Called Jewish penicillin for a good reason, broths or stocks made out of animal (either chicken, beef, duck, lamb, turkey, or fish) bones and tendons, even skin and any other “scraps” are one of the most healing foods we can eat. They are rich in gelatin and in the amino acid glycine, which help protect and restore our intestinal lining, and even make our skin glow.
Paleo proponents have been discovering what bubbie has known forever, and bone broths are now some of the most popular food trends. Don’t skip the vinegar, which helps draw the minerals from the bones and supercharges the broth. As for the vegetables, I like collecting vegetable scraps, peels, stems, etc throughout the week in a container that I keep in the fridge. And that I later empty into my broth.
Bone Broth
Servings
Ingredients
- Animal bones feel free to add necks and feet, if making poultry broth
- Water to cover
- 3 tablespoons vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- Sea or Himalayan salt and pepper to taste
- Garlic cloves up to 1 bulb
- Vegetables of choice onion, carrots, celery, leeks, and fresh herbs such as parsley and dill give excellent flavor
Instructions
- Place bones in a crock pot (a soup/stock pot, if you don’t have a slow cooker) and cover them with cold water completely.
- Add bay leaves, vinegar, salt and pepper 3-5 cloves of garlic and cook on high (if in the crockpot and cook it for 24 to 48 hours) or simmer (in stock pot for as long as you can, but at least 4 hours).
- Half way through the cooking add any vegetables and/or herbs you’d like (I like adding them towards the second half of cooking because their flavor looses its brightness when simmered for too long, whereas the bones need extra time to release their nutrients into the liquid).
- Once time has passed, remove from heat, let broth cool down until it’s easier to handle, and strain, discarding the solids.
- Adjust seasoning and serve as a soup or use as a cooking liquid for grains, or anywhere else you need a savory cooking liquid.
- SUPER-POWER IT:
- Add 1 teaspoon per every cup of broth of powdered medicinal mushrooms, such as cordysep, reishi or chaga, to increase even more the benefits of the broth (you can purchase them online or at health food stores, and they are becoming increasingly popular).
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