Preparation

Cup of Yum
1. Rinse and roughly chop or slice carrots, tomatoes, onions and button mushrooms. Chop your herbs.

Cooking stock in a pot

1. Heat oil in a large pot or sauce pan. Add lightly crushed garlic cloves and bay leaf or tej patta.
2. Add the chopped veggies and mushrooms. Sauté for a minute.
3. Add the chopped herbs and whole spices - parsley, celery, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, black peppercorns and cinnamon.
4. Add water. You can add more water to get a slightly diluted light stock.
5. Cover and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes on low heat to medium-low heat.

Straining

1. Let the vegetable stock cool completely at room temperature. Then filter it through a strainer.
2. Mash the veggies lightly if you prefer.
3. I pour them in ice cube trays, so that I can pop in the frozen veggie stock when making any recipe.

Instant pot vegetable stock

1. Except for oil, add the chopped veggies, mushrooms, herbs and spices in the steel insert of a 6 quart IP.
2. Add 6 cups water and mix.
3. Pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Let pressure release naturally.
4. Cool the vegetable broth and then strain and store.

Storing Suggestions

1. Store this homemade vegetable stock in a lidded container in the refrigerator for up to a week. You can also do what I do and freeze some in ice cube trays. Once they are frozen solid, pop them into a zip-lock bag for easy access.
2. If you want to store your homemade vegetable broth in the freezer, but would rather not freeze it into cubes, you can use freezer bags instead.

Uses

1. This flavorful broth can be used in so many ways. Use it to make your favorite soups, stews, curries, gravies and more! You can use it any recipe that calls for vegetable broth/stock (or even chicken broth/stock!).