How to save $119 in less than 30 minutes!

How you can save money & time as well as reduce additives just by making your own vegetable stock paste!

SERIOUSLY?

Yep! AND it tastes so much nicer too.

It’s winter and time for making yummy hot things like soup and risottos. What I didn’t used to realise is, just how pivotal a good stock is.

Let’s face it, so many of the stocks available to us have a lot of preservatives it in when all you need are a few basic ingredients. When I realised that, I started buying the Campbell’s Soup cartons at the supermarket and just grimaced at the price each time.

Then I was introduced to Thermomix and discovered I could make it effortlessly and it only cost me approximately $8 (dependent on seasonality of the vegetables) and if I bought the same quantity of Campbell’s it would cost more like $127 So there’s a savings of $119. Very satisfying. Even more so when I worked out I was making the stock 4-6 times a year ($476 – $714 savings annually) for just that one thing!

THE STATS & FACTS

You don’t need a Thermomix (aka my PC – personal assistant) to make your own stock but that was the prod I needed to get started on making my own – it makes mince meat out of making your own stock! No pun intended.

Not long after I got my PC, I ran out of said stock and decided to use up what I thought was a good quality stock that I had bought from a health food shop range. I made my risotto and it just didn’t taste the same. Nothing in the ingredients had changed except the stock.

“THIS HAS GOT TO BE PSYCHOSOMATIC” I told myself. Later when I happened to be talking to my sister in Oz (she introduced me to the joys of Thermomix) I mentioned it to her and she just laughed and said the same thing had happened to her. Not going mad after all. Phew!

RECIPE

Vege Stock Paste Concentrate

Ingredients

  • 1 Brown onion (cut in half)
  • 1 clove of garlic – peeled
  • 2 carrots – peeled and cut into 3-4 pieces
  • 1 stick of celery – cut into 5cm long pieces
  • 1 zucchini – cut into 3-4 pieces
  • 3-4 sprigs flat leaf parsley
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary – leaves only
  • 3-4 sprigs fresh basil
  • 150g Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt
  • 20g Olive Oil

Instructions

  1. Put all of the above except for the salt and oil in the Thermomix Bowl (or your blender) and chop 5 seconds/sp5.
  2. Add the salt and oil and cook for 20 minutes/100 degrees/ sp 1
  3. Blend for 1 minute on speed 5 and then slowly up to speed 9 to get a lovely smooth paste.

TIP

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