I love my Instant Pot pressure cooker I bought it during our time in exile when we didn’t have a functional kitchen available. It has cooked many meals and now that we are settled in our house, it continues to be my most used appliance. My favorite use for the pressure cooker is making stock. I make a variety of stocks but the one I make most is bone broth.

If you’ve missed the hype, bone broth is the wonder food of the 21st century – or so it seems. In truth, bone broth (or meat stock) has been around for a very long time. The advent of affordable, easy to use pressure cookers has simply made it more accessible for the home cook. It is delicious on its own and adds an amazing depth of flavor to soups, stews, sauces and gravies. Plus, all the yummy collagen that is drawn from the bones is good for your body in so many ways. (Hint – the main difference between a meat broth and stock (bone broth) is the presence of collagen that gels when it is cool.)

One problem – there are a lot of wrong information about bone broth. The minerals from bone broth don’t come from the bones. They actually come from any vegetables you cook with the bones. If you want a mineral rich broth, I highly recommend Rebecca Katz’s Magic Mineral Broth. This is a vegetable broth that is just filled with minerals and is delicious, both by itself and used in cooking. I make a half batch at a time in my pressure cooker and it is done in 30 minutes. This isn’t to take away from the benefits of bone broth. There is a reason that chicken soup (made with chicken stock) has long been considered a cure for all ills. I simply think if you are cooking for your body, you should understand what is doing what.

There are a lot of videos and web pages telling you how to make bone broth, both with and without a pressure cooker. I recommend starting with chicken as you don’t need to rinse or roast the bones. Plus, I find chicken stock to be the most versatile for cooking. One caveat – a lot of people will tell you that your pressure cooker can make stock (bone broth) in 20-40 minutes. You can but it is a pale imitation. You can’t replicate 12-24 hours of cooking in 20-40 minutes. To get the most collagen rich bone broth, you need at least 2 hours in your pressure cooker. I prefer 4 hours. I want the bones to crumble when I squeeze them. I strain mine into quart size mason jars, cool and freeze.

However, if it isn’t made with bones, it isn’t stock or bone broth. If it isn’t made with bones it is either a meat or vegetable broth. So when I saw a recipe for vegan bone broth, I shuddered.

I appreciate that fluidity of language. It is a living thing. Words evolve. New words come into our cultures. For this reason, it is all the more important that we use our words with conscious precision. Too often words are used to hide the true meaning. Calling it crystallized cane juice on a label is just a way to hide that it is sugar. Vegan means without any animal derived products. Bones come from animals. Vegan bone broth is not only a contradiction but it is misleading.

Yes, a vegan broth can be super nutritious. It will, however, lack the one thing that characterizes bone broth: collagen.

I’m not a vegan or vegetarian. There is a lot we can learn from both the vegan and vegetarian communities. With sustainability issues becoming critical, it’s important that the various food communities communicate. However, mixing labels does a disservice to everyone. It is misleading. Just call it Amazing Vegan Stock and let it stand on its own merits.