Do you eat offal? It is highly nutritious and something that our parents or grandparents would have eaten on a regular basis. In fact, it was the most prized part of the animal amongst our hunter-gatherer ancestors, who knew that it contained vital nutrients essential to good health. However, people these days seem very squeamish about it and yet it is just another part of the animal, of which we are happy to eat the muscle meats from.

This recipe uses ox heart which, when cooked well, is very similar to steak. Here I have paired it with onions, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes for an Italian feel. It can be served many different ways – I ate mine with some pan fried left-over veggies from our roast, but it is equally good on a bed of spinach for a light lunch, or as a warm accompaniment to a full salad. Whichever way you choose, this meal delivers plenty of protein, healthy saturated fat, minerals such as thiamine, folate, selenium, phosphorus, zinc, CoQ10 and several B vitamins.

Ingredients:

  • 400g grass fed ox heart
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp beef fat (from top of cooled bone broth)
  • Small handful sun-dried tomatoes (homemade)
  • 1/4 tsp dried chilli seeds
  • 1/2 tsp mixed Italian herbs

Directions:

  1. Slice the onions and garlic into strips. Heat the beef fat in a large pan and add the onions, garlic, tomatoes, chilli & herbs. Sauté until the onion starts to become translucent (do not over cook).
  2. Remove from the pan and set aside on a plate. Place the strips of ox heart into the pan (I left these as large pieces), turning occasionally to brown each side. After a few minutes add the onion mixture back to the pan and keep turning the heart strips.
  3. I cooked this for approximately 5 minutes as I did not want to overcook the meat – it was pink on the inside, but not bloody.
  4. I then removed everything from the pan and set aside whilst I pan fried my left-over veggies briefly. Once these were done, I pushed them to the side of the pan, adding the heart back into the pan to briefly heat up once more.
  5. Place the veggies onto a plate and spoon some of the heart mixture on top.

If serving with salad or spinach, leave out step 4 and simply serve the heart on top of your bed of leaves.

Enjoy!