My mother frequently fed us offal when I was a child and I remember how my brother and I groaned as she handed out the plates. I can sympathise with how she must have felt now, since my children balk at the mere mention of 'the dreaded salmon', be it in any shape or form. But offal, they love and I do too, for many reasons actually. The primary one is obviously taste but a close second is that it is so amazingly good for you, any nutritionist will tell you that. To name but a few of the micronutrients, it contains high levels of anti-inflammatory Omega-3, iron, folic acid, Vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and is a fantastic source of Vitamin C. But there are more bonuses .. it is cheap to buy and speedy and easy to cook. How can you not love all that? My daughter even requested this for her Birthday dinner, which you'll understand was a very proud moment for me!
Liver, bacon and onions is a classic dish but adding coconut aminos (a soy sauce substitute) injects a good boost of flavour. I frequently use chicken livers in my cooking but for this recipe I prefer beef, it has a richer flavour that works so brilliantly with the saltiness of the bacon and the sweetness of the coconut aminos.
Of course liver, bacon and onions are all the better for a good comfort food accompaniment and you really can't improve on cauliflower mash with a hint of garlic. I don't miss mashed potatoes because cauli does the job perfectly well. It tastes creamy without all the butter and milk that potatoes need to achieve the same effect and also it's much less work. I'm all for that!
liver with bacon, onions and collard greens
Liver needs to be eaten seriously fresh so when I buy mine I tend to pop it straight into the freezer if I don't intend to use it straight away. When I need to defrost it, I put the sealed bag into a large bowl of water and it only needs to sit for 40 minutes or so before it's defrosted and ready for cooking. It is a perfectly quick, tasty, inexpensive and über healthy meal!
(serves 4)
3/4 lb grass fed beef liver, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
6 rashers nitrate free smoked bacon, cut into small lardon sized pieces
1 heaped tbsp solid fat
1 large white onion, peeled, halved and sliced into thin semi circles
small bunch collard greens, spines removed, rolled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup coconut aminos (I use this brand)
Melt the fat in a large skillet and add the onions. Sauté on a low heat until translucent, approx 6 minutes, then raise the heat to medium, add the bacon and cook a further 2 minutes. Add the liver to the skillet and cook a few minutes more until it has lost its raw look, approx 2 minutes. Add the collards and coconut aminos, cover with a lid and leave on a low heat until the greens are wilted, approx 2 minutes more. Serve immediately.
garlic cauliflower mash
There's nothing more to say about this recipe, other than you need it in your life!
(serves 4)
1 large cauliflower
3 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
2 tbsp duck fat
sea salt (I use this one)
Cut the cauli into florets and peel the garlic cloves, leaving them whole. Put an inch of water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Put in the cauli florets and garlic and cook till tender, approx 10 minutes. Alternatively steam the florets until tender. Drain, then put the cauli and garlic back into the pan or alternatively into the food processor with the S blade. Add the duck fat and whizz in the processor or with a hand blender for a short time until you have lovely silky mash. Add salt to taste.
Welcome to the Autoimmune Paleosphere! I host a weekly Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable through my blog, and I would love it if you joined us. It's a recipe resource for the AIP community and lets people know about your blog at the same time. Here’s the link (you click the blue button at the bottom of the post to add your recipe): http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2014/07/02/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-33/ and we'd love it if you joined us every week. 🙂
Hello Eileen, thank you so much for the warm welcome, I'm so pleased you found me here. I am delighted to join your Roundtable and look forward to being a part of the Autoimmune Paleospere 🙂
OMG! This is so good. I might have to make it once a week. thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thanks Cathy. I'm so pleased you love it! 🙂
Is there a substitute for duck fat?
Yes, any solid fat of your choosing. I like lard these days 🙂
I'm saving this recipe so I can make it very soon. I'm just starting SCD after spending the majority of the last 3 years following paleo. Since I'm new to it, I'm still investigating a lot of ingredients and recipes to not only make sure I do well, but so I can have a variety of things to enjoy. Based on some other information on coconut aminos, I'm going to omit it when I make this. It's not 100% guaranteed to have zero sugar despite the nutritional info saying there's none in a teaspoon. Instead, I would probably reduce down some homemade broth (perhaps beef) to give it a boost of flavour.
I didn't see any mention of soaking the liver, but after learning this trick, I will never do it another way. Apparently some people soak it in milk, but the recipe I used to follow used lemon juice and soaked for 8 hours. Takes away most of the 'liver taste' and makes it creamy tender even if you cook it way more than recommended. My mouth is watering right now!
Ahem...meant to say freshly squeezed lemon juice. After paleo for so long, I forget there's another option.
Hi Bonnie, another flavour enhancer you may like to have to hand is fish sauce. This one is just fish and salt so perfectly okay for all the elimination diets. Hope you enjoy the recipe, personally I don't soak liver, although I do soak kidneys in water and apple cider vinegar.
This was so good! I cooked my bacon first, removed it from the pan, and cooked the onions in the bacon fat. Then I sprinkled the crispy bacon bits on top after everything was all done. I used a pound of beef liver, since I bought it frozen, and it turned out great. And, guess what? The leftovers make a very nice pâté! Just throw everything in a high powered blender! Yum!