There is a damp chill in the air and I’m starting to think of sweaters and a whole blissful season of root vegetables (Beets! So many beets!) and making everything pumpkin. It also means my brain is shifting from salads and smoothies to soups, lots of meals from the slow cooker, and steel cut oats slowly cooking on the stove. Today, that means making a big batch of chicken stock (bone broth) with veggie scraps I’ve been saving in the freezer, and the leftovers of the last two week’s roast chickens. It is also getting to be cold and flu season and turns out the tradition of having chicken soup when you are sick originated with science! Dr. Stephen Rennard, a pulmonary specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, found that chicken soup elicits an anti-inflammatory effect on the body, primarily due to the mineral-rich stock of its base. The viral bugs that cause a cold or flu stimulate formation of inflammatory compounds in the body, which are to blame for most of the icky symptoms.
Making your own chicken stock is not only cost effective (I do mine from scraps with a couple of additions) it also can be a great way to target the base nutrients you are looking to add to your diet.
So colorful and delectably fragrant. Yum!
Seeds to Roots 