What to Do With Leftover Veggie Scraps

Making vegetable broth at home is possibly the easiest recipe you will ever make at home.

Inspired by Grist's article about "Five Packaged Foods You Never Need to Buy Again", my do-it-yourselfer boyfriend and I decided to start making our own vegetable broth.

All you have to do is: reserve the odds and ends of vegetables, store in a container in the freezer, and when the container is full, cover with water and simmer for at least an hour. Really, it's that simple.

1. Find a large container that you can keep in the freezer (freezer bags work well too).
2. When you are chopping up vegetables, keep the freezer container handy. Throw all loose vegetable ends in the container: onion ends and skins, tomato and bell pepper tops. We also throw in vegetables that are close to expiring that we know we aren't going to have time to use.
3. After the container is full (this may take a few weeks depending on the size of your container and how often you cook), pour all the frozen veggies into a large kettle and cover with water. Be careful not add too much water, you want the broth to have a lot of vegetable flavor.
4. Bring the veggies to a boil and then let simmer for an hour.
5. After an hour, turn the heat off and let the vegetables sit and stew for a bit longer.

Fresh Basil Pesto

What should you do with a bunch of fresh basil? 

Well, the obvious answer is "make fresh pesto." 

 Although in this day and age we have a tendency to shy away from the obvious answer, sometimes it really is the one that makes the most sense. Not all solutions have to be complicated. 

My dad is growing a beautiful basil plant this summer and I have, no joke, already made fresh pesto three times since I have been in Atlanta. Although my boyfriend and I are growing basil down in Panama, we do not have a food processor and have already broken two blenders. Needless to say, I am taking advantage of the fresh basil and food processor while they are available.

The thing about pesto is that it is really all about the ratio. You can apply the ratio below to all different types of herbs, nuts, and cheese (or dairy-free if that's your style). One of my favorite pesto recipes is actually made with fresh spinach and blanched arugula (from one of my go-to cookbooks: The Ten Things You Need to Eat), but basil is one of the easiest herbs to grow at home and is certainly the most traditional way of making pesto.