Main Page
Second course
Buckwheat with liver

Buckwheat with Liver

A tasty, budget-friendly hot meal for any day. Buckwheat braised with beef liver in a Dutch oven is a true two-in-one recipe. To keep the beef liver from tasting bitter, soak it in water, milk, or buttermilk first. You can also use chicken or goose liver, which don't need soaking.

Elena

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Buckwheat

Onion

Carrots

Beef liver

700

Table salt

1.5

Spices dry

Vegetable oil

Water

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 31 % 8 g

Fats 19 % 5 g

Carbohydrates 50 % 13 g

128 kcal

GI: 21 / 79 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make buckwheat with liver? Gather your ingredients. Wash and peel the onion and carrot. If needed, thaw the beef liver by moving it from the freezer to the bottom shelf of the fridge ahead of time, then rinse it. Put it in a bowl with a little lightly sweetened water and let it soak for about an hour or more. During that time it'll grow softer, more tender, and juicier, and any bitterness or off smell will disappear. After an hour, drain the water.
Step 2:

Grate the peeled carrot on the coarse side of a grater. Cut the onion into small dice. To keep the onion's fumes from stinging your eyes so much, rinse the onion and your knife in cold water before cutting.
Step 3:

This dish is best made in a cauldron or Dutch oven. Pour refined vegetable oil into the Dutch oven and add the onion and carrot. Stir and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
Step 4:

Move the soaked liver from the bowl to a cutting board. Trim away the bile ducts and membranes.
Step 5:

Cut the liver into large cubes.
Step 6:

Add the cubed liver to the vegetables in the Dutch oven and turn the heat up a little. Stir and cook everything together for another 10 minutes.
Step 7:

While the vegetables and liver cook, rinse and pick over the buckwheat thoroughly.
Step 8:

As it cooks, season the liver and vegetables with salt and add the spices.
Step 9:

Continue cooking the liver and vegetables over low heat, stirring.
Step 10:

Then spread the rinsed buckwheat over the top. Don't stir it into the liver.
Step 11:

Smooth out the surface of the buckwheat and pour in hot water — 4 cups of water for every 2 cups of buckwheat. Use filtered or bottled water with a neutral taste, since tap water can give the dish an off smell.
Step 12:

Cover the Dutch oven tightly and cook the buckwheat and liver over low heat for 30 minutes.
Step 13:

The dish is done when all the water has cooked away. Don't lift the lid while it braises. Stir the finished dish before serving.
Step 14:

Spoon the hot buckwheat with liver onto plates and serve for lunch or dinner.

How do you pick good buckwheat? When buying, look at how it looks. The grains should be uniform in shape and size, with no debris or broken bits at the bottom of the package. Brown (roasted) buckwheat cooks faster, since the grains are kiln-roasted at the factory. Green buckwheat takes longer to cook; it's considered more wholesome but has a distinctive taste.
You can swap the buckwheat for any other grain you like. The cooking time may go up or down accordingly. Keep in mind that some grains (pearl barley, for example) need to be soaked first.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! Any oil is only good up to a certain temperature — the smoke point — beyond which it starts to burn and form toxic compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point: they're full of unfiltered organic particles that burn quickly. Refined oils hold up better to heat and have a higher smoke point. If you're cooking in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, make sure you're using an oil with a high smoke point. The most common high-smoke-point oils are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed.