STOP!! DON’T THROW OUT THE TURKEY BONES

Don’t let the bones of that Thanksgiving turkey go to waste. Homemade turkey broth is nutritious, delicious and easy to make. Once the Feasting is over, put the bones into the crockpot and in 24 hours, you’ll have healthy, healing bone broth to drink or use for soups (Turkey and Brown Rice soup made with turkey broth is a great post-holiday meal!)

Benefits of Bone Broth:

• Bone broth provides our bodies with bio-available (very easy to consume, digest and absorb) forms of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and other trace minerals that are so lacking in our diets today.
• Bone Broth provides healing gelatin, useful in the treatment of a long list of diseases including peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice and cancer. Gelatin facilitates digestion by attracting digestive juices to food in the gut.
• Bone broth provides B vitamins to help provide energy
• Bone broth helps to heal gut inflammation, strengthens the immune system and reduces the appearance of cellulite. Dr. Kate Shanahan says that “cellulite is fat that lacks collagen support” and that “people who have more collagen in their diet… are less likely to have cellulite in their fat.” It’s not about just losing the fat – it’s about getting back to a diet that will support the structure of your cells.
  Mineral-Rich Turkey Bone Broth.

Yield: Approximately 14 servings.

Ingredients

This recipe make approximately 64oz of broth depending on how much water, how much you reduce the broth and how strong you like the flavor to be.

• 4 quarts of filtered water
• 1.5- 2 lbs turkey carcass bones (use all bones and ligaments and any meat still attached)
• the cloves from 1 whole head of fresh garlic, peeled & smashed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 sticks of celery, chopped
• Any leftover stems from kale, chard or other greens
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (organic, unfiltered
• 1Tsp unrefined sea salt Preparation
• Place all ingredients in a 6 quart crockpot and set the heat to HIGH.
• Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce the heat setting to LOW.
• Allow the stock to cook for a minimim of 8 hours and up to 24 hours. The longer it cooks, the better!
• Turn off the crockpot and allow the stock to cool.
• Strain the stock through a fine mesh metal strainer and throw away what you skim off.
• Place the cooled stock into glass jars for storage in the fridge (for up to a few days) or pour into freezer-safe containers for later use. (You can freeze it in ice cube trays and defrost a few at a time!)

When the broth is fully cooled, look for a gelatinous consistency. That means your broth is gelatin-rich! At times, a longer or very hot simmer may break down the gelatin and your broth won’t appear gelatinous. That’s OK! The minerals are still there.

If you like, you can skim off any fat that has risen to the top and solidified – consider this “tallow” – and feel free to cook with it!
You can drink stock any time of day, before or after meals, or use it as the base for soups and stews! Perfect in any recipe that calls for broth.

Lauryn Axelrod
HealthSPORT Nutrition Coach