Every year after either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, I am left with the turkey carcass, and like so many things, I say to myself- “I’m going to make stock out of that”, and then I don’t.
This year I finally got un-lazy and pulled out my huge stock pot. Though rather than just make broth, I decided to make bone broth, a nutrient dense and flavorful broth. By simmering the bones for a long long time, a lot of the minerals and nutrients are removed from the bones and meat creating a broth that is rich in amino acids, gelatin, calcium and magnesium, plus more. The gelatin is known for aiding in digestion, essential for those on the GAPS diet. The broth contains natural glucosamine and chondroitin, which is thought to be therapeutic for joints. The broth also contains proline, which along with vitamin C is great for your skin. The gelatin and collagen also support skin health.
So you can see that this liquid is quite the elixir, but the best part?? It’s delicious!! and couldn’t be easier to make.
Into a stock pot I added the turkey carcass, the turkey wings, an onion, a couple of cloves of mashed garlic, a handful of rough chopped carrots, 2 celery stalks and 2 tablespoons of vinegar and covered the whole lot with fresh water. I then simmered it, covered, all day. It simmered as I cleaned up the wrapping and gift bags, it simmered when I swept and washed the floor, it simmered when I went to the gym, it simmered when I called my Mom and told her about the beautiful gravy and mashed potatoes I made the day before… you get the idea. It just does it’s thing while I did mine.
Finally at the end of the day I strained the liquid through a fine sieve and that was that. The result was a rich luscious broth that cooled into a jelly. (which got me to thinking about making soup dumplings… hmm) This time when I tossed the carcass into the trash, I felt victorious.
My batch yielded 3 qts of gorgeous broth, which is delicious on it’s own, but I decided to make cauliflower soup. Into a large pot I sweated a pile of onions, a couple of cloves of garlic and some minced celery. Then I tossed in a couple of cups of the afore mentioned mashed potatoes, half a head of cauliflower rough chopped, and a quart of the broth. After about a half hour of low simmering, I pureed it all, added some milk, and the result?
The result was this conversation: [Read more…] about Cauliflower Soup Made with Bone Broth