Bone broth, a mineral-dense infusion generally made by simmering chicken or beef bones over a long period of time, is being hailed as the new elixir in health circles.
With bone broth bars popping up all over New York and LA and celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek slurping it, it’s not long before bone broth becomes “a thing” in South Africa, in fact it’s already started appearing on some menus and at some farmers’ markets.
A paleo diet favourite, it is thought that bone broth is a really good way of getting extra compounds like collagen, glutamine, glycine and proline into your diet as while they break down slowly in the stock they release all their benefits which can apparently help with digestion and internal inflammation of things like the gut and intestines.
Celebs are boiling their bones
In a post on her blog Goop entitled “Why is bone broth so good for us?”, Gwyneth Paltrow extols the virtues of bone broth and even includes several bone broth recipes in her popular winter detox.
In an interview with woman&home, Gwyneth says she “believes in beauty from the inside out” and one of her beauty secrets is a regular detox. Her current favourite is from bone broth fan Dr Alejandro Junger’s three-week detox from his book Clean.
“It’s so important to do the occasional detox. I’m finishing Dr Alejandro Junger’s three-week detox programme which gives you a detailed breakdown of how to stimulate your body’s detox process. I feel incredible – so much lighter and happier.”
In addition to eating only organic food and going for regular saunas or massages, Dr Junger also advocates the “eating clean” philosophy that Gwyneth follows.
Make your own bone broth
Bone broth is a really nutritious recipe to make over the weekend when you have a little more time to let it simmer slowly, helping to get the very best out of the ingredients.
To get the most out of your meat, make sure you only use organic, free range beef, chicken or pork.
You don’t have to drink the broth straight as many people do to enjoy it’s health benefits, there are so many other ways you can use this beautiful stock.
To make it the star of the show why not cook some noodles and vegetables in it and serve it all up as steaming bowls of ramen? Otherwise it makes a really delicious stock for soups, stews and sauces – immediately adding a deep, savoury flavour.
It does take a little while to get the most flavour out of the bones but it’s well worth it and can be left to gently bubble away all afternoon while you get on with other things. It stores well too, simply seal in jars or containers and leave in the fridge or freezer until ready to use.
