as a rock)
  • Bones from cooked foods (bbq ribs, bones & carcass from roasted chicken etc)

Anything that doesn’t go into that list?

  • Avocados
  • Beetroot can be used but it’s going to make you stock purple

Read the recipe below or watch this simple video where I show how I make my broth from kitchen scraps

Super simple cooking process!

  1. Put all the food scraps (no need to thaw) into large pot (I use 3 quart / 3 liter soup pot).
  2. Add water to cover all vegetables.
  3. Add a pinch of salt, 10 black or white peppercorns, 1-2 bay leaves
  4. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer on lowest for 30 minutes (if you use bones boil for 1-2hrs – the more the better). If you use pressure cooker, you can also choose high pressure for one hour for bones and 30 min for veggies.
  5. Strain the broth to separate veggies from the liquid
  6. Stock is ready to use! You can also freeze it in the freezer bags or glass jars (fill in only 2/3 of the glass) and put in the freezer only when broth is not hot anymore
Save this recipe to Pinterest to come back to it later!