The Best Homemade Bone Broth Using Food Scraps

Hi friends!

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time! So many of you watch me make my own bone broth on my Instagram stories and are always interested in how I do it but to be honest, bone broth isn’t really a “pretty” recipe as I’m sure you can imagine with chicken feet, food scraps etc. and I kinda “wing it” so I’ve been a bit lazy at blogging it for you but here it finally is!

There’s lots of recipes out there for Instant Pot bone broth etc. that are done quickly but I don’t get the same result (gelatinized texture) or flavour doing it the quick way. There is something so special about slow cooking this broth, the way our grandparents did and allowing all the nutrients to come out into the beautiful gut supportive broth you are going to drink. I like to freeze mine in little baggies so when I make soup, I’ll just throw it in frozen when I add my water or other liquid and allow it to melt right in there. If you freeze a big bag or jar it’s tough to defrost only a little so I’d suggest freezing in servings you know you will use to avoid spoilage.

P.S. This is the best recipe because it’s just a sample recipe that makes your home more sustainable and is super easy! You can use a bag of food scraps consisting of WHATEVER YOUR FAMILY USES. For example, a lot of my food scraps are celery peels, onion ends, garlic ends etc. One caveat would be to avoid making broth with sulfur produce like brussel sprouts, cabbage etc. or bitter greens like kale, swiss chard and rapini. The flavour does go into the broth so just be aware if you save those! For animal bones, I try to save whatever bones I have from chicken wings, whole roast chickens plus buy more as needed like chicken feet (cheap but have lots of nutrition thanks to the joints) but you can also use pork, beef, veal, turkey, lamb, bison, buffalo or venison bones!

But first, why even make bone broth right? What are the benefits?

Animal bones are rich in the minerals needed to build and strengthen our own bones like calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. If you are using bones that have cartilage such as the knuckle joint of chicken feet, you’re also getting glucosamine and chondroitin, which will help support your joints too. Animal bones also contain collagen, which is released when simmered (thanks to the acid from vinegar or lemon juice) in the form of gelatin. P.s. This is why I said I didn’t like making bone broth in an Instant Pot. When you let the bone broth cool, the top will get thick and jello like. This is the good stuff – gelatin! The more thick jelly portion at the top, the better the broth. I’ve personally never had the same amount of gelatin be released using an Instant Pot than I have using the simmering method on the stove but obviously if time is a factor for you, then it’s better to have something rather than nothing to use!

Bone broth is also toted as being good for your gut thanks to its glutamine content. There is so much research happening right now about gut health and how our immunity is dependent on what is going on in there. Glutamine supports the body by helping to maintain and repair the intestinal lining. When the intestinal lining is damaged and permeable, it is commonly referred to as ‘leaky gut’, which can cause a whole slew of issues in the body. However, in short, the ‘leaks’ allow proteins that normally would be too large to pass through the intestinal wall, to pass through into your bloodstream, which leads to inflammation and other problems. This is a large topic on its own so if you think you may have leaky gut, it’s important to work with a practitioner to understand the root cause and work to repair it.

So let’s get started with some gut supportive, cost effective, homemade bone broth, shall we?

All you need is 1 large stock pot, bones of your choice, vegetable scraps/spices for flavour and lemon juice or vinegar! The acid from the lemon juice or vinegar helps the bones release their minerals so definitely do not skip this ingredient. I like to add some spices for flavour but if you want to keep it mild, you can omit them for now and add later when using the broth in a different recipe.