Soup and Salmon

My sugar/cacao free cleanse successfully continues, and I'm still surprised at how easy it's been. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been, had I adopted this way of eating years ago. I could have preventing some serious overdosing on sweet things, that's for sure! Better late than never though.

I'm having fun playing with new recipes, although most often I eat the same things every day. My morning plain yogurt followed by breaky of salad with wild meat or 2 eggs with veggies - then the reverse for lunch. Last week I made a fabulous moose meat lasagna, with eggplant and zucchini for the noodles, organic tomato sauce, veggies (zucchini, onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach), and raw white cheddar cheese on top. I think I could eat it every day.

I've also made a few more recipes from Nourishing Traditions. My friend Nancy, and I have started doing weekly dinner dates where we choose new recipes to try, (often from the book) and it's been a lot of fun. We've made spicy moose patties, spaghetti squash casserole, broccoli timbales, roasted veggies, and almond dill crusted pickerel.

I was in the mood for a silky, hot, buttery soup last week and this smooth butternut squash soup was born... the coconut milk in this recipe and a bit of shredded coconut on the salmon below are the extent of the sugar I've eaten, so I guess I have ingested a little bit - but very minor overal.

Butternut Coconut Ginger Soup

1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped ginger, or more
1-2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 medium/large butternut squash (peeled and chopped)
1-2 stalks celery
6 cups water or stock
1 can coconut milk

In a large pot, saute the onion in the oil until translucent.
Add the garlic, ginger, curry paste, coriander, and salt. Saute for another few minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients except for the coconut milk, bring to a boil and the simmer until the squash is soft.
Add the coconut milk and puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor.
Thin with a bit of water if the soup is too thick.

Another day I made some Coconut Crusted Wild Salmon with Cilantro Jalapeno Yogurt Sauce which was inspired by a salmon recipe in a new book that my bestie, Lauren, got me for Christmas called The Earthbound Cook. It's a great book with heaps of recipes using whole foods. While the author served the fish with a sweet chile sauce, I went in a different direction with a creamy herbed sauce with a touch of heat.

Coconut Crusted Salmon with Cilantro Jalapeno Yogurt Sauce

Coconut Crusted Salmon
Double or half the coating according to how many pieces of salmon you want to make.

Juice of 1-2 limes
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts
Sprinkling of Himalayan salt and black pepper
Salmon fillets

Brush or pour a little lime juice over each fillet.
Toss the coconut, nuts, salt and pepper together in a shallow bowl.
Press the top of each fillet in the coated and place coconut side up on baking sheets.
Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked through to your liking.

Cilantro Jalapeno Yogurt Sauce
I didn't do any measurements for this sauce, so just add according to your taste.

Plain yogurt
Chopped cilantro
Minced jalapeno, to taste
Squirt of lime juice
Pinch of salt

Stir ingredients together. Serve over the fish.

Dilly Salmon Salad

I cooked extra salmon and turned it into a delicious salmon salad the next day. I love it on salads, on cucumber slices, and in celery sticks!
Add large chunks of cooked salmon to a food processor, along with lemon juice, fresh or dried dill, green onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar, and blend until smooth.

Coming up... Moose Bourguignon!

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!