{"id":3651,"date":"2012-09-16T14:32:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T19:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2012-09-17T10:49:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T15:49:33","slug":"whats-for-dinner-beef-heart-with-bacon-and-veggies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/09\/16\/whats-for-dinner-beef-heart-with-bacon-and-veggies\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s for dinner? Beef heart with bacon and veggies!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beef<\/a>Here’s another edition of What’s for dinner?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 The most important part of this<\/em> meal is the beef heart with bacon and onion, one of our favorite ways to eat this organ meat.\u00a0 Organ meats have always been an important part of traditional diets.\u00a0 They are the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal, and animal foods are the most nutrient dense of human foods.\u00a0 Traditional diets didn’t waste any part of the animal. As I said in my recipe for beef heart<\/a>, it is highly prized along with other organ meats like liver and kidney but the heart has a milder flavor than liver. Beef heart is an especially good source of B vitamins, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) important for our own heart health, and the minerals selenium, phosphorus, and zinc. Beef heart, as are other organ meats like liver, is a true ‘superfood.’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s our dinner featuring beef heart with bacon:<\/em><\/p>\n

What you’ll need<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Beef heart
\nBacon (naturally cured without nitrites and nitrates)
\nOnion<\/p>\n

Spinach (ours was from the local farmers market)
\nMushrooms (these were organic shiitake, but other types of mushrooms are good too)
\nAsparagus
\nSweet potatoes
\nButter<\/p>\n

Sea salt (we use Celtic Sea Salt)<\/p>\n

How to prepare the meal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Beef heart with Bacon<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (my recipe from a previous post)<\/p>\n

Preparing the veggies<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Sweet potatoes:\u00a0<\/em> wash and peel the potatoes, then cut into chunks.\u00a0 Put into a saucepan with filtered water to cover.\u00a0 Bring to a boil, then cover, and lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.\u00a0 Drain and season with butter, salt, and pepper to taste.<\/p>\n

Spinach and mushrooms:<\/em> Wash the spinach and let drain slightly on a paper towel.\u00a0 Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth, de-stem, and slice.\u00a0 Saute the mushrooms in 1 – 2 tablespoons of butter\u00a0over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, then add spinach and continue sauteing until spinach wilts–it doesn’t take long.<\/p>\n

Asparagus:\u00a0<\/em> Remove woody parts by holding both ends of each spear and flexing until the lower part breaks off.\u00a0 Wash the asparagus and place in a saucepan with a small amount of water.\u00a0 Bring to a boil, cover, lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.\u00a0 Check for desired tenderness with a fork.\u00a0 Drain and add butter salt to taste.\u00a0 Sometimes I also add some freshly squeezed lemon juice to the asparagus.<\/p>\n

So that everything is ready about the same time, I wash and prepare all<\/em> the veggies before beginning to cook them.\u00a0 Since the veggies for this meal don’t take much time to prepare, all the prep and cooking can be done while the beef heart is simmering.<\/p>\n

Adjust the amounts of the veggies and seasonings for the number of servings needed.<\/p>\n

Important information about beef heart and other organ meats<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Organ meats are important sources of many nutrients.\u00a0 They are packed with B vitamins, including B1, B2, B6, folate, and B12; they have an abundance of minerals like phosphorus, iron, copper, and magnesium.\u00a0 They are also good sources of the important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. And of course they provide collagen and elastin which are good for skin and joint health.\u00a0 You may not know that primitive peoples in the Arctic (where plant foods were scarce much of the year) were able to avoid diseases like scurvy because vitamin C can be found in organ meats.<\/p>\n

Exception:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> Organ meats from CAFO<\/strong> animals are not recommended.\u00a0 Because organs are often the detoxifiers, they can have concentrated levels of synthetic hormones, herbicides, and other chemicals that are given to CAFO animals.\u00a0 Get your organ meats from a local farmer that raises grass-fed beef and pastured animals.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Beef Heart with Bacon<\/a>
\nThe “Weird” Types of Meat with the Highest Nutrient Density<\/a>
\nOrgan Meats – ICK! Or Superfood?!<\/a><\/p>\n

This post is linked on Monday Mania 9\/17\/12<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another edition of What’s for dinner?\u00a0 The most important part of this meal is the beef heart with bacon and onion, one of our favorite ways to eat this organ meat.\u00a0 Organ meats have always been an important part …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,214,20,80,172,18,19,23,9,177],"tags":[110,39,41,84,35,61,38,40,36,32,45,178],"class_list":["post-3651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet","category-dinner","category-farmers-markets","category-health","category-nutrition","category-organic-food","category-real-food","category-recipes","category-traditional-food","category-whats-for-dinner","tag-butter","tag-farmers-market","tag-grassfed-beef","tag-health-2","tag-healthy-fats-2","tag-healthy-foods","tag-local-food","tag-organic","tag-pastured-eggs-2","tag-recipes-2","tag-traditional-food-2","tag-whats-for-dinner-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-WT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3677,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions\/3677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}