30 minute meals Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Paleo Pork Scaloppine with Caper Butter Sauce

April 3, 2017 By Becky 45 Comments

This paleo pork scaloppine with caper butter sauce is like chicken piccata, but better. It comes together in half an hour so you can enjoy it on busy weeknights!

Monday has reared its ugly head once again. If you’ve got a case of the blues, I have just the thing for you: paleo pork scaloppine. In a mere half an hour, you’ll get to work out your aggression pounding pork chops thin, hear the satisfying sizzle of the meat hitting the pan, pour an irresistible caper butter sauce over a platter of golden brown cutlets, and then dig in. I know I couldn’t ask for a better form of Monday therapy!

To make the breading for this paleo version of pork scaloppine as close as possible to the real thing, we’re using Otto’s Cassava Flour (that’s an affiliate link–I love their product and accept no substitutes!). It’s the best one-to-one replacement for wheat flour that I’ve found, and while I used to have to order it online, this past weekend I spotted it at the Chattanooga Whole Foods! To celebrate, I whipped up a big batch of this paleo pork scaloppine.

Vietnamese Beef Lettuce Wraps

March 27, 2017 By Becky 10 Comments

These quick Vietnamese beef lettuce wraps are my new go-to light dinner for spring. They’re gluten free, dairy free, paleo friendly, and easy to put together.

I am a huge fan of Vietnamese food. When Ben and I lived in Boston, our neighborhood had a lot of Vietnamese families and businesses. There was a great little supermarket within walking distance where I could pick up everything from fish sauce to rice paper wraps to long stalks of fresh lemongrass. One of our favorite restaurants, Pho Hoa, was just blocks away. I usually ordered the house special vermicelli plate. It had pretty much everything: grilled pork, shrimp on sugarcane, meatballs, grilled scallions, pickled carrots, chopped peanuts, and even a sliced spring roll all on top of vermicelli. It also came with rice paper wraps and a bowl of hot water so you could make your own fresh rolls.

These fast and easy Vietnamese lettuce wraps are loosely based on the flavors of that dish. Instead of vermicelli and rice paper wraps, we’re using fresh leaves of lettuce with a little jasmine rice inside to soak up the saucy beef. You could definitely use rice noodles or cauliflower rice instead if you prefer! The beef is quickly cooked with a little garlic and a sauce that combines tamari (or coconut aminos), fish sauce, honey, and sambal oelek. The result is an umami-packed flavor with just the right balance of sweet, salt, spice, and funk.

Crispy Honey Butter Salmon + How to Get Crispy Salmon Skin

February 13, 2017 By Becky 36 Comments

Crispy honey butter salmon is a snap to make in half an hour with just five ingredients, but its flavor and texture make it worthy of a special occasion.

For the first 25 years of my life, I avoided salmon. It seemed too fishy, and its pink color always made it look suspiciously raw.

Then I started writing Paleo Planet, and my editor gently informed me that I would need to have at least one, if not two or three, salmon recipes in the book. I got cooking, and before long I discovered that crispy salmon skin is the BEST THING EVER.

Since crispy-skinned salmon is so good all on its own, I’ve started letting it shine with this super simple crispy honey butter salmon recipe. Basically we’re searing the salmon to get the skin nice and crunchy, and then topping it with a little butter and honey. The honey and butter melt onto the fish and create a rich, slightly sweet sauce that tastes like so much more than just the sum of its parts.

Ben and I are moving this week and we’re exhausted (see our super cute new digs here!), so I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. Below you’ll find my five best tips for making sure your salmon skin is truly crispy. If you’re still looking for something special to cook for Valentine’s Day, why not give this crispy honey butter salmon a try? And by the way, it’s fabulous with Instant Pot mashed potatoes.

Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup with Cauliflower

January 23, 2017 By Becky 31 Comments

This Instant Pot potato leek soup is lightened up with the addition of cauliflower, and comes together super quickly in a pressure cooker. It’s also paleo and Whole30 compliant!

It’s Day 1 of my January/February Whole30! Usually I start a Whole30 right at the beginning of January, but this year I had plans to help out with a styled wedding shoot and travel to Florida. I wanted to make sure I could eat some faux wedding cake and all the Cuban food, so I pushed my start date to today. I went to a great yoga class last night and made some mini frittatas (similar to these) to reheat for quick breakfasts, so things are going swimmingly so far. Tonight my Whole30 partner in crime Lindsey and I are making my shepherd’s pie with rutabaga, which is one of my favorite cold-weather meals of all time.

This instant pot potato leek soup is a great addition to my winter Whole30 repertoire. The base of the soup is half potato and half cauliflower, so you get the great flavor and creaminess of potatoes without the huge carb spike. Anyone suspicious of cauliflower will not be able to taste it! The leeks add wonderful savory flavor to the soup, which is further complemented by the grassy, oniony freshness of the chives sprinkled on top.

Huevos Divorciados + Salsa Verde

January 9, 2017 By Becky 26 Comments

Huevos divorciados is a classic Mexican breakfast that’s just as amazing for dinner. Homemade salsa verde makes it extra special!

Huevos divorciados, which literally translates to “divorced eggs”, are one of my favorite Mexican breakfasts. Two fried eggs are served with two different kinds of salsa–in this case, salsa verde and ancho chile salsa. They’re often separated by some refried beans and potatoes, but I like to serve them with a quick sweet potato hash. If you have your salsas ready, this meal comes together in less than 30 minutes. And while homemade salsa is the most delicious (plus fun and easy to make!), store-bought salsas can definitely work, too. Just read the labels carefully if you’re doing a Whole30!

These huevos divorciados and salsa verde are from my cookbook, Paleo Planet. If you don’t have your copy yet, you can order one on Amazon or pick one up at many Barnes & Noble stores and local booksellers. The book has over 125 internationally-inspired paleo recipes, including over 80 that are Whole30 compliant. You can download the Whole30 recipe list right here!

Sheet Pan Salmon and Delicata Squash

January 2, 2017 By Becky 4 Comments

Sheet Pan Salmon and Delicata Squash #30MinuteMondays #glutenfree #paleo #whole30

This easy sheet pan salmon and delicata squash takes just half an hour and one pan to make. It’s also paleo, dairy free, and Whole30 compliant!

Happy 2017! I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start. If you’re doing a January Whole30 or just trying to clean up your eating a bit this month, I have just the recipe for you. Sheet pan salmon and delicata squash is a super flavorful dinner that only requires four ingredients, half an hour, and one pan. I used homemade Creole seasoning on the squash and the fish, but store bought Creole seasoning or your favorite spice blend would also work.

This recipe is part of my 30 Minute Mondays series, which has been on hold for a while now. However, this month I’m back to sharing quick and easy recipes for you each Monday, and am going to keep them all Whole30-compliant for January.

Sheet Pan Salmon and Delicata Squash #30MinuteMondays #glutenfree #paleo #whole30

Since we’re roasting and then broiling for this recipe, I recommend using a high-heat cooking oil like duck fat, ghee, or avocado oil. I buy Epic duck fat and La Tourangelle avocado oil from Thrive Market and make my own ghee. Both duck fat and ghee impart extra rich flavor to the dish, while avocado oil is more neutral. The higher smoke points of all three of those fats make them ideal for roasting and searing, whereas other fats like olive oil are best used raw or in low-heat cooking.

Stuffed Avocados with Shrimp and Mango

May 5, 2016 By Becky 12 Comments

Stuffed avocados with shrimp and mango are simple, quick, and crave-worthy, especially when topped with a spicy jalapeño aioli!

I’m having a really hard time writing this post because there aren’t any fixings for these stuffed avocados left, and I’m craving them so badly. They check all the boxes for my top practical considerations because they’re healthy, fast, easy, and filling. And they check all my flavor and texture boxes because they’re creamy, savory, spicy, and sweet with a little bit of crunch from the scallions. They’re pretty much all I’ve wanted for dinner ever since I first dreamed them up.

My fiancé Ben loves these, too. He’s not too hard to please with food because he’ll eat almost anything besides sweet potatoes or cooked apples (I know, right?), but it’s rare that he gets super excited about a food. However, after the first time we had these stuffed avocados with shrimp and mango, he made a point of telling me twice that he really liked them. (And in case you don’t know Ben, “I really liked those” is Ben-speak for “Those are the best things I’ve ever tasted!”) He hasn’t said so many good things about one of my recipes since last time I made the millionaire’s shortbread from Paleo Planet.

The premise for this dish is simple: it’s an avocado boat stuffed with a shrimp and mango filling accented with scallions and topped with an easy jalapeño aioli. The aioli is creamy, heart-healthy and delicious thanks to its main ingredient: avocado oil mayo from Primal Kitchen. It has only a handful of wholesome ingredients: avocado oil, cage-free, organic eggs, organic vinegar, salt, and rosemary extract. No sugar or canola oil in sight!

It’s kind of weird for me to be whipping up a mayonnaise-based sauce because I’ve never been a fan of mayo, but this one is so good and unlocks so many epic paleo sauce possibilities. Since I try to limit my dairy intake and I’m allergic to coconut, there are so many creamy sauces out there that just don’t work for me. I first used this avocado oil mayo last year in an awesome green goddess dressing, and I’ve been hooked ever since. This jalapeño aioli is even better because it’s nice and spicy, and in addition to being great with these stuffed avocados with shrimp it’s also epic with baked sweet potato fries.

Thai Basil Noodles with Beef (Drunken Noodles)

May 2, 2016 By Becky 16 Comments

Who needs takeout when you can make your own gluten-free Thai basil noodles with beef in less than 30 minutes?

How do you feel about fat noodles? My love for them runs pretty deep. I was a fan of pad thai when I first tried it and I still think it’s really tasty, but the minute I took my first bite of pad see ew I switched camps. Something about those wide, flat rice noodles really does it for me. And lately, with my growing love for spicy food, thai basil noodles (otherwise known as drunken noodles or pad ki mao) have become my new favorite.

I made these thai basil noodles with store-bought rice noodles, but if you don’t eat rice, I’ve got a solution for you. Check out my paleo pad see ew recipe, which uses homemade tapioca flour crepes cut into strips instead of noodles. They’re really delicious and a great stand-in for rice noodles if you’re avoiding all grains. Add the homemade noodles at the end of step 4 below, after the eggs are scrambled in–they’re soft to begin with so they don’t need much time cooking with the rest of the ingredients.

This thai basil noodles with beef recipe is quick and weeknight-friendly, which is what I’m all about lately since things are so busy at my day job. I see kids starting at 8:30 in the morning until 6 or 6:30 in the evening, and since they’re half-hour appointments and I’m booked pretty much back to back, I often see 16 or 17 different children in one day. (In fact, I almost feel like I’m leading a double life: from Monday to Thursday when I work, my brain is filled to the brim with speech and language therapy thoughts and what else I need to be doing to help all of my kids. And from Friday to Sunday it’s food, photos, more food, and more photos, with a little bit of writing sprinkled in.) When I get home at the end of a work day, I can barely bring myself to preheat an oven or make anything that takes longer than half an hour. (I also can barely stay up past 9 pm. Is that normal for someone who’s thirty? I can’t even keep my eyes open long enough to watch Game of Thrones when it’s actually on! Please tell me I’m not alone here.)

Paleo Chicken Piccata with Asparagus

February 29, 2016 By Becky 6 Comments

This paleo chicken piccata is an easy, quick, and super flavorful weeknight dinner. Adding asparagus makes the already delicious combo of chicken, lemon, and capers even tastier and more nutritious.

Do you see those little green leaves gracing the top of this paleo chicken piccata? Can you guess what they are?

If you guessed parsley I can see why, but they’re actually carrot tops. Yup, as in the lengthy greens that sometimes come with a bunch of carrots, making the whole shebang almost impossible to fit into one of those little produce bags at the grocery store (I’m not the only one who has trouble with that, right?!).

I’m not a big fan of parsley. While it looks nice as a garnish, I often find its flavor too assertive, and sometimes I can barely taste whatever is underneath. So when I was at the grocery store yesterday and they were out of organic parsley, my eyes landed on a gorgeous bunch of organic rainbow carrots with their pristine, frilly greens still attached. I had no particular plan for the carrots, but I knew exactly what I’d do with the greens: chop them up and sprinkle them all over this dish. I actually just snipped them with kitchen shears, which was much easier than chopping, and their delicate flavor was perfect here. This paleo chicken piccata is so flavorful already from the capers, lemons, and ghee that it doesn’t need an assertive herb on top. (This garnish won’t use up all of your carrot tops, but you can use the rest to make carrot top-kale pesto! It’s amazing. Of course, you can also just use parsley here if you like it more than I do.)

That’s probably enough about the garnish, though–let’s talk about the paleo chicken piccata itself. This dish is so easy to make. Basically we’re pounding out chicken cutlets to make sure they’re nice and thin, dipping them in some seasoned tapioca flour, and pan-frying them in ghee and olive oil until they’re golden brown. Next we’re quickly steam-sautéing some asparagus in the same pan and making a quick sauce with chicken stock, lemon juice, capers, and a little more ghee or butter. That’s it, and dinner is served! I sometimes find chicken piccata too lemony, but the asparagus and ghee add some richer, earthier flavors here so that the balance of tart and savory tastes is just perfect.

Pork Chops with Cranberry-Apple Compote (#30MinuteMondays)

January 11, 2016 By Becky 4 Comments

These paleo, Whole30-compliant pork chops with cranberry-apple compote are made for nights when you come home already hungry: they’re easy, satisfying, and fast. They can be ready in 30 minutes, and there’s a shortcut version that’s even faster!

I’m on Day 11 of my Whole30 and, at the risk of jinxing myself, it’s been smooth sailing so far! I’ve been drinking my coffee with homemade almond milk most days and occasionally making it into a chai ghee “latte” when I want something a little more indulgent. I’ve gotten a little tired of having eggs for breakfast, but mixing in the occasional dinner for breakfast has helped make eggs seem appealing again the next day. And I’ve done a pretty good job of making big batches of meals like bacon and sweet potato chili and cracklin’ chicken so that I can have leftovers for the next day.

I’m not quite as on top of my meal planning game as I’d like to be, though, so there have been several nights when I left work already hungry and didn’t have any leftovers ready to just heat up when I got home. That’s where these seared pork chops with cranberry-apple compote come in.

This whole recipe takes less than thirty minutes, and there’s even an abridged version where the compote is stripped down to its most essential ingredient. That version is in the recipe notes and can be accomplished in 15 minutes flat if you work efficiently.

Since they’re coated in a delicious dry rub made from the spices pictured above, these pork chops are also great on their own. Ben always has his plain because he’s averse to the texture of cooked apples (I’m all about that because it means more compote for me!). The dry rub gets smokiness and a little heat from the paprika and savory earthiness from the cumin and garlic. There’s also sea salt, pepper, and just a tiny bit of cinnamon as a nod to the apples that are in these pork chops’ future.