Paleo Lamb Stew

With the weather getting colder, I'm always in the mood for soups and stews.  For me, it's just comfort food!  The other week, I was wanting to try a nice cold weather soup.  I had picked up some lamb from Whole Foods that week, intending to marinate and grill it... but with my penchant for soups, I decided to turn it into a lamb stew.  I hadn't made a lamb stew before, so I turned to pinterest.  There weren't any recipes that really caught my eye, so I decided to make up my own concoction.  So here's :

 

Paleo Lamb Stew

 

 

 

 

 * 1 1/2 lbs boneless lamb (I used butterflied leg of lamb)

* 1 qt beef stock

* 1 cup mushrooms

* 1 tbs thyme

* 1 small onion, diced

* 2 bay leaves

* 1/4 lb of bacon (3-4 strips)

* 1 cup of baby carrots- cut in half

* 1 cup white wine

* 4 cloves garlic, minced 

 

First, I cut the bacon into smallish chunks and threw them into the dutch oven to brown.  I had the heat on medium low so that it would cook slowly and not burn, but get nice and crispy. 

 

While the bacon was cooking, I cut up the lamb into bite sized pieces and seasoned it with salt and pepper.  Some people like big chunks of meat, so if you're one of those people, go ahead and make huge pieces.  I just typically take small bites and like small chunks of lamb.

 

After the bacon was nice and crispy, I took it out and set it aside, but left in the yummy bacon fat.  I added in the lamb and let it all brown up.  Also, I didn't trim any of the fat from the lamb because through the cooking process, it broke down and added delicious flavor to the meat.  Also, the fat is good for you since the lamb was grass fed. 

 

 

Once the meat was browned, I added in the onion and the garlic.  I just stirred everything up so that the onions and garlic were coated nicely with the bacon fat/lamb juices. I cooked it all until the onions were soft. 

 

Next, I added in the beef broth.  I used store bought broth because I didn't have any home made broth ready.  Anyway, I brought the whole thing to a boil, then, reduced the heat to medium low, covered it, and let it simmer for an hour and a half.

 

After the hour and a half, I added in the mushrooms, bay leaves, and carrots.  

 

I also added in the white wine and the reserved bacon.  Then, I covered it again and let it simmer for another half hour.  The veggies had a chance to soften up and soak up all the flavors from the stew.  

 

When it was all finished, the house smelled amazing.  The veggies were soft and the lamb was tender and delicious!

 

I loved this stew.  I'd never made lamb stew before, usually favoring the classic beef stew.  Next time, I might try adding in more veggies.  The stew was a little thin, which I like.  If you like a thicker soup, you can always thicken it up with a little bit of tapioca or potato flour.  Also, if you eat potatoes, you can serve the soup with a scoop of mashed potatoes to give it a bit more thickness. I hope you like it!!

 

Enjoy,

 Jenn 

Paleo Roasted Tomato Soup

The weather is starting to change.  I absolutely LOVE it.  Fall is, by far, my favorite season.  I love when the leaves start to change colors and the air becomes cool and crisp.  I also love the food that comes with fall. It's time to make the roasted pork loin, dishes with apples, anything with cinnamon, and soups!  I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes.  Actually, I'm not a fan of tomatoes at all.... but, I wanted to try making a roasted tomato soup.  I did some research and found a recipe from Tyler Florence.

I've talked before about how amazing local farmers markets are.  On Friday, I stopped by the farmer's market and picked up some good stuff, including all the ingredients to make this:

Paleo Roasted Tomato Soup

* 2 1/2 lbs mixed tomatoes - I used grape, heirloom, and some sort of orangey yellow thing

* 8 cloves of garlic

* 1/2 cup fresh basil

* 1 small yellow onion

* 1 qt chicken broth (that's why there's a frozen chicken in the background)

* 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

* 1/4 cup olive oil

* 1 tbs dried oregano

* salt and pepper

First, I made some chicken broth.  You definitely don't have to make it from scratch, but I think it's healthier and tastier if you do.  I didn't have a ton of extra veggies floating around, so I just threw the frozen stewing hen, a few black peppercorns, and a bay leaf into the pot with a bunch of water.  The stewing hen was frozen solid, so it didn't quite fit in the pot, but that's ok.  I turned the heat on high and brought the whole thing to a boil, then turned down the heat to medium low.  I let it simmer for a few hours.

Here's what it looked like after a few hours.  You can see how yellow the broth is from all the flavor.  Can you say "yum!"?   

I took the chicken out and shredded it to use in a different meal.  I also strained the broth and froze some of it since it made about 2-3 quarts. I put 1 quart back into the pot. 

Meanwhile, I cut up the tomatoes and onion into big chunks.  I also peeled and crushed the garlic and put it on a foil lined pan.  I tossed everything in the olive oil and sprinkled some salt and pepper over the whole thing. Then, I thew it in the oven at 450 for about 15-20 minutes, or until everything looked like it was starting to caramelize.  

  Here's how great the tomatoes and the onions and garlic looked after roasting.  It just brings out this delicious flavor! 

Next, I threw all of the roasted veggies in the pot with the chicken broth and the basil leaves.  I turned the heat to medium high and let everything simmer/boil until the liquid was reduced to about 1/3 of what it was. 

So here is what it looks like when it had reduced a bit.  When you reduce a soup, you're basically letting a lot of the water evaporate out.  This leaves all of the flavor in the soup and just makes a more concentrated flavor.   

At this point, I used an immersion blender and pureed everything up.  I'm sure it would have been good if all the tomatoes were cut into bite sized chunks, but, again, I'm not a fan of tomatoes and wanted it all to be pureed.  You could always throw everything into a blender if you don't have an immersion blender. 

After pureeing, I added in the heavy cream (which is totally optional if you don't like/can't handle dairy).  The original recipe didn't call for oregano, but when I tasted it, I thought it needed a bit more flavor, so I added in some dried oregano.  Next time, I'll add in the oregano when I add in the basil.   

So here's the finished product.  I added a little bit of parmesan cheese to the top, which just made it taste that much better.  The final result?  Curt LOVED it.  He's not a huge soup fan, but he definitely had a few bowls of it.  I loved it too.  It had the flavors of a yummy pasta sauce, but it was a soup.  I think it's a big success if you don't like tomatoes, but like this soup. It's just perfect for a crisp fall day!  It's also a great way to use up some of those summer tomatoes that you might have left over.

Enjoy,

Jenn 

Paleo Mexican Chicken Soup

It's always important to eat healthy and to nourish your body. Being preggers, I'm even more conscious of what I eat.  I definitely want our little Peanut to grow healthy and strong.  One of the best things to eat is bone broth.  Rather than buying canned chicken broth, it's super easy and super cheap to make it yourself. 

With it being summer, I'm not too terribly in the mood for super thick stews, but more brothy soups.  I've always loved Chicken Tortilla Soup, however, the way I always used to make it was filled with corn, beans, tortilla chips, and cheese.  Being pretty much paleo now, I can't really eat the corn, beans, or tortilla chips.  So.... I decided to create this recipe for Mexican Chicken Soup!

Paleo Mexican Chicken Soup



My baby bump is so big that I can't hide it from the camera anymore...
 you can see the black bump at the bottom of the picture! sorry :)



* 1 whole free range chicken

* 1 tbs fat (bacon fat, butter, olive oil) - I used bacon fat

* 1 red onion, minced

* 2 cans of diced tomatoes

* 1 zucchini

* 4 tbs minced garlic

* 1 jalapeno

* 1 poblano pepper

* 1 red pepper, diced

*1/2 cup of chpped mushrooms

* 1 small can of diced green chiles

* 2 tbs ground cumin

* 1 tbs paprika

*1 tbs chili powder

* 1 tbs. garlic powder
* * 1 tbs dried oregano

The first thing I did was chop up all the veggies and garlic. I wanted to cut all of my veggies up pretty small.  You can definitely leave some of the veggies in bigger chunks, but when I eat soup, I like having a little bit of a bunch of different veggies on my spoon.  But, if you're one of those people who likes big chunks, go ahead and leave big pieces of them in the soup!   

Once all of the veggies were cut, I but the bacon fat into a big soup pot and turned the heat to medium.  Once the fat was melted, I threw the veggies into the pot and let everything start to soften. 

Notice that I left the jalapeno in big chunks.  I wasn't sure how spicy everything would be, so I left them big enough to pull out just in case!

Next, I put the whole chicken into the same pot as the veggies.  Make sure you take all of the organs and stuff like that out of the chicken!  I did season it a little bit withsome salt and pepper, but that's it! After I put the chicken in, I filled the pot with regular old water.  You are essentially making your own chicken stock.

I then stirred up the veggies a tiny bit so that they weren't squished under the chicken.  Then, I covereed it all up with the lid and turned the heat to medium high.  Once the soup came to a boil, I turned the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for a few hours.  If you want, I'm sure that you could throw the whole thing into a crock pot and leave it for a few hours. 

After the soup simmerred for a few hours, the whole chicken should be thoroughly cooked.  I took the chicken out of the pot (very carefully!!!) Then, I let the chicken cool because it was super hot after being in soup for hours!  

Once the chicken was cooled, I shredded all of the whole thing.  This was the part where the dog sat drooling and staring at me for a while.  :)  Once it was all shredded, I threw it back into the pot with the diced tomatoes.  At this point, I had a pretty nice chicken and vegetable soup, but I wanted the yummy Mexican flavors... so I added in the spices - cumin, chili powders, oregano, paprika, and garlic.   I let everything simmer for a little bit longer so the flavors would have a chance to meld together.

So here's the soup!  The whole thing was sooo flavorful!  I garnished the whole thing with some chopped up avocado. It wsa delicious.   I thought it was great and will definitely be making it again.  It was full of vegetables, chicken, and all of the great nutrients of the bone broth.  I loved it and hope you do too!

Enjoy,

Jenn 

Perfect Paleo Gumbo

I love soups... chicken soup, beef soup, chili, mushroom soup, maryland crab soup, cioppino...  I love them all!  This past winter, I attempted to make some gumbo!  We have some good friends who are from New Orleans who KNOW how to make some authentic dishes.  One day, I was just craving some anduille sausage and figured I'd try my hand at some gumbo.  I shot a quick text message to Angele asking her for any tips when making gumbo.  She immediately called me back and asked me if I had a pen and paper to take notes!  I combined a bunch of different recipes and made a DELICIOUS gumbo.  Here's my version of

Pefect Paleo Gumbo

* 1 bag frozen chopped okra

* 1 whole roasting chicken

* 1 large onion, diced

* 1 lb peeled shrimp

* 1 lb anduille sausage

* 1 lb lump crabmeat

* 1/4 cup bacon grease

* 2 cups seafood stock

* 1 can diced tomatoes

* 3 ribs celery , diced

* 1 green pepper, diced

* 6 cloves garlic, minced

* 1/2 tsp cayenne

* 1 tsp paprika

* 2 tbs creole seasoning (I used Zatarains)

Before you get started, you'll want to cook the whole chicken.  I just threw the chicken in a big pot and covered it with cold water.  Then I put a pinch of salt and pepper in the water and coverfed the whole thing with a lid and let it boil.  It took a while to cook the whole thing, but you want to boil and cook the chicken.  Once it's cooked all the way, you can remove the chicken from the water (but save the water- you'll want the flavor for later!!!).  Then, pick through the chicken and set the meat aside because you will use this for your gumbo.

I started off the gumbo by putting the bacon grease in a large heavy bottom pot.  Once it was liquidy, I added in the okra.  I put it in still frozen because it will obviously thaw out once it cooks through.  You'll want to start this early because the okra needs to cook for a while.  As it cooks, you will notice that it's getting slimy... you can literally see the slime stuff on your spoon as you stir it up.  Don't fear! Keep going... the slimey stuff will eventually go away, leaving a deliciously flavored okra that helps to thicken the gumbo.

While the okra is cooking down, you can dice the onion and the garlic as well as the green pepper and the celery.  Once the okra is past the slimy part, you can add in the onions and the garlic. Let it cook down and get all soft and cooked.  This is definitely a slow process that you don't want to rush! 

Stir in the celery and the green peppers and cook everything down.  I didn't want any crunch in my gumbo, so I just kept adding in a bit of bacon grease when it all seemed to dry up.  I didn't have to add too much extra, just enough so that the veggies didn't brown and crisp up.  I just wanted them sauteed and soft.

Next, I added in the can of diced tomatoes.  I always use the organic, salt free tomatoes that are diced.  You could probably use fresh tomatoes if you want, but I just had canned... so that's what went in!  I mixed it all together and started seeing some promising results!

I added in the seafood stock (which I make from scratch, but you can certainly buy).  I like my soups very liquidy, so I added in about another 2-4 cups of the water that was reserved from cooking the chicken.  You can add in chicken broth, or skip this step altogether if you'd rather have yours more chunky. 

Then, in went the reserved chicken meat that I left in nice bite sized chunks.

I also threw in the shrimp and crabmeat.  The first time I made this gumbo, I used chicken, shrimp, and anduille sausage... unfortunately, the grocery store I went to didn't have anduille sausage... btutI remembereed Angele saying that she used crabmeat sometimes... so I took a trip to the seafood department and picked up a pound of crab meat!  Being a girl from the Md area, I love crab and decided that it would be a nice addition!  So in went some crab.

I stirred it all together and let the shrimp cook through (which only took a few minutes).  I then added in the cayenne and paprika. 

I also added in the creole seasoning. I love spices so I actually added in a lot more than 2 tbs, but you should really add it to your own personal taste.  There are tons of different creole spices you can use, but this stuff was what the store had, so in it went!  It was pretty darn tasty!



 

So here's the finished project!  Seafood gumbo!  It was soooo delicious... I'm definitely a fan of gumbo now :)  Now I will say that, traditionally, gumbos need a roux which is basically a cooked paste of flour and butter. Flour, as we know, is definitely not paleo, so I just omitted this part.  I thought it still tasted great and didn't miss it at all.  If you want to make the gumbo thicker, you could probably add in some tapioca starch or something gluten free... but I didn't think that the lack of a roux detracted in any way shape or form. 

Enjoy!

Creamy Lemon Chicken Soup

 When the weather outside is cold and windy, one of my go to meals is soup.  There's nothing like having a nice big bowl of soup while you're curled up on the couch with a good movie.  When we had all of that snow a few weeks ago, all I wanted was soup.  I wasn't able to go to the grocery store while the snow was really, really falling.  I did have a few things in the fridge, so I decided to create this soup. Here we have:

Creamy Chicken Soup with Lemon and Spinach

* 1 quart chicken stock (I use homemade)

* 1 box thingey frozen spinach (maybe 10 oz?)

* 1 1/2 lb of shredded chicken

* the grated peel and juice of 2 lemons

* 2 tbs olive oil

* 4 cloves of garlic, minced

* 3 eggs, beaten

* 1/2 onion, minced

(I had planned to use the broccolini, but then thought it might be a little weird in a soup... I had some spinach in the freezer, so I used that instead)

I started off by sauteing the onion and garlic in the olive oil.  Onions and garlic are the base of pretty much every dish I ever make, so no need to switch things up too much.

While the onions were sauteing  I set to grating the peel off my lemons.  The zest contains a whole lot of citrus oils which packs a punch of flavor.  It's amazing how a little bit of zest can really liven up a dish.

Once the lemons were zested, I used my little juicer thingey and got all the juice out.  It ended up being a pretty good amount of juice.  I always prefer freshly squeezed juice... the bottled stuff says it's fresh, but it's never quite the same.

Once the onions were softened, I added in the frozen spinach.  I didn't bother really thawing it out because the extra water just added to the liquid part of the soup.  I like my soups really brothy, so this worked perfectly for me.

When the spinach was warmed through and combined thoroughly with the onions, I added in the chicken stock.  You could use chicken broth too, but I always have homemade chicken stock in the freezer, so I use that... plus, if I make it myself (it's super easy to make), I know what goes into it so I can guarantee there's no other chemicals and junk in it.

Next, I added in the lemon zest and stirred until everything had come to a gentle boil.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, I whisked the eggs in a bowl and added the lemon juice to the egg mixture.  I stirred it all together and set it aside until the soup boiled.

I had shredded chicken from earlier in the week when I had roasted a whole chicken for dinner.  I just threw that into the soup and turned the temperature down to medium.

Next, it was time to add in the egg.  Now, you don't want to add the egg to the hot soup.  If you do this, the egg will scramble and you'll have little chunks in your soup.  I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of scrambled egg soup.  To avoid this, I took a ladle of the soup and added it to the egg mixture and immediately started mixing it all together.  I added in one more ladle full of the soup into the egg and stirred a bit more, just to be safe.

Finally, I poured the egg/soup mixture into the big pot of soup and started stirring.  The egg really helps to thicken the soup without adding any of the gut irritating grains like flour or cornstarch.

Overall, this soup was pretty good!  I liked the spinach flavor, as well as the garlic and lemon blend.  I will say that I think it was a bit too lemony for me.  Next time, I might try to cut down the lemons to just one lemon (zest and juice).  If it isn't lemony enough, I can always add in more later.  This was a yummy and unique soup.  You could probably add in more veggies if you wanted to... carrots, celery, etc... it's worth a shot!