You know what we’re into these days? You know what the latest food trend is? Not cupcakes. Not red velvet this and that. Not macarons. We’re not even talking about single origin coffee beans or biodynamic wine. We’re talking about broth. Bone, mineral, and vegetable broth. Yes. Broth. It’s delicious.
Homemade broth is never just about broth. It’s a whole kitchen experience. I make my broths over time. The scrappy bones of a roasted chicken are frozen for a week. Carrot stems and onion skins and ends are stored in a container in the refrigerator for a good while. Limp celery is put to good use and potatoes just beginning to sprout are given a home. Have you read The Everlasting Meal? This broth is very much in that spirit.
It’s where the fresh ingredients in our kitchen meet the more tired ingredients… in a pot, for our extreme health.
Bone broths are a tale as told as time, but they’re totally having a moment. It’s rejuvenating with the powers of magnesium, potassium, calcium, and collagen. It’s fantastic start to a hearty and healthful soup and naturally (or oddly), New Yorkers are sipping the magic broth from coffee cups.
I’ve taken to simmering a pot every month and sipping the broth as tea or making soups. The smell alone makes me feel like a soup genius and it’s a tremendous way to bring together the entire kitchen, scraps and all.
This particular recipe is from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. This book is a super approachable recourse for healing foods and recipes. I love it!
First things first, find the largest pot in your kitchen. Next, start piling the kitchen in the pot… the entire kitchen.
(Alternately, this recipe also comes together in a slow cooker. Cut the recipe in half and go for it!)
Red potatoes and carrots. Both unpeeled. There is lots of earth and goodness in the skins.
Celery hearts and leaves… the whole deal. Onions and garlic, skins and all. Sweet potatoes, bay leaves, loads of fresh parsley, and a strip of kombu.
Kombu is dried seaweed packed with folate, magnesium, and iodine. It’s a great addition to the broth, but if you can’t get a hold of it… no worries. You might also toss in a few dried shiikate mushroom caps for a deep earthy quality.
I also added a chicken carcass to this simmering broth which adds even more healing calcium and phosphorus to the broth. Thanks chicken bones!
I hope you simmer up some broth! Here’s to our new year and new health!
PrintMagic Mineral Broth
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 480
- Total Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 unpeeled carrots, cut into thirds
- 2 unpeeled yellow onions, cut into large chunks
- 1 bunch celery, including the hearts, cut into thirds
- 4 unpeeled red potatoes, quartered
- 2 unpeeled sweet potatoes, quartered
- 8 unpeeled garlic cloves, halved
- 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 1 6-inch strip of kombu
- 12 whole black peppercorns
- 4 whole allspice of juniper berries
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 organic chicken carcass or 2 pounds of chicken bones
- 8 cups cold filtered water, plus more as the broth cooks
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Rinse all of the vegetables well, including the kombu.
- In a large stock pot, probably the largest stock pot you have (12 to 16 quarts), combine the carrots onions, celery, potato, sweet potato, garlic, parsley, kombu, peppercorns, allspice or juniper, bay leaves, vinegar, and chicken carcass.
- Fill the pot with water to cover the vegetables and chicken, leaving about 2 inches of space between the water and the top of the pot.
- Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Remove the lid, decrease the heat to low and summer, uncovered for 2 hours. Stir just occasionally and skim the scum off the top of the of the simmering broth.
- As the broth simmers, some of the liquid will evaporate. Add more water as the vegetables begin to peek out. Simmer until the bones begin to soften and fall apart, at least 4 hours, 8 hours if you can.
- Strain the broth through a large, coarse-mesh sieve, then stir in the salt to taste. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
- Skim off as much fat as you can from the top of the broth then portion into airtight containers to refrigerate or freeze. This broth will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and will freeze for up to three months.
Notes
- You can also cut this recipe in half and cook it in the slow cooker!
Girl Named Allyn
If I don’t have multiple bags of homemade broth in the freezer at any given moment, I kind of freak out. It’s one of the first things I make after moving, and one of my favorite ways to break in a new kitchen. I’m so jealous that this whole sippable broth trend started in New York right as I moved away, because we would have been alllllll over that business. Somehow I think it’s going to be a while before Cincinnati picks up on this…
This broth has a lot of things in it that I don’t normally include in mine (what does it says about me that the sweet/potatoes throw me far more than the kombu? Awesome things, I’m sure), but I can see that for sipping, it would be crazy tasty. Might make a pot of this next week!
DessertForTwo
I have been itching to make broth! I’m the only one I know that hasn’t come down with the flu lately, and I feel like if I don’t make some broth, I’ll be next! I think this is my weekend project. Thanks :)
Dawn
Hi Joy, this moment of broth is brought to us by “3 cups of tea” a book about Tibet and world changing ideas around educating girls too. The broth is from extreme mountain sports in eastern climates and somehow we in the west feel it’s our due to glom any idea from anywhere, why not? It’s healthy, it’s eternal it’s almost soup! Your recipe is far more to my liking than yak butter, and most will find it easy to head into self-care with normal ingredients. Cheers to the new year and health!
Elizabeth Owensby
I make stock in the crockpot every time I have bones available. I freeze it in ice cube trays & store the cubes in big bags in the freezer. They’re perfect for adding a bit of liquid (& lots of flavor) to recipes. Right now I have turkey, beef, & smoked chicken stocks prepared.
Erica
Interesting recipe to post, love it! I’m a big believer in chicken soup for a cold and I think I’ll try this broth the next time I get the sniffles. Thank you!
Kendra, The Sugar Box Lady
Good call on the kombu. My husband is Japanese, so my tiny non-English-speaking mother-in-law would give you an enthusiastic bow for that one.
Amy
I keep a big ole’ crock pot full of perpetual bone broth on my countertop . . . I love it and freeze portions of it to use for broth or for sipping, as it’s ready. If you don’t mind my sharing my link, this is right up my alley: chicken feet are a great addition, for the gelatin.
http://vomitingchicken.com/bone-broth-new-bff/
Adrienne in Atlanta
An Everlasting Meal is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. I didn’t want it to end.
Tom @ Raise Your Garden
My wife spends hundreds of store made broth every year, going to show her this. The whole carcass part freaks her out but I think she’ll get over it especially when she sees how nutritious it is. She sips hot broth to fill her up when she’s hungry, like before a meal and that seems to work for her.
Warm Vanilla Sugar
This would be so yummy in soups!! Definitely trying this.
Cherie
I’ll have to try this, looks so filling and I need those extra greens! x
cherieedle.blogspot.com
Mona
Funny. I just realized that I had a turkey and chicken carcass – thought I should make soup. _One Bite at a Time, the cancer cookbook, has a similar recipe. Thank you. I am now going to to make this.
themoonblushbaker
If your mother said veggies make you beautiful, I am sure this is the soup for it! Yum!
Rosie @ Notes of Bacon
This looks fantastic, and necessary as a detox! My body is not thanking me for Christmas. Never would have thought to put seaweed in but I love that idea.
Rena
Oh this is interesting! My mother cooked broth every Saturday, I remember the good taste so well! Now I must also cook broth as soon as possible, thank you for remembering this tasty kind of food :)
xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena http://www.dressedwithsoul.com