Do you want to make delicious, healthy, and easy vegetable broth in your Instant Pot? Then this is the recipe for you!
Instant Pot How To
- Plugging in your Instant Pot should turn the machine on and cause it to beep.
- I personally have a 6 qt Instant Pot Duo Plus and love it! It is so versatile! I have a whole page dedicated to how I use my Instant Pot.
- Every button on your Instant Pot can be set to your preference. For example, the Soup/Broth button, once pushed will display a time and high or low, relating to pressure. Once you adjust those settings, every time you push the soup/broth button the same time and pressure settings will display.
- The higher the liquid content in your Instant Pot, the longer it will take to come up to pressure.
- Pressure cookers, these days, have many safety mechanisms in place to protect you. For further information, visit Instant Pot.
Why should I make Vegetable broth in my Instant Pot? Can’t I buy it cheaper at the grocery store?
In this instance, probably not! This recipe calls for the scraps from other recipes that most people don’t use! I spend ZERO extra dollars on this recipe! Granted, most of the time I use my veggie scraps to make bone broth. But, there are occasions in which I do specifically chose vegetable stock. For example, when I know one of my vegetarian friends is coming over for dinner. It never ceases to impress, when I whip up some homemade vegetable broth!
What goes in Vegetable Broth?
Short and sweet, vegetables! You can of course go to the store and purchase fresh vegetables specifically for this recipe and cook them down. Personally, I circumvent this by only using vegetable discards in my vegetable stock. My recommendation is to keep a large ziplock bag, or container, in your freezer to store vegetable scraps. Examples include: carrot/parsnip peals and ends, onion skins and ends, garlic skins, celery bases, herbs about to go bad in your fridge, and herb stems! These are all things that otherwise would be sent to a land fill or compost, but instead can provide a second meal. Stretch your money and save the planet!
Better Question: What shouldn’t go in Vegetable Broth?
Not everything should go in vegetable broth. You can put whatever veggies you want in your broth, but some vegetables will give the broth an off flavor that isn’t the very palatable.
- Cabbage
- Kale (leafy greens in general do not add a lot, in my opinion.)
- Brussel sprouts
- Root vegetables ex. Beets, turnips, etc. (they lend the broth an earthiness that I don’t like in my broth.)
- Tomatoes (while you can add them, we are aiming for broth not tomato soup, so I don’t.)
- Hot peppers (I’ve put sweet peppers in the broth before and it isn’t bad but hot peppers completely change the flavor.)
- Cilantro (I LOVE cilantro, but it has a very overpowering flavor that I don’t want in my broth.)
How long do frozen vegetable scraps last in the freezer?
Months, up to a year. Typically, I don’t keep my scraps in the freezer that long, because I am always using broth. I cook almost every meal that my family and I eat, so there are quite a few scraps each day! And don’t worry, what doesn’t go in the freezer for broth goes in the compost bin outside.
This recipe doesn’t call for salt?!
Correct. Honestly, salt can overwhelm a dish quickly and there is no putting it back in the shaker. You know what I mean? But in all seriousness, I prefer all of my broths to have no salt. This allows me to adjust the salt level to the specific dish I am working on, without accidentally adding more salt than I expected. It has worked great for me and allows me the freedom to have low sodium broth at all times! I would rather have not enough salt than too much, in my broths.
Do I need to clean the scraps before I use them?
I don’t explicitly clean my scraps but, I do clean the veggies before I chop them. In the pressure cooker, the scraps are all boiled under pressure for hours. This kills off any bacteria or germs lurking on your veggies, so I don’t worry too much about dirt or germs.
Is filtered water really important?
It depends. For me, absolutely! I have disgusting tasting water at my house, this will sometimes happen on military bases. So, I only use filtered water for everything, except washing hands and bathing. From boiling noodles, to drinking, it all comes out of my BERKEY WATER FILTER.
How to use Vegetable Broth
I use vegetable broth, or for meat eaters bone broth, in everything! Or at least it feels like I do. Broth is, of course, perfect for soup. It is also essential for anything that needs a little liquid to hold it together, like stuffed like ACORN SQUAH with cauliflower rice or STUFFED MUSHROOMS. I will use vegetable stock instead of water for quinoa, or rice. It always adds great flavor to what could be a bland meal and there are endless possible uses for vegetable stocks.
Ingredients
- Vegetable scraps
- 1/2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- Filtered water
Equipment
- Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker
- Cheesecloth
- Colander
- Large bowl, that fits the colander inside
- Vessels for storage, I use 2 half gallon mason jars
Directions
1.Plug in the Instant Pot, and remove the bag of frozen vegetable scraps from the freezer.
2. Place all scraps in the pressure cooker.
3. At this point pour about 1/2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar onto the scraps, to pull out all the nutrients. I don’t always measure, a splash is all you really need.
4. Cover the scraps with filtered water. I can’t tell you exactly how much water you will need, because it depends on your quantity of food scraps. Fully submerge the scraps with about an inch of extra water on top.
5. Place the lid on your Instant Pot, and set the timer to 3 hours and the pressure to high.
6. It will take about an hour to come to pressure, because of the high water content. This should put the total time at 4-4.5 hrs.
7. Once the timer goes off, it is time to strain your vegetable broth out of the Instant Pot.
8. Set up a colander lined with cheesecloth over a large bowl, preferably a bowl with a pour spout, but not necessarily.
9. Pour the Instant Pot vegetable broth through the cheesecloth and colander.
10. Once strained, pour the broth into half gallon mason jars, and discard vegetable scraps into your compost pile, or trash can. The broth should be stored in the fridge, for no more than 10 days.
11. Tada! You have delicious and nutritious vegetable broth from your Instant Pot!
Check out my All Things Instant Pot Page for more great recipes using your pressure cooker!
Vegetable Broth: Instant Pot
Ingredients
- Vegetable scraps
- 1/2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- Filtered water
- Equipment:
- Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker
- Cheesecloth
- Colander
- Large bowl, that fits the colander inside
- Vessels for storage, I use 2 half gallon mason jars
Instructions
1. Plug in the Instant Pot, and remove the bag of frozen vegetable scraps from the freezer.
2. Place all scraps in the pressure cooker.
3. At this point pour about 1/2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar onto the scraps, to pull out all the nutrients. I don’t always measure, a splash is all you really need.
4. Cover the scraps with filtered water. I can’t tell you exactly how much water you will need, because it depends on your quantity of food scraps. Fully submerge the scraps with about an inch of extra water on top.
5. Place the lid on your Instant Pot, and set the timer to 3 hours and the pressure to high.
6. It will take about an hour to come to pressure, because of the high water content. This should put the total time at 4-4.5 hrs.
7. Once the timer goes off, it is time to strain your vegetable broth out of the Instant Pot.
8. Set up a colander lined with cheesecloth over a large bowl, preferably a bowl with a pour spout, but not necessarily.
9. Pour the Instant Pot vegetable broth through the cheesecloth and colander.
10. Once strained, pour the broth into half gallon mason jars, and discard vegetable scraps into your compost pile, or trash can. The broth should be stored in the fridge, for no more than 10 days.
11. Tada! You have delicious and nutritious vegetable broth from your Instant Pot!
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