Brussel sprouts with beef and apple

Even as a kid I liked brussel sprouts. It's probably because my mother didn't turn them into soggy little green balls... Now I have many recipes for brussel sprouts. This is one of them.

In the past I've only put recipes on this website that were a 100% paleo (before the tomato change anyway). No beans, dairy or salt. (Yet it wasn't always very low-carb).

But I've not been eating that strict for a long time, and it just doesn't make sense for me not to include the more primal style recipes I enjoy. After all, there are many people who would still find those useful! If you are very strict and 100% paleo, not to worry, there will still be plenty of that.

With every recipe from now on I'll mention any none-pure paleo ingredients. I'm sure you can make a good estimate of low-carbness yourselves ;)

Ingredients(for two):

- 200 gr beef slices

- 250 gr brussel sprouts, halves

- 1 firm, sour apple (breaburn)

- 80 ml sour cream

- butter

- nutmeg

- salt to taste and dietary beliefs ;)

Cut your apple into little chunks. Cook the brussel sprouts in water for 3 minutes, this is the most important bit because you really don't want to overcook them! In a frying pan brown your meat in butter, don't be stingy with the butter, it'll make the sauce yummy. When it's completely seared add the cooked sprouts. After another minute add the sour cream and the apple chunks. While that simmers for a minute or so finish it with nutmeg and some salt if you like. Enjoy :)

This is also very nice with bacon. But if you do use bacon do not add any salt!

Warm kohlrabi and spinach salad

A week or two back I was food-shopping with my sister. I'm a big fan of food-shopping, and I can spend hours doing it. Probably explains why I only own one pair of shoes.. but I digress.
So we were in the produce section planning to make a sweet and sour chicken salad when I spotted a kohlrabi. Of course I'd seen them before, but I'd never actually used it myself. After much begging, my sister who had really been craving some chicken (I'm evil) allowed me to pick the kohlrabi and anything I thought might go well with it.

Pure joy! Once you get familiar with all your veggies, comfortable with the different way to combine their flavours and herbs, you get to a point where you can stand in a shop and just go.. "mm, yea some of this- and that might go well with spinach... and of course spinach with beef... tomatoes? nono, I always eat tomatoes, something different then.."
And then you get back to the kitchen, and you start putting your choices together.. some of them cooked, some only washed. When the time comes to add the extra flavours another whole world of options opens up. (I know I'm starting to sound a little insane.) So, there's the honey, mustard.. Garlic, always garlic. Basil flavoured olive oil? Oh yes. Now something to spice it up.. and that's where my brilliant daring sister who inherited most of the cooking genes comes in.. "Some dille?" she says. Dille? With beef? huh?
But yea, dille it is. And it was brilliant. Re-made it yesterday, served on a lovely blue plate to get y'all a picture. Isn't it nice?

Ingredients (two servings);
- Spinach
- a Kohlrabi
- 300/400 grams of lean beef
For the dressing*;
- 2 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 or 3 tbsp olive oil (with basil)
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp dille
Optional;
- pinenuts, pistachios or other nuts/seeds. A combination works too.

Wash the spinach, preferably the wild yummie kind with big leaves. And tear those big leaves into managable bits. Arrange them on a plate. Chop your kohlrabi into cubes and your beef into strips. Throw them in a pan, beef first- kohlrabi following when that's browned. While that's cooking mix up your dressing. After a minute or five take your pan and drop it all on the spinach bed. Finish it off with the dressing and perhaps nuts or seeds.

Enjoy :)

*Please keep in mind that I NEVER actually measure things when I cook them, and anything I make will never turn out the same way twice. It depends on the products you're getting, the type of mustard or honey you're using, the quality and mildness of the olive oil you're using.. When making a dressing, taste it! Mix it 'till you get a consistency you're happy with, and whatever you do- never stick to something a recipe says when your gut and tastebuds are telling you it ain't quite right.

Spinach Soup

Autumn has officially arrived. The weather is still in denial, but already there are some colder days. It's time to switch from eating salads 90% of the time to include some warmer food, like soup!
Now that the USA has had some spinach scares, it's time to give this veggie some love. Here in Holland there are beautyfull local fresh crops in the store. I'll be sharing two spinach recipes, soup today and a 'warm' salad in the next post.

Not doing any measurements today, just.. wing it.

Ingredients;
- Spinach, a lot
- Ground beef
- Onions
- Garlic, loads
- Beef broth

Make sure you've got a good broth, full of flavour- because apart from a garlic shock you won't be adding much.
It's quite easy to make- first pretend it's a stir fry; cook the onions and beef in a bit of coconut oil or other fat. Add half the garlic and a bit later the big, big amount of spinach. When the spinach starts to decrease in volume a bit, it's time to add the broth. Throw in the rest of the garlic and let it simmer for at least half an hour.

Remember, you shouldn't reheat spinach because of the nitrates. So if you're making a big batch, just leave it simmering and share with the whole neighbourhood. Or just help yourself a couple dozen times :)

Paleo Tjatjiki

Tjatjiki is a well known yoghurt based dip used in the Turkish and Greek kitchen. Because it's made with cucumber it's incredibly fresh yet it also has an insane amount of garlic. What more could you possibly want? Therefore it seemed like only the right thing to use it as inspiration for a paleo dip. As always, it's not going to taste anywhere like the real thing, but that's not the point!

Ingredients
For the mayo;
- 1 egg yolk
- 0,2 ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
For the dip;
- half a cucumber
- 4 cloves garlic
- mint, dill, basil, chervil or rosemary
- a little bit of black pepper

After you've made your mayo, take your cucumber and rasp it into little bits. Make small bits out of your garlic aswell- if you have the time, it's a good touch to use roasted garlic. Mix both through the mayo, be gentle.
Next it's time to pick your herb, use chervil or rosemary if you want it to taste a little bit stronger- stick with mint or dill for the extra fresh taste. Of course, feel free to experiment!
If the dip is still a little bit to thick for your taste or purpose, either up the cucumber or add a little bit of water to make it thinner.

This goes does well with as a dip for veggies, like cucumber or carrots. It's a little bit too light of a taste for paprika imo, but as a thinner version it can be used to compliment spicy chicken wings :)

Cabbage stir fry with ginger

Cooking vegetables without salt is not easy, just omitting it from recipes doesn't always work. Most of the time it will just come out pretty bland. I'm pretty used to eating without salt now, that's why I do a salt-test on new recipes;

First test is my roommate, before he came to live with me he would not even taste his food before grabbing the salt-shaker. Now he'll at least do that, and a recipe passes the test when my roomy does not add salt.
Final test is always my mother. She adds so much salt to food that I've sometimes just not been able to eat it. Literally not able too. So when she likes it without the salt, it's a winner. With this recipe she helped fine tune it and she's a real good cook.. please give this one a shot!

Ingredients(for two);
- 2 carrots, in half inch slices
- a 2 to 3 inch ginger piece
- 200 grams white or pointy cabbage
- 1 apple in little pieces
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- handful sunflower seeds

When cooking with ginger you need to be careful to chop it up real small. It tastes far too sharp when you get a big piece in your mouth. Also, I prefer to use pointy cabbage cut into pretty wide strips. Over here it's even cheaper to get it pre-cut than to get a whole one, so check that out.

Start with the carrots in some oil, then work your way down the ingredient list with 30 to 60 second intervals. If you're not worried about the extra carbs, add some raisins. You'll know when it's done. This goes really well with some white fish!

ps. I'll be away for two weeks and I haven't figured out how to do posts in advance, so ehh... This'll be up for a while. Good reminder to actually make it ;) Sorry!

Mushroom Salad

Mushrooms aren't actually the main ingredient, but it's them that make this salad different for me. Most of the time I don't actually like mushrooms you see, so when I find a way to prepare them that is tasty- it's a little bit special ;)

Lately I've started to use a bit of vinegar, just to mix things up. Not entirely paleo, I know- but I'll see how I feel. There were a lot of fancy vinaigrette's on MDA, which I'm looking forward to trying out. This is a bit simpler though..

Ingredients
- half a cucumber
- 5 mushrooms
- 2 tomatoes
- some curly salad leaves

- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- basil, fresh or dried

It's the cut that really matters here, start by making really thin cucumber slices. A cheese grater works perfectly for that. Mushrooms also need to be slices pretty thin- as thin as you can manage without them falling apart.
Trickier is the tomato, imagine you halving it, and then halving the halves- and so on. But you can't actually cut like that because tomatoes are too squishy, so instead you half them and then start making the small slices from there. Heh, do I win a price for the most complicated explanation ever?
Ahum, so make the salad leaves tiny. Put it all in a big bowl, just drizzle your oil and vinegar on top. Add basil, give it a good toss, bon appetit ;)

So ehh, hope everyone had a good national salad week!


This is what happened to my leftovers.... :(