Tag: organs

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Some Tips to Enjoy Liver

Why You Should Be Eating Liver

As I said in my post on why I’m no longer vegan , one of my favourite meals is organ meats for 2 reasons: they’re extremely cheap, as they’re not typically popular among average meat eaters; they’re incredibly packed with nutrients and extremely absorbable by our bodies, because they’re what we, as a species, have evolved on.

Livers (from cows, lambs, pigs, geese, chickens and fish) are incredibly rich in B12, B2 (Riboflavin), B9 (Folate), Vitamin A, Iron, Copper, Choline, according to healthline.com. This is due to the liver’s functions of: processing the digested food from the animal’s gut and absorbing nutrients from it, while filtering and clearing the blood from toxins. Livers are also light in calories and high in proteins, making them fit for most diets. This is why everyone should be consuming livers on a regular basis.

If organs are cheap and highly nutritious, unfortunately, they’re not necessarily as tasty, especially when not cooked properly, or when overcooked. With a few adjustments, however, organs can become part of a very enjoyable meal. In this specific post, I’ll focus on livers exclusively. Just stay tuned for further posts on hearts and kidneys. 😉

My Tips to Enjoy Liver

  1. Don’t overcook it. Liver is soft, tender and creamy, but tends to get a bit stiff when overcooked. The best thing you can do is chop or mince liver prior to cooking it, and not cook it for more than 1 minute on each side.
  2. Use plenty of herbs (such as rosemary, thyme, chives and bay leaves), onions or spring onions, salt and pepper to stir fry your liver. These will enhance the liver’s flavour, while hiding its animal-like taste, which not everybody enjoys.
  3. Squeeze some fresh lemon or lime juice on your liver, to enhance its flavour even more.
  4. Don’t quit liver just because you didn’t like it the first time. Keep trying out different recipes until you find a way to enjoy it: you’ll sure get used to its taste and texture.

If you have any tips that would like to share with me, feel free to comment down below. 😉

Thanks for following me along my journey!

Lamb liver stir fry with: red pepper, mushrooms, ginger, spring onion and fresh parsley.
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My Mindful, Ethical, Easter

Thousands of lambs are slaughtered every year around Easter time, just because it’s a tradition to consume lamb on Easter Day. I’m not gonna lie, lamb is my favourite meat, taste-wise. However, I’ve always opposed this silly tradition, as this unfair massacre is just senseless. After all, I can still enjoy lamb any other day.

On the other hand, however, I’m well aware of the fact that nobody will stop slaughtering lambs for Easter just because I refuse to buy them, and the unsold meat (mostly organs) will be wasted, without reducing the numbers of lambs to be slaughtered the next year. How can this dilemma be solved in the most ethical way?

Our Ethical Choice

We decided not to order any meat from our local farmers market this Easter, but to go and see what was available, namely, to buy what no one else wanted to buy and would most likely end up in the trash. Most meat was obviously lamb, and that’s what we also bought. However, rather than buying legs, shoulders, chops or popular cuts in general, we went for hearts and necks, which are: cheap, delicious, nutritious and less popular (therefore more likely to be wasted).

Our Easter Table

As you might or might not know, I have Argentinian roots on my maternal side, and for my family, Easter is a serious tradition. In particular, something that can never miss from our Easter table are empanadas. Since I quit gluten, however, I also stopped making empanadas for many years. But this year I wanted to try something new, and decided to make tuna empanadas again, using only buckwheat, goat butter, salt, water and 1 duck egg for my dough. Although the overall consistency came out quite different from the empanadas my grandma used to make when I was a kid, the taste was awesome and both me and my husband really enjoyed them.

Alongside empanadas, we had a huge salad, halloumi, cheddar, mushrooms, lamb necks and hearts, all cooked on a raclette grill. It took me less than 5 minutes to prepare everything, and it turned out to be one of the tastiest and most enjoyable Easter lunches ever.

Lamb hearts, halloumi and mushrooms cooked on stone on top of our raclette grill (underneath, some cheddar is being melted meanwhile)

As a dessert, I just combined some eggs with raw cacao powder, protein powder, liquid stevia, bicarbonate of soda, Himalayan salt and vanilla extract, and made some muffins out of it. It could never be Easter without some chocolatey dessert. 😉

My gluten free, sugar free, high protein chocolate muffins. A perfect finisher for a mindful Easter lunch. 🙂