Don't like your veggies?

For those of you that don't like chowing down on a big bowl of greens, an easy and cost effective way of incorporating nutrient dense food into your diet can be including organ meats.

Put lets face it; some organ meats like liver and kidney can have quite a strong taste and certainly aren't everybody's cup of tea. Over the weekend however, I tried making these meatballs and they were delicious!

Here's the recipe I put together:

1 x kg beef mince

300-500g liver

200-300g heart

1 cup of almond meal

2 Tbsp paprika

4 tsp cumin

4 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1 x onion

5 cloves garlic

Fry off the onion and garlic in a frypan with the coconut oil until lightly browned then allow to cool.

Mince the liver and heart and combine with the beef mince in a large bowl (I went out and bought a hand mincer from Aldi for $15 or you could wiz them in a food processor or just chop them really fine). Add almond meal, spices and onion mix to the minced meat and combine with hands (if the mixture is too wet add more almond meal, if its too dry add some egg). Roll out into balls and then fry up! I made my balls quite small so that hopefully I can get the kids to eat them - wish me luck!

Eating liver is great way to get nutrients such as vitamin A, folate and choline into your diet which are some of the more common nutrient deficiencies that I see in practice. Heart is a great source of coenzyme Q10 with is crucial for energy production, especially for those taking statin medication for lowering cholesterol. You could also substitute some kidney if you prefer. If the taste of the liver or kidneys are too strong in this recipe for your palate, just use a lower ratio of organs meat until to find the right proportions for your tastes (I used 500g liver and 250 g heart, whilst I can still taste the liver in there its not at all overpowering and complements the spices quite well.