Heathar’s Delicious Lamb Curry
By Heathar Shepard/ November 11, 2020
Heathar's Delicious Lamb Curry
Lamb curry is one of my fall and winter superpower staples. The rich bone broth, warming spices like cardamom and ginger and tender melt-in-your-mouth chunks of lamb make this a satisfying food for the soul during the cold, dark winter months. A natural dietary practice our ancient ancestors followed, yet modern people have long forgotten, is the importance of eating with the seasons. Throughout this post, I’ll share some key reasons as to why our metabolic, hormone and overall health would fare much better by following the laws of nature when it comes to making our dietary choices vs following the dietary guidelines that Google, diet books and elimination diet protocols recommend. #radicalhealth
1. A Cup of Bone Broth A Day When The Sun Goes Away
This is definitely my wintertime motto. When light levels start to shift away from UV light, we have to respect nature and, by doing so, we support our metabolic and hormone health. When we eat in alignment with the seasonal light variations we support our circadian biology and metabolic health. This truly Paleo, Ancestral approach to eating is key to avoiding the winter weight gain, SAD, depression, constipation, frequent cold and flu and autoimmune flares that many experience throughout the winter months.
One staple food that I incorporate into my diet during the late fall and winter months is bone broth. Bone broth, especially homemade bone broth from grass-fed animals, is an exceptional source of amino acids, minerals, nutrients and enzymes. It’s also incredibly healing to the gut mucosa, the liver, joints and brain.
If you feel intimidated by the thought of making homemade bone broth know that it’s a super simple process. It’s literally one of the simplest foods to make (besides toast) and requires very little time investment. All you need is a soup pot or lead-free crock pot pasture-raised beef, lamb or chicken bones, organic vinegar and clean, healthy water. Literally, that’s it. An optional but highly recommended ingredient is the addition of chicken feet or part of a cow or pig hoove.
When making my bone broth, I like to use a diverse array of bones. Using bones from multiple areas of the carcass gives your body a whopping dose of amino acids and health-supportive nutrients. For example, neck bones are incredibly supportive to thyroid health; marrow bones are like giving your kidneys and brain a serious dose of life energy and all bones are an incredible superfood for your gut and liver. Also, be sure to purchase some bones that connect and cut to joints as these will have higher levels of L-glutamine - an important amino acid to drive down IL-4 levels (IL-4 = interleukin 4; when elevated points to autoimmunity, allergies and histamine reactions) and helps to overcome struggles with leaky gut.
Before you decide to disregard my foot and hoove recommendation, hear this…
Chicken feet, cow hooves and pig hooves provide an amazing source of gelatin and glucosamine to the broth. These molecules are incredibly important to bone and joint health as well as the health of our mucous membranes that line the entire body. Buying feet or hooves might sound back-woodsy and all but they offer a nutritional KO punch to every single cell in your body. When it comes to your health, committing to feet and hooves in your bone broth is well worth the payoff. And, you can’t even taste the difference!
Another one of bone broths superpowers is its detoxification capabilities. When people ask me the best ways to detox their body, bone broth is very high on the list. Forget juicing, lemonade fasts or fruitarian diets, those pale in comparison (not to mention how harmful they are on the liver, endocrine organs and blood sugar status) to the detox powers of bone broth.
So, this winter, get out your soup pot, gather up pasture-raised bones at your local coop or farmers market and prevent the winter blues, boost immunity, fight colds and flus, support bone, joint, gut and brain health and even overcome COVID (fun fact: 99.6% of people diagnosed with COVID recover).
2. Go Grass-Fed
When it comes to our meat choices, quality matters BIG TIME. When you go grass-fed, you not only support a healthy planet and environment (no, global warming isn’t caused by cow farts, cow pies, or even greenhouse gasses: please highlight this link, you also support your hormone and metabolic health. Big time.
Grass-fed meats such as beef, lamb and pork are chock-full of health supportive nutrients such as cancer-protective CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fatty acid queen that supports healthy hormone + metabolic health. Grass-fed animal meats also contain vitamins A and D, arachidonic acids necessary for brain and cellular health as well as cholesterol. While we’ve been programmed to think that fatty meats are the culprits of our heart disease epidemics, this is simply not accurate. Quite the contrary actually.
The fatty acids contained in animal fat are actually very protective of heart health. We know that heart disease is actually linked to vitamin D deficiency, flatlined hormone panel, vitamin A deficiency and mitochondria insufficiency. What this means is that the battery charge of the heart disease ridden patient is, low. Quite low. However, you can utilize healthy animal fats + sunlight to help recharge and reboot the battery life of the heart and to overcome metabolic disorders like, heart disease. Interestingly, 2 of the most common side effects of statin drugs are type II diabetes and heart failure. So, the western drug that we’re taught will save our heart health, actually makes it worse. Big shocker.
To get the full scoop on cholesterol, clogged arteries and heart disease, tune into episode 35 of The Primal Pioneer Podcast . After listening, you’ll no longer avoid cholesterol-rich foods out of clogged artery concern but will whole heartedly and confidently embrace their hormone and heart supportive superpowers. #bringonthebutter
3. Prevent Rabbit Disease, Eat More Animal Fats
Native American peoples rarely ate rabbit because those who did, suffered the consequences. They referred to those who gorged on rabbit and suffered health-wise as having, rabbit disease.
Rabbits are exceptionally lean…that means their nutritional profile contains more protein and less fat. Ancient people knew the harm in eating foods of this nature - - more protein and less fat is a B-line to chronic fatigue, compromised immunity, hormonal health struggles, low sex drive, reproduction issues, poor gut health and failure to thrive in children.
Today however, we have no idea of the consequences that eating a high protein, low fat diet has on the body. But, this type of lean diet is promoted in the mainstream as healthy. As a result, our supermarket shelves are chock-full of lean meats, skinless chicken breast, ground beef with a 90-95% lean profile, protein shakes - all of these foods have been promoted to us as healthy. However, it is the exact recipe that our food-wise ancient ancestors knew to be very problematic to health.
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Here’s the skinny on fats…
We need animal fat combined with protein in order for our body to digest, assimilate and absorb the protein. Without the fat, the benefits of protein fall by the wayside. And, poor health quickly follows suite.
When making your curry or any dish for that matter, it’s always important to add animal fat to your meats when cooking - such as grass-fed butter, tallows or lard. I also encourage people to buy whole cuts of meat vs the pre-chopped “stew meats” when making meat dishes including stews. Albeit convenient, stew meats are lean, they have much of the fat removed and their price tag is quite hefty compared to whole cuts of meat. This is why my Traditional Lamb Curry recipe calls for, leg of lamb as the preferred cut to use when making your curry.
Some meats, such as lamb, are naturally fatty and don’t need as much additional cooking fat as a result (unless you love your fat of course!). Many cuts of meat today however are sold as “lean” and therefore need the addition of animal fats to facilitate proper absorption, assimilation and digestion of the animal protein.
Animal protein was a staple in the wintertime diets of our ancient ancestors who, by the way, did not suffer from heart disease or cancer. You would never see a traditional Eskimo go vegan or vegetarian, especially during winter months. This would be a death sentence for them. Instead, our primal ancestors, living at the 30th parallel and above, ate animal protein, fatty fish, seal blubber and root veggies throughout the long, cold winter months and they always added generous amounts of animal fat to every meal.
Here’s to your health, your curry making endeavors and to reclaiming ancient food practices that naturally support health and longevity.
Hi, I am Heathar
With over 12 years experience as an alternative healer, integrative health coach and one who has been through severe physical injury trying every remedy under the sun to heal myself with no avail…I’m here to tell you, all of those things are not only attainable but are foundational to achieving optimal health and are core elements to overcoming all chronic and stubborn diseases.
At the age of 23 I suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) preventing me from the ability to engage in physical activity for over 12 years post my car accident. Today, I know I could have recovered from this injury much quicker if I had known then what I know now! But….the accident lead me down the healing path. A path that I was destined to take to help myself heal and to learn how to help others heal complicated and chronic disorders as well.
During this time, I learned two things: How to harness the healing power of sunlight and how to utilize frequency based medicine to facilitate biological transformations in the body - all the way down to the mitochondrial level.
Today, I lead an active life and you can bet I’m uber passionate about teaching others how they can overcome even the most daunting health experiences that most medical professionals have band-aid solutions for, at best.
And today, my health continues to improve each day and I now lead an active, healthy lifestyle - all of which I thought would never be possible to achieve again. All it took was discovering the most effective path to health and healing to get me there and now, to help my clients get there as well!
Traditional Lamb Curry
2 pounds grass-fed leg of lamb, chopped
1 bunch carrots, chopped
4 tablespoons grass-fed butter
2 serrano peppers, chopped (if you don’t like spicy, omit or reduce amount)
4 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
1 can organic coconut milk (look for guar gum free brands)
1 liter bone broth (I like to use lamb or beef for this recipe)
18 ounces crushed tomatoes
10 cardamom pods, halved
3-4 tablespoons (dried) gram masala
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves, crushed
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons dried turmeric
1 teaspoon dried coriander
Celtic sea salt to taste
Fresh cilantro, chopped
DIRECTIONS
Cut lamb into chunks and place in a bowl. When all the lamb is cut, add 2 tablespoons of gram masala and kneed into meat until the spice is evenly distributed.
In a soup pot, add 2 tablespoons butter and melt on medium heat. Once melted, add meat and cook only briefly to lightly brown the meat. Stir frequently. Turn off heat, remove meat from the pot and set to side.
In the same soup pot (do not wash, you want the flavors of the meat you just cooked in the pot!) add 2 tablespoons of butter and melt on medium heat. Once butter has melted, add serrano pepper, cinnamon sticks, sliced cardamom pods, cumin seeds and use your hands to crush the bay leaf into the pot. Stir for 30 seconds.
Add carrots and cook for 2 minutes.
Add meat, fresh ginger and dried spices and cook for another minute.
Now, it’s time to add the liquids - add the bone broth, crushed tomatoes and coconut milk. Stir together, cover and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a low simmer. The low simmer is what will make your lamb meat super tender! Let cook for 2-3 hours. Add sea salt to taste.
When ready to serve, ladle into your favorite soup bowls, add more sea salt as needed and top with fresh chopped cilantro.
Very nice Heath!! Your dishes look yummy!!😋 very informative info as well!!❤