True story: we lived on a cruise ship for a stretch of our life together, and we did everything we could to keep eating gut-friendly while we were out at sea. That meant getting creative. We had no real kitchen, no stove, no chopping space — just a kettle that could boil water, a NutriBullet that could blend, an air popper for popcorn, and a mini fridge. That was our kitchen. This recipe was born from that constraint, and it’s stayed with us long after we came back to land.
We still keep the ingredients in our cupboard — just last week my husband went and made it for dinner. For people who are really pressed for time and want to eat genuinely good food in a short window, I still highly recommend this recipe. These days we mostly make the actual homemade bone broth beef stew when we want bone broth as a meal — slow, deep, fully cooked — but on a busy day, the instant version still earns its place. One of my clients took it to Burning Man 2023 and told me later it saved her — she drank it every single day. If you’ve been looking for a real meal you can carry in a jar and reconstitute with nothing but hot water, this is the one.
If you can make bone broth at home, do that first
The gold standard for bone broth is the one your grandmother would make — bones simmered for 12 to 24 hours, the marrow and gelatin extracted slowly, the broth strained and stored in the fridge. That’s the version with the deepest mineral profile, and if you can make it (or have a partner who will — see my partner’s homemade beef bone broth), do it.
But if you can’t, or you need something easier than easy, this is the recipe. A good clean bone broth powder gives you the protein and amino acid profile in 4 minutes of assembly, anywhere there’s hot water.
If you’re curious about the from-scratch version, my partner’s homemade beef bone broth recipe is the slow-and-deep counterpart to this fast assembly. We make both, and use whichever the day calls for.
Why this works as a meal, not just a drink
Every ingredient in this jar is doing real work:
- Bone broth powder + collagen peptides — together about 30g of complete protein and the gelatin/glycine that supports gut lining, joints, and skin
- Fermented miso — probiotics + umami + minerals (use unpasteurized for live cultures)
- Wakame + dulse-adjacent seaweed flakes — iodine, magnesium, trace minerals most diets are short on
- Kale chips and kale flakes — vitamin K, folate, chlorophyll, and a satisfying chew
- Tahini + ground flax — slow-burning fat and fiber that turn this from a sippable broth into a meal that holds you for hours
- MCT coconut oil (or ghee*) — fast-burning fat for steady brain energy, especially good before a long morning or a workout (*ghee is clarified butter — most folks with dairy sensitivities tolerate it well)
That’s a complete macro and micro profile from a 4-minute assembly. The real point of eating, in this house, is nourishment — and this delivers.
Scale it up or scale it down to fit your day
I encourage you to play with ratios depending on what your body needs:
- Less water for a more concentrated, soup-thick consistency (this is my preferred way)
- Skip the tahini and flax when you’re not physically active — they add real calories you might not need on a quiet day
- Double the tahini when you’re burning — rock climbing, hiking, a high-output day at work. Calorie density matters when your body is asking for it.
- Add fresh ginger, turmeric, or black pepper when you want extra warming or anti-inflammatory support
- Add a squeeze of lemon if you want brightness
There’s no wrong ratio. The structure is: protein source + fat + minerals + fiber + hot water. Everything else is preference.
Ways to drink it
This soup goes everywhere with us. The places it’s saved our day:
- As breakfast on a busy morning when there’s no time to cook eggs
- As a mid-day meal at the office instead of going out for lunch
- In a thermos at the climbing gym or on a multi-pitch day
- On planes — assemble dry in a jar before security, fill with hot water from the flight attendant or a coffee shop after landing
- At conferences when the conference food is unworkable
- On road trips with a thermos full of hot water in the cup holder
- As a sick-day soup when you want minerals + protein but cooking feels impossible — pair with my soft-boiled eggs with olive oil when you’re back on your feet
The Amazon list — the ingredients I actually use
I keep a running Amazon list of the exact products I buy for this recipe. The brands matter for bone broth protein and collagen specifically — quality varies wildly, and I’ve vetted these. If you’re going to invest in shelf-stable building blocks for a recipe you’ll make hundreds of times, source matters.
You can also see every ingredient I stir in — the nutritional yeast, ghee, coconut MCT oil, kale flakes, kale chips, ground flax, and the Himalayan and Celtic salts — gathered on my bone broth ingredients on the Shop page.
A note on cost: if you load the whole Amazon list into your cart, the total runs over $200, which can feel like a lot at checkout. Reframe it: those ingredients make roughly 30 meals. Per serving, you’re under $7 for a complete-protein, gut-supporting, fully-portable real meal. That’s well under the cost of buying lunch out, with none of the seed-oil-and-mystery-ingredient compromises.
Travel and storage
For travel, assemble the dry ingredients directly into a wide-mouth jar or thermos at home, screw the lid on, and pack it. The dry assembly keeps for weeks at room temperature (the miso is the only ingredient with a fridge preference, but it holds for a few days dry at room temp once mixed with the other dry components).
When you’re ready to eat: boil water (any hot water source works — kettle, hotel coffee maker, gas station microwave), pour, let brew, stir, drink. If you’re using a thermos, the lid doubles as a cup.
Recipe
Instant Bone Broth Soup — Just Add Hot Water
Prep: 4 min · Cook: 5 min (brew time) · Total: 9 min · Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients
- 1 serving clean bone broth powder
- 1 serving collagen peptides
- 1 serving fermented miso paste
- 1 teaspoon wakame seaweed flakes
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 tablespoon kale chips, crumbled
- 1 tablespoon MCT coconut oil (or ghee* — see note)
- 1 tablespoon ground flax
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 1 tablespoon kale flakes
- 1 pint (about 2 cups) very hot water
* Ghee is clarified butter — the milk solids have been removed, so many people who can’t tolerate other dairy do well with it. Skip it if dairy doesn’t work for your body.
Instructions
- Add every ingredient except the hot water to a wide-mouth mason jar, thermos, or bowl. This takes about 4 minutes — use it as a small ritual: breathe deeply, set the kettle on, assemble while the water heats.
- When the water is hot (just off boil), pour it over the ingredients.
- Let it brew for 2–3 minutes.
- Stir well to dissolve the miso and collagen completely, and to break up the tahini.
- Drink or eat with a spoon. If you assembled in a thermos for travel, the lid doubles as a serving cup.
A final note
The reason this recipe has lasted long after the cruise ship is that it solves a real problem. There are days when the question isn’t what should I eat? but can I get any real food into my body in the next five minutes? For those days, having a jar of this assembled and ready means the answer is yes — every time.
It’s not glamorous. It’s not photogenic. But it’s nourishment you can carry, and that quietly changes what’s possible in a busy life.
Until next time, have a beautiful day.
— Chandra Zas
