Braised Cipollinis

This recipe came about for two very disparate reasons.  Several years ago someone fed me these amazing onions at their BBQ.  They had been cooked for hours with olive oil and spices.  They were divine!  I've been trying to replicate them since with only mild success.

Then while reading up for the GAPS diet I found out that onions heal the gut and they are one of the allowed vegetables at the very beginning of the intro diet.  A light bulb went off.  Let me combine the best of both of these and come up with an onion dish that tastes great and helps the gut heal.  While it is best to use fresh herbs, dried will also work.  Butter isn't allowed during the first few days of intro but dairy is introduced fairly early into the GAPS diet.  At that point, if diary is tolerated, the sauce can be used.

Cipollinis are small sweet onions and totally worth it to try and find them.  They are Italian so you might have more success in a store with Italian foods.  I find them in Whole Foods and they are showing up in farmer's markets as well.  While this recipe isn't quite as good as what I had at the BBQ, it is still a great side dish and it heals your gut!!

Ingredients
serves 2

6-8 cipollini onions
~1/4c Basic Beef Stock
thyme
oregano
sea salt and pepper
1T pastured butter (for optional sauce)

Onions

1. Trim the bottoms off the onions and peel.  Leave a little of the stalk intact for decoration.  Leave the onion basically intact.
2. Place bottom side down in a shallow pan.  All onions should touch the pan bottom.
3. Add the beef stock which should be gelatinous at this point.  When it melts you should have about a 1/4" - 1/2" of liquid in the bottom of the pan.
4. Sprinkle herbs over onions.  Be generous.
5. Sprinkle salt and pepper over onions.
6. Cover and simmer on low heat for about a half hour until onions are very soft.  Check during cooking to make sure the liquid hasn't boiled off.  You don't want burned onions.
7. Serve as is or make sauce to cover them.

Sauce

1. Remove onions from broth, set aside and cover them to keep them warm.
2. Bring broth to a boil and reduce broth by half.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.  Pour over onions.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

I like this just as it is.  Hubs says it is missing something but he is used to the stuff from Cheesecake Factory which I detest.  I'll let you decide.

Raw milk dairy can be hard to come by but Kerrygold cheese is 100% grass fed and readily available in regular markets (at least where I live).  I find it has a very strong flavor which is perfect for this soup.  Broccoli has a strong flavor so if you want to taste the cheese you have to use a strong one to get over the top of the broccoli.

Cultured butter this is my new fav.  Organic Valley's version recently appeared in my local Whole Foods.   Thing is if you add this to the hot soup you kill the cultures in the butter.  Best to wait until it has cooled down to add this so you have the hit of probiotics in your soup.  Of course I have to sneak the butter in to hubs' soup so sometimes it gets added to the hot soup.

Ingredients
serves 3-4

1 bunch organic broccoli
1c Chicken Stock
1c filtered water
2c shredded very strong cheddar (preferably raw milk)
2T cultured pastured butter
a good dollop of pastured heavy cream (raw if you can get it)
sea salt
fresh ground pepper

1. Chop the heads of the broccoli and make them bite sized.  Throw them in a 2qt pan.  Peel the course skin off the stems and chop into bite sized pieces.  (I'll save the stalks from regular meals to add to the soup.)  Keep adding broccoli until the pan is almost completely full or you run out of broccoli.
2. Add a pinch of sea salt and a couple of grinds of pepper.
3. Add broth and water.  Don't worry, it shouldn't cover the broccoli.
4. Cover and simmer until broccoli is very soft.  Remove from heat.
5. Use an immersion blender and thoroughly puree the broccoli.  Be very careful because the soup is very hot and will burn you.
6. Stir in grated cheese until melted.
7. Either add cream and butter at this point or wait until it has cooled a bit first.
8. Taste and adjust seasoning.

EDIT:  I figured it out.  Use beef stock instead of chicken stock!!  It tastes even better!  And it is hubs approved!

Pesto Meatballs with Spaghetti

This is  a completely Paleo meal.  No grains what so ever.  And totally delicious.

For this recipe, I took the ingredients for pesto and incorporated them into the meatballs.  Hence, almonds, basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil were added to ground turkey.  To make this work fresh basil HAS to be used.  Otherwise the meatball flavor gets lost in the sauce.  I also had a bit of trouble with the cheese.  I used finely grated which just melted out of the meatballs during the baking phase.  I think next time I'll switch to a coarse grate so that some of it stays in the balls.

You can use turkey, pork or beef for this recipe.  The trick is to get the meat the right consistency before making the meatballs.  If you buy fresh meat it isn't a problem but if you get frozen you can run into a minor but easily fixable problem.

When meat is frozen, the moisture in it turns to ice crystals.  When it defrosts, those ice crystals melt and the water doesn't get reintegrated into the meat.  Turkey has a high moisture content compared with pork or beef so if it has been frozen it is often soggy after defrosting making patty or ball formation difficult.  There are a couple of methods to fix this: use paper towels to suck up the extra water, actually squeezing the meat while it is wrapped in paper towels works well; or, add flour to the meat, such as wheat, coconut or GF baking flour mix.  The meat should be tacky but easily moldable.

One of the great things for chronic chicks about this recipe is that it can be made in stages.  The meatballs can be made way ahead of time and frozen for use later, or a day ahead, or in the morning.  The same goes for the squash.  It can be made several hours ahead and reheated.  This allows for a decent nap during cooking.

This particular recipe makes huge servings for two people but if you make salad and another veg for sides then this can easily be stretched out for four people.

Make sure you get sauce in a jar so that their aren't any BPAs to leach into it.  Also check for added sugar.  No sweetener is perfect since the squash is naturally sweet and if you are going hardcore Paleo sugar isn't allowed anyway.

Ingredients
serves 2-4

Meatballs:
1lb ground turkey, pork of beef or combination
1/4-1/2c almond flour (or ground walnuts or pine nuts or combination)
large bunch of fresh basil (about 2c of leaves)
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 egg
1/4c coarse grate Parmesan
generous pinch sea salt
generous pinch pepper
If using ground turkey:
1T olive oil (since it has low fat content)
coconut flour as needed if using frozen turkey

Spaghetti and sauce:
1 medium spaghetti squash
1 jar Newman's Own organic Marinara sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Unpack meat and drain on papertowels if it was frozen (this even goes for beef and pork; turkey you may need to do additional drying).
3. Finely dice the basil and run the garlic through a press.
4. Put 1/4c nut flour and rest of meatball ingredients into a bowl and knead together with hands until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.  The easy way to tell is if you see the basil evenly distributed.  If meat is still too damp, add additional nut flour and mix to incorporate.  Add some coconut flour by tablespoonfuls, if the meat is still very wet and not moldable.  Meat should be tacky and easy to make into balls.
5. Make superball to golfball sized meatballs by rolling the meat in between the palms of your hands.  Yes, this is a get your hands dirty activity.
6. Grease a cookie tray and line the meatballs so they don't touch.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes until they are slightly brown.
8. Set aside or freeze.
9. While meatballs are cooking or about an hour before you want to eat split the squash in half the long way, stem to stern, and scoop out all the seeds.  Enjoy the winter air aroma of the fresh squash.  Go ahead; sniff the squash.  Delightful!
10. Place the two halves cut side down on a greased baking sheet.
11. Bake for 45-60 minutes until a pointy object easily pierces the skin.
12. During the last 15 minutes of the squash baking heat the meatballs and sauce in a pan.
13. Take the cooked squash and shred the meat with a fork.  It looks just like spaghetti.  Pile on plate and top with meatballs and sauce.

Warm Winter Salad

Although this has a long ingredient list and three steps to it, it is actually fairly simple to make.  It is a variation on Chicken and Wild Rice Salad from The Earth-Bound Cook by Myra Goodman (a great book on sustainable real food cooking).  I looked at the ingredient list and decided that this would be great as a warm salad particularly since clementines are now in season.  I've also included variations on the theme which I haven't tried out myself yet but I know would be quite tasty.  To make this dish pop there are a few ingredients you can't skimp on.  Buy the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar you can afford.  Use fresh parsley.

Ingredients
serves 3-4

rice:
1 1/2c Lundburg Wild Blend rice mix
3c filtered water


dressing:
1T olive oil
1T balsamic vinegar
1/2t dried thyme
pinch sea salt
pinch pepper
small clove garlic


poached chicken:
2/3-1lb pastured organic chicken breast
2-3 sage leaves
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1t peppercorns
1t sea salt
1T dried onion
1t dried celery flake or a stalk of celery cut to fit in pan

add ins and toppers:
4 clementines
1c pecans
2 stalks celery with leaves
handful of fresh parsley
1 or 2 shallots

1. First thing to do is get the rice cooking as this step will take the longest.  Add rice and water to rice cooker and let rip.
2. Next make the dressing so that the flavors can have time to blend.  It is easiest to mix this up in a small jar that has a lid.  Just add the olive oil, vinegar, dried thyme, pinch salt, pinch pepper to the jar.  Peel and press the garlic right into the jar.  If you don't own a garlic press then smear the garlic over a cutting board with a knife until it is a paste and then add.  Put the lid on the jar and shake.
3. Set the chicken to poach.  Put chicken in pan and cover with filtered water.  Add sage, bay, sprig thyme, salt, peppercorns and celery to water.  Bring to boil then reduce to simmer.  Cover and cook for ten minutes.
4. While everything is cooking peel and segment the clementines.  Break up the pecans into smaller pieces.  The easiest method is to place them in a ziplock baggie and mash them with a meat tenderizing hammer.  Mince fresh celery stalks and shallot and set aside.  Mince celery leaves and parsley leaves.
5. When chicken is cooked remove from poaching water and shred chicken into bite sized pieces.  Discard poaching water.   Cover and keep warm until rice is cooked.
6. Once the rice is done, mix with chicken in a big bowl.  Stir in celery and shallot.  Gently fold in clementine segments.
7. Plate up the warm salad and top with dressing, celery leaves and parsley.

Nut substitutions: almond, cashew, walnut, pistachio

Clementine substitutions: pineapple, apricot, Crasins, Mandarin oranges, figs

Rice substitutions: regular wild rice mix

Shallot substitution: scallions, red onion, vidalia onion

Creamy DF Butternut Squash Soup

I got sick again so suddenly I can't eat dairy.  It seems that I can only eat fruits,  Chicken Stock and Chicken Vegetable soup but I can only tolerate this for a few days straight.  I've now been sick for over a week.  Since I love squash and it is GAPS approved, I knew that it wouldn't bother my delicate tummy.

One of the things that comes up over and over again on WAP blogs is to eat lots of good fats.  I get most of my fats from dairy which is why I tend to add cheese or cream or sour cream to my soups.  Since this is suddenly no longer an option, I started wondering how I could add good fats back into my diet without using butter or milk products.  Hence, I tinkered with my favorite squash soup recipe (which I just discovered I never put up here on my site).  The result is a  dairy free high fat squash soup that is really tasty.

Ingredients
makes one large bowl or two small

1c Basic Chicken Stock
1-2c diced squash
1 leek leaf coarsely chopped
1T coconut oil
1T or more almond butter

1. Using a small 1 quart saucepan add enough squash to stock so that it is barely covered with liquid.  Depending how small you diced the squash this will vary.  I tend to cut mine up on the small 1/2" cube size.
2. Add the leek and bring the soup to a simmer.
3. Cover and cook about ten minutes until the squash is fork tender.
4. Use an immersion blender to puree vegetables.
5. Stir in coconut oil and almond butter until well blended.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add more almond butter if you like.

Variations:

• use other types of winter squash
• use cashew butter or sesame butter instead of almond

Cauliflower and Swiss Soup

This is amazingly good.  This is based on my new method of making soup.  Take some beef or chicken stock, boil vegetables in the stock, then puree with an immersion blender.  Since I froze my Basic Chicken Stock in one cup portions, this makes soup creation really easy and super fast.   It has been so much fun making different combinations of vegetables and flavors.  This one is a big winner.

Ingredients
serves 1-2 (depending upon how hungry you are)

1c Basic Chicken Stock
2-3c cauliflower (fresh or frozen)
~1T of diced onion (I threw in a couple of frozen pearl onions)
pinch Celtic sea salt
grind of fresh pepper
1/2c raw milk Swiss cheese

1. If using fresh cauliflower discard leaves, remove core and cut up florets.
2. Using a 1qt pan put in the chicken stock and fill with as much cauliflower as will fit.
3. Add onion, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until cauliflower is soft when pricked with a knife.
5. Remove from heat.
6. While soup is simmering, coarsely grate cheese so that you have about a half cup of loosely packed shavings.  Adjust amount to your own taste.
7. Using an immersion blender blend until smooth being very careful not to splash hot liquid on yourself.
8. Stir in cheese and let melt.
9. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Pork Medallions with Sherry Pan Sauce

This one I stole from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and made it WAPS legal.  I just got sprouted kamut and sprouted spelt flours in the mail today so I decided to try the kamut in this recipe.  It worked wonderfully!!

Beware though, kamut is a type of wheat so if you need truly GF recipe use nonGMO cornstarch or arrowroot powder.  However I can't vouch for the texture/flavor of the substitute since I haven't tried it myself.  Nut flours are another option but I've found they make things extra crunchy and they won't thicken the sauce as well as cornstarch or arrowroot.

The pan sauce makes this dish so don't skip it.  It is wicked good!

Ingredients
serves 2-3

~1lb pork tenderloin
3T sprouted kamut flour (or wheat or spelt or for GF use non-GMO cornstarch)
~1t fresh or dried thyme
large pinch salt & pepper
olive oil
2T butter divided
2 lemon wedges
1/4c cooking sherry

1. Rinse and dry off the pork.
2. Trim any fat or sliver bits off the tenderloin and slice into 1/8" thick rounds.
3. In a plastic baggie (my fav) or bowl combine flour, salt, pepper and thyme.  Mix well.
4. Add pork and coat evenly.  If using a baggie just seal and shake.
5. Heat oil and 1T butter in large saute pan.  When a pinch of flour sizzles in the oil start adding the pork one slice at a time and don't let the slices touch.  You might have to do a couple of batches like I did.  In that case keep the finished batch on a plate covered with pan lid to keep them warm.
6. Cook until brown and then flip and brown the second side.  Remove to plate and cover to keep warm while making the pan sauce.
7. Drain fat out of pan and add sherry.  Let boil while scrapping the pan to loosen up the yummy bits stuck to the bottom.  Keep it simmering until almost gone (this evaporates the alcohol off while leaving behind yummy flavor) then add the juice from the lemon wedges. When simmering again add the remaining 1T of butter and stir in until melted.  This should result in a several tablespoons of thickish pan sauce.
8. Pour over waiting pork medallions and serve immediately.