roasted veggie broth!

i've been meaning to make my own veggie broth for a while. like, years. i spend way to much money for it in stores, and its theoretically more economical for me to just make the stuff. i've had dreaded celery sitting the veggie bin in the fridge for a week - since the only time i will touch it is to add flavor to a broth and then toss it - and i knew it was time. oh yes, it was time.

also, i'm trying to be healthier and eat more veggies. so...i went with a slightly adapted version of the roasted veggie broth in 'how to cook everything vegetarian.'

to begin with, i roasted veggies. a bunch of them - drizzled with oil, for 45 minutes. here we have about half a bunch of celery, three onions, a couple parsnips, a turnip, a bulb of garlic, about seven carrots, and the world's largest sweet potato. i think that's it.

it was all too much for this pan, so we had a sous pan:

during those 45 minutes, i turned them, which was not a pretty enterprise. i also drank this tasty beverage, which you should buy should you get the chance.

ok. here they are coming out of the oven. mmm. roasted.

careful readers will notice that there are suddenly mushrooms in the amongst the other veggies that weren't there before. this is because i initially forgot them, and they were added halfway in.

the veggies went into the soup pot. and then, what's this? why, yes, i am deglazing the roasting dishes.

here you see the veggies, the 'glaze,' a whole bunch of parsley, some fancy soy sauce (i know!) and some salt and pepper. i would have put some wine up in there, but i forgot. at this point, something very sad happened. i put the two roasting dishes in the sink and began to fill them with water to soak for a bit. and then, about 30 seconds into soaking, the smaller dish randomly and spontaneously cracked and broke in three large pieces. i have no clue why. we will now have a moment of silence for my broken glassware that held many a batch of brownies. sigh.

but life must go on. and so, i added about 20 cups of water to the mix, and let the whole thing boil before i turned down the heat and partially covered the pan as it simmered.

for two hours...

at this point, i decided it was done - a slightly concentrated broth. and i had to get creative with the whole straining thing. i put this lovely pasta strainer on top of another cooking pot and started to pour straight broth.

everything was lovely until the cooking pot began to fill up.

so i moved on to cooking pot #2.

i mashed the veggies left in the big soup pot to release some of the broth, and them dumped them through the strainer. this time the weight in the strainer may have been a bit much and slipped into the pot multiple times, while i said very bad words.

and then i dumped the leftover veggies in the trash, and all of the broth back in one of the pots. again.

there it sat for a few hours, to cool down. then i ladled it out into freezer bags - ended up with around 15 cups. this was actually more work than i thought. but then again, i also went all fancy and roasted everything, which i wouldn't be doing if this was just veggie scraps. which, by the way, i have officially resolved to begin saving.

i started tonight - there is, as we speak, a piece of carrot in a gallon bag in my freezer.

along with these babies - what i will end up making with them is yet to be seen...