“Hearty” Stew
This recipe gives a whole new meaning to the term “hearty stew” because….wait for it….it’s made with veal heart. Before you run away screaming, let me tell you a few of the reasons I’m excited about eating hearts. This is what Mark Sisson has to say:
Because it is a muscle meat, heart is very similar to steak, roasts and ground beef, but is typically less expensive (we blame the “ick” factor for that!) and actually has a higher protein content. In addition, heart is an excellent source of a number of nutrients, including thiamin, folate, selenium, phosphorus, zinc, CoQ10 and several of the B vitamins. In addition, beef heart contains amino acids that are thought to improve metabolism and compounds that promote the production of collagen and elastin.
Heart is super dirt cheap.
Three francs!!
Any other cut of veal would have cost me five times as much. And, what happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen. You don’t have to tell your squeamish dining partners that you are serving heart. Just call it veal and they’ll never know.
Stew recipes are totally adaptable. I don’t think I ever really make the same stew twice. You can throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand.
Use the vegetables you have on hand
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- 1 Tablespoon oil of choice (I used coconut oil)
- 200 grams of veal heart
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 sweet potato, chopped
- 2 1/2 cups of bone broth
- 2 teaspoons of rosemary
- 2 teaspoons of sage
- 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
What to do
- Melt your fat in a pot over medium high heat.
- Toss in the chopped veal heart and brown.
Brown the cubed heart
- Add in the chopped onion and cook until the onion starts to caramelize.
- Throw in the chopped carrots and sweet potato.
- Add the bone broth and the rest of the ingredients and stir.
Add the rest of the ingredients
- Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for an hour (or longer).
Good and good for you
The Verdict
Veal heart has a texture very similar to beef, the only difference I found was that it wasn’t stringy like stew meat tends to get. It was tender and moist. It didn’t taste any different than other meat to me. I’ll make this again for sure, and I’ll be looking for other ways to cook up some ‘not so awful’ offal.
Eat your “heart” out!
6 Comments
Featured On
Follow Us!
thanks! you have inspired me to try this as I have been told to eat more organ meat and I can’t quite get excited about it yet. I have my veal heart in the fridge and hope to make it later this week. i did make the bone broth you mentioned and noticed that you beef bones looked different than what I bought. At the Migros, I thought I bought fresh beef soup bones that looked more like small bones with some beef attached but you look like you bought the frozen bones look more like leg??? oh my my, i can’t believe i am discussing this. Is there any difference? Is a bone a bone? Or is one more nutritionally dense?
thanks for your blog! It is a wonderful resource!
Hi Janie! Good for you 🙂 I use all kinds of bones; basically whatever I can get my hands on. Most of the time I use a mixture of bones—some with meat on them still (like you described), some knuckle and feet bones, some round bones with marrow—basically whatever the butcher or farmer gives me (or whatever I find at Migros). They all work just the same. I do find that I get a more gelatinous broth if I have some knuckle bones thrown in the mix. As far as organ meat, heart is least yucky. It is actually a muscle like most of the other cuts of meat we normally eat. Kidneys, liver, brains and lungs are where it starts getting challenging. I’m eating liver a few times a week and kidneys are next on my list to try 🙂
Last week i’m made your Hearty Stew, it was really delicious, my husband didn’t even know its heart!
Once i bought a full beef heart from Coop for only 10 CHF.
I grow up eating organ meat so for me its not really a big problem, i eat liver & kidney at list once a week, my husband thinks i’m crazy!
Thanks for sharing!
My husband knew it was heart and he really didn’t want to try it. I begged him and then of course he liked it 🙂
I made the stew with a beef heart. I threw in rutabaga, turnips, sweet potatoes, celeri and garlic. It was to die for. Great flavors and the meat was firm yet tender at the same time. Loved it!! Thanks, Lisa. This coming to you from one of Julie’s good friends in Canada!! 😀
Hi Rachelle,
Well, I like you already 🙂 Any friend of Julie’s (especially one who is not afraid to eat heart stew) is my kind of person. That’s exactly how I felt about the meat….firm yet tender at the same time. I’m so glad it turned out for you and that you made it your own by throwing in all those great vegetables.