Lamb Liver with Caramelised Onions & Grapes

grapes-liver-2

We’ve all heard that including more offal in our diet is not only nutritionally beneficial but is also good for the planet, yet our squeamishness and perhaps our lack of previous offal cooking experience often stops us from trying things like chicken liver and sweetbreads. However, cooking lambs liver or chicken hearts are easier than you think and can be very delicious if you know what to pair them with.

Liver pairs well with fragrant, sweet and acidic ingredients. It needs bold flavours to stand up to its own strong, earthy tones. Bacon and onion, garlic and thyme, balsamic vinegar and fruit, all go well with liver.

What’s good about it: Many call liver the world’s most potent superfood while others are afraid of eating it due to their belief that liver is a storage organ for toxins. While liver does work to neutralise toxins, it doesn’t actually store them. It is however full of many essential nutrients like B vitamins and vitamin A, D, K,  and minerals such as copper and iron, which in turn help the body to get rid of toxins.

Of course, it’s important to consume liver from healthy, well-raised animals, outdoor bred and pasture fed as much as possible. It is not recommended you include liver in your daily meals, but making it a weekly staple will make sure you can reap its nutritional benefits. Onions, grapes and spinach are packed with vitamins and antioxidants.

grapes-liver

Cook’s notes: You can use chicken livers instead of lamb livers and white grapes instead of red or black. Feel free to serve with an alternative side of green vegetables.

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Lamb Liver with Caramelised Onions & Grapes

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Author: Irena Macri
Servings: 2
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mediterranean
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4 from 3 votes
Calories: 288kcal
Cook's notes: You can use chicken livers instead of lamb livers and white grapes instead of red or black. Feel free to serve with an alternative side of green vegetables.

Ingredients 

  • 2 lamb livers more of you like a bigger portion
  • 1 tablespoon butter or ghee
  • 1 large red onion sliced
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 15 black grapes
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce optional
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Pinch of black pepper
  • Ghee or coconut oil for cooking

For spinach

  • ½ teaspoon butter
  • 1 garlic clove finely diced
  • 3-4 handfuls baby spinach
  • Juice of ½ lemon

Instructions

  • Remove any veins from the liver slices, pat the meat dry with kitchen paper and lightly season with salt and pepper. Set aside to come to room temperature.
  • Heat butter in a small saucepan and sauté the onion with sea salt for about 1 minute, stirring frequently. Cut 10 of the grapes in half and add to the onions. Stir and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Squeeze the juice from the other 5 grapes into the onion, add Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice and a little more butter. Stir and cook for a further minute or two, until caramelised and slightly thickened. Set aside.
  • Preheat a dollop of ghee or coconut oil in a frying pan until hot. Add the lamb livers and cook for 2 minutes on each side on high heat. Remove and rest.
  • Add the butter and garlic to the same frying pan and stir through for 20-30 seconds. Then add the spinach and lemon juice and cook until slightly wilted. Serve lamb livers over spinach with onion and grapes scattered on top.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 288kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 352mg | Sodium: 771mg | Potassium: 665mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 25356IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 75mg | Iron: 8mg
Keywords: liver, offal, Lamb recipes, Dinner Ideas
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Related: Is Black Pudding Good For You?


Irena Macri
By Irena Macri

About the author: Hi, I’m Irena Macri. I share delicious recipes that I have cooked and loved. I am a published cookbook author, have been food blogging for over 10 years and have a Diploma in Nutrition. You will find many healthy recipes as well as my favourite comfort food. More about me here | Subscribe to my newsletter and freebies

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Comments

7 Comments
  1. 5 stars
    Tried this today but my liver was bitter! Not sure what I could’ve done better with that but everything else was perfect!

    1. It can sometimes turn bitter if it’s even slightly overcooked. Otherwise, might have been the diet of the sheep (or chicken or cow), say if they ate particular plants, perhaps that affected the flavour of the liver? I am just speculating here.

  2. 5 stars
    I made this recently after seeing some lamb liver in the store and wanting to give it a go, and it was a real winner! I was a little nervous because while I love chicken liver, I’d had a bad experience with trying to cook beef liver in the past and didn’t know where this would fall on the spectrum, but I was heartened by the commentary about needing bold flavors. And it was delicious! My lamb liver was quite huge so I used way more grapes and just upped the amounts of everything else to match. My only tip for anybody else would be to not try to squeeze the juice from a grape- I don’t think I could’ve gotten much of anything doing that! Instead, I cut them in half, blitzed them well with an immersion blender, and then strained out the solids. I love the sweet-tangy flavor the sauce had with the combination of the Worcestshire and grape and lemon juices- it almost reminded me of cranberry sauce!

  3. 2 stars
    Lamb’s liver, I will never eat again!! The onions, grapes, spinach & seasonings were delicious

    1. Well, I wonder if you didn’t like liver as a food, if the recipe really deserves 2 stars then?

  4. Cooked this dish today, it came out beautifully! Thanks so much for sharing! Loved the onions and the spinach – amazing combination, looked amazing on the plate! Will do it again.

    1. Thanks, Marina. I don’t often get comments on my liver dishes so it’s always special when someone gives it a go. It’s so good for you 🙂

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