Rejoice, winter comfort food really can be healthy!
A delicious winter warmer from Alice at The Whole Daily… Make it!
Winter is well and truly here in Melbourne and we have already shivered through our first icy week so we’re all craving our comfort foods. Something a little richer of flavour and hearty of taste is definitely on the menu. Rejoice – winter comfort food really can be healthy!
A lot of slow-cooked or shank dishes are tomato based and are not always ideal for those with autoimmune tendencies. These shanks require minimal ingredients and when paired with some steamed greens and mashed sweet potato, you’ve got a hefty dose of vitamins A, C and K, and a good amount of calcium and iron.
Slow cooking your lamb shanks in the liquid that is then poured over your meal also means you have included all of the benefits of bone broth into your meal. Within an hour of these shanks cooling, the liquid turns to ‘jelly’. This is all of the gut healing, skin-shiny-making gelatine within the bones of the meat that has cooked out in the process.
Although this is a ‘slow-cooked’ meat dish, you don’t need a slow cooker per se. I actually did this in a large saucepan with a lid over the lowest temperature on my stove and it was falling off the bone within two hours… Delicious!
Ingredients
- 4 large lamb shanks (or 6 smaller lamb shanks)
- sea-salt and pepper
- coconut oil (around 2 tablespoons)
- 2 large red onions sliced into segments like an orange
- a handful of button mushrooms sliced in half
- 1 carrot sliced thickly
- 2 stalks of fresh rosemary or 3tbls dried rosemary
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 150 ml balsamic vinegar
- 300 ml red wine
- 2 tbls honey
Method
- In a large saucepan, add your coconut oil and heat over a medium-high heat until hot. Add your lamb shanks and allow to sit until they are browned on one side. Turn and do the same for all sides. You may need to do this in a couple of batches. Remove from the saucepan and leave aside.
- Add your onions and garlic and turn the heat down low. Add more coconut oil if you need to. Stir and sweat them down until the onions and garlic become transparent.
- Add the shanks back into the pan, mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, red wine, carrot, and rosemary, pop the lid on, keep the heat as low as possible and cook for 2 hours minimum.
- Drizzle with honey and toss through before serving with mashed sweet potato and a side of greens.
