AIP Faux-tato Soup

The auto-immune paleo diet is strict for good reason but sometimes you just want a bite of something familiar and comforting. When I went to make dinner tonight all of the meat was still frozen and I wanted something quick because it was 6:30 an the little one goes to bed at 8. I learned tonight that parsnips don't cook as quickly as potatoes do so if you're pressed for time cut your parsnips smaller than I did. Like most nights this recipe was simply an experiment of mine and I had no idea how it would turn out when I began assembling ingredients. However, the final result hit the spot and I could barely eat it fast enough.

Faux-tato Soup

2 parsnips peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
2 stalks of celery diced
1/2 of a medium onion diced
4T of palm shortening
3 cloves of garlic
2C of vegetable broth
2C of water
10oz bag of frozen cauliflower
1 bay leaf
1/2t dry thyme
1t salt
3 lg cremini mushrooms thinly sliced
fresh sage leaves

In a large stock pot melt 1T of palm shortening over medium heat and saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and stir a few times before adding the broth, water, bay leaf, thyme, and cauliflower.

While the cauliflower is cooking heat the remaining 3T of palm shortening in a saute pan over medium heat and quickly fry the sage leaves. Remove the leaves and add the mushrooms, cooking until they are brown on both sides. When they are done place them on a paper towel or cooling rack to keep them from getting soggy.

When the cauliflower is fork tender remove the bay leaf, set aside, and puree the contents of the pot with a blender. Be careful of hot liquids and don't fill a blender more than half full. I used an immersion blender tonight. Return the liquid to the pot along with the bay leaf, salt, and diced parsnip. Cook over medium heat, the soup should lightly boil, until the parsnips are tender.

Garnish with mushrooms and sage leaves. I grow sage around our covered patio and it provides me with fresh sage almost year round. Since it's early in the year and I was just playing in the kitchen I only picked about 10 leaves. Next time I'll definitely find more leaves to fry up.

Here is a photo of sage I took last summer. It is nearly the only thing that grows here in southwestern Idaho without human intervention. If you have a dry place in your yard with poor soil I bet sage will grow there.

Paleo Cooking - Turning 2 Chickens into 3 dishes

Getting the knack for Paleo cooking I'm learning that planning is key. It sounds daunting but really I'm not sure why I never thought to cook this way before. Instead of spending an hour in the kitchen every night heating up the house in the summer, why not spend a few hours making a larger quantity and eat that for a few days? Whether the weekend works for you or put your slow cooker to work while you're at work, doesn't it make sense to make more food so that you can cook less often?

The trouble I've had in the past with this method is that I'm not the biggest fan of leftovers. I can eat something twice but then I need to change it up. So my challenge to myself was to mix cooking in bulk with variety.

In my second week of the Whole 30 challenge I came across a recipe from Nom Nom Paleo for chicken with gravy. Michelle Tam, author of Nom Nom Paleo, is responsible for planting the Whole 30 seed for me so I was excited to try her recipe. I've made gravy with flour or corn starch in the past but both are not allowed in the Whole 30. So when I came across this recipe with gravy that was Whole 30 compliant I had to try it.

Michelle cooks a whole chicken in the slow cooker and I discovered by luck that the 2 cut up chickens I purchased the day before fit perfectly into my pot. Since I used 2 chickens instead of 1 I doubled the amoIf you're like me you're not the unt of vegetables and used what I had on hand. I added mushroom broth instead of chicken stock and Herbes de Provence in lieu of the spice blend Michelle used. As you can see in the photo on the left the chicken simply fell off the bone. You can find the recipe on her blog here.





Crock Pot Chicken and Gravy with Pork Paleo Stuffing

My gravy didn't come out as thick as Michelle's but it was delicious nonetheless. Chicken with gravy makes me think of Thanksgiving dinner so naturally I thought of mashed potatoes. However, the paleo world has yet to decide unanimously whether white potatoes are or aren't paleo. So I decided the next best thing was stuffing. Since grains are not part of the diet I decided to make it with ground pork and concoct my own sausage stuffing. I think I'm beginning to like this paleo thing. Not only do I feel better but I enjoy food more because everything isn't served on a bland starchy canvas. Everything has flavor and this sausage stuffing was fabulous.

1 lb of ground pork
1 large granny smith apple
1 medium onion diced (2 cups)
3 cloves of garlic
3 stalks of celery
1 T of celery leaves
6 fresh sage leaves
1/2 t dry thyme
1/2 t salt
1/4 t allspice
1/2 C mushroom broth
pepper to taste

Add the pork to a preheated skillet over medium-medium high heat. When the pork is 3/4 of the way cooked add the apple, vegetables, and spices and cook until the pork is completely cooked through. Add the mushroom broth at the end and simmer the stuffing, stirring occasionally, until the liquid from the broth has evaporated.

Top the stuffing with your favorite cut of chicken and gravy from the recipe above.

For the green beans: I blanched them in salted water and finished with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Garden Note: Growing sage is incredibly easy because it doesn't require much water. It's a perennial so plant it in the dry spot of your yard where most plants seem to wither and you'll have fresh sage nearly year round. For comparison of growing conditions I'm in southwestern Idaho where it is very hot and dry but we also get snow in the winter.

Chicken Salad

Although I loved the chicken and stuffing I had for dinner I wanted something completely different the next day. I eyed the spinach in the refrigerator and it became my inspiration. My mind began to race with numerous options and when I saw the homemade mayonnaise I finally settled on chicken salad. Melissa taught me how to make mayonnaise in her Well-Fed 1 cookbook and I haven't bought mayonnaise since. I like being able to customize it and decide which seasonings and oil to use. For this particular batch of mayonnaise I used extra virgin olive oil which gave the mayo a hint of the olive oil flavor.

2 healthy portions of chicken salad:
1 T finely chopped shallot
1 T cider vinegar
1 t dry tarragon
1/2 t salt
1/2 C olive oil mayonnaise
1/2 C chopped pecans
1/4 C unsweetened dried cranberries
diced chicken (I used 2 thighs, 1 breast, and 1 leg for this recipe)

Combine shallot, vinegar, tarragon, salt and mayonnaise and stir to form a dressing. Add pecans, cranberries, and chicken. Stir to combine and serve.

I ended up making a second batch of chicken salad the next day to go with my butternut squash soup.

Butternut Squash Soup

Since I made chicken salad 2 days in a row and I ate the stuffing for breakfast I no longer had anything to put the remaining gravy/chicken broth on. Knowing the many benefits of bone broth I couldn't throw it out. If you ever have extra bone broth I urge you to freeze it and use it another day because as far as I know you can't buy it in stores. With winter on the horizon it's great to have on hand in case anyone gets sick because homemade chicken soup really does help fight a cold.

In a crock pot add the following:

1 butternut squash peeled and diced
2 C leftover chicken broth/gravy
2 C water
1/2 t salt
few sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic crushed

Cook on low, or high, until the squash is tender. I made this batch on low and pureed it after 5 hours but this is a recipe that would be difficult to overcook. So if you need it to cook while you're at work, no worries. Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a traditional blender. Just remember that hot liquids expand in a blender so put a towel over the top and keep a hand on it so hot liquid doesn't go flying around the room. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Variation: Add 1/4 t of curry powder to a bowl of soup for an Indian twist

Herbes de Provence Crock-Pot Beef Stew

I often hear stories from friends who don't have much time to cook so they are always searching for Crock-Pot recipes. This is a recipe that you could put into a zip top bag and freeze the raw ingredients for future use. In the wintertime I think most of us long for a warm hearty meal and the thing I love about stew is that you can personalize it. Below you will see that I simply added potatoes and carrots but I also love green beans in my stew. My husband always suggests adding corn but with the potatoes I think it is a starch redundancy. Although there is tomato paste in this recipe you could add stewed or diced tomatoes. Just make sure whatever you add can stand up to an 8 hour cook time.

Since I buy most of our meat in the bulk section at Whole Foods I divide it up the day I bring it home. Since grass fed beef isn't easy on the wallet I like to divide it up so that I know how much is going towards each meal. We simply eat more vegetables, which is healthier anyway, so that we can also have grass fed beef instead of grain fed. While putting some stew meat into a zip top bag I decided to season it for stew the next day.

If you haven't yet discovered Herbes de Provence I insist that you buy some. It works with beef, pork, chicken and it makes cooking easy. One of my tricks to buying spices is to look for those that are sold without bottles. For example, you can buy cumin, coriander, oregano, and cinnamon (to name a few) in the Hispanic food aisle. Since they are sold in plastic bags they are $0.50-$0.60 each. Some grocery stores have a bulk spice section where you can simply buy what you need instead of a $4 bottle of spice that may go bad before you use it all. The Natural Grocery store is my favorite place to buy spices because they sell them in their bulk section pre measured by the 1/4 lb. A 1/4 lb of bay leaves cost me $1.08 and there are enough bay leaves to fill a quart sized mason jar. I have forgotten what I spent on Herbes de Provence, definitely not more than a few dollars, and I have enough to fill 3/4 of a quart size mason jar. So don't keep buying new jars, save your jars and refill them. Save money and reduce environmental impact at the same time.

Herbes de Provence Beef Marinade

1-1.5 lbs of grass fed stew beef
2 T olive oil
1t salt
2t Herbes de Provence
10 turns of the pepper mill

Zip the top of the bag shut and massage the contents until everything is equally distributed. Place the bag in a bowl, in the refrigerator, overnight. If I put a zip top bag with liquid contents into the refrigerator it usually leaks. If I put it in the fridge with a container to catch spills then a spill never happens. Murphy's law in the refrigerator I guess.

If you're going to turn this into a freezer meal I'd keep the meat and vegetables separate. Pull the meat from the freezer a day or two before you plan to use it and put it into the refrigerator to thaw. The contents can be dumped directly into the Crock-Pot but to add a flavor boost pull out a stainless steel saute pan and find 10 minutes. Turn the heat to medium high and give the pan time to heat up. When the meat touches the pan it should sizzle. If the pan isn't hot enough don't add the rest of the meat until it is. Back in 1912 Louis-Camille Maillard noticed that meat turned brown when heated in a pan and that is where the culinary world came up with the term the "maillard reaction". Technically it's a reaction between amino acids and sugars in the presence of heat. Why does this matter to you? During the maillard reaction flavor compounds are created. So, find a few minutes and brown the edges of your meat. You don't have to cook it through you're just looking for some browning on the edges. I promise you won't be sorry.

When the edges of the meat are brown dump it into the Crock-Pot. Return the pan to the heat and add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and stir continuously for 60-90 seconds. Heating the tomato paste in the pan helps bring out the flavor of the glutamates which give dishes that "meaty" flavor. Do not let the contents on the bottom of the pan burn because you will need them in the next step.

Add a cup or so of water to the saute pan and scrape up all of the flavor bits from the bottom of the pan and add the liquid to the Crock-Pot. Dump in the vegetables, 1 bay leaf, 2 teaspoons of salt and fill the Crock-Pot with water until it's about 3/4 full. Set the Crock-Pot to low, cover with a lid, and cook for 8 hours or cook on high for 4 hours. In the first picture below you will see the contents and browned edges of meat just before I covered the pot with the lid.

Remaining Stew Ingredients

2T tomato paste
6 organic yukon gold potatoes
6 carrots
2t salt
10 turns of the pepper mill
1 bay leaf
Add water to fill 3/4 of Crock-Pot

Final result pictured below.

Potato Leek Soup with Vegetables

The thermometer didn't make it above freezing today so I chose to stay in and tackle some chores. Progress was slow with a 3 year old underfoot and dinner time was here before I knew it. I was looking for something quick with little effort. All of the meats were frozen so it would have to be something vegetarian. I usually throw things in a pot without measuring but if this blog is going to work people have to be able to follow me.

Do yourself a favor and buy a leek. I always thought leeks were for pretentious chefs but they really do complement the flavor of potatoes. I've made dozens of pots of potato soup with white or yellow onions and they're good but the leek will make you step back in awe of your concoction.

To clean a leek, there is lots of dirt between the layers, lay it flat on a cutting surface. Insert the tip of a knife 1/4" above the roots and cut the entire length, in one stroke towards the green end. Give the leek a quarter turn and repeat. The root end will hold the leek together while you wash it under running water. Pull off any outer leaves that look wilted. Then slice the leek horizontally in 1/4" pieces. You can stick the roots in some water and the leek will regrow. After a week or two put it into a pot of soil or out pin the garden. Why buy food if you can grow it for free, eh?

Potato Leek Soup with Vegetables Recipe

1 Leek
2 Carrots peeled and sliced into     1/4"
1 Celery stalk sliced
3T Butter
2 Russet potatoes peeled and cut to about 1/4" cubes
1 Bay leaf
1/4 t dried thyme
4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
Pepper
1 cup of frozen corn

Place the leek, carrot, and celery in a cold pot with butter. Turn the heat on to medium high, saute for a few minutes and then add the diced potatoes and a few turns of the pepper mill. Add the bay leaf and thyme and stir the mixture twice in the next minute. (You want to bring out the flavors of the herbs with the heat of the pan but you don't want them to burn.) Then add 4 cups of stock. I have Organic (chicken flavor) Better Than Bouillon so tonight I added water and the required amount of bouillon. I didn't add salt to the pot because the bouillon is salty, in the end it didn't need salt. Cover the pot with a lid and bring it to a boil. (Too much evaporation can make the soup salty if you're not using a low sodium broth.) Turn the heat down and let simmer for 20 minutes. The potatoes and carrots should be soft. Add 1 cup of frozen corn, preferably non-gmo.

Makes 4 hearty bowls of soup