Vegetable Broth

Bone broth has been getting a lot of attention lately in the health and wellness world and rightfully so as it has amazing benefits for your gut and the rest of your body. But, what about those individuals who follow a plant based diet or for those individuals; like myself, who are trying to moderate the amount of meat products we consume?

One of the key nutrients you receive from bone broth is collagen. Collagen; a long chain amino acid, is a protein found abundantly in our body and it plays a very important protective role. It is found in almost all aspects of our body with abundance in our skin, bones, tendons, muscles, ligaments, hair & nails. It provides the organs, tissues and blood vessels with its vital strength and elasticity.

As we age and as we are exposed to different toxins our collagen levels begin to decrease causing joint pain, muscle stiffness, our skin to sag and our hair to become brittle. Such things as smoking, poor diet, gut health imbalances, and stress are just a few examples of how are body can naturally slow down its collagen production.

Obviously a key component to anti-aging is increasing your collagen production in your body and one of the reasons why bone broth has become so popular.

Those with a plant-based diet don't have to worry though, consuming an assortment of colourful vegetables will give your body the vitamins and nutrients it needs to naturally boost its own collagen production with their collagen producing agents.

Giving your body the tools it needs to naturally produce its own collagen will also benefit your body in the way that meat based broths do. That is one of the reasons why vegetable broth is beneficial for all to consume on a daily basis.

Add it to soups, casseroles or drink it on its own to reap all the benefits. There is no exact science to making vegetable broth just add in whatever vegetables you have on hand and let simmer on the stove or in the crock pot.

You can experiment with different flavours, but here is one of my favourite.

Vegetable Broth

Ingredients

1 carrot
1 parnsip
2 celery stalks
2 potatoes
1/2 leek
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 drops Rosemary Essential Oil
1 drop Lemon Essential Oil
fresh herbs (sage, tarragon, parsley or any combination)
thumb size piece of ginger
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1-2 handful greens (kale, spinach, collards, bok choy or any combination)
3 mushrooms
1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbsp turmeric
1 Tbsp coconut aminos
1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
1/2 fresh ground pepper
12 cups filtered water

Putting it all together

Wash all ingredients and chop however you wish; diced or chunky.
Put all ingredients into large stockpot and simmer for 12-24hrs. (You can also cook in crockpot on low for 12-24 hrs)
Strain broth and store in airtight glass jar in fridge for up to one week or freeze for later use.