While commercial vegetable stock serves its purpose, I have yet to find one that I really like. So I finally decided to make my own. Not only is it delicious, but it costs virtually nothing to make! Talk about frugal. Use it when you cook rice, lentils or beans.

Because we eat so many vegetarian, vegan and Mediterranean meals, I can collect enough scraps from one week of cooking to make my Homemade Vegetable Stock. All I need to add in are bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns and water. I might choose, as I did this time, to add in a big handful of fresh parsley and cilantro or dill, 5 garlic cloves and one tomato. Sometimes I might add a strip or two of fresh lemon peel. Generally I choose to not add salt to my broth. I add salt when I am using it in a dish.

If you know specifically what you will be using it for, you can also decide to season the stock to suit the dish you will be making, thereby layering in the flavors.

When I prep my meals, instead of throwing away the carrot or potato peels, I stash them in a gallon freezer bag. If I think I will be making the stock that week, I simply refrigerate the scraps and add to them all week until the bag is filled. If I am not making stock that week, I throw the bag into the freezer and add to it that way.

Most vegetable scraps can be used but there are some that I do not keep, like cucumber, asparagus and beets. You can use beets if you don’t mind that it will color your stock. Some people claim that cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, onion skins and kale can make your stock bitter, but I have not found that to be the case. I won’t use those veggies in great number, but I do use them.

Vegetables that you definitely want to include are: leeks, potatoes, carrot, celery, herbs, mushroom stems. You can also use corn, green beans, skins of squash, zucchini and peppers. Which of those I use depends on what we ate during the week. The stock will be strained so don’t get too precious with your collections.

The Homemade Vegetable Stock only cooks for an hour and then you allow it to cool. Once it is cool enough to handle, strain it through a fine mesh strainer and voila! THE BEST vegetable stock you will ever taste and only pennies (do you remember what those are?) to make. Use it in your next pot of soup or stew or even pasta sauce. And, of course, this can be frozen, but it will keep refrigerated for at least a week.

There is no strict recipe, but here is my guide:

RECIPE

Yield: About 3.5 to 5 quarts (You could, of course make a smaller amount. And your total will depend on the size of your pot and how much water you ultimately add. I like to stuff my pot with veggie scraps etc. and then cover everything with water. I don’t truly measure.)

INGREDIENTS

1 gallon freezer bag’s worth of vegetable scraps

1 medium tomato

4 to 5 garlic cloves, halved

A handful of fresh herbs – stems and all

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon each: peppercorns and whole cloves

Water

DIRECTIONS

In a 6-quart or larger soup pot or Dutch Oven, place all of the veggies, herbs and spices. Cover with water.

Cover the pot tightly and bring everything to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for one hour. You don’t want to cook this much longer since it might encourage bitterness in the broth.

Allow the stock to cool until you can easily handle the pot. Then strain everything through a fine mesh strainer, discarding all of the solids. They have done their job and deserve their rest.

Unless you are using the stock immediately, refrigerate it or freeze it for later use. You can also consider freezing some in ice cube trays to use when only a little bit of a good stock or broth is called for. If only all things in life could be this easy and give such a big, satisfying bang for the buck!

When I was pregnant with my son, almost 4 decades ago (YIKES!) I only craved two things: pickled beets and a particular brand of homemade small batch Greek yogurt. And I have never lost my taste for these two foods. There is just something about that fresh tang that wakes up my tastebuds. Actually, I love beets in almost any format and we eat them regularly. (Try my Moroccan Beets or Moroccan Beet and Orange Salad with Pistachios.)

Pickling is an early form of preserving the bounty of better times before the advent of refrigeration and well stocked grocery stores. And fermented foods are also great for gut health, encouraging good gut bacteria. And it actually is really easy to achieve.

While I am a big fan of beets and love everything about them – from their jeweled root to their green tops, you could use this same method to pickle cauliflower, carrots, spears of pickling cucumbers etc. And while I roasted my beets first, raw pickled beets are a crunchy and delicious addition to your pickling repertoire along with raw turnips. You can mix vegetables in the jar as long as you understand that the beets will bleed their beautiful jewel tones onto the other vegetables.

Lisa’s Quick Pickled Beets, unlike my recent posting on Homemade Sauerkraut, does call for a heated vinegar brine. It is very easy to make and comes together in minutes. And while my recipe produces a lightly zingy brine – with just a bit of sweetness, you can feel comfortable playing with the added spices used. Just maintain the vinegar to water to sugar ratio. Distilled vinegar works well if you don’t have or like apple cider vinegar. Don’t waste your money, however, using fancy, more expensive vinegars!

And while I roasted my own beets, you could use the beets that come in vacuum-packed bags at the grocery store. I do use those beets and even canned beets on occasion, but there is a real difference when you roast your own. So if you have the time, which is mostly hands-off in any case, I would encourage you to do it.

This recipe uses conventional red beets, but you could use golden beets if you prefer. Lisa’s Pickled Beets is ready to eat within 1 to 2 days and keeps in the fridge for a few months – as long as the beets remain covered in the brine. This brine can be used to pickle other vegetables as well and I plan on using it to pickle cauliflower and peppers. It’s so much better than the stuff you buy in jars from the grocery store and good pickles can elevate even the most ordinary meal.

For additional beet recipes:

Beet and Chickpea Quinoa Salad

Moroccan Beet Greens – Selka

Beet and Tomato Gazpacho

Garlicky Beet Spread

RECIPE

Yield: This will depend on the size of your beets. The recipe also can be halved. I made about 6 cups or 3 pints

INGREDIENTS

About 6 cups of cooked beets. They can be boiled or roasted. See below for roasting, which is what I do.

FOR THE BRINE

2 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar

2 cups of water (I just use tap water)

6 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1.5 teaspoons whole yellow or brown mustard seeds

1.5 teaspoons peppercorns (Black or multicolored)

1.5 teaspoons whole coriander seeds

About 10 whole cloves

2 Indian Bay leaves (If you don’t want to buy them, although I love using them when I cook rice) or 2 Bay Laurel leaves

NOTE: If you wish a tangier pickled beet, increase the apple cider vinegar to 3 cups and reduce the water to 1 cup.

DIRECTIONS

If you have roasted your beets, you need to peel them once they have cooled. I suggest wearing a food-safe glove for this unless you don’t mind if your fingers are stained for a day or two. Once the beets have been peeled, cut them into a large dice or slice them. The shape isn’t particularly important, so do what you like.

Place the prepared beets in a clean glass jar.

Bring the brine ingredients to a boil in a small to medium saucepan and simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Pour the hot brine over the beets in the jar and allow everything to cool completely. You should have enough brine to cover all of the beets. Once everything has cooled, cover the jar and place in the fridge. They will be ready to eat within a day, although I prefer to eat them when they are a bit more fermented.

TO ROAST BEETS

Wash and dry your beets (root bulb only). Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the beets individually on a sheet of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil. Close the foil around each beets, creating a little package. I place mine on a baking pan. Then pop them in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, depending on how large your beets are. They should be pierced easily with a knife but not mushy.

We eat a LOT of soup. So I make sure that they are packed with nutritious ingredients, are visually appealing and will satisfy even the biggest appetite since soup often is the main course for our dinners along with good bread and a glass of wine. My Minestrone Soup is no exception.

This delicious soup is filling with bright flavors, but it won’t weigh you down. It comes together fairly quickly and is a great make-ahead soup since the flavors only improve with reheating. While I like to cook my own beans, feel free to use a good quality canned bean that has been rinsed well and drained.

Below you will find how I made it this time, but it is riffable. If I don’t have zucchini, I might add green beans. No kale? Use cabbage. No fennel or you don’t like fennel? Use celery. Don’t eat vegan sausage, leave it out or use meat sausage. Cheese on top? Yes, please. No leeks? Use onion etc.

Make it according to my recipe and it will be delicious. Switch it up a bit and it will likely still be delicious. I happened to have made my own vegetable stock so I used that, but you could use a store-bought vegetable or chicken stock. My version is vegan but it doesn’t have to be if you aren’t into it.

I always make a big pot of soup because I frequently give some to my sister and it is a wonderful quick lunch during the week. My husband and I both like to bake bread, so that is a must for us. But you can buy good bread too. No judgment. And because there are so many vegetables and so many varieties, really nothing else is needed to round out the meal. Except, perhaps some baked apple for dessert!

Minestrone Soup will keep up to a week in the fridge and the flavors only improve with reheating. If it gets a bit thicker than I like, adding a bit of broth is all that is needed when reheating it.

Give this soup a try. You will not be disappointed. And if you enjoy this soup, check out the many other soup options on my blog.

RECIPE

Yield: About 6 to 8 servings

INGREDIENTS

3 Tablespoons Avocado, Canola or other vegetable oil

About 1.5 quarts or liters of stock

3 cups of cooked beans (I like cannellini and cranberry or borlotti beans but you can use Great Northern or Navy Beans)

2 large leeks, cleaned and sliced, white and light green parts

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into rounds (I like vegetables that I can see and identify, but if you prefer to dice your carrots, that works too.)

1 small bulb of fennel or 2 to 3 stalks of celery, diced or sliced

28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes that you crush with your hands (The tomatoes – not the can!)

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

2 strips of lemon peel – yellow part only

1 bunch Dino Kale (de-stemmed and coarsely chopped or torn) or 3 to 4 cups of coarsely chopped cabbage

1 to 2 small to medium zucchini, cut into half-moon slices about 1/4-inch thick

1 piece of Parmesan rind (Optional, but recommended unless you are vegan)

2 medium potatoes such as Golden or Red, peeled and cut into large dice

2 Bay leaves

1 rounded teaspoon each: dried oregano, basil and thyme

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste (How much you use will depend on if you are salted or unsalted stock or broth as well as personal taste. You can always add more but it is difficult to remove salt once added.)

1/2 to 3/4 cup of a small pasta such as Tubetti

12 to 14 ounces sausage (I like Field Roast Brand Italian Sausage which is vegan, but you can use any sausage you like cooked according to the package instructions.)

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a 6 quart or larger stock pot or Dutch Oven over medium heat. Add the sliced leeks and about 1 teaspoon of salt. Sauté for about 8 minutes or until the leeks are translucent and just showing some color around the edges.

Add in the celery or fennel, potatoes and carrots and sauté until the vegetables begin to soften.

Now add in the beans, parmesan rind, tomatoes and tomato paste as well as the bay leaves.

Next comes your stock or broth. Give everything a good stir and bring to a boil. If scum rises to the top, remove that and then add in the dried herbs and lemon peel. Cover the pot and bring the temperature down to a simmer. Allow this to simmer for 1.5 hours undisturbed.

Meanwhile slice and brown your sausage in a pan with a little oil and set aside. It will be added to the soup at the end of the cooking.

After the soup has simmered for 1.5 hours, add in the kale, zucchini, pasta and sausage. Cook for another 10 minutes or so until the kale has wilted and the pasta is cooked.

(A trick I learned to keep the pasta from expanding forever as it sits in the broth is to take a couple of ladles of the hot stock and pour it over the pasta while the soup simmers. Then the pasta and any residual broth are returned to the pot of soup at the end. If you are feeding a crowd and will eat everything up, you can skip this part, unless you are making the soup ahead.)

Taste and adjust your seasonings prior to serving. Serve with some freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago or eat as is. Enjoy!

Growing up I loved to go food shopping with my mother. Of course, there were grocery stores, but unlike today in the United States, we didn’t buy everything from one mega supermarket. Chicken and eggs were delivered to our back door by Irving the Chicken Man, who mysteriously also delivered thin crust pizzas. (However, nothing beat the Sicilian pan pizzas made by our neighbor Mrs. Cascardi, whose husband taught math at the local school.)

Milk in glass bottles with the cream at the top (only whole milk – whoever heard of skim, 1% or 2%? A2, lactose free??) and cottage cheese were also delivered to our back door as well.

My father, like many Jewish men of a certain age, always drank seltzer with his dinner and these came in glass bottles with spray nozzles delivered in wooden crates which we stored in our garage. This could get iffy in the wintertime when occasionally the bottles would freeze and explode. We kids thought this was very exciting. Our parents – not so much.

For cheeses, we drove to Cheese of All Nations, which claimed that it carried 600 different cheeses from all over the world. And nothing was ever purchased without first trying generous samples. Fresh fish was bought at the fish monger and bakery goods at the local bakery. While my mother was a wonderful baker, we still always bought our fresh rye bread at Walls Bakery along with my favorite Black and White Cookies and my brother’s favorite Victory Layer Cake. And if there was a line (and there always was a line) we would get samples of goodies fresh from the oven while we waited. My mother always bought two breads because we could never resist the aroma and ate half a loaf on our way home from the shop.

And then there was the “appetizing store” where we would get smoked fish, salami and best of all – pickled vegetables, straight from large wooden barrels. I was a well-behaved child so my reward was always a half-sour pickle to eat while my mother bought sauerkraut, pickles and pickled green tomatoes for the family. If you are sensing a theme, you’d be correct. Nothing was just picked off of a shelf and there were no labels to read. You spoke to the merchant and you tried everything. As a child, it was heaven.

Kids today come home from school and eat Hot Pockets or Granola Bars. But my favorite after school treat (if I hadn’t picked up a fresh bagel from the bagel store on my way home) was a slice of dark pumpernickel with good mustard and sauerkraut!

Last year, I decided to make sauerkraut at home. It’s really nothing like the stuff you buy in jars at the supermarket. And it isn’t instant gratification because you have to wait for it to ferment, which can take as little as one week to several depending on just how fermented you like it. But the ingredients can be as simple as shredded green cabbage and kosher salt and you get to watch it transform before your eyes. However, I like to make mine by adding shredded carrot and caraway seeds as well. Depending on your family’s country of origin, you may add juniper berries or a little sugar to the brine. I only use salt and caraway seeds.

There are all kinds of health benefits to eating naturally fermented foods and many cultures have their own varieties because before there was refrigeration, it was one way of preserving fresh foods. And pickles can make even the blandest of meals delicious. And when you are poor and you are not using the best cuts of meat – assuming there even was meat – good pickles will elevate the meal.

Some pickling is done with a boiled brine which has pickling spices and uses vinegar. I use this when I make pickled beets. But sauerkraut doesn’t require even that simple step. Salt reacts with the cabbage to create its own brine. No vinegar, no water is needed. You do, however, want a salinity of about 2% to keep the food safe while it ferments. It’s a simple calculation but if the idea of math sets your head spinning, there are all kinds of calculators available online to do the measurement for you. But as an example, I had a 3-pound cabbage which is equal to 1400g. Multiply that out by .02 and you get 28g of kosher salt needed for fermentation.

Now all salt is NOT created equal. I like Diamond Crystal kosher salt which measures out differently than Morton’s kosher salt, for example. So a tablespoon of Morton’s kosher salt has smaller granules and would end up being saltier than 1 Tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. But if you weigh the amount – 28g will always be 28g.

I learned relatively late in life the benefits of having a kitchen scale. They are inexpensive and can be quite small, but they make baking so much easier and more accurate and also are great for tasks like this. How you scoop out flour and the type of flour will vary, but measured by weight, you will always be accurate. SO GET A KITCHEN SCALE!

Pickling vegetables is easy and fun to make, doesn’t take a lot of active , hands-on time and best of all, you are in charge. So if you want the end result to be spicy, add some hot peppers. You want it on the sweeter side, add a bit of sugar. Once the vegetables (in this case, cabbage and carrot) have fermented, it will keep in the fridge for months, assuming you are not consuming it with EVERYTHING! Sauerkraut is great with hotdogs (we use them on vegan dogs), with almost any sausage and is terrific to top off sandwiches, supplying a bit of crunch and zip. It also makes a healthy side vegetable with just about any grilled meat. I have even used it in a soup.

You don’t have to be living on a homestead to enjoy making your own pickled vegetables. Start with sauerkraut and see what you will pickle next. Your friends and family will be impressed when you tell them you made it. They don’t have to know how easy it was!

RECIPE

Yield: will depend on the size of your cabbage. A 3-pound cabbage will yield about 3 pints of sauerkraut.

Ingredients

An approximately 3-pound (1400g) green cabbage, although any kind will work

Kosher salt in the amount of 2% of the total weight of the uncut cabbage (In this case, 28g)

1 Tablespoon of whole caraway seeds (optional)

About 2 to 3 cups of shredded carrot

DIRECTIONS

Remove the tougher outer leaves and set them aside for adding to the top of the sauerkraut. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the core.

Once the core has been removed, slice the cabbage thinly. The sizes do not need to be completely uniform. You could use a mandolin or food processor for this, but I find that a sharp knife makes quick work.

Once your cabbage is shredded, pour the salt over the top and let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. Now comes the fun part! Using your hands, begin vigorously massaging the cabbage, squeezing it between your fingers. You will do this until the cabbage starts to become juicy and the pile is reduced. It will take about 10 minutes of running your fingers through the pile to massage every bit.

Once the cabbage is nice and wet and has started to break down, add in your carrots and caraway seed, if using. Toss everything through to distribute the ingredients.

Now you are ready to pack your jar(s). I bought a wooden muddler which makes this task easy and I happen to find it aesthetically pleasing as well. It’s not terribly expensive, but you can get by MacGyvering the task with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease. The vegetables need to be tightly packed to keep oxygen out which impedes the fermenting process and allows bacteria to get in. ruining your hard work.

As you push down, you will see more of the brine emerge, which is what you want.

Once you have tightly packed your jar(s), take the cabbage leaves that you had set aside at the beginning and fold them down to cover the top of the vegetables completely. Again, press down on everything to keep it well packed. Now you need to add a weight to the top. I like the glass fermenting weights, but in a pinch you can use a clean, rounded rock.

You want to leave a couple of inches of room above the weight because more brine will form as the cabbage ferments. If you don’t leave room, the liquid will overflow the jar and you will lose that precious brine.

I went ahead and bought fermenting lids and weights, but if you don’t wish to do that, you can cover the top with several layers of cheesecloth held in place with a rubber band or string.

And now, you let chemistry do its thing. Set your jar(s) aside in a cool, dark place. If you don’t like things very fermented, taste the sauerkraut after a week. I like mine to go for 3 weeks, but that’s me. Once it has reached the level of fermentation that suits your tastes, you either replace the fermenting lid with a regular wide-mouth lid or if you have the kind I have, you remove the center part and plug the airhole with the attached plug. Refrigerate your sauerkraut and enjoy it!