When I was getting my Master’s in Nutrition from MUIH, we were required to take cooking labs (right? How cool is that?) that taught us how to use the power of certain functional and therapeutic foods for healing. Along with bone broth, this magic mineral vegetable broth was one of the recipes we could recommend to almost anyone for healing – whether you’re just sick with a cold, or have some more serious autoimmune illness going on.
The cool thing about this recipe is that we’re going whole hog on it. Well, not literally, because there are no actual bones in this veggie broth. But you know the idea of eating “nose to tail” that’s so popular – to not waste any part of the animal, to get more bang for your buck, and to be more sustainable with the way we eat our food? Well, how about stalk to core? Sounds kind of weird, but you get the idea. Instead of just using the florets on cauliflower or broccoli, the “good” parts of the vegetable that we’re all so used to eating, why not use the whole thing?
Earth day is coming up, so I’m partnering with my friends at Hungry Harvest again to talk about using food ‘scraps’ in a whole new, inventive way – to create a new recipe from something you normally would have thrown away. Sure, you’ve probably heard of composting the cores and ends of your vegetables to make the soil more nutrient-dense…but I don’t have a garden, and there isn’t anywhere to put one at my apartment. Whomp, whomp.
Hungry Harvest is a company that started in Maryland with the idea to save YOU money by supporting a local company that provides amazing, though slightly ‘imperfect’, produce to your doorstep, at a fraction of the price of a grocery store – while supporting an amazing cause to help end food waste and hunger in the US. I mean, that’s a lot of bang for your buck, if you ask me.
Here’s how it works. Grocery stores have very strict standards for the produce they will accept on their shelves. It kind of seems like a veggie and fruit utopia – all the produce seems to be perfectly shaped, shiny, and screaming “eat me!” Which means a lot of totally delicious and nutrient dense, fruits and veggies get left behind because they don’t meet the unusually strict standards (sounds like a metaphor for society, if you ask me, but that’s a topic for another day…). This “imperfect produce” can be too big, too small, slightly misshapen – not bruised or dying, but they’re still left off the shelves because they don’t fit the strict standards to be allowed on store shelves. Hungry Harvest takes that produce and repurposes it in a CSA box, delivered to your doorstep, for a fraction of what you would pay at the grocery store.
Right now, they deliver to Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, the Greater Philadelphia area, Southern New Jersey, Northern Delaware, South Florida & The Triangle Area in North Carolina – and they’re always expanding!
Anyway, back to the recipe. For this Magic Mineral Vegetable Broth, I took the veggies and ingredients that give broth a great flavor (carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, parsley), and added in some of the food scraps I’d used from other recipes – cores of cauliflower and broccoli, ends of sweet potatoes I’d cut off, the rinds of onions, etc. I would highly recommend using *organic veggies* for this broth, since you are using the skins, ends and bits, and we’re trying to get the maximum amount of minerals as possible, instead of anything that might have been sprayed on the super shiny conventional produce at the grocery store. And make sure you use a mineral or sea salt too!
Use this broth as a base for soups, or drink it on it’s own to get all the minerals and nutrients for healing!
Quick note: I loathe celery with every ounce of my being so I omitted it in this recipe, but if you like it, add it into the stock. Apparently it gives it a nice flavor. Just not in my book, hah!
Be sure to go check out Hungry Harvest and their “ugly produce with a purpose”! If you want to try them out, use the code “realfoodwithdana” for $5 off your first order!
- 4-6 carrots, unpeeled
- 1 large red or yellow onion
- 1 large handful red potatoes
- 1 large sweet potato
- Vegetable scraps: 1-2 cores from cauliflower or broccoli, ends of onions and sweet potatoes
- 5 cloves garlic, halved
- ½ bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 12 black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or himalayan pink salt
- Filtered water - enough to cover the vegetables
- Rinse all the vegetables well until there is no dirt on them. Cut them into large chunks.
- Put all the ingredients in your slow cooker and add enough filtered water to cover the veggies. Slow cook on low for about 6 hours, until all the vegetables are tender.
- Allow to cool for about 30 minutes.
- Place the veggies in a strainer over a large bowl, and press down to extract some of their liquid (and flavor!). Combine this liquid with the broth in your slow cooker - add salt to taste.
- Let the liquid cool to room temperature before refrigerating or freezing. It will last in the fridge for about 5-7 days.
- Place all the veggies in a large stock pot and add enough filtered water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 2 hours.
- Allow to cool for about 30 minutes.
- Place the veggies in a strainer over a large bowl, and press down to extract some of their liquid (and flavor!). Combine this liquid with the broth in stock pot - add salt to taste.
- Let cool to room temperature before refrigerating or freezing.
- This recipe is inspired by Rebecca Katz’ and Eleonora Gafton’s Magic Mineral Broth.
This is a sponsored post with my friends from Hungry Harvest! Though I was compensated for this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own *snape voice* oooobviously.
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