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This Simple Crock-Pot Bone Broth Is Pescatarian-Friendly & Has Added Benefits

Author:

Eliza Sullivan

October 20, 2020

mbg Nutrition & Health Writer

By Eliza Sullivan

mbg Nutrition & Health Writer

Eliza Sullivan is a food writer and SEO editor at mindbodygreen. She writes about food, recipes, and nutrition—among other things. She studied journalism at Boston University.

Image by Suzanne Clements / Stocksy

October 20, 2020

We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links.

Bone broth, and all its benefits, has quickly become a kitchen staple for increasing well-being and lowering food waste. But for those who opt out of most animal products, bone broth may seem off-limits since recipes generally call for beef or chicken bones.

However, for Ashleigh VanHouten, a fish-based bone broth always made sense. "Maybe it's my Nova Scotian upbringing and the constant smell of the salty, briny ocean, but I've never been afraid of 'fishy' fish dishes," she writes in her new cookbook It Takes Guts.

The recipe calls on another nutrient-dense ingredient, too: sea vegetables. "My stepdad used to love to eat dulse, the dried, über-salty seaweed harvested right out of the Atlantic in our backyard, and I developed a taste for those crunchy, deep, bitter veggies too," she explains, "It turns out that sea vegetables are incredibly healthful, containing high amounts of vitamins, minerals, and specifically iodine."

This broth is great for drinking warm on its own when you're looking to increase nutrients, but it's also a perfect cooking liquid for adding to rice or to use as a base for a seafood soup.

Bone Broth From the Sea

Makes 3 cups

Ingredients

1 pound fish carcasses
3 cups filtered water, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 white or yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 sheets nori seaweed
5 green onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of a knife
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Method

Put the fish carcasses in a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour in the water, making sure the bones are covered by about an inch of water.
Place the lid on the slow cooker and let the bones sit for 30 minutes without turning on the heat. (This is the ideal time to prep the vegetables.)
Add the rest of the ingredients, turn the slow cooker to low, and cook for 12 to 15 hours; at 12 hours, the bones will be soft and mostly translucent, and the vitamins and minerals will have leached into the broth. For a more concentrated flavor, keep it going for up to 15 hours. Every few hours, check the broth and top off with filtered water when it evaporates below the bones.
Remove all the large solids with tongs or a slotted spoon. Using a fine-mesh strainer, strain the broth into a 1-quart Mason jar and discard the solids.

Recipe by author Ashleigh VanHouten of It Takes Guts.