>>hi avivah! do you save vegetable scraps- peels, etc- for making soup stock? why or why not? thanks!<<
Since I’m a long term frugalista, I suppose I should tell you that not only do I make stock with vegetable scraps, but so should you! Actually, this has never been something that I’ve chosen to do. I have several reasons.
Firstly, I prefer to use bone broths as my stock of choice for flavor and nutritional value. I’ve cultivated a free source of bones for broth making, so bone broths literally cost me nothing to make, plus I get the meat from the bones to use in other dishes and the fat that I skim from the top to cook with as a nice side benefit.
There’s also a limit to how much broth I can make and use in the course of a week – I generally make between 1 – 2 pots of broth each week in a sixteen quart pot (generally two in the winter, one in the summer). So let’s say each pot amounts to about ten or twelve quarts. That’s between 40-96 cups of broth a week, which is a lot, even for a family of eleven! I like that bone broths have a protein sparing effect and can be used in inexpensive vegetarian dishes to significantly increase the nutrient value of a dish. I think they taste amazing, too! (We recently sent several meals to neighbors/friends, and they kept commenting on how delicious the soups were – the only secret was that I use broth instead of water. 🙂 ) So if I have to choose between vegetable broths or bone broths, bone broths are hands down more worthwhile in every way for me.
Next, what kind of vegetables are you getting the scraps from and why? If the veggies are in good condition, then I don’t peel them so there aren’t many scraps; I include them with the peels in the dish I’m making. I don’t like to sound finicky or spoiled, because I’m really not, but if the peels are from produce that is starting to spoil, then I have no desire to eat them in any form. You might wonder about the tops or bottoms of different vegetables that are cut off, but since I would only use vegetable scraps if they had been washed and cleaned as well as any of the other vegetables I eat, I’m not willing to do the extra work necessary. Call me lazy, but washing onion onion skins, beet peels, potato peels, rutabaga peels, etc isn’t where I want to spend my time. And I’d rather save my onion bottoms to plant in the spring than put them into my stock pot.
Also, I don’t generally buy organic produce, except when I can buy it at a competitive price. So if the vegetable is fresh and the peel is clean, but I’m still choosing to peel them, it’s often because it’s my little effort in reducing some of the pesticide consumption for our family, since the pesticides generally are most highly concentrated in the outer layers. I acknowledge that it would be better if all my produce were organic but it’s not in the budget right now, and concentrating those pesticides further by making stock with the scraps doesn’t bring me closer to my goal of better health for my family.
However, that doesn’t mean that my vegetable scraps go to waste! I compost a huge percentage of our vegetable scraps so they end up benefiting us by boosting our soil quality. I don’t use pesticides when I garden, and strong soil health is very important in preventing insect infestations and having high quality vegetables. We don’t buy organic fertilizers or compost; our compost all comes from our kitchen food scraps! So they don’t go to waste and end up saving us money in a different way.
For those who enjoy transforming their vegetable scraps into broth, terrific! So much of frugality is personal preference; there are things that I do that would be out of someone else’s comfort zone, and things they do that are outside of mine. The main thing is to find ways that we can each work within our budgets in a way that is satisfying and productive.
Avivah
I like this post. Not every frugal approach works for everyone. By the way, I’m hosting the Festival of Frugality this week, send submissions to fofmail at gmail.com.
Of course, the pesticides you don’t want in your soup are going into your garden vegetables, but hopefully to a lesser degree!
Shabbat shalom,
-Hannah
Hi, Hannah, welcome!
You’re right about the pesticides ending up in the garden, but improvements are made by degree!
From an ideal perspective maybe it could be argued that it’s better to add the vegetable scraps to the landfills rather than have the pesticides composted, but it seems to me that eventually they’ll end up in the ground/water supply so somehow people would end up ingesting some residual amounts. If someone fed their animals their scraps, they’d also indirectly end up in the meat/milk/eggs, somehow.
I feel like moving forward by small steps is still moving forward. 🙂
one quick question right off the bat- did you say that you use bones to make broth for vegetarian dishes? i’m thinking that the broth would be fleishig… please let me know if i’m missing something.
thanks for the constant reinforcing of only taking on what you are comfortabel doing- i keep reading about keeping a container in the freezer for carrot peels, onion tops, etc so that you can make broth- but the thought of having to wash it all and devote freezer space to it makes me want to cry. thanks for shining light once again on keeping sane!
I was referring to adding broth to bean dishes to boost their nutritional value when I referred to vegetarian dishes; you’re right that they aren’t vegetarian once I add the broth!
I really believe we have our emotions to guide us. If something is uncomfortable for you mentally, generally that means you shouldn’t do it unless/until you shift your feelings about it.
Can you explain what you mean by the protein sparing effect?
Here’s a technical explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_sparing.
And here’s my understanding: bone broths give your body the benefits of protein without actually eating protein itself, so this is a super way for those on a budget to have some of the benefits of eating animal protein without the expense.
Hi Avivah,
I read through that wiki, and found it very difficult to understand. Basically its saying to me that replacing protein in our diets with other things, like fats or carbohydrates, means that we’ll conserve more muscle mass in our bodies?
In a google search I came across this article: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/protein-sparing-effect/
From that article I sort of understood that when we don’t eat enough carbohydrates or enough protein (which our bodies convert into blood sugar as well), then our bodies will borrow protein from our muscles to turn into blood sugar (reminds me about ketosis, no?). So eating carbohydrates, or eating protein, are both ‘protein sparing’.
I think I must be missing something, because I still don’t see the connection between ‘protein sparing’ and eating broth, unless it is adding protein (converted to glucose in our bodies) to food that is otherwise low in carbohydrates, so as to not force our bodies to access existing protein in muscles in order to maintain blood-glucose. So does broth have protein?
Ok, here: http://nourishedkitchen.com/the-benefits-of-bone-broth/
and here: http://www.organicthrifty.com/2010/01/03/homemade-bone-broth-maximum-nutrition-for-pennies/
I see that bone broths are rich in mineral nutrients in a bio-accessible way. And also that they contain partial proteins (sort of like beans do, some of the amino acids in protein but not all), and says it can be used as a protein supplement, or to boost the protein content. Although they also refer to it as ‘protein sparing’ and I still don’t understand the connection.
I really want to understand this properly!
Thanks, Shira
but if we don’t do things that make us uncomfortable emotionally sometimes, how do we grow? i am under the impression that never venturing outside of your own comfort zone is very limiting- and not the correct approach to life. but you always seem to be able to say things in a clear but gentle but straightforward way, so maybe you could help me re-evaluate… how do you know when to push yourself to just go past something, and how do you know when to slow down and back off?
“If something is uncomfortable for you mentally, generally that means you shouldn’t do it unless/until you shift your feelings about it.”
You should expand your comfort zone, but from a position of self-respect and the desire to grow, not from forcing yourself to do something you don’t feel you should do. You need to shift your feelings so that expanding your comfort zone is something you desire, and then moving towards a new and higher goal will be smoother and more successful.
I’ll try to respond at more length in a post since this is a concept I had to really work to understand; it goes against the American way of thinking about life.
I can’t wait to hear more about this.
what is the difference between broth and soup?
Degree of concentration, though some people use the two terms interchangeably.
so can they be used interchangeably as well? (besides for eating)? Is concentrated broth just cooked for longer/more flavorful?
Yes to both, that they can be used interchangeably, and the concentrated broth is more flavorful (and it’s cooking it for longer than makes it more concentrated).
I would add that broth is a clear liquid. It is called for in many recipes, mostly for more complex soups, but for other things as well.
A quick question, does the broth itself contain protein? Or is it adding it to the beans boosting the bean protein or something? I find that we aren’t filled by vegetarian proteins, for some reason, even with lots of wholesome fats added in. Dairy and meat really do fill us better, but we can’t afford it. So if broth would fill us, I’d add that to lots of dishes.
And, would you write a post about all the different things you do with broth? Is it beef broth or chicken broth? You need a lot of bones to make the quantity of broth needed for a week, right? I’ve made a pot of broth a few times, two chicken carasses and water boiling for a long time, but at the end I had a half a pot of broth, not very much at all, considering what recipes using broth call for.
Thanks, Shira
The broth is packed with tons of minerals that are leached from the bones, and fats from the skins. This adds a huge amount of nutritional value and also makes it lots more filling. I’ve also noticed that we don’t feel full after eating beans, but when I add a small amount of meat protein and use broth with plenty of fat in it, it totally changes our satiation level. We can eat just one serving and not want more.
I most frequently make turkey broth since I have a free source of turkey bones, but sometimes do beef, lamb, and chicken. I’ll try to write a post about how I use broth- it’s a staple in my house!
Shira, was my simplified explanation right below the wiki link not helpful? I can’t think how to better sum up my understanding of the term. 🙁
The term protein sparing is used frequently (I got it from NT and probably lots of others who use it did, too) but I have to think about if there’s a way to convey the benefits of broth in a simpler way than calling it protein sparing.
Practically speaking if you eat lots of bone broth then it can substitute for/replace some of the meat you should eat.
Oh yes, your explanation explained the benefits of the broth very well. I guess I just really wanted to understand the protein saving part because I’d never heard of that before. I still don’t really get the connection… except maybe that the term is being used in those various places incorrectly applied?