Vegetable Stock

This is the basics to making a vegetable stock. You can choose additional or other ingredients such as mushrooms, eggplant, asparagus (butt ends), corn cobs, fennel (stalks and trimmings), bell peppers, pea pods, chard (stems and leaves), celery root parings, marjoram (stems and leaves), and basil. The more variety the more complex the stock flavor. This recipe can be double or tripled or more!

Thank you to Debi who introduced me to this recipe. In addition to the ingredients below she added snap peas and asparagus to the stock. 


Vegetable Stock

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion
2 stalks celery, including some leaves
2 large carrots
1 bunch green onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
8 sprigs fresh parsley
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
2 quarts water


Preparation: Prepare 3 pint jars or you can double and triple this recipe. Sanitizing and keeping them hot for packing. Prep all the vegetables. Chop and scrub vegetables into 1-inch chunks.

Cooking: In a large stainless steel soup pot, heat the oil.  Add onion, celery, carrots, scallions, garlic, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves. Cook over high heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add salt and water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Strain.  Discard vegetables.

Filling the jars: On a dishtowel place your hot jars. Using your funnel in each jar fill with strained stock to 1” headspace.  Taking a clean paper towel wet it with vinegar and wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal. Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight".

Processing: Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the pressure canner and place the jars in bottom. Lock the lid and turn up the heat bring the canner to a boil. Vent steam for 10 minutes then close the vent by adding the weighted gauge or pressure regulator (for dial gauge canner). Process for 25 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure (11 lbs for dial gauge canner) for quarts. If you choose to do pints they should be processed for 20 minutes. (Adjust pressure for altitude) When complete turn off the heat and let pressure return to zero naturally. Wait two minutes longer and open vent. Remove canner lid. Wait 10 minutes then remove jars and place on dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning. Your stock may still be boiling inside the jars. That is normal!

Sealing: Sometime in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some jars may take overnight to seal. Check your lids the next day and reprocess any jars that did not seal. Remove rings for storage.

Labeling: Make sure to label your jars after they have cooled with the name of the recipe and the date canned. If you want to use the shrink labels in the picture you can order them Here!