Garbage soup makes a magical bone broth

DIY with a different soup every time

The story of how bone broth came to be

On a winter’s night after a long day’s walk, a ragged beggar finds himself in a quiet farming village. He dreams of a warm fire and a hot meal. He knocks on the door of a tidy house. A pair of eyes peer out at him from behind the printed curtain. But no-one opens the door. At the next house a young woman with a crying baby tells him she has nothing to spare. He is even turned away from the Ukrainian church, where a few women are sewing together on a patchwork quilt.

Seeing the ladies work together gives him an idea. He hurries over to the grocery store.  “Watch me make a delicious soup with these magic buttons,” he says, pulling three buttons carved from the bones of an ox’s tail off his ratty old coat.

He invites shoppers to come taste some of his miracle soup over at the church, where he had seen a large pot on the kitchen stove in the hall. “Bring something for the pot,” he says. “Anything at all. An old turnip, some potato peels, a few chicken wings… ”

Any kid who has read Aubrey Davis’s Bone-Button Borscht knows how the people couldn’t resist a good show. They turn up in droves.  Dandelion leaves, turkey necks, withered beets, the last of the sauerkraut, a chunk of bacon fat… it all goes into the pot of slowly simmering water. The old man, and everyone else who comes out that evening,  is well-fed indeed.

I get eight containers with four servings each  from one pot of soup stock

Making soup stock or bone broth

We too always have home-made soup on the go, much the same way as the old man did.

1. In a plastic bag in the freezer, save up roast bones, left-over veggies from dinner, the ends of the celery and fennel, old carrots, bits of squash and apple cores etc etc.
2. Put it all into a big soup pot with some water, enough to cover. Add a splash of vinegar to make sure all the nutrition possible is leached from the bones. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.
3. Throw in some bay leaves, sticks of cinnamon, pepper corns, garlic bulbs and lots of love.
4. Let simmer, covered, for two or three hours.
5. Move the pot to the fridge in the summer or the garage in the winter, to cool overnight.
6. Next day scrape off the fat hardened on the surface, throw it out, and warm the pot once again to turn the gelatinous stock back into a liquid rich with nutrition and flavor.
7. Then strain it through a colander and throw out all the bits, saving the stock.
8. Store 4 cups of the stock in plastic containers marked with the date and put them in the freezer.

Make a meal of your soup stock

Once or twice a week, I use the stock from one of the containers, along with fresh veggies and left-over meat or an egg, to make some soup for lunch. Each small pot serves four. That’s a lot of food from a single bag of  food scraps…

Use your garbage soup stock as a base for a meal made from whatever you have on hand. It’s perfect for every-day cooking. No recipe required. This is what I made my soup from yesterday:

Leftover smoked pork chop, boiled potatoes, and one tablespoon of their cream. Plus fresh spinach, leeks, green onion and asparagus.

Here are three more ideas to inspire you:

• Borscht – chopped beets, cabbage, onion, carrot and garlic, with leftover ham or sausage
• Mushroom soup – mushrooms, barley, leeks, left-over chicken or turkey
• Cream of squash – butternut  squash or pumpkin, sweet potato, apple, lentils and curry. Puree once the veggies are soft to the fork. Serve with a spoonful of Greek yogurt or nondairy substitute.

Soups can be low in calories but packed with all the goodness of fresh veggies, spices, herbs, meat and slo-carbs (if you want them). They make a perfect lunch or dinner meal on the 17-day diet. Once you try them, you’ll be hooked for life.

Reuse, recycle, and rejuvenate. Tap into your creative juices and use your bone broth to make today all about soup!

Related links

• Cinderella soup stock becomes a princess – turn your soup into the belle of the ball
• Walnuts stewed are more easily chewed – A delicious earthy mushroom and walnut soup recipe
• Pineapple marries well with French vintner – A fab summer soup recipe