Vegetable Broth & Tomato Rice Loaf Recipe

Hello, friends.  I pulled all the veggie bags for broth from the freezers last evening, and put them on the woodstove to defrost and simmer last night.  After simmering the pots of broth a bit more this morning, I strained and canned it.  There are 16 pints cooling, to add to the pantry shelf.  Yesterday, I thinned the carrots a bit more.  J and I enjoyed them with hummus, and the tops started a new veggie broth bag.    While weeding an herb bed, quite a few wild onions were pulled.  I've also seen them called wild garlic, so maybe I should just say wild alliums.  Whenever I pull them up with the bulb intact, I clean them up, chop off all but the tender portion of stem, and add them to the broth bag.  Though I've used them in a pinch when out of onions or garlic, they are a bit of work, due to the layers of skin, so I prefer to use them this way.  It's easy, and still makes use of them.  We garden organically here, so there are no worries about chemicals.  If you'd like to harvest some, I'd recommend making sure there have been no chemicals sprayed in the area.

I was asked to share the Tomato Rice Loaf recipe, and thought I'd do so in a post, so I can find the recipe here in the future.  I'm not sure where I originally copied this recipe from, but I've been making it for many years.  I've tried adding various herbs at different times, and feel free to do so yourself.  It's not an exciting recipe, but we think it's good, and uses ingredients we have on hand.  

Tomato Rice Loaf

1 medium tomato, chopped                                     1 tbs oil

1 stalk celery, chopped                                            1 tsp garlic powder

2 cups rice, cooked                                                  2 tsp onion powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs                                               Oil for loaf pan

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350.  In large pan, saute tomatoes & celery.  Add onion and garlic powder, rice, bread crumbs and milk to pan.  Salt to taste.  Mix well and spoon into a well-oiled loaf pan.  Bake for 1/2 hour.

Notes:  This recipe is quite forgiving.  I typically use fresh onion (1/2 small) and garlic (2 cloves) instead of dried, and saute them with the tomato and celery.  For the tomato, I've subbed a handful of grape tomatoes, or often use a pint of home canned tomatoes.  I like it heavier on the tomatoes than the recipe calls for.  For the milk, I've used the tomato juice for a portion of the liquid, and used part or all yogurt, kefir, or half & half instead.