Turning veggie scraps into vegetable broth in my Instant Pot
Now that I know how easy it is to make vegetable broth in my Instant Pot, I no longer buy it in the store.
Whenever I prepare fresh vegetables, I put the scraps into a 1-gallon freezer storage bag. In the summer, this included lots of kale stems and quite a few beet leaves. If I cut corn off the cob, I chop the cob in half and toss it in the freezer bag. Mushroom stems, the white part of celery stalks, anything is fair game. Dont think I'll finish all the parsley before ot goes bad? Throw it in. I wash all the scraps before freezing, so thst they will be clean when I need them.
To make the vegetable broth, I use fresh carrots, celery, an onion, frozen vegetable scraps, a splash of olive oil, and plenty of water.
Iturn the Instant Pot to sautée.I peel the onion and cut it in quarters. I wash and peel the carrots, discard the ends, and cut them in thirds. I wash the celery and cut in thirds. When the pot indicates thst it's hot, I splash in about a tablespoon or so of olive oil. When the oil is hot, I add the fresh vegetables. If I time things right, I can throw in each vegetable as it's ready. I sautée them, turning occasionally, until they are brownedand there are brown bits in the bottom.
I have a large strainer that fits into the Instant Pot. At this point, I transfer the browned vegetables to the strainer. If you don't have a strainer for the Instant Pot, you can so the straining at the end. The pot should still be on sautée mode. Pour in about a cup of water. With a spoon, scrape as much of the brown bits as you can into the water.This adds flavor to the water and will make it easier to clean the pot when I'm done. I turn off the Instant Pot.
Be aware of how far down to the max fill line. You can't see the max fill line when the strainer is in place. The max fill line is about 1/2 an inch below the top of my strainer.
I put in the strainer. I fill the strainer with frozen veggie scraps. At first, some pieces are big, and there are a lot of air pockets. I pour in 4 cups of water. The frozen scraps start to thaw, and I can press them down. I add more scraps, up to the max fill line. I pour in water until the max fill line. In total, I can get 10 - 12 cups of water.
I close the Instant Pot lid and seal it. I set the Instant Pot to soup/broth for 25 miniutes. This might not sound like much time, but with all that water, it takes a long time to come to pressure, and even longer for the natural release at the end. It can take about 2 hours.
When it's done, I turn off the pot and open the lid. Wearing oven mitts, I pull the strainer out of the broth. Before I remove the strainer, I let the broth drain into the pot. I use a spoon to press on the scraps and force out as much broth as I can. Finally, I set aside the strainer, move the pot liner to a trivet, and fill mason jars with vegetable broth.
If you didn't have a strainer in the pot, you will first need to strain the broth. Before I had a strainer to use in the pot, I used to put a strainer over a very large pyrex bowl and strain the broth into the bowl. Then I would ladel the broth into the mason jars.
You don't need to use mason jars. You can use any heat-proof container. The broth keeps about a week in the fridge.