Something You Should Be Doing Before Composting Your Kitchen Scraps
Many of us may be thinking that doing compost is the best way to take advantage of vegetable scraps. However, there is a step before composting to think about to get the best of the scraps: BROTH!
Broths could be the base for many delicious recipes and are easy to do. But, why with scraps? Well, especially with organic vegetables or if they are from the house garden, scraps most of the time are the skin of the vegetable, and the skin saves the most nutritional value in the vegetables. By doing broths from the scraps, nutrients can still be there for our consumption. Unlike boiling sweet potatoes and then throw away the water (where probably was all the nutrients), broths made it possible for us to keep the liquid, and then what goes in the compost is scrap.
When regular pieces make a broth of vegetables, those usually are trowed away because the broth already kept all the desire nutrients and flavors. The only way that a broth can keep the desire nutrients in the water is the cooking method. Broths are a slow process in the kitchen. That is why many restaurants don’t do it anymore because it takes more time, and it’s not profitable. Still, some small local restaurants doing this, but its a hard work.
When cooking at home, I found that broths are the most comfortable thing and change the possibilities of flavors, get it in soups, sauces, rice (substitute the water for the broth), and so on. At home, the broth is one of those few preparations that do not need to keep on eye on it. However, the first fifteen minutes are essential, but once the broth starts to boil, it needs to low the heat to start simmer and let it be for a long time. How long? Not less than one hour, not more than two. Unless someone is thinking about a reduction, maybe that takes more time, but the broth shouldn’t take less than one hour. Waiting for the boiling, and then leave it to bare simmer is the key.
Are there rules?
There are no specific rules, but my advice is:
- Use a bag in the freezer to fill it every time that there are scraps.
- Don’t go crazy with just one specific vegetable. Variety is the key. The most flavorful vegetables for broths are onions, garlic, carrots, and celery.
- Use some herbs, peppercorns, coriander. I will say that don’t salt at this point, salt when you are about to cook something else with the broth.
- If this summer you are growing a lot of organic and clean vegetables, please do not throw away the skins of your vegetables, eat them! But, if are parts that you don’t want to eat, make a broth. The best way to reduce food waste in our kitchen is to make a broth.
- The same way you freeze the scraps, you can freeze the stock for other recipes.
- The top-secret ingredient to add a sweet flavor: CORN COBS.
- The best part: YOU CAN STILL COMPOST THE SCRAPS AFTER YOU MADE THE BROTH. I do not add any fat to my stocks, so since there is just water in them, I can still compost them. If you add fat in the stock, for sure, you cannot do it. However, if you even composting after this, its just an extra thing, because you already got all of it.
- Cook your grains with broth, it makes such a difference in flavor. You would not go back after this.
