We are asked all the time; can I do anything with leek tops? Yes! Make some homemade vegetable broth! It is so easy to make and far superior tasting to anything you can buy. Making broth at home takes an hour or so and just a few minutes hands on time and lucky you, you are in a CSA so you most likely have everything you need to make at least 2 quarts of broth almost every week!

Soups, risotto, grain dishes, stews, braising dishes all will taste brighter and more interesting with homemade broth.

This is a photo from last weeks haul. I knew I wanted to make broth with all those beautiful green tops and trimming; leek tops, carrot tops, kale stems and lettuce heart.

Here are the leeks trimmed.

You’ll want to wash the green leek tops really well and save the white leek body for another use. 

I cut the tops up so the dirt will fall out and put them in the sink with lots of water and swish them around really well.

Cut up everything else you are using and wash them separately from the leek tops, the leek tops are really dirty but everything else you can wash together.

There are no rules here, use what to have and what you like; potato peels, apple cores, seeds and guts from butternut squash, peels from beets or kohlrabi, anything–really try anything you have. I’ve never made broth and thought, oh, that didn’t work…. I will say, when you have leeks you almost don’t need anything else. They are that flavorful on their own.

Cover the prepared leek and vegetable tops and scraps with water, just barely cover them, and add some salt and pepper and maybe a bay leaf or some herbs if you like and bring it to a boil. Boil it medium hard for 5 minutes or so then lower it to a strong simmer for about an hour. Make sure the vegetables stay covered with water, but not too much you don’t want to water it down.

All the vegetable scraps and peels are mostly water and will break down after cooking for an hour or so and it will smell great when it is done. Taste it as you go add salt and pepper if needed. It is really interesting at first it will taste like mud, like ewww… you will think, this isn’t going to work. After a half hour or so you will start to taste each vegetable and think; I don’t know, is this going to be good?… and after an hour or so it will taste round and full and really flavorful and you will wonder how you ever used store bought broth out of a box.

When it’s done let it cool and strain it and store it for a week in the refrigerator or freeze it.

Make some risotto or minestrone soup and enjoy. I’m sure you will be happy with your efforts.

Mo