Creative paleo and gluten-free recipes
Instant Pot colcannon is the easiest, most delicious way to add some greens to your mashed potatoes. Add sausage for a simple and complete dinner!
Here I am in May with a blog post I meant to get up for St. Patrick’s Day! Luckily, colcannon is a welcome addition to the table any time of year. What’s colcannon, you may ask? It’s a traditional Irish dish that’s basically mashed potatoes with the addition of cabbage or kale, and sometimes scallions or leeks as well.
These grilled vegetables with jalapeño aioli are a great way to make the most of the last few weeks of grilling season! Zucchini, okra, mini peppers, and red onion wedges grill up quickly and are irresistible dipped in the creamy and spicy aioli.
Here in the South, the highs continue to sneak into the nineties most days and the markets are still packed with tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and okra. So while fall may technically be looming on the horizon, I am not ready to give up grilling anytime soon.
All summer long I’ve been firing up my grill and filling it with local veggies, sometimes adding some sausage or chicken as well, and calling it dinner. Nobody has complained, but I recently decided the one thing a platter of grilled vegetables really begs for is a flavorful sauce for dipping. The grilled vegetables almost seem like extra flavorful and colorful French fries once you add a nice aioli to dunk them into.
This vegan and paleo bok choy salad with apple and persimmon is healthy enough for a detox but beautiful and tasty enough for your Thanksgiving table!
Is anyone else in need of something delicious and fresh, but still kind of festive? I’ve got you covered with this bok choy salad with apple and persimmon. Amidst all the pie and stuffing and mashed potatoes and even a few early cookies, I am fairly sure that we all could use something like this.
If you’re surprised that bok choy can be eaten raw in a salad, you are not alone. I just learned this recently myself. A couple weeks before our wedding I decided to do Alisa Vitti’s four-day detox, and this bok choy salad is based on a very simple one that she shares as part of the cleanse. I was initially quite suspicious that a combination of raw bok choy, onion, and apple could ever taste good, but since I get bok choy all the time in my CSA and it cooks down to almost nothing in a stir fry, I decided to give the salad a try.
These roasted beets and sweet potatoes are a paleo and vegan-friendly side dish that goes well with almost anything.
I know–it’s June, and I’m suggesting cranking up the oven to roast some vegetables. It may not be the most summer-friendly cooking method, but to me it’s worth it. Beets just started appearing at local farmers markets and in my CSA box, and my favorite way to enjoy them is roasted alongside the last of fall’s sweet potatoes (or perhaps the first of summer’s crop!).
To make this dish extra colorful, I opted for a mix of orange and purple sweet potatoes and chioggia beets, which are striped inside and won’t stain your hands nearly as much as regular beets. The sweet potatoes end up tender inside and satisfyingly crispy along the edges.
The beets don’t crisp up, but their earthy, springy flavor is a great counterpoint to the sweet potatoes. A little thyme adds herbal freshness and savory notes, but can be omitted if you don’t have any on hand.
This post is sponsored by Cavit.
This refreshing strawberry and avocado salad with candied pepitas is a perfect way to enjoy spring produce, perhaps alongside a glass of crisp pinot grigio.
Guess what? Yesterday was my birthday, and tomorrow is the very first National Pinot Grigio Day! With so much to celebrate, I decided a really fun salad was in order. This strawberry and avocado salad is loaded with sweet and salty candied pepitas, vibrant radishes, fresh romaine, and a cumin-lime dressing. I’ve been making various iterations of this salad for a few weeks now, and when I have them on hand I also like to add thinly sliced scallions and sugar snaps and a handful of fresh cilantro leaves.
This salad pairs incredibly well with Cavit‘s pinot grigio, which is light and refreshing with a hint of fruity flavors and only a tad bit of sweetness. It’s cold-fermented in cutting edge thermo-conditioned tanks, which make it taste extra fresh and springy. I recommend enjoying a glass of well-chilled pinot grigio on your porch or in your backyard alongside a big plate of this salad.
These easy Instant Pot mashed potatoes save time and are just as delicious as stovetop taters. There’s a paleo and Whole30 version, too!
Looking for a greener twist on mashed potatoes? Try Instant Pot colcannon!
Ever since I got my Instant Pot last year on Black Friday, I haven’t had to wait for water to boil to make mashed potatoes and have pretty much forgotten about the stovetop version. The Instant Pot is just so much easier and faster–there’s really no comparison. The potatoes cook start to finish in about 20 minutes, and then I mash them right in the pressure cooker with a handheld potato masher. Done and done.
There are two versions in the recipe card below–the version I normally make, and the version I make when I’m doing a Whole30. In my mind there’s really no question that the regular version is a little better, but the cream-free version certainly does the trick when I’m craving the comfort of mashed potatoes during a month of squeaky-clean paleo eating.
In both versions the potatoes are cooked with chicken stock instead of water, which means you don’t have to drain them. It also adds flavor and nutrition. If you use bone broth like I do, your mashed potatoes will have a good amount of protein in them!
The main difference between the two variations is that the Whole30 version calls for more stock since you won’t be adding cream later. It also calls for a little extra ghee to make up for that lack of cream. I always like to finish off my mashed potatoes by adding a little more butter or ghee on top, and in the winter I love to add some finely minced rosemary, too. In the warmer months, snipped chives provide a similar pop of color and freshness.
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These mini sweet potato gratins are a perfect gluten-free and vegetarian holiday appetizer or side. They’re full of flavor thanks to a rich sweet onion cream sauce.
Happy day before Thanksgiving! I know I may be getting you these mini sweet potato gratins a bit too late for them to be part of tomorrow’s spread, but they’re delicious and fun anytime. They’d be great with Christmas dinner or as part of an appetizer table for a New Year’s party. Who doesn’t love their own little stack of sweet potatoes baked in a creamy sauce with a little cheese?
This gratin gets its unique flavor from a sauce made with sweet onions simmered slowly in butter, then blended with cream, sour cream, and a little bit of spice. The sauce is tossed with thinly sliced sweet potatoes, which are then stacked in muffin tins with a little bit of parmesan cheese. Everything is baked until nice and golden and bubbly, and that’s it! These take a little while and you’ll use your food processor three times if you let it do the slicing (which I highly recommend!), but they’re worth it. I may or may not have had almost half a dozen of these for lunch the other day…
Sweet, smoky, and crisp, these sweet potato latkes are really hard to beat, especially topped with cashew sour cream and applesauce.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the release of my cookbook Paleo Planet, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes from the book–smoky sweet potato latkes–plus a giant giveaway package. If you’re interested in winning a signed copy of the book, a box of grass-fed meat from ButcherBox, and paleo-friendly baking supplies from Rodelle, scroll down to the end of the post to enter. If you already have the book, you can give away the signed copy as a gift and keep the rest of the prizes for yourself.
(If you do have the book and especially if you’ve cooked from it, would you consider leaving a candid review on Amazon? They’re so helpful to me and to potential readers. Thank you so much!)
Paleo Planet is a collection of gluten-free, grain-free recipes inspired by cuisines from all around the world, including over 125 recipes (and over 80 that are Whole30 compliant–get the full list here!). All of the recipes are dairy free with the exception of ghee, which can be swapped out if you’re avoiding it.
The book includes a full chapter of sauces, spice blends, and pantry staples you can make at home, from za’atar to spiced ghee to almond milk, to ensure your paleo meals are extra delicious, along with three chapters of main dishes (poultry, beef, pork, & lamb, and seafood). These include paleo versions of well-known favorites like moussaka, pad see ew, and chiles rellenos plus dishes that may be new to you, like kaddo bourani, an irresistible Afghan pumpkin dish, and ají de gallina, a Peruvian chicken dish cooked with ají amarillo chile paste. The cookbook also includes a chapter for appetizers, soups, salads, and snacks, a chapter of vegetable sides, and of course a dessert chapter.
I’m so excited to be partnering with ButcherBox and Rodelle to bring you a prize package full of wholesome ingredients that you can use to make recipes from Paleo Planet as well as anything else you’re whipping up this season. Rodelle is providing their high-quality vanilla beans, vanilla extract, and baking cocoa, which can be used in a myriad of desserts from the book, from Black Forest Cake to Millionaire’s Shortbread to Mexican Brownies.
ButcherBox is providing a box of their 100% grass-fed meat, conveniently packaged in individual servings and shipped straight to your door on dry ice. Their meat is my go-to for all the carnivorous recipes in my book, from Milanesa to Australian Burgers to Honey Chipotle Short Ribs.
This refreshing summer kale salad is packed with seasonal superfoods and topped with creamy goat cheese and crunchy candied pecans.
Kale salads. How do you feel? I was a little suspicious back in the day, but if I give the kale a good massage and add a lot of different toppings, I can now get pretty excited about them. If you’re not into kale salads yet, let me see if I can sell you: we’re adding juicy peaches and blueberries, creamy goat cheese, and perfectly salty-sweet candied pecans.
CANDIED PECANS! Sorry to shout, but they’re so good, and they’re super easy and quick to make on the stovetop in less than ten minutes. No fuss, no oven. And you may want to make a double batch, because it’s hard to stop snacking on them. I ate a lot of mine before the salad even got dressed!
In other news, I have a serious peach problem. Last summer, we got down to Chattanooga at the end of peach session, right after The Peach Truck had left town. I was so mad I had missed out. All year I waited and checked the schedule. And when they came to East Ridge a little over a week ago, I was there. I bought a 25-pound box of peaches and a one-pound bag of pecans.
Since then, it’s been all peaches all the time. In addition to eating an embarrassing number of them out of hand, juice dripping everywhere, I’ve made a peach dutch baby, peach margaritas (I shared the full recipe on Insta–they’re so good!), peach muffins, and peach ice cream.
This version of patatas bravas features potatoes roasted in duck fat until they’re super crispy, then topped with spicy brava sauce and creamy, garlicky allioli.
I’ve been on a quest for months to make truly crispy roasted potatoes. They’re more elusive than you might expect. Simply roasting potatoes in a hot oven for a long time may give you some crunch around the edges, but the interior of the potato isn’t satisfactory. I need the insides of the potatoes to be tender and fluffy with no hint of dryness. And I’m not after just crunchy corners–I’m in need of some solid, wrap-around, all-encompassing crunch.
My quest finally came to a delicious end when I discovered this recipe for roasted duck fat potatoes on The Domestic Man. I bought myself a jar of Epic Cage-Free Duck Fat from Thrive Market and got roasting. The recipe requires you to parboil the potatoes, drain them, rinse them until they’re cool, and pat them dry. Then you heat the duck fat on the sheet pan in the oven before adding the potatoes, so they sizzle when they go on. After that, they roast for about an hour.
The results are just perfect, but it’s not exactly a quick recipe. You can’t really get around the lengthy roasting time, but I’ve discovered you can microwave the potatoes with a bit of water for five minutes instead of waiting for a pot of water to boil. Somehow, eliminating the stovetop step makes all the difference for me, and I’ve now moved these potatoes from a weekend treat to a valued member of my weeknight arsenal. (Of course, if you don’t have a microwave or don’t want to use one, you can just follow Russ’ original instructions here.)
This spring farmers market salad highlights the best of May’s produce, including beets, strawberries, and sugar snap peas, plus local goat cheese and quail eggs.
After suggesting the other day that you roast a bunch of chicken and potatoes, I’m here with something truly seasonal: this spring farmers market salad. All of the produce and the quail eggs are from Big Sycamore Farm in Decatur, TN and the goat cheese is from Rafting Goat Cheese in Old Fort, TN, so everything except the dressing is a local ingredient that I got at the farmers market or at the farm itself.
Getting my produce from nearby makes a huge difference for me in several different ways. First of all, let’s talk taste. The flavor of local fruits and vegetables is so much better. Pretty much every time I try something new from my CSA box, I say to myself, “These are the best _____ I’ve ever eaten,”. It’s happened with carrots, squash, beets, strawberries, and countless other things. When you’re thinking about vegetables that were picked today or yesterday at a farm in your area and produce from the grocery store that’s already traveled across the country or even the world before getting to you, there’s really no comparison. Fresher fruits and vegetables taste so much better.
Also, when you get your goods from nearby, you have the opportunity to go see exactly how everything works at the farm, or at least hear all about it directly from a farmer at the market. You won’t have to wonder just exactly how free-range the chickens are or what the crops have been sprayed with.
If you read my blog often, you’ve probably heard me talk about my Big Sycamore Farm CSA. (Wondering what a CSA is? It stands for community-supported agriculture and is also known as a farm share. Find out more and search for one near you here.) Right after moving down to Chattanooga in September, I met Initia and Bertus at the farmers market and bought a leftover box from their summer CSA. I was hooked by how amazing everything tasted, the wide variety of produce they included, and how convenient it was to get one big box of fruits and vegetables for the week in one fell swoop. I soon after signed up for their winter CSA, which has a short season running from October to December. It’s like a breath of fresh air during the colder months, and the vegetables in my boxes led me to create things like this winter vegetable gratin that I never would have made otherwise.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This gluten-free winter vegetable gratin is a show-stopping side dish for holiday meals or any special occasion.
I had dinner with Mary of Chattavore the other night, and we were talking about how much we hate winter, even here in the Mid-South where we barely have one to speak of. She mentioned disliking the early sunsets, so I told her an optimistic tidbit that I learned online the other day: despite the fact that the winter solstice isn’t until December 21st, the earliest sunset of the year is often much sooner. In fact, here in Chattanooga, it’s today!
The sun set at 5:29 in Chattanooga today, and will set at about the same time tomorrow and the next day. After that, it will begin to set later and later. (The days will continue to get shorter because the sun will be rising later in the morning, but if you’re anything like me and Mary, that doesn’t bother you quite as much as the early nightfall.)
The winter solstice has always been a nice turning point for me in my thinking–almost like it’s the very first sign of spring. Even in Boston when the worst of winter doesn’t come until January, knowing that each day we were gaining minutes of daylight made me feel optimistic. Thanks to my new knowledge about the earliest sunset preceding the solstice by several weeks, I’m going to go ahead and start with all that positive thinking today!
