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- 4 unpeeled carrots cut into thirds
- 2 unpeeled yellow onions cut into chunks
- 1 leek, white and green parts, cut into thirds
- 3 celery stalks, cut into thirds
- 1 unpeeled red potato, quartered
- 1 unpeeled sweet potato or garnet yam, quartered
- 1-2 parsnips or rutabagas or turnips
- 5 unpeeled cloves of garlic, halved
- ½ bunch of flat leaf parsley
- 12 black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 quarts cold, filtered water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- OPTIONAL - 4-5 chicken backs or other meat bones plus a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. See note below regarding the use of animal bones.
Ingredients
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- Rinse all the vegetables well. In a large stock pot combine all the ingredients except for the salt. Fill the pot with water to 2 inches below the rim. Cover the pot and bring to a boil.
- Once the pot is boiling, immediately decrease the heat to low, and simmer partially covered for a minimum of 2-4 hours. As the broth simmers, some of the water will evaporate. Add more water if the vegetables begin to peek out. Simmer until the flavor of all the vegetables has been imparted into the water.
- Once you are done cooking the broth, strain the broth and discard all the cooked vegetables. Their nutrients will have infused the broth. Add salt to taste. Let cool to room temperature before refrigerating or freezing.
- You can drink the mineral broth as a soup by itself or you can use it as the base for other soups, such as the Winter Greens Soup or the Spinach Soup with Indian Spices. If you have it alone, you may want to cut up some fresh vegetables like parsley, bok choy or green onions or throw in some mung beans to give it some added flavor and texture.
NOTE: You can turn your mineral broth into a bone broth by using chicken or other meat bones - Cooking bones in the broth provides good nutrients for healing digestive difficulties, it is also good for strengthening bones, hair and nails, as well as connective tissue. If you want to use bones in your mineral broth this is how to go about it. First, in order to get the nutrients from the bones they need to be cooked a very long time, 12-24 hours. I suggest starting with just cooking the bones in the water and then once that is finished you can turn that into mineral broth by adding the vegetables and cooking it for 2-4 hours more. To cook the bones, first put them in the pot alone with some olive oil for just a few minutes or you can cook them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350. Once they are cooked put them in a large pot and cover them with about 4-5 quarts of water (you will add more water later when you are turning this into a mineral broth with vegetables). Add 1 tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar to the pot. Let that sit for 15 minutes. The apple cider vinegar draws out the nutrients from the bones. After 15 minutes, heat up the water. Bring it to a boil and then immediately lower it to a simmer. Cook covered or with the lid slightly ajar for 12-24 hours or more. If any foam rises to the top just scoop it off and discard. Now the broth is ready to be turned into a mineral broth by following the mineral broth recipe above. First remove and discard the bones. Then add the vegetables to the pot and add water to fill the remaining available space in the pot so you can make as much broth as possible. Follow the directions in the recipe above.