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Paleo & Whole30 Pumpkin Chowder

29 Sep

What happens when you see the first bin (of the season) of sugar pumpkins at the grocery store?  And one of your best friends and fellow paleo experimental cook is with you?  You whip up the first pumpkin recipe of the season!  Mmmm chowdah, so good.

Sugar pumpkins!!! Sugar pumpkins!!!
Paleo pumpkin chowder Paleo pumpkin chowder

 

Ingredients:

2 sugar pumpkins (~2 pounds each), halved and seeded

12 oz Aidells all natural (no nitrates, no hormones, no MSG) chicken & apple sausage, diced

16 oz uncured nitrate free bacon, diced

1 sweet onion, diced

2 medium size Courtland apples, peeled, cored, and diced

4 small cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup raw cashews

2 1/2 cups organic low sodium chicken broth

Kosher or sea salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Halve and deseed pumpkins, coat flesh with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake pumpkins cut side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil at 375°F until flesh is soft (fork tender), 45-60 minutes.  Meanwhile cook diced bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy!  Wicked crispy.  Move bacon to paper towels to drain.  Keep 1 tbl. bacon fat in the pan, reserve remainder.  Heat diced sausage in bacon fat over medium heat until it begins to brown, set aside.  Add another tablespoon of bacon fat to the pan and add the onion.  Saute onion until soft, then add garlic and apple and saute until onion is caramelized.  Once pumpkin is roasted scoop the flesh from the skin and place in your food processor.  Process the pumpkin flesh with 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1 cup raw cashews, 2 tsp. salt and pepper until smooth.  Add the cooked sausage, bacon (I set some aside for garnish), onion/garlic/apple, and pumpkin puree to a pot.  Heat over medium low to warm through adding another 2 cups of chicken broth to bring to the desired consistency.

Paleo & Whole30 Tostones

22 Sep

There is so much out there that is already paleo and people don’t even realize it, so I chuckle when I write “paleo tostones” because they already are paleo!  Translation, paleo fried plantains.

Fresh out of the skillet Fresh out of the skillet
Paleo tostones/fried plantains Paleo tostones/fried plantains

Ingredients:

Ripe green plantains (not green, but not totally brown)

Coconut oil

Sea salt

Method:

Cut off ends and peel plantains.  Cut, on the bias, each plantain into 6-7 slices.  Heat about 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a cast iron skillet over medium low heat (one plantain worth of slices in the pan at a time, add more oil as needed for multiple rounds of plantains).  Add the plantain slices and flip as needed until they are golden brown and caramelized/crisp on the outside, soft on the inside.  Smash the plantains down with a fork while cooking.  Remove to a paper towel to drain excess coconut oil and sprinkle with sea salt while still hot to season.

Paleo Buffalo Wings with Ranch Dipping Sauce

22 Sep

GAME DAY!  Who doesn’t love buffalo wings with their football?  John took care of the wings while I came up with a paleo ranch sauce to dip them in 🙂  Um, yeah, devoured.  Quickly.

Paleo buffalo wings with paleo ranch dipping sauce

Paleo buffalo wings with paleo ranch dipping sauce

Ingredients:

Wings

18 chicken wings

6 oz. Frank’s Red Hot (Read the label: aged cayenne red peppers, distilled vinegar, water, salt, natural flavor, and garlic powder…its paleo!)

6 oz. Earth Balance soy free buttery spread or coconut oil

Paleo Ranch

1/2 cup of a 6 oz container of So Delicious PLAIN coconut milk yogurt mixed with 1 tsp. lemon juice

1 cup paleo mayonnaise

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 tsp. dried dill weed

1 tbl. fresh chives, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 clove garlic

1/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt

3/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 500°F.  Place wings in an even layer over two cooling racks, each on top of a baking sheet.  Bake the wings at 500°F for 20 minutes.  Remove one tray of wings from the oven. Turn on the broiler, place one tray of wings on the top rack of the oven and broil wings for 2 1/2 minutes.  Remove and repeat with other tray of wings.   For the buffalo sauce, melt earth balance or coconut oil and mix 1:1 with Frank’s Red Hot (original).  Toss the baked and broiled wings with the Frank’s Red Hot sauce.  For the ranch, first add the lemon juice to the coconut milk yogurt and mix well to combine.  Mince your garlic and then using the blade of your chef’s knife smash the salt through the garlic to form a paste.  Mix the garlic paste, lemon juice coconut milk yogurt, and all other ranch ingredients together.  Extra ranch can be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator (no more than one week) and can be used for salads or more wings!

Paleo Vanilla Bean Chia Seed Breakfast Pudding

22 Sep

Yes, chia, as in chia pet.  While this seed can sprout when spread and watered on ceramic figurines, it is actually nutrient rich and intended to be eaten.  This seed is native to Central America and rich in plant based omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid.  Similar to flax seeds chia seeds (freshly ground and mixed with warm water) can be used to make a gelatin/gel that can be used as a binding ingredient in egg-free baking.  I took advantage of that gelatin forming ability to make this energy rich breakfast pudding.  Extremely similar to tapioca in texture, this will be gelatinous, yet still have some crunch, and have a smooth fresh vanilla flavor from the vanilla bean.  Yummy!

Paleo vanilla bean chia seed pudding

Paleo vanilla bean chia seed pudding

Ingredients:

2 cups almond milk

1/4 cup + 2 tbl. chia seeds

1 Madagascar vanilla bean, scraped

1 tbl. organic blue agave or coconut nectar

Method:

Split your vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds, discard the pod.  Combine almond milk, chia seeds, vanilla bean seeds, and agave/coconut nectar in your blender.  Blend for 30 seconds and pour into an air tight container.  Store in the refrigerator.  Perfect to make at night, let set in the fridge, and enjoy for breakfast!

Paleo Blueberry Macadamia Nut Muffins

22 Sep

This is otherwise known as paleo blueberry muffin version 3.0.  After struggling to create a paleo blueberry muffin recipe that isn’t gritty from almond meal or flavored like coconut from coconut flour, I’m finally happy!  This has an amazing texture and flavor and, like a muffin should be, it isn’t too sweet.

Paleo blueberry macadamia nut muffin

Paleo blueberry macadamia nut muffin

Ingredients:

1 cup raw macadamia nuts

4oz. unsweetened applesauce

4 pitted dates, soaked

1/3 cup virgin coconut oil

4 large eggs

2 tbl. organic blue agave or coconut nectar

1 tbl. vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup dried blueberries (Trader Joe’s & Steve’s Original both offer dried blueberries with no sugar added)

Method:

Soak dates in enough warm water to completely submerge them for 2 hours.  Preheat oven to 375°F.  Drain dates and combine all ingredients except blueberries in your food processor and process until smooth.  Fold in blueberries and dispense into muffin tins lined with cupcake paper.  I used a Silpat silicone baking mold and tray so this made 10 muffins.  If using a typical muffin pan use parchment cupcake wrappers if you can find them, regular if you can’t, and you should get 10-12 muffins.  Bake muffins at 375°F for 25-30 minutes.

Paleo Turkey Burgers with Sriracha Aioli

15 Sep

Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely a beef girl when it comes to burgers!  There is really no other way to have them!  However, I wanted to get creative with a new bun-less recipe.  My paleo buns are only good for sliders, they don’t hold up to a full size burger.  I’m also not an eat it in a lettuce wrap kind of burger girl.  If it doesn’t have a bun, give me a fork and let’s go!  So this was my first try ever making a turkey burger!  Seriously!  It is AMAZING!  The test burger was quickly devoured.  They are full of flavor and wicked (I’m from Massachusetts, this is a perfectly appropriate adjective) moist!  AMAZING!  Oh wait, I already said that 🙂

Paleo turkey burger with sriracha aioli Paleo turkey burger with sriracha aioli

Ingredients:

1.3 pounds 85% lean ground turkey

6oz uncured nitrate free bacon, diced and cooked

1 1/2 pounds sweet potato, baked and mashed

2/3 ounce chives, diced

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced

2 large eggs

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 cubanelle pepper (sweet Italian pepper), chopped

Kosher salt

Pepper

Coconut oil (for cooking)

Sriracha aioli recipe

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Bake sweet potato at 400°F until fork tender, approximately 60 minutes.  Cook bacon in a skillet over medium to medium high heat until crisp.  Remove sweet potato from skins and mash.  Using your hands combine all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper, and form into 10 burger patties.  You can pan cook or bake these burgers. To pan cook, heat coconut oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat and cook burgers (3-4 in the pan at a time) approximately 6 minutes per side to cook through.  To bake, preheat oven to 375F and bake for 30 minutes. Top with sriracha aioli and devour, I mean enjoy 🙂

Paleo Salted Caramel Cheesecake

15 Sep

The most common reaction to my paleo recipes after the first bite is, “This can’t be paleo!”.  Well, if ever that was to be said, this is the recipe that qualifies.  Sweet, salty, crunchy, melt in your mouth, delicious!  And it requires ZERO cooking!  That’s right, you don’t need to cook a thing.

Paleo salted caramel cheesecake

Paleo salted caramel cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust

2/3 cup pecans

1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

1 cup crunchy almond butter (I love Barney’s)

1 1/2 tbl. Earth Balance coconut spread

1 1/2 tbl. agave or coconut nectar

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups raw cashews

1/2 cup coconut oil (I used unrefined virgin coconut oil), melted

1 tbl. Thai Kitchen full fat coconut milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1-2 tbl. lemon juice

Salted Caramel

14 pitted dates, soaked

1/3 cup Thai Kitchen full fat coconut milk

3 drops Capella caramel flavor concentrate

1/4 tsp. sea salt

~1/4 tsp. coarsely ground sea salt to sprinkle over top

Method:

Line a baking dish with parchment paper.  I used an 8×8 inch glass dish, but I find that it came out thicker than I wanted, so I recommend using a 9×9 inch glass dish.  For the crust combine all of the ingredients in your food processor and process until you have a batter.  The batter will still be crunchy, but should not have any obvious chunks of pecans remaining.  Press the batter evenly throughout the bottom of your baking dish.  Begin the cheesecake.  Place all of the cheesecake ingredients in your food processor and process until the mixture is smooth.  It will take a couple minutes before the cashews are fully broken down.  Periodically wipe down the inside of the processor so that the mixture incorporates evenly.  Pour and spread the cheesecake evenly over the crust and place in the freezer for 2-4 hours.  Place your dates in a cup of warm water so they are completely submerged.  Allow the dates to soak for at least 2 hours (perfect because you’re waiting this much time for your cheesecake to set!).  Remove your dates from the water and place in your food processor with the coconut milk, vanilla, caramel flavor, and 1/4 tsp. sea salt.  Process your caramel until it is smooth and you no longer have chunks of dates.  Remove your cheesecake from the freezer and spread your caramel over the top.  Sprinkle with some additional coarsely ground sea salt.  I placed my cheesecake back in the freezer until the caramel had also set.  I removed my cheesecake from the freezer for 45 minutes and cut into 16 squares (can be cut into more).  Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Paleo Pineapple Upside Down Cake

8 Sep

When one of your best friends is going strict paleo for ~6 months, and loves pineapple upside down cake, and is celebrating her birthday what do you do?  You come up with a recipe for paleo pineapple upside down cake of course.  Oh man how I love it when a new recipe works perfectly on the first try!  You will notice this recipe is lacking its typical splash of color: maraschino cherries.  This is for three reasons.  1. Thanks to how they are preserved and sweetened, they aren’t paleo. 2. My best friend hates them.  3. I hate them.  Makes it pretty easy to omit them from this recipe.  I know it doesn’t haven’t anything to do with a typical pineapple upside down cake recipe, but if you really want some red color, quarter some strawberries and use those in place of cherries.  The strawberries will still work with the other flavors.

Perfect slice of paleo pineapple upside down cake

Perfect slice of paleo pineapple upside down cake

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Earth Balance soy free buttery spread

2/3 cup coconut crystals

10 slices pineapple (in pineapple juice, not syrup if buying canned)

5 large eggs

1/2 cup agave or coconut nectar

8oz unsweetened applesauce

1 tbl. vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted

1 scoop vanilla egg white protein powder, sifted

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Prepare the cake batter.  Whisk together eggs, agave, applesauce, vanilla, and salt.  Sift together coconut flour, baking soda, and egg white protein powder and mix into wet ingredients.  Set cake batter aside.  Add Earth Balance buttery spread to a 9×7 or 8×8 inch baking dish (I recommend glass or ceramic) and place in the oven until melted.  Once “butter” is melted, carefully remove baking dish from oven and sprinkle coconut crystals evenly over melted butter coating the entire bottom of the dish.  Lay 10 pineapple slices on top of the coconut crystals.  I made an even layer of 6 and then overlapped 4 more slices.  Carefully pour and spread cake batter over pineapple and bake at 350°F until golden and cooked through, approximately 45 minutes.  Once cooked remove from oven, run a butter knife around the edge of the dish (between cake and dish) to loosen.  Carefully turn baking dish over onto cooling rack or plate but do not life baking dish off of cake.  The cake is too warm to turn out (remove from baking dish), but you want your melted coconut crystals to absorb down into the cake, this will allow for that.  When cool, lift the baking dish off of the cake.  Enjoy!

Paleo pineapple upside down cake

Paleo pineapple upside down cake

Paleo Peach & Plum Tart

4 Aug

What comes with August in Massachusetts?  PEACHES!  Farmer’s markets have ruined me, in a very good way.  I’ve had the most perfectly ripe, fresh, locally grown, dripping with juice delicious peaches.  Gone are the days of being able to purchase these fruits at a grocery store.  I only buy them fresh and in season.  So peaches are now on the list of fruits I cannot buy at a grocery store.  The strawberries my Dad grows in the yard – best ever!  The grapefruit (white, Duncan grapefruit) that my grandfather grew – best ever!  My grandfather spliced grapefruit trees together until he had made the perfect fruit producing trees and his yard (in Florida) was filled with them.  When I was a kid I would just walk outside and pick one if I wanted one for breakfast.  Although they were so huge and juicy I could only eat half of one 🙂  Everything that came from that yard (vegetables, fruit, citrus) was amazing and I’ve never had anything come close to it anywhere else in the world thus far.  Dates my friend’s mother brought as a gift from Dubai – best ever!  OH MY American dates are awful and can’t even touch the delicious little dried fruit (might as well be candy) that come from the Middle East!  It really makes me wonder what all the other food I eat is supposed to taste like.  If I have not had the opportunity to have a fruit or vegetable freshly grown and picked when ripe I probably don’t know what it is supposed to taste like, which is sad.  I’m getting off topic.  Back to peaches!  So John’s mother had some very ripe peaches and plums in the house and asked me to do something with them.  This paleo tart, which was a HIT, is what I came up with.  Enjoy!

Paleo Peach & Plum Tart

Paleo Peach & Plum Tart

Ingredients:

Crust

2 1/2 cups almond meal

1/2 tsp. kosher or sea salt

1/4 cup grape seed or canola oil

1/4 cup coconut nectar, agave, or honey

1 tbl. vanilla extract

Pastry Cream

6 large egg yolks

2/3 cup coconut nectar, agave, or honey

3 tbl. tapioca flour

One (13.66oz) can of Thai Kitchen full fat coconut milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Fruit

4 peaches, peeled and sliced

3 plums, peeled and sliced

~3 tbl. lemon juice

Method:

Crust

Preheat oven to 350F.  Stir together almond meal, salt, oil, nectar, and vanilla.  Press dough into the bottom and about an inch up the sides of a greased springform or tart pan.  Dock with a fork and bake crust at 350F for 12-15 minutes, until golden.  Remove from oven and cool completely.

Paleo Tart Crust

Paleo Tart Crust

Pastry cream

Whisk egg yolks and nectar in your stand mixer with whisk attachment over medium (medium to medium high) speed until the yolks are light in color.  Turn the mixer to low and add the tapioca flour.  While the eggs are whisking, pour your coconut milk into a medium saucepan and warm the milk to steaming over low heat.  Do NOT boil the milk!  Once the milk is warm temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the warm milk at a time (a couple tablespoons) into the whisking eggs.  Once you have incorporated about half of the milk into the eggs pour the entire egg mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk.  Cook the cream mixture over low heat stirring constantly for 15-20 minutes until it has thickened to the consistency of instant pudding mix pre-refrigeration.  I was using a gas stove for this, it might take more time on an electric stove.  Once thick remove the mixture from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Pour the pastry cream into a dish to cool.  I placed plastic wrap in direct contact with the pastry cream and placed the dish in the fridge to cool.  Have plastic wrap directly on top of the cream will prevent a skin from forming on the pastry cream.

Thickened Paleo Pastry Cream

Thickened Paleo Pastry Cream

Fruit

Peel and slice fruit and toss with lemon juice to prevent the peaches from browning.

Top your crust with cooled pastry cream and arrange your fruit on top of the pastry cream.  Place the tart in the refrigerator to further set.  Serve chilled.

Spread pastry cream in crust leaving edges exposed

Spread pastry cream in crust leaving edges exposed

Finish your paleo tart by arranging your fruit on top

Finish your paleo tart by arranging your fruit on top

Paleo Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Aioli

21 Jul

I’ve really been craving sweet potato fries, so I put together this concoction because I wanted something that would just be a great snack by itself.  OMG! What a heavenly sweet & spicy snack this is!  I know, I know nobody wants to turn on an oven in the July heat, but it is just for 20 minutes (plus pre-heat time) and completely worth it!  Promise 🙂

Paleo Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Aioli

Paleo Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Aioli

Ingredients:

Fries

3 pounds sweet potato

1/4 cup potato starch

Olive oil

Kosher or sea salt

Sriracha Aioli

1/4 cup paleo mayonnaise (see p. 55 of Paleo Made Easy, or purchase your own from Spectrum Organics, etc).

1 tbl. Sriracha sauce

2 tsp. lime juice

1/8 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Method:

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick strips.  Place fries in a zip top bag with potato starch and toss to coat.  Spread fries in a single layer on baking sheets and toss with olive oil to barely coat and season with salt.  Bake fries at 450°F for 20 minutes.

For the aioli whisk together mayonnaise, Sriracha, lime juice and balsamic vinegar.  I made this a spicy aioli, which I think goes well with the sweet fries, but if you prefer things less spicy cut the Sriracha in half.

*Disclaimer: Technically Sriracha contains sugar, so it isn’t 100% paleo*