How to Make Nutritious Soup Stock and Save Money Too
In a restaurant, chefs are trained– from day one– to follow one simple rule: Do not waste food. Restaurants are in business to make money and restaurants cannot stay afloat if they throw away a great deal of food. I am not referring to spoiled food or food from customer’s plates (thank goodness), but I am talking about the so-called scraps that most people throw out every day. When you cut onions, save the skins and ends. Save every part that you would normally throw away. Do the same with every other vegetable you process in your kitchen. Save all of the ends and all of the scraps in a brown paper bag in your refrigerator.
In classic French restaurants, throwing away onion skins is a serious offence. You could actually lose your job! The same goes for bones of any kind or even lettuce scraps. Save everything that is not rotten or spoiled, “scrap” or not! Then, once or twice per week (depending on how much vegetable scrap you accumulate), you throw it all into a pot, fill the pot with water, and boil everything for three to six hours. When you are finished, drain all of the water from the scraps, using a colander, and you will have stock. If it’s just vegetable scraps in your pot, you will have a big pot of vegetable stock. If you’ve thrown some bones or shrimp shells in there, you will have a stock that tastes like the scraps from whatever protein or proteins that you used.
