LOW CHOLESTEROL LIVER PATE: Guilt-free Indulgence, Low-Fat & Cholesterol, Make-Ahead; dairy free options

Punchy, tangy Liver Pate that won't send cholesterol soaring ... 

updated 3/2022; first posted 2015 

Liver Pate for Passover that's gutsy & flavourful without lashings of chicken fat

Food in the Middle East is wonderful - both simple and exotic.   Hot bread - fresh from an oven at a tiny downtown stall - slathered with unsalted butter and dripping with fresh honey. Or, over a border, delicate 'tablecloth' flatbread cooked on an upturned oval of thinly beaten metal, passed down from generation to generation.   And, in the foothills of purple Iranian mountains, a tiny bus-stop cafe with unadorned but unforgettable chicken and saffron rice.  

What strikes a visitor to the Middle East is the similarities in cuisine, not the differences.  Flavours are strong and gutsy, casseroles and stews are distinctive and assertive - even aggressive - and the recipes are steeped in traditions and prohibitions eons old.  The food could not reflect the peoples of the Middle East more.  

Chopped Liver (or Liver Pate) is almost an essential in parts of the Middle East.  It is greatly loved, and as one lovely gentleman told me, is nothing without lashings of chicken fat.  

Not for 67goingon50, it isn't.

This version of chopped liver is a combination of a traditional-ish recipe (adapted from Ina Garten) and a Western creamy liver pate.  It was developed for the fat and cholesterol phobic and butter and olive oil replaces chicken fat.   It still however packs a punch, flavourwise, and the yoghurt makes for an appealing layer of tanginess.  (Traditionalists can use chicken fat but the cholesterol count goes way up and you’ll have to stick to plant, not dairy, yoghurt.)  

For the Festive season, it's easy on the budget and packed full of iron. It looks good on a festive buffet table or makes a good starter course with toast or hot rolls. 

It's also easy to prepare and can sit in the fridge for a day or two before serving.  

Cost: depending on livers & the cupboard - from £2.50'ish to £4.50'ish
Makes: 5 cups; halves easily

Ingred:
   500 gms/16 oz chicken livers, pref. organic, trimmed & free of green spots
   5 tbsp butter or olive oil or a mix (see note below)
   2 teacups med diced onions (about 2 whole onions) OR well cleaned fennel with the green of a few spring onions
   1/3 cup madeira/sherry/red wine/grape juice
   4 eggs, hard boiled
   1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
   2 tsp fresh thyme or 1/3 rounded tsp dried
   2 tsp kosher salt
   pinch cayenne

   3/4 cup strained fat-free dairy or plant yoghurt or Greek yoghurt

Method:

1. Saute chicken livers in 2 tbsp butter/oil for 5 mins (a couple of mins more if you like your livers well done); transfer to a deep bowl
2. In the same pan add 3 tbsp butter/olive oil; saute onions over med high heat 10 mins until soft & browned
3. Add alcohol; use fish slice to scrape away bits on the bottom of the pan; pour the contents over the livers
4. Reserve one egg for garnish.  
5. Add the rest of the ingredients including the yoghurt to the livers
6. Blitz to the preferred texture; coarse or fine. (If fine, you may wish to pass the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve, squashing the contents with a ladle, to give a mousse-like texture).  Pour into a dish.
7. Separately grate white and yolk of remaining egg and arrange on top.  Refrigerate several hours.
8. Serve on crackers, toast or rolls with dill pickle spears & tomatoes

Notes: 67goingon50 has not tested this recipe using pre-cooked livers from kosher butchers

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This recipe has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.