How do you get your child to eat liver? It’s simple.
Hide it in their chili.
We all know the health benefits of liver. Liver has high levels of iron, which is why its consumption is often recommended to help prevent anemia. Liver is also a good source of vitamin A and DHA. Maybe less well known is the fact that liver has nutrients that are energy boosting- carnitine and lipoic acid being two.
So, yay. Liver is super good for you. But you have to actually eat it to get these benefits. And I don’t know about you, but liver makes me gag. If I can’t choke it down I certainly can’t feed it to my children.
While Anna was recovering from her severe anemia this summer, I found a great recipe for liver. This recipe is not only kid-approved, but it’s husband-approved. (That means a lot around here!) And I, who have vivid childhood memories of thinking I was going to throw up from just smelling liver, can eat a couple bowls of this in one sitting.
There are a few tweaks. For those of us who live outside of Texas, you may want to add beans. I personally soak two cups of dry navy beans overnight, then boil them separately, drain, rinse, and add to the pot at the end. Soaking, boiling, and rinsing is believed to make beans more digestible as it loosens the skins, and supposedly releases gaseous chemicals (oligosaccherides). Or you can just grab a can and dump it in- your call.
I also use more chili powder because we like our chili to taste very chili-y. The allspice gives the subtle sweetness that you find in Texas chili. Don’t like that? Leave it out. I will also say I’ve made this with both chicken livers and beef liver. The chicken liver tasted better, in my opinion. It was also easier to chop into a paste, which may have biased my right shoulder a little bit.
So, here’s a link to Ultimate Beef & Liver Chili.
Thank you Heather! Keep bringing us tasty, healthy recipes over at The Mommypotamus!
