Bone Broth Recipe - Tonic for the Gut, the Skin and the Immune System
If you aren’t already, I can really recommend making bone broth a regular part of your kitchen routine. Make it a habit of saving the bones from your cooking and use them for your broths. It's incredibly healthy, inexpensive, and straightforward.
This simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds like collagen, proline, glycine, and glutamine that have the power to transform your health.
Furthermore. Homemade bone broths contain minerals in forms that your body can easily absorb: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, and others. They contain chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, the compounds sold as pricey supplements to reduce inflammation, arthritis, and joint pain.
MORE: Collagen - the Secret to Vibrant Skin and a Supple Body
3 Health Benefits of Homemade Bone Broth
1. Gut healing properties
By regularly drinking bone broth or using it in recipes, you can help promote healthy gut integrity while reducing permeability and inflammation. Collagen, glycine, and gelatin are the important players here.
Studies have shown that gelatin is beneficial for restoring the strength of the gut lining and fighting food sensitivities (such as to wheat or dairy), helping with the growth of probiotics (good bacteria) in the gut, and supporting healthy inflammation levels in the digestive tract.
Bone broth is easily digested and soothing to the digestive system.
The collagen in bone broth is also an important player to improve digestion and gut health. It helps form connective tissue and therefore “seals and heals” the protective lining of the gastrointestinal tract so that food particles, larger molecules, and toxins are kept inside the intestines where they belong and don't slip into the bloodstream where they can kick off an inflammatory cascade.
Collagen also helps with the absorption of water within the intestines, keeping things moving more freely out of the body.
These gut-healing properties also support the immune system function and healthy inflammation response.
2. Detoxing
Bone broth contains glycine, potassium, and glycine, which support both cellular and liver detoxification. Glycine helps minimize damage to the liver from chemicals, heavy metals, alcohol, and other toxic exposures.
Bone Broth contains sulfur and glutathione, which reduces oxidative stress. Glutathione also helps with the elimination of fat-soluble compounds, especially heavy metals like mercury and lead.
3. Maintains Healthy Skin, Hair, Nails, and Joints
Bone Broth is one of the world's best sources of natural collagen, the protein is in nature found exclusively in animal bones, skin, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and bone marrow. With age, we produce less collagen and our skin and joints are thus thinner, weaker and less flexible.
Bone Broth Recipe
Serves: 16+
Props
A large stock pot or pressure cooker
A strainer
A big spoon
Ingredients
2 pounds (or more) of bones from a healthy source (preferable organic)
2 chicken feet for extra gelatin (optional)
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
Optional: 1 bunch of parsley, 1 tablespoon or more of sea salt, 1 teaspoon peppercorns, additional herbs or spices to taste.
Optional: Add 2 cloves of garlic for the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Water (filtered)
Instructions
If you are using raw bones, especially beef bones; it improves flavour to roast them in the oven first. You can place them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes at 175°C /350 °F.
Then, place the bones in a large stockpot and cover with (filtered) water and add the vinegar.
Let sit for 20-30 minutes in the cool water - the acid helps make the nutrients in the bones more available.
Rough chop and add the vegetables (except the parsley and garlic, if using) to the pot.
Add any salt, pepper, spices, or herbs, if using.
Bring the broth to a boil. Once it has reached a vigorous boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer until done.
Simmer for 24-72 hours - see table. (Turn your stove off at night while sleeping).
During the first few hours of simmering, you'll need to remove the impurities that float to the surface. A frothy/foamy layer will form and it can be easily scooped off with a big spoon. Throw this part away.
Check it every 20 minutes for the first 2 hours to remove this. Grass-fed and healthy animals will produce much less of this than conventional animals.
During the last 30 minutes, add the garlic and parsley, if using.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Strain using a fine metal strainer to remove all the bits of bone and vegetable. When cool enough, store in a 4 litres / 1 gallon glass jars in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for later use.
Tip. What I often do: I boil a chicken for dinner. When it’s done I take it out of the pot, but keep the water it’s cooked in. I remove meat from bones. I throw the bones and skin back into the pot and the water. I add a peeled onion, 2-3 carrots, apple cider vinegar, and extra water. I then bring it to a boil. Once it’s reached a boil, I reduce to a simmer and simmer until I go to bed. I turn the cooker off when I sleep. Turn it on again next morning and let it simmer until around afternoon where it'll be ready.
How to Use Bone Broth
Homemade Broth/Stock can be used as the liquid in making soups, stews, gravies, sauces, and reductions. It can also be used to saute or roast vegetables.
Especially in the fall and winter, it’s beneficial to drink at least 1 cup per day as a health boost. You can heat 1 - 2 cups with a little salt.
In times of illness you can just drink bone broth until you start feeling better as it is very easy to digest so the body’s energy can go to healing.
In cases of stomach bugs or vomiting, bone broth often calms the stomach very quickly and helps shorten the duration of the illness.
Try This in Your Bone Broth
Broth with ginger, turmeric, lemon zest & coconut
Ingredients:
1 cup bone broth
1 tsp. ginger (about 3 cm)
1 tsp. lemon peel grated (organic)
3 tbsp. coconut milk or coconut oil
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. pepper
Instruction:
Grate ginger and mix it with lemon peel, coconut milk or coconut oil, turmeric, and pepper. Use 1-2 tsp. of the mixture in a cup of hot broth.
You can store the rest in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Broth with Chili, Garlic & Onion
Ingredients:
1 cup bone broth
2 red chilies (fresh, dried, pickled, mild or hot)
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion and maybe a few slices of leek
1/2 cup cold-pressed virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Instruction:
Blend all the ingredients. Season with salt, pepper, and perhaps more chili. Use 1-2 tsp. of the mixture in a cup of hot broth.
You can store the rest in the fridge for up to 7 days.
My Favourite Broth Recipe
Ingredients:
4 cups bone broth
1 cup coconut milk (full fat )
1 onion cut in wedges
½ cm ginger peeled and cut into smaller pieces
1 organic vegetable bouillon cube
2 tsp. turmeric powder
The stem from a broccoli
½ cauliflower divided into smaller pieces
3 carrots cut into smaller pieces
1 fennel cut into smaller pieces
Instruction:
Heat the bone broth to the boiling point in a large saucepan.
Add the coconut milk, onions, ginger, and broth.
Let simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat.
Blend the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Warm up to a boiling point.
Lower the heat and let simmer for approx. 20 min. or until the vegetables are done.
My Latest Favourite Soup
Ingredients for the base:
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 cm ginger (peeled & chopped)
1 onion (peeled & chopped)
1 tsp turmeric
1/3 pack. Clearsprings tofu (or 1/2 cup coconut milk full fat)
1 butternut squash (peeled & chopped)
1 sweet potato (peeled & chopped)
Broth
Add your preferred chopped veggies to the base once done and blended. I like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, celery, etc. I also like to add red lentils (soaked overnight).
Props:
Large stock pot
Stick blender
Instruction:
Place all the ingredients for the base in a large pot
Cover them with your broth
Heat to the boiling point.
Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, then remove from heat.
Blend the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
Add your preferred choppen veggies
Warm up to a boiling point.
Lower the heat and let simmer for approx. 10-15 min. or until the vegetables are done.
