One of the best reasons to have an instant pot is to save yourself time in the kitchen when it comes to things that normally would have taken a very very long time. One of those things is bone broth – it is for this reason alone that the Instant Pot is worth it’s weight in gold – I can make a healthy bone broth in an hour.
I absolutely love that.
I can make a myriad of other things too – from Tamales to Chicken Paprikash, to Paprika Rice, and even Cheesecake... but one thing is certain: without this pot I wouldn’t be nearly as successful at meal planning.
The cold & flu has been going around rather bad this year – both adults and kids alike. I haven’t had anything at all… and the kids have been relatively well too – I can only hope it stays that way through the rest of the school year.
Trying to keep 5 kids healthy is no easy task and both bone broth and veggie broth do a great job of that 😉
We’ve been picking up organic veggie broth at Costco for the last few months, but over the last 3 weeks have been bagging up all of our leftover veggies – the ends of the onions, the leftover leeks, half carrots I find laying in the fridge drawer, and the parts of the celery we wouldn’t normally eat.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, let me tell you that it is revolutionary. It is a game changer.
Sure, you can make your own broth on the stovetop in a matter of a few hours, but I threw these scrap veggies in the Instant Pot yesterday, locked the lid and then left the house for almost 3 hours – it cooked my broth and sat unattended while I was out running errands.
To me, that’s indispensable. I need that.
The ingredients in this veggie broth are very flexible – grab all the scraps that you have used up and kept in a broth bag (which is essentially a large freezer bag) that you have kept specifically for broth, and let the pot work it’s magic.
- kale stems
- broccoli stem
- asparagus ends
- clean cobs of corn where you have cut the corn off
- cauliflower stems
- celery stalks, including the leaves
- celery ends
- ends of the onions
- ends of your leeks
In other words, keep all your scraps because they work together to make some of the most flavorful broth,
Those items can be tossed in your broth bag and pulled out when you have about 2-3 C., and used to make this homemade from-scratch broth in your Instant Pot:.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 3 carrots, halved
- 4-5 large mushrooms, sliced in half
- 7 cloves of garlic, whole
- 4" ginger root, peeled (I was lazy and didn't peel)
- 4 stalks of celery, halved (we used the leafy portion)
- 3 bay leaves
- 2-3 C. food scraps
- Optional: 2-3 ears of corn (where the corn has been scraped off)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp garam marsala
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 10 C. water
- Optional: salt
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in your Instant Pot.
- Place the lid on the pot and close the valve (seal).
- Push manual (high) and set the timer for 15 minutes.
- Allow the Instant Pot to come to pressure (it will take considerable time since there is 10 cups of water in there).
- Once the pot beeps finished, allow the pressure to release naturally.
- Using a strainer, strain out the broth and place broth in jars.
- Store the vegetable broth in jars in the fridge (up to 5 days) and use in your next soup recipe.

[…] to mention it helps you learn how to preserve what you can – starting with Homemade Veggie Broth made in your Instant […]