How to make homemade vegetable broth in the slow cooker. This incredibly easy vegan Vegetable Broth recipe is made in a crock pot from vegetable scraps and is completely customizable.
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It's Recipe ReDux time! When I checked to see what the Recipe ReDux for this month was, I was pretty pumped to see the topic as No-Casserole Crock Pot.
I love the Crock Pot I stole a few years ago from my mom my Crock Pot!
There are so many reasons why... number one being that it's easy. Throw everything in the pot in the morning and dinner is ready that evening. It also makes your house smell fantastic. It's comforting. It's versatile. It doesn't use much energy {like turning on the oven would}. If it's hot outside, it keeps you from having to stand over a hot stove or turning on the oven. The list goes on.
I've done tons of Crock Pot recipes and they are the most viewed posts on my blog. This Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin gets at least 1,000 views per day!
When I saw that we were to use the Crock Pot a little more creatively {instead of just doing your regular casserole}, I just wanted to repost my Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot recipe because it is the most amazing chicken ever and it's a breeze to make. It also can be turned into chicken broth in the crock pot, and I am a sucker for a two-for-one recipe.
But I decided that I'd go on that theme and make a vegetable broth recipe in the crock pot. It's soup season and I always need broth. Typically, I have homemade chicken broth, but what if I'm cooking for a vegetarian or making a vegetarian recipe?
Oh and I also had some veggies in the fridge that needed using. How I hate wasting, especially veggies!
So I made some Vegetable Broth in the Crock Pot and it turned out even better than I expected. I've already had two bowls. Of vegetable broth... are you wondering who has two bowls of vegetable broth when they're not sick? Well, you will if you make this vegetable broth because it's goooooooooood. I'm still kinda laughing that I just described vegetable broth, something so simple and typically unexciting, as gooooooooood. But it's true.
The other beauty of this broth {minus its deliciousness} is that you can use whatever veggies you have on hand. For me, broth has to have onions, garlic, carrots, and herbs {any herbs will work!}. Everything else is optional. I loved the combination of veggies I chose, so that is what is in the recipe. Feel free to improvise or make yours more elaborate.
Make sure that you wash your veggies very very well before making the broth. I typically save {clean} veggies scraps and freeze them to save for making broth. I'm talking onion skins, carrots peels, celery leaves, etc. You certainly don't have to do that; I realize that it's not normal to do that haha.
But please be sure you really wash those veggies, and I typically buy organic vegetables to make broth since it concentrates everything in the broth {meaning pesticides and dirt will be concentrated... not good}.
I basically just roughly chopped everything and threw it in the slow cooker. I included the skins on the onions, the seeds and insides of the bell peppers, etc.
At the end, I added another layer of flavor with some liquid aminos. You can find it in large grocery stores, health food stores, or online. Salt or soy sauce would be a good substitute, but I like the extra layer of flavor it gives that salt just doesn't provide. And regular soy sauce has more sodium and gluten in case you're sensitive to that.
Crock Pot Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 3 medium carrots chopped
- 4 stalks celery, including tops chopped
- 1 medium bell pepper chopped
- 4 mushrooms chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- a few sprigs of herbs parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano
- 10 cups water filtered
- 1-2 tablespoon liquid aminos or 1 tablespoon soy sauce or 2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add the onions, garlic, carrots, celery, bell pepper, and mushrooms to the Crock-Pot. Drizzle olive oil over the top and throw in the bay leaf and whatever herbs you are using.
- Pour water over everything, cover, and cook on Low for 8-12 hours. Stir in liquid aminos. Turn off heat, strain, and let cool before refrigerating or freezing.
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Meme
Heidi@betterthandormfood.com
What a GREAT idea! I am so doing this! I hate to use store bought broth and this is perfect. Thanks for the inspiring idea.
Meme
Thanks Heidi! It's so easy and infinitely better than store bought. Totally worth the extra 10 minutes of effort
Serena
Once again...as always...you posted a simply brilliant recipe. Gotta admit I"m just never going to watch a pot of stock on the stove...but I could do in the slow cooker!
Meme
Thanks Serena! It's crazy easy and makes the most amazing broth. Who would think to describe broth as amazing? ha, but it was ๐
Danielle
Hi! I'm making this today as the blizzard keeps me inside on the east coast! I'm making vegan noodle soup. Wondering if I can either put it on high and cook for less time? If so how long? And then strain the veggies and add noodles and more veggies to make it a full soup. What do you think? Also what do you do with the strained veggies? Thanks so much
Meme
Hi Danielle!
I would say that you could probably put on high and cook for less time - not positive as I've never tried this. Maybe a few hours. I think I would just taste it and see if it has enough flavor. If it does, then you could go ahead and strain and make the soup. Otherwise, keep cooking until it has flavor. As for the strained veggies, I usually just toss them because once they've cooked that long, most of their vitamins have gone into the cooking liquid so they will be in your vegetable broth.
Hope that helps!! Enjoy your soup, and stay warm ๐
Anastasia
I've made this twice and I love it! It's delicious and so much healthier than the broth you can buy at the store.
Meme
Thanks so much Anastasia! Isn't it nice when it's easy to make things and they are so much better for you?!
Catherine Young
Have you used onion scapes in vegetable stock? If so what proportions did you use?
Meme
Hi! I haven't ever used onion scapes, but I'm sure they'd be good in here. To be honest, I never make it exactly as written and usually just toss whatever leftover vegetable scraps I have in my kitchen that would otherwise be thrown away. It'll taste good no matter what ๐