The KEY ingredient to ANY soup is good quality stock. So where do you get it if EVERYTHING you buy at the stores is full of rubbish? Because, unless it says organic, it IS full of rubbish, I promise. Given that soup is supposed to be so nourishing and healthy, why would you want to sully it with chemicals? I'll tell you my secret ingredient. It's called Bone Broth.
Broth used to be considered a poor man's food because it's pretty cheap to make. All you need are bones and you get a very nutritious, cheap meal out of those. What people don't realise is how nutritious it actually is. Just a few things that broth will improve are: digestion, allergies, immune health, brain health, and there is a lot more. Broth is very high in amino acids called proline and glycine which are vital for healthy connective tissue (ligaments, joints, around organs, etc) What a lot of people DON'T know is that broth can help reduce cellulite because it improves connective tissue, increase hair growth/strength, improve digestive issues and remineralize teeth. I think I may have had you at cellulite;)
“In addition, glycine is required for synthesis of DNA, RNA and many proteins in the body. As such, it plays extensive roles in digestive health, proper functioning of the nervous system and in wound healing. Glycine aids digestion by helping to regulate the synthesis and of bile salts and secretion of gastric acid. It is involved in detoxification and is required for production of glutathione, an important antioxidant. Glycine helps regulate blood sugar levels by controlling gluconeogenesis (the manufacture of glucose from proteins in the liver). Glycine also enhances muscle repair/growth by increasing levels of creatine and regulating Human Growth Hormone secretion from the pituitary gland. This wonderful amino acid is also critical for healthy functioning of the central nervous system. In the brain, it inhibits excitatory neurotransmitters, thus producing a calming effect. Glycine is also converted into the neurotransmitter serine, which promotes mental alertness, improves memory, boosts mood, and reduces stress.
Proline has an additional role in reversing atherosclerotic deposits. It enables the blood vessel walls to release cholesterol buildups into your blood stream, decreasing the size of potential blockages in your heart and the surrounding blood vessels. Proline also helps your body break down proteins for use in creating new, healthy muscle cells.”
Sounding like something you'd like in your diet? Well, it's SO cheap and easy to make you'll wonder what took you so long! All you need is a big pot filled with water, some vinegar and a pile of bones! Let's get a bit more specific!
You will need:
A large pot
Water
Approx. 1kg bones (If you have less than that, don't stress. I sometimes make it with very little and it still tastes good)
2 tablespoons of vinegar (preferably apple cider vinegar) or lemon juice
Method:
- Throw all the bones into the pot
- Fill the pot with water stopping about 4 or 5 centimetres from the top
- Add the vinegar
- Bring the water to boil and then turn down to a simmer
- Leave for approx. 8-24hrs
- Pour liquid through colander into large container and freeze or use as needed
This all works even better if you have a slow cooker. I throw everything into my slow cooker and go about my day and night and forget about it. My slow cooker is second only to my dishwasher in terms of the love and devotion my kitchen appliances receive from me;) Most women might look askance at their spouse for buying them a slow cooker for christmas but not THIS woman! I was too excited for words when GLM bought me mine;)
Why the vinegar? Well, it helps to coax all the minerals out of the bones a bit better than if you were just to leave the bones to boil on their own. In case you're wondering where I get the bones from, well, this part is really easy. I save them over the course of a few weeks. Every time we have chicken, we put all the leftover bones into a container in the freezer. Once I have enough, it's time to make broth. I also order a bag of free range mutton bones from my meat supplier and I add one or two of those to the chicken mix. The more variety you have, the better. Even fish bones will work but it's not my favourite. The quality of the bones is important though. It MUST be from free range, grass-fed, healthy animals because the quality of your bone broth is only going to be as good as the quality of the bones.
The recipe above is just for your basic bone broth, but I get a little more adventurous with mine and you can too if you want. You will use this mostly as stock for soups, stews and curries, so it's nice if it has a little flavour to it aside from the bones. I add about a teaspoon of mixed herbs, as well as a few fresh herbs if I have them and I also add a teaspoon of himalayan rock salt. (If you only have normal table salt in your cupboards, please banish it NOW and get some sea salt or himalayan rock salt. It's sold at Pick n Pay's, Spars, Dischems etc so there is no excuse and it's so much better for you. I will do a blog post on this alone at some point!)
As far as timing goes, I prefer to leave mine for about 24hrs. Reason being that it REALLY gets everything out of the bones. You will see the bones start to turn lighter in colour the longer they simmer and that's how you know it's working. The longer you leave them, the more nutritious it is going to be. Once it's done, I drain it and then, using a soup ladle, I fill up several containers and freeze them. I save ALL the containers I get when I buy anything and I recycle them by using them for storage. GLM gets a little frustrated when she opens the scullery cupboard and sees a million containers of different shapes and sizes taking up all the space;) But I really DO use them, especially when I make broth. I'd say I end up with about 8x500ml containers by the time I'm done, so about 4 litres of stock.
I just froze 4 litres of it this morning and, tomorrow, I'll take out a few of them to make my butternut soup for our guests tomorrow night. The weather has suddenly turned really nasty in Johannesburg and it's chilly and overcast which is PERFECT soup weather:) Speaking of which, here is your recipe for today!
Butternut Soup
4 or 5 medium sized butternuts
1 medium size sweet potato (optional!)
1 1/2 litres of bone broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 - 2 teaspoons masala (curry powder)
Salt (I usually add about 1/2 teaspoon but my slow cooker is HUGE)
Method:
- Scrub all the butternuts and the sweet potato and chop and de-seed them (I save my seeds to plant in my veggie garden) You don't need to peel them (My wise mother suggested this to me and she was absolutely right! I used to peel them but it's such a mission and the skin adds more fibre! Just make sure they're clean. (I scrub them with white vinegar, NOT a chemical cleaner)
- Place all the chunks in the pot (or slow cooker)
- In a bowl or jug, add the stock, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, masala and salt and stir
- Pour the mixture over the chopped veggies and add either a bit of water, or more stock, to cover the veggies
- Bring to the boil and then let simmer for about an hour (If using a slow cooker, turn to auto and walk away!)
- Once veggies are soft enough, use a hand blender to blend all the chunks until the mixture is nice and smooth and creamy
- Add coconut milk and stir in
- Serves 2 for about a week!
The masala is optional but we love curry in our house, so my soup always has a bit of a bite to it. I think I may love curry more because GLM often diplomatically says, "It's got quite a bite hey?" as her nose streams and her eyes water;) I actually haven't added coconut milk for a while now because I find it's creamy enough but that's entirely your choice. You can even add cream, but make sure it's organic or free range.
Now, people have asked me how you can go organic when you are on a budget. Well, it's a lot easier than you think because you are cutting out all that processed stuff packaged in boxes that costs a bomb. So all you need to buy is meat and fruits and veggies. This soup is a really cheap, nutritious meal that will feed you for days and it's delicious. I was at Pick n Pay earlier today buying butternuts. They have organic butternuts and sweet potatoes in store right now:) The organic butternuts are R11.99 for two or three in a bag and the sweet potatoes are R16.99 for a bag.
So I had a look at the "normal" butternuts just out of interest. They were R8.99 for a bag of 2 and, I'm not just saying this, they looked really bad. They were much smaller than the organic ones and they were full of black marks and holes that looked like something had chewed on them. I didn't check the potato prices because they looked even worse. So, although the normal butternuts were R3 cheaper, they were smaller which means you'd have to buy more anyway and you'd probably end up chopping away the bad bits which would leave you with even less. SO, we are looking at 4-5 medium size butternuts. That'll cost you at the most, about R59.95, but most of the bags had 2 butternuts in so it'll be more like R35.97. The bone broth is pretty much free because they're bones you've collected at home and water out of your tap. Just add a few spices to that and possibly the meal costs R70 at most but, more likely, R50. This recipe makes about 5 litres of butternut soup. When I make it, it lasts us over a week, even with one, or both of us, having 2 bowls each a day! I end up freezing some eventually. If you buy a box of fish fillets, you get about 6 in the box. That is only 3 meals and I bet that box is over R40? Do you see how you can do this?
This is just one way and there will be many more suggestions and ideas over the months so keep an eye out. I always look for the bargains and I try to save while still keeping it real and it IS do-able.
That's it! Enjoy your butternut soup and have a beautifully green, organic weekend:)
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