Homemade Stock and a Giveaway from Follow Your Heart

I have tried various store-bought stocks and concentrates, and I have concluded that I prefer to make my own. Making my own allows me to control the salt, it tastes a whole lot better, and I think there is nothing homier than a big pot of stock simmering on the stove.

I am pretty free-form with my stock-making. I save my trimmings from onions, carrots, and celery. All of my tiny inner garlic cloves get saved for stock. Lettuce leaves and mushroom bottoms are great. Tomatoes, too. No spinach (it can get grassy), no artichokes, usually no brassica.

Tonight's stock began with carrots, celery, potato, and onion trimmings in the bottom of a four-quart stockpot. I find it's important to balance the amounts of carrots and celery or you can get a very celery-heavy broth. I threw in half of a large yellow tomato and three handfuls of grape tomatoes for sweetness. Eleven tiny garlic cloves next--some people don't even bother to peel these. Tomorrow I am making fried rice, so the trimmings from the zucchini (courgette), mushrooms, and snow peas (mange-tout) that I'll use in that went into the pot. I found a bag of shiitake mushrooms (that had, um, dried in the fridge) and added them in for meaty flavor. A few romaine lettuce leaves too, and then two red potatoes. A handful of lentils for more meatiness, kombu for umami, and a bay leaf. A quick glug of soy sauce. Then I filled the pot up with filtered water. It took about twenty minutes to come to a boil, and now I'm simmering it uncovered for an hour and a half. I'll cool it with the vegetables in it, strain it while mashing the vegetables down to get the last bits of flavor out, and then taste it for salt. I'll use this for soup, and I'll freeze what I don't use in the soup.

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OK, I have my very favorite Vegan MoFo themes that I am following now.

Milkweed <--recipes in comics. funny and charming.
Boober <--drawing her food day. adorable, and she's maybe going to give away prints! JojoinBrighton <--this week it's cookbook recipe lottery! totally creative and committed, wow. Andy Dufresne'slife <--veganizing family favorites. you get a great idea of her family lore. I love it. Please go see! You won't be sorry.

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The kind folks over at Follow Your Heart have provided me with a coupon for a free container of Vegenaise. I love this stuff, and I'm partial to the reduced-fat version. To enter, please leave a post below, telling me your about your favorite uses for Vegenaise, how you say Vegenaise, or anything at all. This giveaway is open to anyone who can get Vegenaise products. The coupons do not specify where they can be used, so enter if you can buy Vegenaise where you live!

The winner of yesterday's Daiya giveaway is radioactivevegan! Congratulations! Please email me your address at miso...@yahoo.com. Congratulations!