It's always nice to use the goodness from the whole bird, fish or 4 legged animal. Respect the animal that provided you and your family with not only an amazing social ‘coming together’ over dinner but also the vitamins, minerals and energy it has gifted you through its body. So why not celebrate further by using the carcass to make bone broth?
Basically bone broths are full of amazing nutrients in their most absorbent and affordable forms. Plus it’s super easy to make!
Bone broths are amazing because they include:
- Collagen for skin, hair, nails and more importantly, connective tissue such as joint surfaces
- Glucosamine and chondroitin which lubricate and encourage the laying down of cartilage in joints and reduces inflammation
- Glutamine to assist healing stomach lining, arteries walls, gut membrane to strengthen your immune system. This goodness helps with repairing & restoring all articulating surfaces & membranes in our body including the oesophagus, stomach lining & intestinal tract (think acid reflux, indigestion, leaky gut, auto immune)
- Glutamine also helps with phase II liver detoxification due to being a precursor to the master hormone Glutathione. Glutamine is also found in high levels in cabbage, so vegans and vegetarians get make cabbage broths to support the liver in the same way.
Broths are super helpful in supporting the liver with phase II detoxification where heavy metals, by-products made by ourselves and medications are safely transported from the liver to the digestive system to be exited from the body. If your liver is struggling to complete phase 2 liver detoxification these substances either remain in the liver and damage liver cells or are circulated around the body to damage cells wherever they please!
Always use organic bones and boil for at least two days, add a good glug of apple cider vinegar that also states ‘with the mother’. Firstly this helps the vitamins and minerals leach out of the bones and into the water for us to absorb and secondly ‘with the mother’ to add the all important ‘pre-biotic’ element into our food.
Season with root veg such as parsnips, celery, carrots or turnips or celeriac, add herbs to the broth to vary flavour and add additional benefits such as:
- Coriander to increase selation of metals from our system
- Mint to calm the digestive system and reduce bloating
- Thyme to break down mucus and improve respiration
- Red chilli or Cayenne to increase metabolism and smooth nerve endings in your throat during a cough.
- Miso or garlic to add another prebiotic gut health and immune strengthening element, turmeric for anti inflammatory or sea greens to support the thyroid as it’s high in iodine.
You can also jazz them up with spices like coriander, lemongrass, lime, chilli and ginger, throw some stir fry veg in and hey presto, you have a Thai Style Ramen Soup.
Here are some other suggestions I think you should try:
- Spicy lamb and tomato - add onions, garlic, chilli, root veg and thyme.
- Chicken tarragon and leek
- Chicken rosemary and thyme with root veg
- Beef wasabi with savoy cabbage
- Beef miso, sea veg, carrots and parsnips
Alternatively, simply make a plain one and separate into ice cubes trays. Every time you cook a stew, Bolognese, curry or stir fry you can simply add a few cubes meaning you can easily get it into yours and your loved ones food every day - how blooming amazing is that?!