recipe Archives - Page 15 of 33 - A Calculated Whisk

16 Paleo-Friendly Fig Recipes

September 2, 2015 By Becky 11 Comments

A roundup of 16 grain-free, paleo-friendly recipes using fresh figs,

from breakfasts and snacks to dinners and desserts.

Figs are in season now, and while they’re great eaten just as-is, I also love cooking with them. I’ve been especially excited about figs this year, even writing a poem about them in the style of Pablo Neruda (scroll down in this post to read my ode to figs). My fiancé and I just moved down to Tennessee and, since my campaign to get him to raise goats with me has been unsuccessful, I now have my heart set on planting a fig tree or two. Hopefully in a few years I’ll be able to make all these recipes with homegrown figs!

For now, store-bought figs will have to do. My local grocery store has plenty of black mission figs (pictured above in the top left of the collage), and I’ve also seen brown turkey and calimyrna figs. I wanted to round up all of the most delicious paleo-friendly fig recipes in one place in order to inspire us all to take full advantage while they’re still around. I scoured all my favorite blogs and websites to find mouth-watering ways to use figs at every meal of the day. The recipes below should work well with any kind of fresh fig, or even a mix of more than one variety!

All of the recipes linked to here are gluten free and grain free, but some do contain dairy. If the original recipe doesn’t list substitutions, I’ve noted ways to make the recipe dairy free. From breakfast bowls to pizza, salad to chocolate tarts, and smoothies to chutney, there’s something figgy here for everyone!

Blistered Okra with Garlic and Cumin

August 31, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

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blistered okra with cumin and garlic 1 v3

This blistered okra with garlic and cumin is much healthier than fried okra

but just as addictive! It’s also paleo, gluten-free, and vegan.

How do you feel about okra? I always hated it in gumbo and other gummy preparations as a kid, but quickly fell in love with fried okra. Last year I even made a paleo version of fried okra that’s really good, but it’s not super quick to make.

My love for okra eventually expanded to include bhindi masala, an Indian curry where the okra is cooked with plenty of ginger, garlic, onion, and tomato, and there’s a recipe for that in my cookbook. While delicious, bhindi masala also takes a little time to make.

Blistered Okra with Garlic and Cumin #30MinuteMondays | acalculatedwhisk.com

When I scored some really beautiful okra at the farmers’ market, I wanted to cook it quickly in a way that would highlight its intrinsic flavor while minimizing its intrinsic gumminess. A little research indicated that cooking okra briefly over relatively high heat would be most likely to achieve those results.

I was so happy with how this recipe turned out! Slicing the okra lengthwise provides a nice surface for browning while preserving the attractive silhouette of the pods. (Did you know okra is also known as lady fingers? Move on over, cookies whose sole purpose is to make tiramisu!) The recipe starts with getting a cast iron skillet nice and hot, then adding butter or oil. Whole cumin seeds, garlic cloves, and dried chiles are added next, infusing the cooking fat with savory and subtly spiced flavor and a gentle, warming heat. The okra are added next and cooked for about ten minutes, turning a few times, until nice and browned. Add a hefty sprinkle of flaky sea salt and that’s it! Non-fried okra that you won’t be able to stop eating.

Strawberry-Peach Crisp with Hazelnut-Pepita Crumble

August 27, 2015 By Becky 12 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Strawberry-Peach Crisp with Hazelnut-Pepita Crumble | acalculatedwhisk.com

This gluten-free strawberry-peach crisp is lightly sweetened with maple syrup

and topped with a rich crumble made with hazelnut flour and pumpkin seeds.

Hello from Chattanooga, our new home! Ben and I packed everything up and drove from Boston to Tennessee across two days, arriving last night a little after midnight. I’m in love with my new city, which is Ben’s hometown, already. So far we’ve driven around a bit looking at houses, and had amazing burgers at Main Street Meats (see my bunless burger on Insta!). We’re also dogsitting for Ben’s sister, so I get to spend time with this guy.

I spent a while editing the photos of this fabulous strawberry-peach crisp with hazelnut-pepita crumble today. The photographs make me a little sad, because this was the last photo shoot I did in our apartment in Boston, where I’ve taken all the photos for the blog so far and all the photos for my cookbook, Paleo Planet. I hope our next apartment has light that I like just as much!

Anyway, enough wistful reminiscing about the natural light at my old apartment. We’re talking crisp today! I had some good-looking strawberries and peaches, but wanted to do more than just eat them. In part because I was trying to avoid packing, I decided to bake. (Yes, when I’m feeling stressed, I avoid whatever I’m worried about and bake instead. No, my fiancé has never complained!)

I put the freshly cut fruit right into the greased baking dish and added a little maple syrup, a tiny bit of tapioca flour to keep the juices under control, and a pinch of salt and the seeds of half a vanilla bean to bring out the natural sweetness of the fruit. I mixed it all together right in the dish to avoid having to wash an extra bowl. (I did have to wash the bowl I made the crumble in, but that’s it for this recipe: one bowl + the baking dish).

Curry Butter Shrimp

August 19, 2015 By Becky 34 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Curry Butter Shrimp | acalculatedwhisk.com

An easy and flavorful meal made from pantry staples, curry butter shrimp

takes ten minutes to make and is gluten-free and paleo-friendly.

I’ve kind of been boycotting grocery stores. Weekend before last I went to Florida for a wedding, and since getting back I have not set foot in one. I finished up my last week of my last internship for graduate school this past Friday, we’re getting ready to move down to Chattanooga this coming weekend, and I’m exhausted. Ben has been kind enough to pick up essentials like coffee, eggs, fruit, and bacon for us, but the eggs ran out yesterday.

What’s a girl to do without any eggs for breakfast and with a long day of packing ahead of her? The answer is definitely not grocery shopping. The answer is curry butter shrimp! Yes, I ate this at ten in the morning. No, I have no regrets. #dinnerforbreakfast may not be mainstream yet, but just you wait and see!

I didn’t do a 30 Minute Mondays post yesterday because I wanted to announce my cookbook (Paleo Planet is available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and indie bookstores near you!). This is even better, though, because this is like 10 Minute Wednesday–not as alliterative, but much faster. Not counting the rice or cauliflower rice, this meal comes together in just ten minutes. (And, true confession, I didn’t even make this rice. It’s left over from the Indian food we ordered last night.)

Curry butter shrimp is a flavorful pantry recipe that requires almost no chopping (except for the cilantro–but if you’re really anti-chop you could just break that up into little sprigs). Melted butter or ghee is mixed with Thai curry paste to form a fragrant sauce for cooking the shrimp. A tiny bit of maple syrup and fish sauce add just enough sweetness and umami to complement the rich butter and spicy curry.

Announcing Paleo Planet + Marinated Skirt Steak with Cilantro-Lime Ghee

August 17, 2015 By Becky 21 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Announcing Paleo Planet + Marinated Skirt Steak with Cilantro-Lime Ghee | acalculatedwhisk.com

Big news! I wrote a cookbook!

Paleo Planet is available for pre-order now and comes out on November 3rd, 2015. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound or read more about it on the Harvard Common Press site.

The book has over 125 paleo recipes inspired by cuisines from around the world, all made without gluten, grains, refined sugar, legumes, soy, or dairy (with the exception of ghee). There are plenty of main dishes made with poultry, beef, pork, lamb, and seafood, as well as chapters for appetizers, vegetable sides, spice blends and other pantry staples, and of course, desserts. Every single recipe has a color photo taken by me!

Writing this cookbook was a ton of work, but I’ve never eaten better than I did while working on it! It was so much fun researching dishes from different cuisines and adapting them to fit the paleo lifestyle. Some of the recipes in the book are traditional foods from a certain country, while others are more fusion recipes. Still others just incorporate exotic flavors into an old classic or provide a fresh twist on a well-loved recipe.

No-Churn Mocha Ice Cream

August 16, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

No-Churn Mocha Ice Cream (sweetened with maple syrup) | acalculatedwhisk.com

So, have you made Nigella Lawson’s no-churn coffee ice cream? It’s ridiculously easy and delicious, and when I discovered how simple it was to make really good ice cream with just a mixer, I was tempted to get rid of my ice cream machine!

To make the no-churn ice cream, you beat heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and flavorings until it’s nice and thick, then freeze the ice cream. That’s all there is to it! The only thing is that I’m not a big fan of cooking with sweetened condensed milk–there’s so much refined sugar in it, and I try to avoid that whenever I can.

So I decided to try making my own sweetened condensed milk using maple syrup, with some guidance from this recipe from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring. The homemade sweetened condensed milk takes a while to make, but your house will smell amazing. You do have to watch it pretty closely but don’t have to stir it constantly, so it’s a good time to do some cleaning or other tasks around the kitchen. I got a lot of dishes done while I was making it! (Anything that gets me to do more dishes is good, and pretty rare.)

The results are so much more delicious than canned sweetened condensed milk! The maple flavor adds a caramel note to the ice cream that goes perfectly with the chocolate and coffee. In addition to working beautifully in this ice cream, the maple-sweetened condensed milk is amazing in hot or iced coffee.

A Visit to Clark Farm

August 8, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

No new recipe today! Instead, a photo recap of my visit to a local farm.

Hungry? Check out my paleo recipes or full recipe index.

When is the last time you got to spend the day on a farm? For me it had been far too long! When I was a kid I went to farm camp and as a teacher I took my students on some fun farm field trips, but it had been a while since I’d gotten to take in all the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of life on a working farm.

My mom and I recently went to a paleo picnic/farm tour/book signing at Clark Farm in Carlisle, MA. The event was hosted by Diana Rodgers, blogger at Sustainable Dish and author of The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook, the tome that spurred my not-yet-successful campaign to get Ben to agree to raise goats with me. Whether you’re looking for homesteading advice, delicious paleo recipes, or both, that book has what you need! Melissa Joulwan of The Clothes Make the Girl and Well Fed fame, Steph Gaudreau, blogger at Stupid Easy Paleo and author of The Performance Paleo Cookbook, and Ciarra Hannah, blogger at Popular Paleo and author of The Frugal Paleo Cookbook, co-hosted the event. It was such a treat to see so many great paleo writers and fans in one place!

A Visit to Clark Farm | acalculatedwhisk.com

The afternoon began with a tour of the farm led by Diana’s husband, Andrew Rodgers, farmer extraordinaire. It was so cool to hear about the operations of the farm, from planting to harvesting to breeding.

Of course, my favorite part was taking pictures of all the animals (so much so that I did not take a single picture of the amazing food!). Is it me or are these Berkshire pigs extremely photogenic? Scroll down for several more photos of them. They were totally working it for the camera!

Pesto Shrimp Bake with Squash and Tomatoes

August 3, 2015 By Becky 25 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Pesto Shrimp Bake with Squash and Tomatoes #30MinuteMondays | acalculatedwhisk.com

I know this is a totally blasphemous thing to say in the food blogging world, especially in the middle of summer, but I’m really not a fan of tomatoes. They’ve grown on me since I was a kid, when I wouldn’t touch foods with them in it (including pizza, ketchup, and most of all anything involving raw or sundried tomatoes). I now really enjoy a good tomato sauce (like this bolognese or this garlic tomato sauce) and I’ll dip into a fancy ketchup if it’s got curry mixed in or something, but the appeal of raw tomatoes still largely eludes me.

My best experience so far has been with a couple of memorable caprese salads, including one at dbar, one of my favorite Boston restaurants, which is conveniently located just blocks from our apartment. A caprese salad with housemade mozzarella and tomatoes and basil from their rooftop garden was on the specials menu, and my mom and I had to try it. And, surprisingly enough, I didn’t hate the raw tomatoes.

Brown Butter Cacao Nib Skillet Cake

July 27, 2015 By Becky 38 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Brown Butter Cacao Nib Skillet Cake (Gluten free, Grain free) | acalculatedwhisk.com

It cooled down just enough in Boston this weekend for me to feel good about cranking up the oven and baking a cake. And boy, was I glad I did! This grain-free skillet cake is so easy to whip up, looks and smells like a giant cookie, but boasts a unique and sophisticated flavor thanks to the browned butter and cacao nibs. I highly recommend making it today–it’s perfect for dessert or simply as a snack cake!

This recipe is adapted from Selma’s Table, my assigned blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club reveal day. I had a hard time choosing a recipe because Selma has so many tantalizing options. I almost bought anchovies for the first time because this walnut, herb, and anchovy sauce sounded so delicious (I wanted to pair it with some zoodles!). This Italian version of shepherd’s pie looks fabulous, too. Also, what sounds better than black summer truffle pesto roast chicken?

Basil Lime Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

July 24, 2015 By Becky 4 Comments

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Basil Lime Chicken with Roasted Vegetables | acalculatedwhisk.com

Happy Friday! Are you ready to slather your dinner in an irresistible basil lime compound butter?

I love this meal because it’s simple and flavorful. The basil lime butter makes the chicken and vegetables more delicious without making them taste any less like themselves. Instead of obscuring the flavors of the main ingredients like heavy sauces sometimes do, it just kisses them with a little herbal, citrusy richness that still lets their natural essence come through.

For the roasted vegetables, you can use whatever you have on hand. I used beets, carrots, summer squash, and onions. They need different amounts of time to roast, so I added the beets to the baking sheet first, then the carrots, and finally the squash and onions. If you want to sub in other vegetables and aren’t sure how long they need to roast, check out this handy chart.

Caramelized Salmon with Basil Chile Oil and Pickled Vegetables

July 20, 2015 By Becky 38 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Caramelized Salmon with Basil Chile Oil and Pickled Vegetables #30MinuteMondays | acalculatedwhisk.com

Broiled salmon, basil chile oil, and quick-pickled summer vegetables

team up for a fast and fresh paleo dinner with tons of flavor.

As a recent salmon convert, I’m still a little bit surprised every time I bite into a piece of salmon and find that it’s totally delicious.

For so long the strange pink hue of salmon turned me off, but now I can’t get enough. My favorite way to prepare salmon is under the broiler, where it cooks in less than ten minutes flat. I love how the top of the fish gets nicely browned and even a little bit crispy (especially here, with the help of a sprinkling of maple sugar) while the inside remains perfectly tender. This caramelized salmon is inspired by a recipe from Lindsay of Pinch of Yum and it’s SO good.

Tiger Nut Brownies

July 17, 2015 By Becky 44 Comments

This post is sponsored by Tiger Nuts USA.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tiger Nut Brownies (Paleo) | acalculatedwhisk.com

Tiger nut flour is the secret ingredient in these super fudgy paleo tiger nut brownies! And since tiger nuts are actually tubers, they’re great for people with nut allergies.

Have you heard of tiger nuts? They’re a new-to-me ingredient that I’m really excited to share with you. Here are three fun facts about tiger nuts:

1. They are not nuts! Tiger nuts are actually tubers, which means they’re a great snack option for anyone, even people with nut allergies.

2. Tiger nuts are a truly paleo food–scientists believe that they formed a large part of the diet of hominims and other early humans. They’ve also been found in Egyptian tombs from over 6,000 years ago. (I found this info on Wikipedia.)

3. Tiger nut flour makes delicious brownies!

Tiger Nuts (Paleo) | acalculatedwhisk.com

Bonus fact: tiger nuts are widely cultivated in Spain, where they’re used to make a special kind of horchata. Grab the recipe here!

The folks at Tiger Nuts USA sell peeled and unpeeled tiger nuts as well as tiger nut flour. I haven’t used the unpeeled tiger nuts yet, but I’m planning to use them to make tiger nut milk. (That has to be the coolest name for a kind of dairy-free milk, right? Why drink almond milk when you could drink TIGER NUT MILK??) Read More…