Larry Kandarian's Longevity Stew Recipe | Civil Eats

Larry Kandarian’s Longevity Stew Recipe

The recipe for Larry Kandarian's balanced array of grains, plants, legumes, and spices incorporated into bone broth—what he calls the secret to his longevity.

Editor’s note: As part of our profile of California organic farmer Larry Kandarian, we asked him to share the recipe of his Longevity Stew, which reporter Clarissa Wei described as “a balanced array of grains, plants, legumes, and spices incorporated into bone broth.” Kandarian lets his broth sit for months on end, but you can just as easily cook a bowl made to order. His instructions and notes are below; bon appetit!

My Longevity Stew is made with seasonal, fresh, organic ingredients, including the most important ingredient of all—love. Underlined ingredients are staples I always include in my recipe. I encourage you to experiment with all the other ingredients to make the Longevity Stew your own.

Start by bringing the broth to a boil and adding the ingredients of your choice. Reduce to a simmer and take out a pint and a half to eat at the time of cooking. After the first serving, add additional ingredients of your choice and keep the soup at a low simmer through the meal (approximately 30 minutes). Store the soup in your refrigerator and repeat the process the next day.

Base: Beef, bison, or vegetable organic, low-sodium broths—bone broth and chanterelle mushroom liquor.

Vegetables: Bok choy, brussels sprouts, broccoli, broccoli raab, black mustard florets and leaf, carrots, cauliflower, chayote, Chinese cabbage, Chinese celery, cilantro, edamame, eggplant, epazote, garlic chives, green onions, huauzontle, leeks, lorocco, mizuna, peppers (any kind), spinach, squash (summer varietals including opo), snap peas, tomatillos, tomatoes, wasabi, mustard herb, wild radish florets and nopales (cactus).

Fungus: Chanterelles or crimini. (Always include at least one fungus.)

Sprouts: Bean or soybean.

Sea vegetables: Kelp or other.

We’ll bring the news to you.

Get the weekly Civil Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox.

Tubers: Cassava, camote del cerro, garlic cloves, ginger, potatoes (fingerling, colored), sunchokes, tiger nuts, white sweet potatoes, and yucca root.

Ground spices: Black peppercorns and turmeric.

Pasta: Adzuki bean, buckwheat soba, edamame spaghetti, mung bean, phở noodles, or wheat with squid ink.

Herbs: Celery, lovage, and parsley.

Spices: Ajowan, coriander, and khella.

Today’s food system is complex.

Invest in nonprofit journalism that tells the whole story.

Grains: Amaranth, black barley, buckwheat, purple corn, einkorn farro, emmer farro, Ethiopian blue tinge farro, kañiwa, medley, millet, nude oats, quinoa, rye, White Sonora wheat, triticale, teff, turkey red wheat, or sprouted rice medley. (Always include at least one grain.)

Beans: Adzuki, black eyes, black turtle, favas, favitas, garbanzos, Jacob’s Cattle, Kenearly yellow eye, Pervana, Scarlet Runner, Christmas Limas, yellow or green peas.

Kandarian’s six-month stew. (Photos © Clarissa Wei)

Clarissa Wei is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the food and agriculture editor of Hyphen Magazine. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

More from

General

Featured

Popular

All Eyes on California as Fast-Food Worker Rights Land on the 2024 Ballot

Fast-food workers and activists protest McDonald's labor practices outside a McDonald's restaurant on March 18, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Alaska’s Climate-Driven Fisheries Collapse Is Devastating Indigenous Communities

An Alaskan king crab trap and fishing vessel.

Farmers March for Urgent Climate Action in DC

The Rally for Resilience marches to the U.S. Capitol building. Signs at the front read

How the Long Shadow of Racism at USDA Impacts Black Farmers in Arkansas—and Beyond

Arkansas farmer Clem Edmonds sits on his riding mower in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. (Photo by Wesley Brown)