Monthly Archives: December 2014

Sides

How to Roast Garlic

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roasted-garlic

Roasted garlic is truly an amazing ingredient. It saved my Thanksgiving, when I used it to make a flourless gravy. I also used carmelized onions, homemade chicken broth, and fresh and dried herbs. The garlic and onions pureed up nicely in the Vitamix and thickened up the gravy, and consequently eliminating the need for flour. I also plan on adding this to salad dressings, smearing it over paleo bread, or just eating it by itself. It will also make your apartment smell amazing!

If you’re concerned about cooking with olive oil, and I usually am, Chris Kressler just had an awesome post Is It Safe to Cook with Olive Oil by his staff nutritionist Kelsey Marksteiner, RD. Since I normally use coconut oil to be on the safe side, I was relieved to hear that yes, it is safe. I’m Italian and I hate using coconut oil for Italian recipes! The flavor of olive oil is just necessary for good Italian food.

I salt bake the garlic because it makes it easy to check on how brown it is, and then I can add some fresh rosemary to the baking dish, so the aroma can flavor the head of garlic. I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt that I get from Costco for salt baking food and as a dry salt rub for large pieces of meat. They recommend the same brand in the book All About Roasting by Molly Stevens, and I don’t want to tweak the recipe (yet 🙂 )and potentially ruin expensive non-gmo/pasterized meat.

How to Roast Garlic
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
  • 2 sprigs of rosemary
  • 4 heads of garlic
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Add salt to a baking dish.
  2. Cut of tops of garlic heads and nestle in salt.
  3. Place two sprigs of rosemary on salt
  4. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil over each head of garlic.
  5. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for an hour and five minutes at 350 degrees. After thirty minutes, check garlic every ten minutes until desired brown color.

Desserts

Honey Walnut Cookies

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honey-walnut-cookies

These honey walnut cookies are a delicious guilt-free indulgence. They are made with almond and arrowroot flour and they are soft, and fluffy inside. If someone doesn’t like walnuts, since they do have a strong flavor, you can easily substitute sliced almonds or pistachios. Walnuts are just what I had in my pantry, when attempted and failed at paleo pizzelles. Despite my failed first recipe, I am really happy with the texture and height of these cookies and plan on using a similar recipe base for future cookie attempts. If you like your cookies a little golden brown around the edges, which I do, bake at 350 degrees. If you don’t like a little browning cook at 320.

I think these would taste great with some coffee or hot coco. You can also make them look pretty with a light dusting of confectionery sugar, or for people with a sweet tooth that can be hard to please. You can get a portable confectionery sugar duster, and then bring this batch to work and everyone can marvel at your grain-free, dairy-free baking skills.

Honey Walnut Cookies
 
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Serves: 40m
Ingredients
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup of honey
  • 1 cup of organic palm oil (Spectrum Organic non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¼ sea salt
  • 3½ cups of almond flour
  • 2 cups of arrowroot flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 2 cups of walnuts
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
  1. Mix dry ingredients, sea salt, baking soda, and flours, in a large bowl.
  2. Mix wet ingredients, eggs, honey, and apple cider vinegar, in a separate bowl.
  3. Then combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients, with a hand mixer on low. Gradually increase speed and add palm oil.
  4. Use a food processor to easily pulse 2 cups of walnuts, and stir it into cookie batter.
  5. Then line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and scoop dough into sizes a tiny bit larger than one tbsp, onto parchment paper. Leave a lot of room between cookies because they spread out.
  6. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until edges start to get golden brown.
  7. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing them from baking sheet.

Breakfast

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hash

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sweet-potato-chorizo-hash

I’m obsessed with Mexican breakfast, and so is my husband. In LA, you can find delicious and cheap Mexican breakfast everywhere. Even the Jewish diners and the vegan restaurants will have a Mexican breakfast option. However, it’s healthier to eat it at home with your own locally sourced ingredients. Plus, you can make a ton and have lots of yummy leftovers, and this was crazy easy to make. You will need a food processor with a shredding attachment, and a gigantic skillet to saute everything, but it was really easy, and made me wonder why I haven’t been making this every weekend.

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hash
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 sweet potato
  • 4 chorizo sausage links
  • 1 chopped white onion
  • 1 diced red pepper
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 tbsp of coconut oil
  • (optional) 1 tsp of fresh chopped chives
Instructions
  1. Shred sweet potato in food processor, you'll only need half the sweet potato. Save extra for hash browns.
  2. Remove casing from chorizo and brown in a large pan with coconut oil.
  3. Then add white onion, red pepper, and shredded sweet potato. Saute until cooked through 5-10 minutes.
  4. (optional) Serve with a couple fried eggs and garnish with chopped fresh chives.