Vegetable Stock
A friend was amused that I could not eat the amount of meat required on the Atkins diet to stick with it. She remembered travelling high and low in Germany, seeking vegetarian dishes for me. This was a near impossible task in the erly 90s. Especialy in EAST Germany. Subsequent visits have been much easier for the vegetarian visitor, with many menus having more healthy options than the typical American restaurant.
Though I do eat meat and am healthier for it, my vegetarian years taught me many cooking tricks that have made my meat dishes turn out better than standard fare. One trick I learned in my early vegetarian days was how to make a vegetable soup stock. Keep in mind:
- I was in college at the time and had little to no cash
- I had time on my hands to do this
- I hated tomatoes. I still don't really like them all that much...
- Squash was out of the question (yuck)
It starts like this:
- Every time you have vegetable scraps, put them in a tupperware container in your freezer. Make sure they are clean before you freeze them. The best scraps are onion and garlic peelings.
Wait for the pile of vegetable scraps to grow.
Waiting...
Waiting...
- When you have enough to fill a pot, cut up one onion (peel and all) and put the frozen veggie mass into a large pot with the onion. Top it off with water.
- Bring this mixture to a boil, then simmer for 4-6 hours. Make sure to keep water in there.
- Strain out all the vegetable mass and simmer the soup broth down until it is as concentrated as you want it.
- Salt to taste, then freeze if you don't want to make soup.
I use this stock in many things, from Rissoto to squash bisque (I got over my dislike for squash). The best part from my small l libertarian perspective: It's super cheap to produce!
Which years were those vegetarian years, Exactly?????