Super Medicinal Veggie Broth with Calendula

A broth can make or break a whole meal. It's the vehicle that carries every other ingredient, the foundation other flavors meet and mingle on. If it's not delicious enough to drink on its own, you might as well be using plain water. 

This version leans on Support Group Herbal Tea (built around a base of rosemary, hawthorn, oat tops, rosehips, rose petals, and skullcap) for its deep, savory backbone, with calendula and astragalus kept in the pot as optional add-ins for extra immune support. With not much more than vegetable scraps, water, and a handful of easy-to-source herbs, you can build a nearly effortless, genuinely potent medicinal vegetable broth.

Here you'll find: 

• Food as Medicine: The Magic of Broth
• From Your Herbal Pantry: Support Group Herbal Tea
• Tips for Making Medicinal Vegetable Broth
• How to Make Super Medicinal Veggie Broth with Calendula (Recipe)

 

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Food as Medicine:
The Magic of Broth

Every ingredient in this broth earns its place, and one of the best things about a good vegetable broth is how many jobs it can do. It's a savory morning sipper, a flavorful liquid to cook grains in, or a base for soups, stews, and gravies. A splash can thin out a sauce, rehydrate leftover casseroles, deglaze a pan, or round out a salad dressing. There's a use for a good broth in nearly any meal, which is exactly why it's worth keeping a jar of it in the fridge. 

Simmering vegetables and herbs in water pulls the water-soluble vitamins and minerals into the liquid, the same way steeping an herbal tea does. It's a last chance to get real nutrition out of scraps before they head to the compost.

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From Your Herbal Pantry:
Support Group Herbal Tea

Calendula has always been a favorite broth ingredient around here, valued more for its medicinal qualities than its flavor. Support Group Herbal Tea earns its place in this recipe the same way: less about seasoning, more about steeping extra antioxidant support into the broth.

Support Group is built on hawthorn leaf and flower, oat tops, rosemary, rosehips, rose petals, and skullcap, blended for heart and emotional support. Hawthorn has a long history of use as a tonic for the cardiovascular system, skullcap is a nervine traditionally used to help nourish and calm a taxed nervous system, and rosehips bring a concentrated dose of vitamin C along with the rest of the blend. Rosemary rounds out the blend with its own long-standing reputation as a circulatory stimulant and antioxidant-rich herb, often used to support healthy circulation and mental clarity.

Optional immune-support add-ins: 

• Calendula brings very little flavor on its own, but it's long been valued for supporting healthy immune response, which makes it a natural addition when you're making a batch specifically for when you're feeling run down.
  
  
• Astragalus is a root with a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine, generally combined with other herbs as a tonic for overall strength and immune resilience. Because it's a tough, woody root, it needs the full simmer time to give up its benefits, so it goes in with the vegetable scraps rather than the tea.

 

 

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Tips for Making Medicinal Vegetable Broth

Save all the scraps. 

Keep a gallon-size freezer bag going at all times. Every time you cook, toss in onion and garlic skins, the discarded ends of carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and tomatoes, carrot tops, stems from basil or thyme, pepper scraps, citrus peels, broccoli stems, cauliflower leaves, fennel fronds, corn husks and silks, or any other vegetable scraps. When the bag is full, it's time to make broth.

Use organic scraps when you can.

Conventionally grown produce is often heavily treated with herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides. If organic isn't accessible for everything, check the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen list and prioritize organic for those crops specifically.

Use what you have.

Don't stress over the exact ingredients. Treat the recipe below as a guide, not a rulebook, and substitute freely. The one lesson learned the hard way: go easy on citrus peel. More than one peel per batch, and I find that the bitterness comes through a bit too much.

Freeze it for later.

Keep about half the finished broth in the fridge for the week, and freeze the rest in freezer-safe containers. Label everything. Unlabeled freezer containers have a way of becoming permanent mysteries.

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How to Make:
Super Medicinal Veggie Broth with Calendula

This is a no-pressure, multi-use staple to keep in the fridge. It's a savory morning sipper, a flavorful liquid to cook grains in, or a base for soups, stews, and gravies. A splash can thin out a sauce, rehydrate leftover casseroles, deglaze a pan, or round out a salad dressing.

Makes about 4 quarts.

Ingredients

• 1 gallon-size freezer bag full of organic vegetable and herb scraps
• ~1/4c dried herb mix of your choice (try a mix of dried parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, and bay leaf)
• optional: ~6"x4" strip of kombu (or equivalent)
• optional: a few slices of dried astragalus root (for added immune support)
• optional: a splash of fire cider (to help extract minerals from the veggies and herbs)
• 4-5 quarts water
• 1/4 cup Support Group Herbal Tea
• optional: 1/4 cup dried calendula flowers (for added immune support)

Directions

1. In a stock pot (at least 6 quarts), combine the vegetable and herb scraps, dried herb mix, and if using, the kombu and astragalus root. Add the water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2-4 hours.
2. Turn off the heat. Stir in the Support Group Herbal Tea and if using, the calendula. Cover and let steep for 1 hour, or until the broth has cooled to room temperature.
3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into freezer-safe mason jars, pressing gently to extract the liquid. Compost the solids.
4. Use the broth immediately, keep in the fridge in a sealed container for 3-5 days, or freeze for later. Don't forget to label your containers.

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I hope you enjoy getting thrifty and creative with your vegetable broth kitchen witchery. Support Group Herbal Tea and calendula are both wonderful additions to a medicinal broth, so use whichever combination fits what your body needs that week.

DISCLAIMER: The information given in this article is intended for educational purposes only.