Rainy days just inspire my appetite for soups. How about you? Something about rainy days and soups just seem like the perfect combination.
With all the soups I’ve been making lately, I’ve been reminded of what I consider to be the most important foundation of the delicious homemade soups in our home- bone broths!
Bone broths are an essential part of our diet. It’s absolutely one of the very best things that we do for our health in this household.
What do I love so much about Bone Broths?
-The flavor! They make the most incredibly tasting and satisfying soups.
-So good for digestion and great on the tummy. They are very healing on the entire digestive system.
-Rich in calcium, among so many other essential minerals.
-Very economical. Such an affordable way to nourish your body.
-That they make use of the whole animal, which is very important to us.
(I could keep going…)
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The soup pictured above has a base of beef bone broth (made with bones from grass-fed cows) with the addition of sprouted lentils, collards, celery, carrots, turmeric and a little local, ground lamb. I also use chicken carcasses and ham hocks to make the base for bone broth soups. I love bone broths loaded with lots and lots of vegetables (and after today’s nettle harvest, we’ll have a bunch of greens to throw in.)
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Here’s how we make our bone broth:
The crock pot on the counter is almost always bubbling with bone broth. We buy the bones with tendons, meat and all that good stuff attached. Then we put the bones in the crock pot, fill with cold filtered water and a generous splash of apple cider vinegar (to help bring the calcium and minerals out of the bones.) We turn it on low and let it do it’s thing for about 24 hours or so (the time is very flexible, Jeff says he’s “more of a 48 hour kind of guy”, so you see bone broth timing varies.) If you are curious about bone broth, here is an article with health information, roles of bone broth in traditional societies, and recipes: Broth is Beautiful from the Weston A. Price Foundation website.
And
Some bone broth blog posts I love:
What do you like to put in your homemade soups?
Lindsey,
We have so much in common! 🙂
I am so proud of you for eating the bones, that’s so good for you! We feed ours to our dogs and they love it. It feels good knowing they are getting some good nutrition because the dog food that we can afford is not that great. You have one lucky cat!
Aunt Isla- I love to hear from you! That sounds delicious!
Trish- They are so wonderful! I wish I could share some with you over the computer! 🙂
They are so nourishing. I am proud of you for listening to your body. I’m glad you are enjoying the food posts. I look forward to posting more. Always love your messages.
Amanda,
I am so glad that you found these links useful. I was vegetarian when I first met my husband and he cooked all the meat dishes. Now I eat meat and my meat cooking skills are still pretty limited, but I’m learning! 🙂
When I started eating meat again, a friend told me to start slow to get my body used to it again. Bone broth is easy to digest and is a great way to reintroduce it. Also, if the body has a hard time digesting fats, I’ve heard that coconut oil is a great fat to start. Just felt like mentioning that for some reason.
Love, Taryn
Taryn, your bone broths look and sound wonderful. I have been vegetarian since I was 13, thats 25 years! But my children eat meat and I am feeling that my body wants some, especially your bone broth!
I love your posts on superfoods, so interesting and your SOUL food recipes. Many thanks.
Love
Trish
Taryn……….One of my very favorite things in all my soups is pearl barley! It makes a wonderful healthy addition….Aunt Isla
I, too, absolutely love bone broth. It’s my ‘secret’ for making anything taste extra good! I love cooking my sprouted lentils in thick, concentrated, gelatinous bone broth, along with a couple bay leaves and garlic cloves. So simple, but one of the most impossibly delicious dishes ever!
Your soup on a rainy day sounds so cozy — that’s one of my favorite combinations in life — soup and rain!
When I make chicken bone broth, the bones turn very soft, so after the broth is done, I like to eat the bones. I also grind the soft bones, meat, and fat scraps from the broth into a paste and feed it to my cat; she loves it!
Thanks so much for sharing these links. I have been a vegetarian for over 17 years, but I have decided to go back to an ethical omnivorous diet for many reasons. Learning how to cook and eat meat again after so many years seems like an overwhelming task at this point, but these links will be very useful.
Love and Light,
=Amanda=