Bone broth is an absolute powerhouse of nutrition, and very easy to make. Yet often, we struggle with how to get it into our bodies; how to get that nutrition! This is particularly true if we, or members of our family, don’t enjoy drinking mugs of plain bone broth every day.
I use bone broth daily in my kitchen, yet most of the time I’m not drinking it. Here are my five favourite ways:
#1: Cook grains in it
This is the main way we use bone broth in our house. Every day, we eat cooked grains – usually millet or sorghum. I cook up a huge batch in bone broth every 2 to 3 days. We eat it fresh, and then it goes into the fridge to be used for breakfasts and suppers in the following days.
This is such a great way to use bone broth because:
- You can get your bone broth intake up, without actually drinking bone broth.
- It’ll get your kids eating bone broth without realising it!
- It makes plain grains, which can sometimes seem a bit bland, tastier than if they were just cooked with water.
Tip: add the fat from the top of your bone broth into the saucepan when you’re cooking your grains. It will help make the finished dish tastier, and give you more nutrition!
#2: Poach eggs in it
Eggs cooked in water, i.e. poached, are delicious. But eggs cooked in broth are even nicer! They are really simple too; heat some broth in a small saucepan, and when it’s quite warm (a light simmer is fine, but don’t have it boiling) gently crack an egg into it. Pop the lid of the saucepan on and when the egg is poached how you like it, carefully pour the whole thing into a bowl and enjoy.
#3: Drink it with added goodies!
Bone broth has such depth of flavour and is an amazing comfort drink. If you’re net keen on drinking a mug of it plain, including fresh herbs in your broth can give you a myriad of interesting and medicinal options (you can add the herbs when you’re initially making broth, reheat your broth with herbs in the saucepan, or just add your herbs and let them steep in the mug for a few minutes). If you often take powders such as medicinal mushrooms, you can stir these in. It’s also great with raw cream and you can even make a delicious hot chocolate using clear bone broth made from chicken feet.
#4: Use it to make a rich stew
I make stew with local meat, alliums, starchy veg and seasonal greens often. Usually, the juice that comes from the meat is enough to flavour the water and give the stew a deep, beautiful richness. But when I’m looking for something extra special, instead of adding water to my stew, I will add bone broth. This gives a double whammy broth flavour – the resulting stew is off the charts delicious!
#5: Heat up leftovers in it
A lot of my everyday cooking is made up of leftovers. Many times a week I will simply combine and reheat food that I’ve cooked earlier. I make this extra tasty by adding a couple of spoons of bone broth to the mix whilst I’m reheating. This has the added benefit of moistening the dish too.
Check out my recipe for Breakfast Broth Bowl (pictured above) here!
My podcast co-host and I dedicated an entire episode of Ancestral Kitchen Podcast to bone broth! To listen in to the episode, titled Bones & Water – The Magic Of Stock, click below (or find us in your favourite podcast app!).