Enjoy Making Your Own Nutritious Instant Pot Vegetable Broth
Meal prep time runs so much smoother when I’m able to prepare as much as possible ahead of time, and having some easy homemade vegetable broth on hand helps me big time with healthy, tasty meals quick. It just might be one of the cheapest ways to add loads of flavor to most of my dishes.
I use it all the time as a water replacement for most of our savory recipes, like soups and stews, water sautés, and when something just needs a little liquid. I know I can buy a 32-ounce box of pre-made broth for about $2.50, but knowing I can make more than double that amount in my Instant Pot with fresh ingredients (and their nutrients) that I can choose for less money in roughly 30 minutes with only about 10 minutes of that being work for me definitely has me heading to my Instant Pot!
Ingredient Choices
The nutrients present in the broth will basically depend on what vegetables are included, so try for a variety for higher nutrient density. At the same time, though, I also try to keep in mind that the broth I’m making will be used across multiple meals with different flavors, so I do sometimes try to take my upcoming meals planned into consideration when choosing ingredients, choosing or avoiding ingredients that might:
- be too strong of a flavor or potentially limit you to a particular type of cuisine (strong flavored greens)
- might cause a strong color (turmeric-yellow, onion-dark, etc.)
- give me a murky broth (potatoes, etc.)
The ingredients that we commonly include are:
- celery
- carrots (ends removed)
- nori sheets (torn, for added iodine)
- garlic (usually chopped in half and skin removed but included)
- onion (not too much)
- bay leaves
- turmeric
- ground pepper
And depending upon what else I have available, I usually like to add:
- broccoli stems
- cilantro and parsley stems
- mushrooms
- green beans tips
- rosemary
- oregano
Enjoy making your own broth for a easy, budget-friendly
- 2-3 Carrots (Ends removed, cut into 1/3s)
- 1-2 Celery (Ends removed, cut into 1/3s)
- 1 Onion (Peeled, ends removed, chopped into 4-8 sections)
- 8 Cups Water (Approximately)
- 1 Tablespoon Turmeric
- 1 Tablespoon Ground Pepper
- Herbs (Bay leaves, oregano, thyme)
- 4-8 Mushrooms (Quartered)
- 2 Garlic cloves (Skin and scar removed)
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Add water to your Instant Pot up to 3/4 to the full mark
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Add chosen ingredients to your Instant Pot
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For your Instant Pot, lock and seal your lid with 15 minutes on Manual and cook. When done cooking, either let pressure release naturally or vent.
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Once done, you can use immediately or store once cooled.
- Adjust the amount of water to match your Instant Pot.
- Add other preferred vegetables or even clean scraps.
Instant Pot, Stove Top, or Slow Cooker
You can really use any of these to make your broth.
The Instant Pot is the quickest and easiest to show on a video, so that’s what I chose for the video, but we also often make a batch in a big pot on the stove or in my crockpot. The Instant Pot takes roughly 30 minutes by the time you pressure up and down and cook your broth. The stove top version is best cooked on low for 1 – 4 hours, and the slow cooker will take the longest.
Staying Stocked Up
As we get close to making a new batch of broth, we usually save our cleanest scraps from the various vegetables we’re using in our meals. Then we’ll just combine those with other fresh vegetables and water in the Instant Pot and walk away. 
Storage
It usually takes us about a week to ten days to go through our broth, so we usually strain about 1/2 of the broth into a wide mouth 1/2 gallon mason jar to store in the door of our refrigerator for easy, daily access. As for the rest, we’ll either:
- freeze in ice trays and then transfer cubes to a closeable container or bag (1 traditional size cube is about 1/8 cup)
- pour into a freezer bag and freeze flat, then either breaking off portions as I need them or melting and transfer to my empty mason jar in the refrigerator
Using Your Easy Homemade Vegetable Broth
We use vegetable broth almost daily, whether:
- as the base for a warming broth soup with added vegetables, herbs, and greens
- added to a skillet as the water replacement for a water saute of vegetables
- as added flavor and fluid in a chili or soup
- added to my blender of ingredients when making dips, dressings, and gravies
It’s kind of weird to even think about it, since broth is just automatically added to so many of our meals in some way. My Sauteed Mushrooms post is just one example of where I commonly use my broth.
I’m so looking forward to enjoying this fresh batch of easy homemade vegetable broth and the easily accessible flavor and nutrients without a whole lot of work, and I hope you do too.
For more ideas, check out these posts:
