This morning I was on a mission. I got up, tended to our wee 6 month old bundle of mayhem, and went straight for the fridge. There was something waiting in there for me, something that called out to my tastebuds and superseded any thoughts of breakfasty etiquette.
That little something? A tray of freshly minted chocolate cherry bites. The night before, I allocated a small portion of my evening to pit a batch of fresh cherries from my parents’ orchard, and then made them a whole lot more exciting by DIPPING THEM IN DARK CHOCOLATE.
I’m sure you can understand why I made an immediate beeline for the fridge first
thing in the morning. After a night of chilling, the chocolate had hardened around the cherries, creating a textural masterpiece. And it didn’t taste half bad either.
So, a sweet, decadent, HEALTHY dessert or guilt-free snack? What more could you ask for?! Without further ado, here’s our super easy dark chocolate cherry bites recipe.
Dark chocolate cherry bites
Aside from pitting the cherries, you can whip this recipe up in no time at all. You can also use pre-frozen cherries (either from the supermarket or from a batch you froze last summer), but it’s best to coat the cherries in chocolate before they fully thaw, otherwise they tend to get a bit mushy.
If you're starting with cherries that haven't been pitted, take some time to do that now. If you've got a dedicated pitter, you should be able to complete this step in less than 20 minutes. If you don't, it may take a little longer (I used the blunt end of a kebab skewer before I got my pitter, and it was better than nothing!).
Break the dark chocolate block up into smallish squares, and place in a double boiler. I fashioned a double boiler by putting an inch of water in a saucepan, then placing a stainless steel mixing bowl on top. Leave the chocolate for a few minutes to fully melt.
Put 5-6 cherries into the melted chocolate at a time. Use tongs to mix the cherries around in the chocolate until they're fully covered, then transfer to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all cherries are used up.
Place the tray in the fridge for around an hour, or until the chocolate casing has completely hardened (I left mine in the fridge overnight, to resist temptation!). They're now ready to eat!
The cherries will only keep for a few days in the fridge, so eat up or transfer to a ziplock bag and store in the freezer if you can't keep up.
Fact: a person can never be happy without cake in their life. Few people would disagree, and those few would, whether they recognize it or not, be quite unhappy.
So as I found myself edging towards the 1 month mark of a 3 month autoimmune protocol (AIP), I discovered my life lacked substance. For 30 days, I had gone without cake, and the time had come to rectify the situation.
The problem was, the Paleo autoimmune protocol is one of the strictest, perhaps the strictest, diets on the planet. For those of you unfamiliar with it’s dictates, AIP means cutting out any foods which might be potential allergens. That means all nightshades (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, etc), nuts, seeds, dairy, grains (of course!), eggs, chocolate, and probably plenty of other food staples that have just now slipped my mind.
The AIP, while undoubtedly effective in identifying problem foods, doesn’t leave a person with a whole lot of foods that they can eat. This meant that I had been subsisting on a diet of meat and vege for as far back as my troubled mind could remember, and it was starting to get a bit old.
You see, I love meat and (to a lesser degree) vegetables as much as the next person. Probably more than the next person, if I’m honest. But there’s only so many times a man can have meat and vegetables for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert without starting to get a bit grumpy.
And so I found myself wondering whether there was a way to piece together what few ingredients I could eat to form some semblance of a cake.
Luckily, there was. Funnily enough, it’s called the Paleo AIP Spiced Apple Cake.
Easy Recipe: Paleo AIP Spiced Apple Cake
Before we begin, a disclaimer: every time I make this cake, it varies considerably. A little more apple, a little less banana, a little more coconut oil, a little less raisins….but every time it’s come out utterly delicious. I’d even substitute desiccated coconut instead of coconut butter if I didn’t have any to hand (just whizz it in the blender and it comes out a similar consistency to coconut butter).
So don’t be afraid to deviate a little from the recipe – that’s what I did, and everything worked out just dandy!
1/2 cup rice flour (technically not necessarily AIP, so can substitute same amount arrowroot flour)
1/2 cup raisins (optional, but delicious!)
2 tbsp coconut milk (ONLY if you add in the optional raisins)
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
Instructions
Throw a banana and a cored, roughly chopped apple (don’t bother peeling) into a blender with around a tablespoon of water to make it easier for the blades to do their thang. Blend on high until a smooth paste has formed. If your blender is having trouble, force the apple bits down towards the blades (when it’s off, of course!) and add in a little more water.
Set the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (180 celsius), and melt your coconut oil in the warming oven if it’s below room temperature (and therefore hard!). If you coconut butter is also hard, put it in the oven for a minute or two to soften it as well.
Line a 9×13 inch baking pan with baking paper (aka parchment paper in other parts of the world!).
Mix the wet ingredients (coconut oil, banana and apple paste, lemon juice, vanilla, honey/maple syrup, and coconut butter) together in a bowl until combined.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (the flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and clove) and mix to ensure consistent. Then add to the wet ingredients and stir until everything is perfectly amalgamated. At this point, if you’re feeling a bit racy, add in 1/2 cup of raisins and see whether the consistency of the batter is still wet but sticky. If it seems a bit dry, add in a tablespoon or two of coconut milk. If it’s still too wet, add in some desiccated coconut or rice flour. Play around with it until it looks right to you – it should be thick enough to hold its shape for a while, but wet enough that you could (technically) pour the batter into the cake tin if you stood there for like ten minutes. You get my drift, right?
Next, spread the mixture into the pan. If you’re having guests over and want the cake to look fancy schmancy, slice another apple in half, core it, then slice thin strips of apple and place them lightly on top of the batter to create a rustic apple pie-type effect. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to complete the aesthetic ensemble.
Cook for around 25 minutes. When it gets close to the 25 minute mark, start checking to see whether it looks cooked. Really depends how moist you like your cake – I like it to be still ever so slightly gooey inside, so I take it out just before it gets to the point where it springs back when you press your finger into the top. It should be golden around the edges and smell ah-may-zing!
Lift the cake out of the pan using the baking paper, and place on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes. The longer you wait, the easier it’ll be to cut and less likely to crumble.
Cut a healthy slab, pour over a little coconut yoghurt and (if you’ve got a serious sweet tooth) a bit more honey, and enjoy! Liivi isn’t on the AIP but she still eats this cake and swears it’s better than any of the Paleo cakes she’s made lately – she just slathers on a slab of grass-fed butter instead of the yoghurt! I’m only slightly jealous.
Have you tried the recipe? How’d it go? Got any variations you’d like to suggest? Tell us about it in the comments below!
It’s all very well sticking strictly to your Paleo or Primal diet, but there are times when you just want things to be how they used to. Glutenous sandwiches piled high with questionable deli meats and delicious vegetable oil-based mayo. Pizza, stacked with cheese and faux-meat to your heart’s content. A fresh glass of diabetes-inducing coca-cola, clinking merrily with cubes of ice and beading invitingly in the late afternoon sun.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought for a moment there. Sure, these things were delicious at the time, but the days (perhaps weeks) of post-dietary meltdown recovery really wasn’t worth it.
Luckily, this isn’t a black or white scenario. You can still revisit those gluttonous times of old while maintaining your impressive clean-eating record. We’ve already churned out heaps of recipes that have done just that, including Primal pancakes, Paleo banana-choc-chia cakelets, gluten-free Oreo cookie sandwiches, and a whole lot more. But there’s something super important missing from that list: chicken wings!
Just because you’ve gone Paleo, Primal or ancestral doesn’t mean you don’t watch the Superbowl every year. It doesn’t mean you pass on the opportunity to sit out on the patio with your mates and have a few “cold ones”. It doesn’t mean you’ve moved on from game nights or movie nights with your friends or loved ones. And what do all these things have in common? Why, they all go swimmingly with a big bowl of crispy, zesty, saucy chicken wings.
So, without further ado, here’s an awesome Paleo- and Primal-friendly wing recipe that will have you thinking you’d died and gone to heaven. Chicken wing heaven, that is.
Paleo recipe: BBQ chicken wings
What would a wing platter be without the quintessential BBQ sauce smothering those meaty chunks of glory? Personally, barbecue wings are my favorite, so I was more than happy to give this recipe a shot! If you don’t have all the ingredients available in your kitchen, feel free to mix and match – getting creative is half the fun!
1. BBQ Rub ingredients and instructions
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp rosemary (dried or fresh and finely diced)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until evenly distributed. This will form your chicken rub in step three!
In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil over low-medium heat. Add in the diced onion, and cook until the onion has turned transparent or soft, around 5 minutes or so.
Add the minced or diced garlic to the saucepan, cook for a minute, then throw in the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and allow to simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Once the sauce has reduced down to your desired thickness, remove from heat and set aside.
3. BBQ chicken wing ingredients and instructions
Finally, it’s time to create your culinary masterpiece!
18 free-range/pastured chicken wings
BBQ rub (step 1)
BBQ sauce (step 2)
Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C. While the oven warms up, put some baking paper down on a couple of cookie sheets. Next, apply the BBQ rub to all the wings as evenly as possible. Don’t stress too much if thing’s are a bit uneven though – you’re going to smother them in BBQ sauce, after all!
Place the wings in the oven and leave for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn all the wings onto their opposite side, and cook for another 10 minutes.
Remove the wings from the oven again. Coat each wing liberally with the BBQ sauce you made in step two. A silicon brush makes applying the sauce easier, but you can always just use a spoon or anything handy. Once all the wings are coated, place them back in the oven for 3 minutes.
One last time, remove the wings from the oven, turn them all onto their opposite side, and return to the oven for 3 minutes. Keep an eye on the wings – if it looks like they’re starting to blacken or burn, whip them out of there ASAP! You can also leave them in for longer if you like your wings a bit crispier or charred. I’m not judging.
If you can resist, allow the wings to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a platter. If you’ve got any BBQ sauce left, put it in a small bowl for dipping. In lieu of blue cheese, which often has some of the nastiest ingredients imaginable, why not opt for some grass-fed sour cream? It tastes just as good, in my opinion, and soothes the mouth when things get a little on the spicy side. Also feel free to throw in a few celery sticks for good measure. Enjoy!
Tell us how your wings turned out! Did you make any slight adjustments, or did those BBQ wings taste dang near perfect? We’d also love to hear what your own favorite Paleo wing recipes are!
It’s a question I’ve been asked time and again since becoming something of a health authority: is fruit paleo? An excellent question, and one which I usually don’t have enough hours in the day to answer in sufficient detail. This, in case you’re wondering, is not one of those times.
Can you eat fruit on a Paleo diet?
The short answer is: yes! While many “hardcore” Paleo punters wouldn’t be caught dead beside a bowl of fruit, it’s totally unreasonable, and in many cases unhealthy, to completely remove fruit from your life. Phew! Am I right?
But that affirmative isn’t your one-way ticket to a daily fruit binge. We know that our Paleolithic ancestors certainly ate fruit – the berries or drupes that they came across in the wild would have provided valuable nutrients and minerals to fill in the nutritional gaps of their predominantly protein-based diets. But what we also know is that those fruits were not the same as those we find on our supermarket shelves today.
If you’ve ever walked through a forest glade and noticed a patch of wild strawberries growing in the sunshine, you’ll know what I mean. Wild strawberries have almost no resemblance to their monstrous cultivated counterparts, and this is due to thousands of years of genetic selection. Some time after the agricultural revolution, around 10,000 years ago, humans began to alter those “wild” fruit species that our Paleolithic forebears foraged. People realized that by only selecting and growing those fruit variants that were larger, sweeter, or more edible, they could develop a whole new “species” of superfruit. This selective style of cultivation continued throughout the millennia, to give us the fruits we are sold today. Yes, even the organic, non-GMO fruit!
In many cases, this was an essential part of allowing humans to eat and enjoy a certain kind of fruit in the first place. For example, the uncultivated, wild version of bananas are actually virtually inedible. Their seed to flesh ratio is so high that it’s almost not worth bothering to eat them, but every now and then a sterile banana is produced that doesn’t have any seeds. It was those sterile bananas that people loved to eat, and they therefore started taking cuttings of the sterile plants and reproducing banana trees without all the seeds. Because they’re all sterile, the only way these trees can be reproduced is by vegetative propagation – taking part of the original tree to create an exact genetic copy of it.
I happen to love bananas, so I’m not going to begrudge those enterprising farmers for playing around with nature. But what these genetic selections means is that cultivated fruit is completely different to the wild fruit our ancestors ate. It’s generally sweeter (so far higher in fructose), less nutritionally dense…and there’s a whole lot more available today than there was 10,000+ years ago!
With this in mind, for the Paleo eater, fruit should become less of a “health food” and more of a nutritious treat. That orange juice with breakfast or fruit smoothie for lunch, by the way, is not what the doctor ordered.
Not all fruits were created equal, however, so if you’re going to get your daily dose of fruit, which is best for your health?
Which fruit is best to eat on a Paleo diet?
There’s a few ways you can approach the healthiest fruit:
how much sugar does it contain?
how nutritious is it?
how much chemical residue does it contain?
Ideally, you’d only eat those fruits that are low in sugar, high in beneficial nutrients, and low in pesticides and herbicides. Often it’s hard to tick all three boxes, but here’s a short overview to get you heading in the right direction.
Sugar content of popular fruit
Generally speaking, your berries and sour citrus fruits have the lowest fructose content, while things like apples, grapes and mangoes have the most. Probably no great surprise – fruit that makes your face pucker up is generally low in sugar!
Avocado (yup, it’s a fruit!): 1 g sugar/cup
Lime: 1 g sugar/medium
Lemon: 2 g sugar/medium
Raspberries: 5 g sugar/cup
Kiwi: 6 g sugar/medium
Strawberries: 7 g sugar/cup
Grapefruit: 9 g sugar/medium
Watermelon: 9 g sugar/cup
Orange: 13 g sugar/medium
Banana: 14 g sugar/medium
Blueberries: 15 g sugar/cup
Dates: 16 g sugar/medium
Apple: 19 g sugar/medium
Mango: 23 g sugar/cup
Grapes: 23 g sugar/cup
Raisins: 86 g sugar/cup
This is just to give you an idea of which fruits are better than others on the fructose scale. On any given day, you’re better off sticking to berries like raspberries, strawberries, cranberries and blackberries, citrus fruit, and maybe the odd kiwi, plum, or watermelon. Fructose is highly inflammatory, and can contribute to conditions like fatty liver disease and diabetes. Generally the less fructose you consume per day, the better.
How nutritious is your fruit?
This is probably the most difficult aspect of prioritizing your fruit. Different fruits contain different ratios of various nutrients, making direct comparison rather difficult. If you’re suffering from cramps or headaches, you could be lacking in potassium, meaning from a nutrient standpoint a potassium-rich banana might be a good choice. If you’re worried about cancer, however, dark-colored fruits like blueberries or strawberries might be a better choice as they have more antioxidants. It really comes down to what your body is lacking. For fruit-specific nutritional content, you might want to check out this database.
Otherwise, a very committed researcher from William Paterson University ranked 47 fruits and vegetables based on 17 different nutrients considered critical for fighting heart disease and cancer. You can check out their handy ranking system in this article. You’ll notice that there’s far more vegetables on the list than fruit. That’s not a coincidence. I’ve stressed time and again that vegetables should form the backbone of produce in your diet, as they’re generally more nutritionally dense and lower in sugar than most fruit.
Those fruit that did make the nutritional cut are tomato (yep, also a fruit!), lemon, strawberry, orange, lime, grapefruit and blackberry. I’d also be inclined to add avocado to that list – it’s certainly a nutritional powerhouse.
All these fruits also happen to have relatively low sugar content. How convenient!
Is your fruit doused in chemicals?
I’ve written about this very topic in my guide to shopping for fruit and vegetables. Based on comprehensive data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists tell you which produce is best to buy based on potential for chemical residue, and which is worst. Based on their findings, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, kiwi, honeydew melon, grapefruit and cantaloupe have the lowest risk of chemical pesticide, herbicide or insecticide residue. Unfortunately, lots of your favorite fruits didn’t make the cut, including strawberries, cherries, apples, nectarines, peaches, grapes and tomatoes.
You’ll notice that those fruits which made the Clean 15 all have thick skins which you don’t typically eat. Those that were included in the Dirty Dozen have thin skins that blemish easily and are almost always consumed (except for the oddballs who don’t like apple skin!). With this in mind, I have three recommendations: firstly, always buy organic when you can, as this sidesteps any risk of chemical residue. Secondly, if you can’t buy organic, go for those fruits with the thicker (inedible) skins. And finally, if you must eat your non-organic strawberries and other Dirty Dozen fruit, be sure to give them a good soak first.
Recipe: Paleo fruit salad
Personally, I take great pleasure in eating fruit. It adds a whole lot more flavor and color to my day, so I’m not willing to completely throw in the fructose towel! And when you take into consideration the above factors, there’s no reason why you should give up fruit either.
To rekindle your love of fruit, here’s a great recipe for a Paleo fruit salad I’ve honed over the years. Its filled with fruits that have lower fructose content and higher nutritional value, so it’s not only a tasty treat, but a healthy one too! Just be sure to limit your fruit intake to around 2 servings (a couple of handfuls) per day.
Ingredients:
3 plums, cut into wedges
1 peach, cut into wedges (organic or soaked is best)
1 orange, cut or pulled apart into segments
1/2 cup strawberries, chopped in half (organic or soaked is best)
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 banana, sliced
3 limes, squeezed
1 sprig mint, finely diced
Instructions:
Using a lemon squeezer or your own trusty hands, squeeze the juice from your 3 limes into a small bowl. Remove the mint leaves from the stem, and dice the leaves relatively finely. Add to the bowl of lime juice, and allow to sit for at least 2 hours so that the mint infuses the lime juice.
Next, cut your plums, peach and oranges into wedges, adding to a large serving bowl. Chop up your banana and throw it in, along with your halved strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Peel the orange and add in the segments – if it’s a particularly big orange, you can cut each segment in half to ensure it doesn’t “steal the show”.
When you’re ready to serve, drizzle your lime and mint dressing over the salad, give it a gentle toss to ensure all the fruit is covered and well-mixed, and sprinkle over a garnish of mint leaves if you have any left over. The lime and mint dressing provides a refreshing counterpoint to the sweetness of the other fruits, and has the added benefit of helping to preserve your fruit salad for longer.
Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know whether you’ve tried the recipe, or if you have your own Paleo-tastic fruit salad to share with the world!
Having spent 5 weeks hopping around Thailand recently, my latent passion for curries has intensified somewhat. Passion for certain curries, that is – my mouth is simply unable to find enjoyment in some of the more spicy curries, namely the ominous green curry. Now, you’re probably thinking “but I thought red curries were the hot ones?”, but it turns out that the opposite is true, with green curries being crammed with Bird’s Eye chillies to give them a particularly vicious kick. It’s probably a color thing – traditionally, the color red symbolizes warning and conjures up visions of heat and, incidentally, spicy red chillies.
But I digress. Red curries are great, and in particular the ever-popular Panang curry, otherwise known as “Phanaeng curry” and “penang curry” – take your pick! Panang curry is a personal favorite of mine as it has a deliciously rich, nutty flavor that lends a pleasant sweetness and has just the right amount of spicy zing. I find that ordering Panang curry from restaurants, however, can be kind of hit and miss – especially in Western restaurants, where they can lose their zest and become a bit bland.
Your best bet is to make your own – this way you can control the heat, make sure there’s plenty of good ingredients, get lots of healthy saturated fat, use good-quality meat, and ensure no nasty vegetable oils make their way into your meal (as they tend to do in your average restaurant dish). I’ve used chicken in this recipe as it makes for an amazing curry, but you can substitute chicken for any meat of your choosing, including beef, lamb, pork, fish or shrimp! Enjoy!
3 lbs boneless free-range chicken breasts, cut into medium chunks
2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and sliced lengthwise
¼ cup fresh organic basil leaves
Instructions
In a large frying pan, mix together the coconut milk, curry paste, lime zest, lime juice, fish sauce, and red pepper flakes (if you can't handle too much heat, play it safe and start with just 1 tsp red pepper flakes).
Simmer over low heat, stirring regularly, until paste is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 20 minutes.
While the sauce is simmering, prepare the non-paste ingredients. In a saucepan, cook the onion in the butter/ghee/coconut oil over medium heat until translucent and slightly brown. Add the chicken and cook on medium-high until each piece is white and cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. Add the bell peppers to the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat for around 10 minutes, until softened and slightly browned. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
When the curry sauce has thickened, add the chicken, bell pepper and onion mixture to it. Stir to mix together the ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes on low heat. Add the basil, turn off the heat, and leave for 3-4 minutes minutes.
Serve warm over white rice or cauliflower rice. Garnish each serving with a few fresh basil leaves and squeeze a little fresh lime juice on top.
This recipe was created by Liivi Hess, ThrivePrimal.com
How did your Panang chicken curry turn out?
We’d love to know the results of your foray into Thai cuisine! Did you add too much spice or too little? Do you have a secret ingredient that you like to add to get that curry taste explosion?
This paleo pizza crust recipe is so delicious, I literally think about it randomly sometimes and start craving it and have to make it that night. It reminds me of delicious corn bread.
You can add whatever toppings you want, but I went for fresh homemade pesto, arugula, prosciutto, heirloom baby tomatoes, bocconcini, parmesan and olive oil.
A delicious paleo gluten free pizza crust recipe that you can layer with your chosen ingredients. We find it quite filling so the pizza is enough to feed 4 people (or have for dinner and pack along leftovers for breakfast or lunch).
Mix all crust ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until smooth, it may become thick enough that you can knead it with your hands.
Spread the batter into a rimmed pizza pan or cast iron pan. You want it to be no more than about 1 cm / half inch thick. Spread it evenly with a spatula or your fingers.
Bake the crust by itself for 15-20 minutes.
During this time make the pesto by putting all the ingredients in a food processor and whizzing until smooth.
Take out the crust, pile on your pizza ingredients and bake for another 10 minutes or so to warm everything up. Personally I spread the pesto on as a sauce, then added arugula, prosciutto, heirloom baby tomatoes, and bocconcini balls (fresh mozzarella).
Sprinkle with parmesan and drizzle with more pesto & olive oil before serving.
This cauliflower parmesan fritter recipe is a great way to get more veggies and healthy fats into your meals. They are hearty, delicious and make a fun snack, appetizer or side dish. I would even propose that a picky eater might like these, since they are so pop-in-your-mouthable. The homemade bacon mayo adds delicious creaminess and flavour, plus some good traditional fats to help you absorb the nutrients from your veggies.
If you want to stick to strict paleo, you can sub the rice flour for coconut and leave out the parmesan. However these ingredients are, in my opinion, nutritious and generally not a problem for digestion, especially if the cheese is well-aged and high quality. Hard cheese is a good source of vitamin K2 for healthy bones and teeth.
NOTE: Please read the full instructions for the mayo before you start making it. Otherwise it will turn out runny! It’s very important to combine the ingredients slowly. I’m one of those people who doesn’t have the patience and just throws it all in, but trust me with this one, you want to take a little time and it will turn out JUST PERFECT, creamy and thick like store-bought mayo, except so much healthier!
Real Food Recipe: Cauliflower Parmesan Fritters + Bacon Mayo
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 12 fritters
A delicious paleo primal friendly recipe for crispy cauliflower and parmesan fritters with homemade bacon mayonnaise. A tasty way to eat more veggies and healthy fats. Makes a great appetizer, snack or side dish.
Ingredients
For the fritters:
2 cups organic cauliflower florets (about 1/2 a head)
1 cup matchstick-cut carrots (I found a bag of pre-cut organic ones at the supermarket)
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 organic green onions, thinly sliced
3 free range eggs
grass fed butter for frying
For the bacon mayonnaise:
2 free range egg yolks
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
2-3 pieces naturally smoked bacon
Instructions
Make the fritters:
Preheat the oven to 350, and place the bacon on a sheet to bake (this will be used for the mayo).
Boil the cauliflower and carrots in a pot for 4 minutes, then drain well. You can place them on a towel to dry off if you like.
Transfer to a cutting board and attack them with a large knife until they are chopped into little bits.
Place the chopped veggies in a large bowl; add the flax and rice flours and mix to coat the veggies.
Add the cheese, salt, pepper, green onions and eggs, and mix well.
Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Shape the fritters in your palm, making balls about the size of a plum and placing them carefully into the butter. Cook until golden brown, about 8 minutes, then carefully flip over and cook for about 8 minutes more.
Make the bacon mayonnaise:
When the bacon is crispy in the oven, remove and let cool, then crumble or chop finely.
In a medium bowl (or blender or food processor if you have one) mix the yolks, mustard, and 1 tsp lemon juice.
Start whisking vigorously (blender or food processor on low) while dripping the oil very slowly, even drop by drop in the beginning. You’re creating an emulsion and if you put too much oil at once, it will separate and turn out runny. If you're whisking, you're going to get your exercise :) Keep going non-stop adding the oil slowly.
As you add more oil, you will notice it to thicken and you can pour the oil a little faster.
When all the oil is incorporated and the mayonnaise is thick, whisk in the rest of the lemon juice and the crumbled bacon. You can season to taste with pink salt and pepper. Store in the fridge! YUM!
Serve the fritters hot off the pan with a dollop of bacon mayo to accompany. These make a great packed item for paleo/primal-friendly lunches and snacks too.
This recipe was created by Liivi Hess, ThrivePrimal.com
What did you think?
Did your mayo turn out the first try? Did you like the flavour combo? Did you pack these along for a tasty lunch or snack, or have them as a healthy appetizer for a party? Share in the comments below or on facebook.
I’ve put together a new cheat sheet for Thrive Primal Club members that I think you’re going to find super helpful. Become a member for free below – it only takes a sec.
If you’re stuck in the pattern of buying unhealthy over-priced junk for breakfast and lunch during the work week, this cheat sheet will help you jump that ship for good! Spend just one hour on Sunday whipping up easy fast paleo meals to pack along – you’ll never have an excuse again. Get ready for more variety, flavour & energy throughout your week!
I’ve put a lot of work into this cheat sheet! It includes:
a menu for nourishing paleo breakfasts lunches and snacks
a kitchen gear list
a shopping & pantry-stock list
a “run of show” instruction list for maximum efficiency in the kitchen
a custom recipe for delicious banana chocolate protein muffins
It also includes links to awesome high quality products for your primal lifestyle, including non-toxic food storage and cooking gear, plus tasty ingredients for your recipes.
Everything is listed per-person, so it’s easy to simply multiply for the number of people in your household. It provides a nutrient-dense and varied menu for the week, which you can easily adjust according to your taste.
