Dinner is Served - A Few Recipes

Time for some recipes. Here are a few great Paleo meals I've enjoyed recently...

A dinner of fresh trout crusted in a crunchy pesto and baked, perched on roasted cauliflower. With more cauli on the menu, I also made a creamy cauliflower veggie soup.


Trout with Crunchy Pesto Crust

My dad caught a huge trout last week and he handed it over to me to cook. I don't have an exact recipe because I threw it together, but here are the ingredients for the coating. Instead of pureeing it down to a paste, I chopped the ingredients by hand (really only takes a few seconds if you have a good knife), and tossed them together, keeping texture. I kept the walnuts slightly chunky and finely chopped everything else.

Roll fish fillets in the coating, pressing it to adhere, and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 350F until cooked through. Cook time will depend on the size of your fillets. I cooked mine about 20-25 minutes.

Pesto Coating
Fresh basil
Walnuts, chopped
Garlic
Olive oil
Red pepper
Himalayan salt
Raw Parmesan
Lemon zest

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower
Olive oil
Himalayan salt & pepper

Slice the cauliflower, about 1/2" and layer on a baking sheet that has been brushed with olive oil.
Brush olive oil on top of the cauliflower slices and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes (or until cooked through), flipping over after 10 minutes.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

This soup is creamy without the cream - although I would have enjoyed adding some fresh raw cream if I could get it around here. Sub the water for veggie stock (and cut down on the salt), nut milk, or part fresh cream/milk if you like. It's got just a little bit of heat from the red pepper flakes, which is all I can handle, but add more if you like it really spicy.

2 teaspoons butter or olive oil

1 med onion, diced

1 stalk celery

1 medium cauliflower, chopped into florets

1/2 small zucchini, chopped into chunks

1/2 medium sweet potato

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Ground pepper, to taste

5-6 cups water
1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

In a large pot, heat the butter. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes on medium until translucent.

Add all the other ingredients including the water. Bring the water to a boil on high heat and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the veggies are soft.

Puree the soup with the coconut milk in a blender until smooth, and re-season if necessary.

Moose Meatloaf

This recipe is inspired by the Spicy Meatloaf in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions which I recently purchased. It's an excellent resource for recipes and information on natural foods and includes lots of variety. While I've leafed through the book a number of times, I've only made a few things from it. This original recipe calls for real cream and bread crumbs, I made my own "cream" and used hemp seeds in place of bread. I've been loving this chopped up cold in my salads. It would be nice in lettuce wraps with tomato slices too, I'm sure.

1 1/2 lbs ground meat (I used moose)
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large stalk celery, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1/2 small zucchini, finally chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 teaspoon himalayan salt
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (use more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 cup water
4 tablespoons powdered colostrum
1 egg
1 cup hemp seeds
5-6 tablespoons tomato paste

Saute onions, carrot, and celery in the butter until almost soft. Add the zucchini and saute until all veggies are soft. Add the seasonings and stir.
Whisk together the water and colostrum (or use fresh cream).
Add the egg & hemp seeds and whisk again.
Add the meat and veggies. Mix all together until combined.
Press the mixture into a 9x13" pan, or 9x9" (if you want a thicker loaf).
Spread a thin layer of tomato paste on top.
Bake in a 350F oven for 35- 45 minutes (9x13), or longer for a 9x9".

A sauerkraut recipe coming next!