Pages

Monday, January 10, 2011

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! 

16 comments:

  1. Sauerkraut sounds awesome! love, Sarah E.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yum yum yum. i shall be making the moose meatloaf this evening...tried giving up sugar again today...but of course the world blew up again...and i just started snacking on my sugar...a.k.a. crack!!! ugh!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ooo that trout recipe looks yummy, fresh, and exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ohhh, all of this looks fantastic. That cauliflower is beautiful. I've always cooked it and mashed it, just like potatoes. I might have to try your version. Copy, paste, print. :) Thanks for sharing!

    A cookbook you might like is Garden of Eating.
    http://www.thegardenofeatingdiet.com/
    It's just as massive as Nourishing Traditions. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. All I have to say is...wow----that crunchy pesto looks awesome, and so does everything else!

    I look forward to reading more of your food info and also your thoughts and experiences with your diet/health

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh yummy, I am loving the pesto looks tasty. Hope all is well with your health right now!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yummy....love the pesto recipe....great job on the new blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you all! I hope you'll give it a try.

    Thanks for the recommendation Megan, will check out the book!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congratulation for your new blog and of course for your courage to follow the inner sound:))
    I wish You happiness!

    ReplyDelete
  10. May I come over for dinner, please??? :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love 'Nourishing Traditions' --it's the most awesome 'browse' book but the recipes work really well too. Love the pesto crust: I'll have to make my husband some halibut with that (we have lots of halibut in the freezer and he doesn't really love it, so I'm always looking for new ways to fix it).

    Meatloaf sounds awesome too and the cauli soup is right up my ally.
    love
    Ela

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for sharing. I will have to try some of these..

    ReplyDelete
  13. i think i'll be trying your meatloaf recipe for sure! i'll have to omit colostrum powder but it looks pretty easy. thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  14. hi heather, i have been told to add more protein to my diet and eat more animal protein and fat as i have been a vegan/ vegetarian for 6 years eating lots of raw foods and apparently my hormones dont like it! i need to incorporate warm foods, nothing cold or cooling and eat more animal foods a my hormones are too high in some places and too low in others... is this what happened to you??
    also how long after waking do you eat a protein rich brekkie? do you start with a protein shake first? i prefer to workout in the mornings there for i start with a whey shake and then move to a meal however i sometimes dont eat until 2-3 hrs waking.. as i start working out withinn 1 hr, then i drink shake then shower, then maybe 2 and a half hours has gone... what are your thoughts??? kindest gratitude n love shish

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Shish, yes similar situation to what I went through, My body needs the animal proteins/fats. I eat my egg breaky about 1 hour after waking. I find that it helps boost my metabolism and within an hour of waking Im usually quite hungry - which I think is a good sign because for many years as a vegan I never ate a proper breaky (except fresh juice or fruit) and thought that fasting as long as possible in the morning was a good thing... but it messed with my metabolism and I also wanted to eat more later in the day. Now Im satisfied with my protein breaky and I eat more balanced for the rest of the day.

      Delete