On top of gluten and cow’s milk product, I cut down non-organic red meat from my everyday cooking. The main problem with industrial red meat (mostly cow, lamb and pork) is the growth hormones and the chemical toxins it contains, which are pro-inflammatory in nature and raise many health concerns. So what other meat to add to my menu?
I spoiled myself lately with fantastic reindeer meat in a Lappish restaurant. Wild red meat or from grass-fed animals are much welcome on my plate, along with white meat like organic chicken… and rabbit. You see where I am heading to?
We French people enjoy rabbit meat. Flavor and texture-wise, it comparable to poultry. Rabbit meat is high in minerals, omega-3 and protein (more than beef or chicken) while being low in calories, and it’s worth noting that raising rabbits has low environmental impact. I was delighted when French rabbit meat appeared suddenly in my local Finnish supermarket last year, whoopee!
Now if rabbits for you equals pet, and eating rabbit sounds as strange as eating frogs (don’t tell me you never had frogs either?), then it is time to open up your mind and take the leap. Funnily enough, the butcher at the meat counter was puzzled when he saw me adding rabbit legs in my shopping cart, and he is the butcher you know. I gave him this recipe I am sharing with you today, and I take it as a personal mission to get him cook rabbit to his wife, as he promised to do ‘soon’.
This wonderful way to prepare rabbit makes it a favorite dish of mine since childhood. Combine it with fresh pasta, and I promise you will go back for more (and perhaps trust me to try frogs too).
- 4 French rabbit legs
- 3-5 table spoons olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 5 carrots
- 2 garlic heads
- 6 tomatoes
- 1 glass of white wine (optional)
- 200ml water
- 1 Bay Leaf
- Fresh thyme branch (or 2 tsp of dried thyme)
- 1 gluten free vegetable stock cube
- Salt, pepper
- Heat the oil in the pressure cooker (or saucepan) over medium-high heat. Add the rabbit legs and saute until golden on both sides. Do in two times to ensure rabbit legs are well golden all over. Transfer to a platter.
- Boil tomatoes for 1 min and peel off the skin before dicing them (if you use a can of chopped tomatoes, skip this step).
- Add some more olive oil to the pressure cooker (or saucepan), and cook the chopped onion and garlic, stirring occasionally until softened. Add carrots sliced in small pieces and stir another 5 min before adding the tomatoes.
- Return rabbit legs to the pressure cooker along with bay leaves, fresh thyme, vegetable stock cube, salt and pepper. Add a glass of white wine and water so the meat is partly covered.
- Cover and cook in the pressure cooker for about half an hour until the meat is tender - or 45 minutes to one hour if you use a saucepan. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
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