The Bowl of Meat, Eat Organs Without Texture Trauma

I If devouring a helping of liver and onions on a hefty oval diner plate is like plunging headfirst into a 41-degree ice bath, then this bowl of meat with ground beef, venison, liver, and heart is like wading into a tepid kiddie pool with shoes on because who knows what might be lurking at the bottom of a rec center pool and it’s better to be safe than sorry. This bowl of meat is cautiously familiar to us in looks and preparation, but with just a tinge of nuance in the flavor. It’s simple and approachable and CHUCK full of all the nutrients that a Big Mac just won’t give ya, no matter how intensely you manifest♥️.

You: What is your drama with eating organs?

Me: Salads are boring. (Caesars are excluded from this mass generalization)

This bowl of meat has been bouncing around the internet for a while now in many different iterations, but it is much more than just a trend; it is a bowl of culinary longevity. It is very satiating, very satisfying, and it tastes very good. I am giving you the organ-forward version I was first introduced to by the Skinny Confidential, but of course amping it up a bit. My ONLY resolution in 2026 is to eat more organs, and I am dragging you all along with me, kicking and screaming if I have to💃 (Where do you think all these organs are coming from muahhaahahah.)

That is a great question, though. Where are we getting all these organs I am talking about? The answer is that we are going to work smarter, not harder, in 2026. For this bowl of beef, we are going to use a product that contains grass-fed liver and heart already ground up in the meat. Praise Be! I won’t be asking you to filet any beef hearts right now🤓. The organs are chopped up fine, and I PROMISE you there is no textural difference between this and run of the mill groud beef. No texture trauma, I promise. Remember, we are wading in that kiddie pool with our shoes on; it’s safe, no sharks or stomach lining in sight!

You: (Asking more intently) But why Organs?

Think of organs as nature’s multivitamin. Before there was an entire industry based on health supplements, there were organs. Liver alone contains: iron, vitamin A, folate, zinc, and almost the whole vitamin B family. All our favorite vitamin friends are here! The good news is that a little goes a long way; consuming small amounts (even once a week blended into ground meat🤩) can make a noticeable difference.

I unintentionally bought the venison version, but will refer to everything moving forward as beef, just roll with it. I will note the small difference in cooking the venison versus the beef/bison when relevant.

This is a supercharged blend of beef, beef heart, and beef liver from the brand Force of Nature. It looks EXACTLY the same as ground beef but with an extra shot put of nutrients, and the meat is a velvety jewel-toned red. It is a perfect segue into eating more organs without thinking you have to rip into a cow's heart (grass-fed, obviously) with wild abandon for it to count.

First step to make eating organs less scary is to get them in an accessible form, and that is our ground beef blend. There is also a venison blend, which is leaner 95/5, a bison blend that is 90/10, and the beef blend at 80/20. (These are the lean and fat percentages 80% lean meat and 20% fat.)

Now that you are stocked up on the meats, you can really cook this blend anyway that tickles your fancy. I recommend cooking it with simple spices the first go around, so you can get acquainted with how the meat/organ blend tastes.

Treat it just like you would any old package of ground beef. Add a packet of taco seasoning and load up those hard shell tortillas, throw it in your bolangese for Sunday’s pasta dinner, make meatballs, did someone say sloppy joes?!! Feel free to drown that beef blend in a plethora of spices, and you and the fam will be none the wiser of the organ content but much more nutritionally satisfied.

Cooking the Beef

For the Organ Forward Beef Bowl OFBB, we're going simple, classic, and hella versatile.

OFBB - browned beef & organs, kidney beans (they have an organ in the name, so it counts😉, carrot fries, and coriander yogurt hummus.

First, we must brown the beef. And when I say brown, I mean brown, not gray. Raise your hand if you have unintentionally greyed your meat and not browned it. Ok, hands down. This is a very common issue, and it doesn’t have anything to do with you; you are perfect.

Why meat grays instead of browns

The meat has excess water from the package or from defrosting - Drain the excess liquid out of the package and pat the meat dry.
Crowding the pan - If there is too much meat in the pan, it will start to steam and not brown. Cook your ground beef in batches to make sure it browns, y’all.
Your pan is not hot enough, the meat will steam and not brown - We want our meat to get crusty brown on the outside, so crank those pans up to medium high.

When your meat has browned (we will never gray again), remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Leave about a tablespoon of fat from the meat in the pan and scoop out and discard the rest. We are going to cook our mireopix in the leftover fat for….you guessed it, more flavor!

Note on leaner meats: You will not have any leftover fat if you use the leaner venison blend, and more oil must be added to the pan before cooking your veggies.

Get that Mireopix ready

Who are you calling mireopix (pronounced meer-PWAH)? It is the holy trinity of vegetables for the French flavor base of soups, stews, stocks, sauces, and meat bowls. The members of the mirepoix gang are Commander Carrot, Sergeant Celery, and our Godfather, the Onion. These three vegetables are the aromatic foundation to building flavor, and why not add some veggies to your bowl of vital nutrients, AKA the OFBB.

I only had a red onion, so I used it. Don’t go sprinting to the store if you have an acceptable swap in the cupboard. (See the bean debacle below.)

Chop all the veggies into a small dice and toss them into the leftover beef fat. If you are being called from your higher power to add a pat of butter, then by all means you must! Always salt and pepper, how many times do I have to remind you?

Cook the veggies until they are soft and translucent; we are not looking for too much brown here. The veg is our backbone of flavor, not the star of the show; we are leaving that to the carrot fries😳. Once they are cooked, you can add the cooked meat back into the pan.

The beans (my superpower)

My favorite thing to do is to add beans to things where they have no business being. It just brings me so much joy to dump a can of beans into something and walk away.

Frittata I made this week-can of beans.
Meatballs need a little beefing up-can of beans.
Taco meat needs a little surprise-can of beans.

Some might consider it a superpower. This epic bowl of beef is not excluded from my bean attacks, so it got a healthy full can of kidney beans, robust in size and with an earthy, slightly sweet flavor. A perfect pairing for our organified meat.

Full disclosure: When I went hunting for a can of prized kidney beans in the cool depths of my basement, well, I was thoroughly disappointed because there were none. Black beans ✔️, white beans ✔️, garbanzos ✔️, green beans🤢✔️. I refuse to have another bean dilemma, so I went with white and let bygones be kidney beans.

Into the pan they go. Is the pan getting full, yes m’am it is. Use a pan with high sides to contain everything, or even a pot will do.

Seasoning all season

Let’s recap. We cooked the meat, cooked the veggies, and added the beans. All of those have been salted and peppered separately. Salt every step of a recipe; those are the rules.

Garlic powder, dried thyme, cumin, and paprika are what I call a simple seasoning. Enough variety to keep it interesting and balanced, but not so much that our meat has been snuffed out by spices.

Toss everything together, a splash of red wine vinegar for a zing and a last pinch of salt because, well, it always needs more salt (except when it doesn’t).

Carrot Fries—not better than the potato version

But still addictive and definitely worth making. The only trick, hack, tip, I have to make a carrot a fry, and not just a roasted carrot, is to leave them in the oven for longer than you want to. They will start to brown, and then they will brown even more, and then some of the edges will turn black, and you might start to sweat a little and think that they are burning, and take them out. Hold off just a little longer. Do ten squats, go find a toothpick, take an apple out of the fridge for later, THEN and only then may you take them out. We want them to be on the cusp of ‘burnt’. There is sugar in carrots. When you roast them, the sugars caramelize, and when we extra roast them, AKA carrot fry them, the sugars caramelize even more, creating a very addicting sweet and charred situation.

I call them carrot fries because of the extra roasting time and the shape. Look for carrots that are on the smaller size to make these fries extra cute, or you can cut a larger carrot into batons and call it a day. This rebrand of roasted carrots might just sway a non-carrot fan to give them another try.

Please note the smallest carrot that ever lived.

Assemble the troops

The main star of this bowl is our grass-fed beef, liver, and heart blend that we perfectly browned. Any additions to the bowl apart from this are your prerogative. Make it carby, make it green, make it with sourdough toast, make it with cottage cheese, anything goes.

My Organ Forward Beef Bowl (OFBB) includes: browned venison/beef & organs with mirepoix, white beans, carrot fries, rice, and coriander yogurt hummus, topped with a slew of thinly sliced green onions, oh, and a drizzle of lemon oil for good measure.

She’s beauty, and she’s grace; she will keep you full and satiated for hours, and you will be craving organs before you know it! Think of it like hiding vegetables for kids; if you can’t see the left ventricle of a heart sticking out, then you won’t even know it’s there.

Next up, we are heading out of the kitchen and into the real world to seek out our next organ endeavor. Subscribe so you don’t miss out on offal. (A sentence I never thought I would write.)

Cheers,

Nicole | Butter Cult

Supercharged Beef, Superpower Beans, Super fresh Seasoning