Nourishing Pastured Chicken Stew
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 2 acorn squashes*
- 2 medium onions , chopped
- 4 medium carrots , chopped
- 4 stalks celery , chopped
- 2 medium potatoes , chopped
- ⅓ cup healthy fat (butter, tallow, lard, coconut oil)
- sea salt to taste (my pick)
- 1 head garlic , about 8 cloves, minced
- 2 quarts chicken bone broth (make your own HERE)
- 2 cups cooked chicken , shredded
- ⅛ -¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (my pick)
- ¼ - ½ lb fresh organic baby spinach**
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put the acorn squashes in the oven on a baking sheet, whole, at 425 F degrees for 1 hour. When you take them out, cut them in half and let them cool to the touch while you start making the soup.
- Saute the onion, carrot, celery and potatoes in the butter with a few big pinches of sea salt to bring out their juices and sweeten. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- While the veggies are cooking, scoop out the squash from the shell and puree the flesh in your processor of blender with a little of the bone broth to be sure it gets fully pureed.
- Add the garlic to the pot and cook for a minute. Add the squash puree, bone broth, chicken and cayenne to the pot and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach to wilt and then season with sea salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the stew to baby on a spoon. If baby isn't handling bits of soft vegetables yet, you can puree his or her portion so it is smooth or semi-smooth.
Notes
Renee's Notes:
I like to thicken my stew with tapioca or sometimes white rice flour. Tapioca is grain-free flour made from the cassava root vegetable. It is safe for grain free diets for babies so you can use it if you have little ones under age 1. Use about ¼ cup - stir it with a little water before adding to the soup pot, stirring it in the end with the spinach. If you tolerate grains and have toddlers that can as well, you can use white rice flour or sprouted brown rice flour. If you and your family tolerate gluten, you could use a sprouted wheat flour.
This recipe makes enough soup for my family for about three or so lunches or dinners. You can freeze leftover soup if you want, pack it up in school or work lunch thermoses the next day or serve it for the next day's meal.
Anya's Notes:
* I cooked acorn squash in my Instant Pot on manual 3 minutes with NPR 15 minutes.
** I used kale instead of spinach since I had that on hand.
***I did not add any flour as I found the soup to be thick enough with the squash puree.
I like to thicken my stew with tapioca or sometimes white rice flour. Tapioca is grain-free flour made from the cassava root vegetable. It is safe for grain free diets for babies so you can use it if you have little ones under age 1. Use about ¼ cup - stir it with a little water before adding to the soup pot, stirring it in the end with the spinach. If you tolerate grains and have toddlers that can as well, you can use white rice flour or sprouted brown rice flour. If you and your family tolerate gluten, you could use a sprouted wheat flour.
This recipe makes enough soup for my family for about three or so lunches or dinners. You can freeze leftover soup if you want, pack it up in school or work lunch thermoses the next day or serve it for the next day's meal.
Anya's Notes:
* I cooked acorn squash in my Instant Pot on manual 3 minutes with NPR 15 minutes.
** I used kale instead of spinach since I had that on hand.
***I did not add any flour as I found the soup to be thick enough with the squash puree.