A great start to the day and a foundation to delicious soups and meals, Bone Broth and vegetable based Compost Soup are easy to make and embody the whole foods/use all the parts concepts.
Compost Soup
Save (clean not rotten) organic veggie scraps in freezer bag or other freezer safe non-plastic container until enough to fill the soup pot. Add filtered water to cover tops of veggies by an inch or so and bring to simmer, partially cover and simmer 45+minutes or until veggies have changed color. Remove from heat, cover completely and allow to cool before straining. Strain and enjoy simple cup of broth or use as base in soups. Best to enjoy within next 2-3 days.
Do include apple cores, pears etc. Broccoli stems, carrots and beet tops, kale spines, garlic and onion butts and skin, squash seeds/skins etc. Be conscious to vary your vegetables so you get a dynamic tasting broth.
Do not include banana peels, citrus peels or avocado skins.
Wonderful warmed and enjoyed in the morning or before meals as tea and appetite stimulant, can be mixed with miso paste or Earth Powder (by Health Force Nutritionals). healthforce.com/superfoods-rejuvenation/earth
Bone Broth
I recently confided to a friend that I've been experimenting with the pressure cooker for my bone broths.(?! Taboo or common sense?) It's quick and easy, melts the cartilage and connective tissue into the broth medium like butter, and stays at a contained steady temp without me worrying about it boiling over. &Did I mention it's fast? My concerns (as of yet neither supported nor disproven) would be around the change in enzymes or micronutrients from the extremely high pressure/higher temp, though a quick search suggests that it doesn't get over 250 F. Our first purchase we rushed and accidentally bought the non-stick variety, it was sent back unopened. Then we went online and looked for a stainless steel cooking pot and bought the #1 Electric Pressure Cooker on Amazon. It's been great! Except for the time early in the learning curve where I accidentally set "delay start" instead of "cook slowly over a long time" and it was a very sad discovery in the morning -it still hadn't started cooking but having left raw meat in water at room temp all night I couldn't stomach trying to recover it, even if the pressure cooker does seem to essentially can and preserve (which was another pressure cooker science experiment forgotten for 6 days) . Oops!
How does a pressure cooker work? How hot does it get? http://www.hippressurecooking.com/how-the-pressure-cooker-works/
How I use it is to pull the chicken carcass I've saved in the fridge from last nights dinner, and the frozen neck from the freezer plus any other fresh chicken scraps I've saved and pop it in the pot with some peeled smashed garlic or fresh herbs from the garden. I've been known to drop some onion peels in or carrot ends if they are immediately available...Remember to add the 1 Tb. apple cider vinegar part to really "open" up the bones and add enough water to cover plus at least 2 cups. If you add too much water it will be too thin, because the fluid is all contained in a sealed pot there is no net loss. One the cycle has run, including the time to get to pressure, the preset "poultry setting" is #@% minutes and then the recommended 15 minutes minimum for cool down after, it takes maybe an hour. While it's cooling I sautee the mire poix (carrot, celery, onion -I add garlic) and then strain out the stock from the pressure cooker, recover the meat from the bones and add back all the edibles to the pressure cooker. Add more fresh &/or dried herbs and set again for "soup", which will take another #$^ at least. Go about your day until deliciousness is ready. Enjoy with company for best flavor.
Either of these prepared broths/soup/stocks can be drunk warm and enjoyed daily, or used immediately as a base for soups or stocks, or frozen in smaller portions for later cooking endeavors.
The benefits of Bone Broth, along with nutritional information and recipe are summed up delectably by Dr. Allison Siebecker in the following Townsend Letter article.