Pizza buns

I've made this recipe once before but I didn't get a chance then to put it on the blog. Second time around they're just as tasty and I was surprised (once again) about how easy they actually are to make. The recipe is from undervarttak.se.

Ingredients
makes about 12 buns

For the dough
300 ml almond flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
3 egg whites
250 ml boiling water

Toppings (you can obviously alternate this with whatever you fancy)
300 ml crushed tomatoes or passata
125 g bacon
1 bunch of basil
1 egg
oregano

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Combine all the dry ingredients for the dough in a large bowl. Separate the eggs and pour the egg whites into the bowl. Whisk together with an electric whisk. Add the water slowly and be mindful not to add too much water so the dough gets runny (depending on how big your eggs are you might not need to add all of the water). Mix together until it forms a dough. Kneed it to a big lump and put it on a sheet of baking paper. Put another sheet of baking paper on top and use a rolling pin to make a rectangle which is a few millimeters thick.
Pull away the top layer of baking paper and you can now add your tomatoes. I added some cheese on top of the tomatoes but if you want to make it completely Paleo, just leave that out. Sprinkle some oregano on top. Cut the bacon to smaller pieces and sprinkle these on top. Add the basil leaves and then roll the dough lengthwise to form a roll. Cut the roll in about 2 cm thick pieces and put them on a greased muffin tray. Whisk the egg and brush the buns before putting them in the oven for about 45 minutes. Now you have a delicious treat to bring to picnics or to the beach.

Zucchini and sun-dried tomato muffins

With a toddler going to daycare once a week, I'm trying to find recipes of good snacks to put in his lunch box for the day. I found this really nice recipe from Eatdrinkpaleo of savory muffins.

Ingredients

makes 6

1½ cup (360 ml) grated zucchini (about 2 small ones)

6 sun-dried tomatoes (not the ones in oil)

1 medium garlic clove

½ cup (120 ml) pumpkin seeds

2 eggs

2 heaped tbsp linseed meal

1/4 cup (60 ml) tapioca flour

½ tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 175 °C and grease a muffin tray with a little coconut oil.

By using your hands try to squeeze the grated zucchini to remove as much of the juice as possible. Add it to a mixing bowl.

Put the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and pumpkin seeds to a food processor. Process until ground and incorporated. Transfer to the bowl with the grated zucchini.

Add eggs, linseed meal, tapioca, onion powder, salt and baking powder to the mix and combine together very well.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin casings and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool completely before removing from the tray. 

Paleo naan bread

Simple and delicious naan bread from myheartbeets.com to serve with your favourite Indian dishes.

Ingredients
makes 2
120 ml almond flour
120 ml tapioca flour
240 ml coconut milk, full fat
salt
ghee, to fry in

Mix all the ingredients together.
Heat a 24 cm nonstick pan over medium heat and grease with some ghee. Pour half the batter in the pan.
Once the batter fluffs up and looks firm/mostly cooked, flip it over to cook the other side; this can take some time so be patient.

Paleo bread rolls

This is once again a recipe from undervarttak.blogspot.se. I just love their website. Since I'm Swedish it's a perfect place for me to find traditional Swedish things made Paleo. I'm gonna try some day soon to make their ginger bread cookies so that I won't miss Sweden too much over Christmas. Today however, I decided to make these sort of bread rolls which turned out alright. I wish they would've been a bit fluffier but I guess I'll have to work on that.

Ingredients
makes 6
300 ml almond flour
50 ml sunflower seeds
50 ml crushed linseed
1-2 tsp bread spices (I used caraway seeds, fennel seeds and cumin)
2 eggs
50 ml coconut milk
poppy seeds for decoration
coconut oil for the muffins tins

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk together the eggs and the coconut milk and pour this over the dry ingredients. Mix it all together to a soft and quite runny dough.
Grease six muffin tins with some coconut oil and fill them with the dough. Even them out with a wet spoon. Sprinkle on some poppy seeds on each roll. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Roasted broccoli florets

We had a barbecue last night even though it was raining and a bit windy. Luckily it wasn't too bad when the meat was actually on the barbecue. I was trying to think of what we could have with the garlic and herb lamb and realized we had quite a bit of broccoli in the fridge. Instead of just boiling or steaming it like usual I decided to roast it in the oven. With some salt, pepper and various spices; it turned out to be a perfect side dish for the lamb.

Ingredients

serves 2-3

1 large broccoli head

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp paprika powder

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Cut the broccoli into smaller florets and place them on a large baking tray.

Mix together the oil, the spices and salt. Pour this over the broccoli and mix around. 

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it's soft and a little bit browned.

Salmon with broccolini and asparagus

This recipe is from againstallgrain.com. She has a very good website with very pretty photos and a mix of different recipes. This recipe was very simple and tasty.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
3-4 salmon fillets, boneless and skinless
3 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp coconut sugar or honey
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp crushed garlic

250 g broccolini, trimmed
250 g asparagus, cut into 5 cm pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp sea salt
pinch cracked pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, coconut sugar, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl. Place the salmon pieces on a baking dish and pour the marinade over fish. Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes.
For the greens; add all the ingredients to a bowl and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 15-20 minutes.

Paleo focaccia

So I've been craving bread for a couple of days now and I finally decided to make some bread without flour and found a recipe on undervarttak.blogspot.se. The result was much better than I expected actually, I didn't think it was going to be so fluffy which is definitely a good thing. Definitely something I'll make again when I'm craving bread of some sort.

Ingredients
makes 1 large flat bread
400 ml almond flour
50 ml coconut flour
100 ml psyllium husk
1 tbsp baking powder
1½ tsp salt
6 eggs
300 ml water
50 ml olive oil + extra for decoration
Sea salt
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk together the eggs, water and 50 ml olive oil in another bowl. Once mixed completely, pour this over the dry ingredients and mix together until it's a soft dough. Let it sit for about 5 minutes so it gets a bit thicker.
Grease an oven tray with olive oil (I used one sized 25 x 30 cm).
Add the dough to the tray and flatten it evenly. Press with your finger to make small holes in the bread. Drizzle some olive oil over, then sprinkle the fresh rosemary and sea salt over the top as well.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it has a golden colour and the test needle comes out clean. Enjoy!

Paleo chicken chow mein

I've never had chicken chow mein in a restaurant but I have a feeling that this dish is slightly lighter and maybe even tastier. The recipe is from Paleo Cupboard.

Ingredients
serves 2-3
SAUCE:
½ tsp freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp raw honey, melted
2 tsp sesame oil
5 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
dash crushed red pepper (or more if you like heat)
dash sea salt
dash ground black pepper
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 tbsp fish sauce

PARSNIP NOODLES:
6 medium to large parsnips, peeled and julienned (or use spiral vegetable slicer to make into noodles)
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced into strips
2 tbsp macadamia oil or butter
1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red capsicum, thinly sliced into strips
1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced into strips
3/4 cup chopped spring onions
Sea salt
Ground black pepper

To make the sauce, combine all of the sauce ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.
To make the parsnip noodles, Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Toss the julienned parsnips with the olive oil, sea salt and ground black pepper in a large mixing bowl. Lay the parsnips out flat on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until crispy, stirring a couple times.
While the parsnips are baking, season the chicken strips with sea salt and ground black pepper. Place a large skillet or large wok over medium-high heat and add the oil. Allow to get hot and then add the chicken, letting it sear for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add the onion and garlic to the pan (and some additional oil or fat if needed). Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the red and yellow bell peppers to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the green onions and the chicken to the pan and stir to combine.
Add the sauce and toss to coat. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, or until sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally.
Serve up the chicken sauce with the noodle.

Brussel sprouts and bacon salad

Last night we decided to have a barbecue and it's always a question of what to have as a side dish. I bought the cook book from Eat Drink Paleo yesterday and found this recipe in it. Luckily both me and my other half love brussel sprouts so it was an easy decision.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
500g brusselssprouts, washed and halved
3 slices of bacon, diced and crispy fried
1–2 tbsp macadamia or coconut oil
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp hot mustard
½ lime, juice
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Toss brussel sprouts in macadamia orcoconut oil and roast for 30 minutes, until crisped and browned. Stir half way through.
Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Add fresh cherry tomatoes and bacon to roasted brussel sprouts and toss together with the dressing. Serve in the same roasting tray or in a salad bowl.

Carrot bread

Ok, I must admit that I do miss bread and although I do have the real thing occasionally I've been searching for a relatively easy Paleo recipe so that I can have it a bit more often. So when I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/ I was really happy. I was a bit scared when making it since the previous times I've tried to make Paleo versiouns of bread they've turned out really dense and not great tasting. I made this and not only was it really simple to make, it was also really tasty. Wish I could've taken a better photo for you but I'm afraid I'm not the best photographer.

Ingredients
makes about 12 pieces
400 ml almond meal
50 ml coconut flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk
50 ml crushed linseeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp 'bread herbs' (I crushed some caraway seeds, fennel seeds and cumin together)
200 ml finely shredded carrot (approximately 2 small carrots)
6 eggs
200 ml water
olive or coconut oil to grease the pan

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Peel and shred the carrots finely. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, add the eggs and water and whip them together. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix together until it forms a dough. Lightly squeeze the liquid out of the carrots and mix these into the dough. Let the dough sit and expand for about 5 minutes.
Grease and ovenproof pan (approximately 20x30 cm big) with one of the oil.
Add the dough to the pan and push it down with your hand until it's evenly flat.
By using a fork make a dotted pattern in the bread.
Cook the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes and has got a nice light brown colour and your test stick comes out clean. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool slightly.
Cut the bread into squares, break apart and let it cool completely on a rack.

Cauliflower fried rice

Who doesn't like a good fried rice? I certainly do, so I found this recipe on http://www.familyfreshmeals.com and it was super easy and really delicious. One of our new favourites. It's not quite Paleo but sometimes we do decide to "cheat".

Ingredients
serves 2-3
720 ml grated raw cauliflower (about ½ large head)
120 ml frozen peas
120 ml carrots, thinly sliced (1 large carrot)
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, diced
½ tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, scrambled
3 tbsp soy sauce

In a large pan, saute garlic and onions in olive oil on a medium/high heat, until onions become soft and transparent, about 2-3 minutes. Next add in peas, carrots and cook until carrots begin to soften and peas are heated through, about 3-4 minutes. Next stir in scrambled eggs, cauliflower and soy sauce. Cook stirring frequently for about 5-7 more minutes.

Fennel gratin with garlic and parsley

I like fennel and sometimes they have it on special in the supermarket and I buy one just because it's nice but I never really have a clue how to cook it. I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se and I decided to give it a go. It turned out to be quite tasty. We had ours with some roasted pork fillet and steamed broccoli.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g fennel
200 g leek
10 sundried tomatoes (not in oil)
2 garlic cloves
fresh parsley
salt and pepper
300 ml coconut milk
coconut oil to fry in

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Rinse and cut the leek into approximately 1 cm big pieces. Put some coconut oil in a pot and fry the leek slightly. Slice the fennel and the sundried tomatoes. Add the fennel and sundried tomatoes to the pot with the leek and mix around. Crush the garlic clove into the mixture. Add salt, pepper and parsley to taste. Mix around and let it fry for a couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk and simmer slowly for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture in an ovenproof dish and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Paleo tortilla chips

I really love http://undervarttak.blogspot.se. They have so many good recipes. Today I decided to make their tortilla chips and they turned out to be really good.

Ingredients
500 ml almond flour
2 egg whites
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cummin powder
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp paprika powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
Put the almond flour in a bowl, add the egg whites and the all the spices. Mix with a hand mixer until the mixture turns doughy then use your hands to form a ball. Split the ball in half and roll out one half thinly between two sheets of baking paper. Peel off the top layer of baking paper and cut out the pattern of the tortilla chips so that they're easy to break apart when done. Bake in the top of the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until they're golden brown. Take out of the oven, break apart and let them cool on a wire rack. Then do the same with the next half.

Crisp bread with seeds

So this is another recipe from http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/
It's super simple and super tasty. We had it with some butter, ham and cheese and it was good.

Ingredients
2 eggs
100 ml sesame seeds
100 ml pumpkin seeds
100 ml sunflower seeds
50 ml poppy seeds
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Whip the eggs lightly in a bowl. Add all the seeds and mix around.
Spread the mixture thinly on an oven tray prepared with some baking paper.
Sprinkle over some sea salt and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
When ready, take out of the oven and break into pieces.
Place the pieces on the oven rack and let them dry in the after-heat of the oven with the oven door slightly open. Store in a dry place.

Paleo Bread

I reckon the most difficult thing to for me to give up with the Paleo lifestyle is bread. I love a nice warm bread roll with lots of butter. I'm from Sweden so I've grown up with bread every morning and something for dinner as well. So when I found this recipe i was very excited. I was hoping that it was going to come out slightly fluffier, mine was quite dense. Still tastes really good though so give it a go. Found the recipe on: http://www.paleoeffect.com

Ingredients

1 loaf

355 ml arrowroot powder

240 ml linsseed meal

4 eggs

4 egg whites

4 tbsp walnut oil

2 tsp sea salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Coconut oil to grease the bread loaf pan

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Combine all dry ingredients. Then mix the wet ingredients together and add them to the dry until thoroughly incorporated. Grease a bread loaf pan with the oil pour in the batter. Bake the loaf for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Roast pork with balsamic braised cabbage

As I mentioned before the weather today was a real autumny day with rain and wind. So we decided to have a roast for dinner. We wanted to have brussel sprouts with it but we forgot to by them and we are extremely lazy so we didn't want to go the whole 500 metres to the supermarket. However, pork roast need some kind of cabbage as a side dish and we had red cabbage at home. So braised red cabbage is what we had. Pork recipe is taken from http://paleoparents.com and the cabbage recipe we found at http://recipes.sparkpeople.com. We served it with roasted sweet potato and pumpkin and made a jus with the pork juices.

Ingredients
about 2 kilos of pork roast
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ red cabbage head, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
80 ml balsamic vinegar
2 pinches of stevia
salt and pepper to taste 

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Combine the garlic, salt, pepper, onion powder and cayenne, then rub the mixture over all the sides of the roast. Put on an oven tray and roast in the oven for about 90 minutes, or until 73 degrees inside the meat using a meat thermometer. Take out and let it rest for about 10 minutes

Melt the butter in a pot on medium heat. Add the cabbage and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the stevia and toss until completely mixed. Add the balsamic vinegar and turn the heat down to medium-low and cook covered for about 30 minutes. Make sure you stir it every 10 minutes so that it doesn't get burnt or stuck. Season with salt and pepper.

Balsamic chicken with braised cabbage and bacon

It's been a while now and I'm currently in Sydney, Australia. I have not been able to cook that much good food here yet since I'm not really sure where to find all ingredients but I'm getting a bit closer so today I decided to make a Paleo recipe. The Paleo lifestyle has been on hold for us for a while now because of the move but slowly we'll pick it up again. I found the recipe for this on http://everydaypaleo.com/ and the Paleo Recipe book. Enjoy!

Ingredients
serves 2-3
Balsamic chicken
2 chicken breasts (each cut in half long way)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of crushed garlic
2 ½ tbsp wholegrain mustard

Braised cabbage with bacon
1 cup chicken stock
3 slices bacon, cut up into bite size pieces
thyme
½ medium green cabbage, finely sliced
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse off your chicken breasts and season both sides with salt and pepper. Put them in a plastic bag and add the balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, mustard and garlic. Close up the bag and massage the chicken in the bag to ensure it all gets coated evenly. Put in the fridge and let marinade for as long as you want; the longer the better. Fry on medium heat in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and brown on both sides. Once brown; turn down the heat, add a bit of the marinade, cover with a lid and let reduce it down. Make sure to stir occasionally and cook until the chicken is no longer pink on the inside.
Bring the chicken stock, bacon and thyme to a boil in a pot. Add the cabbage, boil for 5 minutes and then reduce to a simmer until the cabbage is just tender. Add some extra stock during the simmering process if it seems to have reduced too much. Add the butter, salt and pepper.

Cauliflower mash

Something I've heard of lately but I've never tried was mash made from cauliflower. Yesterday we tried it and had it together with a nice steak and a few greens beans. It was really, really nice and super easy to make.

Boil the florets of a cauliflower head until soft; about 10-15 minutes.
Drain the water.
Add a big nob of butter (or however much you want) then mash using a hand mixer until smooth.
Add in some cream (I only used about 2 tbsp since I thought the mash was already quite soft).
Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Very easy, very tasty and a perfect alternative in order to have a low carb meal.

Marinated chicken with balsamic ruccola and cucumber tossed in lime vinaigrette

They had thin chicken filets on special in our supermarket this week so I decided to make a simple marinade for those and then just have some veggies with it. I wasn't very good with measuring the ingredients to the marinade so I'm afraid you will have to taste your way to it. The marinade shouldn't be too runny so don't put too much olive oil in.

Ingredients
Chicken marinade
paprika powder
turmeric
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
salt and pepper
olive oil

Mix all the spices together in a grinder, add the olive oil bit by bit until it becomes smooth. Put the chicken in a plastic bag and add the marinade. Let it sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

Balsamic veggies with ruccola
½ zucchini, sliced
1 red capsicum, diced
1 onion, sliced
150 g ruccola
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Fry the onion and capsicum in some olive oil. Add the zucchini after a couple of minutes and fry for about 5 minutes. Add the ruccola together with the balsamic vinegar and let it fry together for a couple of minutes.

Lime vinaigrette
3 tbsp lime juice
½ tsp Dijon mustard
180 ml olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the lime juice, mustard, salt and pepper in a blender. Slowly add the olive oil until it's all combined.

Thinly slice some cucumber and put in a bowl. Add some vinaigrette and put in the fridge for a bit. They almost taste like pickled cucumbers.

Fish with carrot salsa

I really couldn't think of what to have for dinner tonight but I took out a piece of fish of the freezer earlier so I needed to do something with that. Since I wasn't feeling like cooking too much I just threw together some veggies and fried the fish.

Ingredients for salsa
2 carrots
½ red onion
1 garlic clove
2 tomatoes
½ tbsp olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
dried basil
salt and pepper

Chop the red onion finely and crush the garlic clove. Finely chop the tomatoes and finely slice the carrot. Mix it together in a bowl. Add the oil, vinegar, herbs and spices. Just fry the fish in some butter and season with salt and pepper. Very easy.