Bone broth is our new best friend! We know this because our house officially smells of bone broth (and we don’t mind at all!). We started eating a real food, paleo inspired diet back in 2012 and it took us 2.5 years to look in to bone broth! Way too long! So even if you’ve just started a real natural food lifestyle we highly recommend you get amongst the ‘brothee’ (that means bone broth instead of coffee) and start makin’ da bone broth (not sure why we say this… but it’s fun)! Seriously, bone broth may just change your life!
So let’s get straight to it… how the heck do you make bone broth?
We were a little erked out by the whole idea of bone broth and when looking at recipes we popped them in the ‘too hard basket’. We have no idea why we popped them in there, making bone broth is easy as! And there is nothing erky about it! It’s actually really fun to make and super interesting to learn more about the animals and the amazing health benefits. The recipe is below but wait…
What are the benefits of drinking bone broth?
OMGheeee… there are SO MANY BENEFITS of drinking bone broth! If you’ve read anything about the GAPS diet you’ll know! Here’s just some…
- aids/improve digestion and can heal leaky gut
- boosts immunity
- reduce inflammation
- the best thing to drink when you’ve got a tummy bug
- supports hormone health
- supports bone, ligament and joint health
- makes lovely hair, skin, nails
- packed full of minerals and nutrients
- so many more!
To make bone broth you’ll need a slow cooker or a big stock pot. We’ve never used a stock pot, to be honest leaving the stove on all day/night completely freaks us out! You’ll need to get organic (at least free range) bones as they need to be super dooooper healthy. Bone broth extracts all the good stuff from these bones, so we don’t want bones from sick animals. We also want to support organic/free range farming because no animal should be in a factory farm. You’ll also need apple cider vinegar (this helps to leach all the good stuff from the bones) and filtered water. Then chuck in some veggies, switch on the slow cooker for 24-48 hours and ta-da bone broth! Well, you do need to strain the bones and then ta-da bone broth! When it cools you also get this cool layer of lard on top that you can save for later and cook with! Talk about sustainable! And yes… cooking with lard is healthy!
Let us know how you go, especially if you’re new to bone brothing! Bring on the healing bone broth! This is a simple as recipe so stay tuned for more bone broth recipes as we learn more! Yay for learning!
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
P.s. we are so excited about bone broth!
p.p.s this recipe features in our Make It Merry cookbook along with 70 other quick, easy and delish recipes to boost your health and happiness!
- 1kg (2 lbs.) of organic bones (chicken carcass, lamb necks, beef marrow, chicken wings etc)
- 1.5 litres filtered water (just make sure there is enough to cover the bones)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 carrots chopped
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 1 onion quartered
- your favourite fresh herbs
- Add the veggies, herbs and bones to the slow cooker, add the water and apple cider vinegar and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Ensure the water just covers the bones.
- Turn on the slow cooker to low and leave for 24 hours (we leave beef bones on for 48 hours).
- Once cooked, turn off the slow cooker and allow to cool a little.
- Use a spoon with holes in it to scoop out the veggies and bones, the meat and veg can definitely be eaten! Lamb necks have lots of delicious meat!
- Strain the broth with a fine sieve in to a large bowl/jug. Pour the broth in to jars and pop them in to the fridge!
- As the broth cools the lard will harden on top. Scrape this off and keep for cooking (instead of butter/oil) or some people just eat it.
- Reheat on the stove for a cup of healthy goodness, add to your dinner meals, make a gravy or make a soup. So many options!
- The broth will stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days or you can freeze it!