Paleo Summer: Gazpacho recipe

If I had to choose my favorite Spanish dish it would be hands down: Gazpacho. I drink it all year-long even though it is a Spring/Summer recipe. There are tons of different ways to prepare this; some add bread, some use other colorful ingredients.

I have to say that with one arm (and one hand) it was quite challenging to pull the pictures off but I made my best effort. 🙂

Ingredients (serves 1): 

• 3 cups chopped tomatoes (scoop all the seeds out)
• 1 cup chopped cucumber (peel and scoop the seeds out)
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 3/4 cup bell peppers (yup, once again all seeds out)
• 1 garlic head
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

Blend all the ingredients until smooth. Depending on the consistency you desire you can either add water or keep it creamy. I personally prefer it half and half. Since I have a big problem with textures in creams, I strain it in a big hole strain to keep it extra smooth.

Normally you can garnish it with some diced peppers, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers but since I am not at the top of my chopping game right now, I kept it simple.

Let cool in the fridge for at least one hour before serving.

Enjoy! 🙂

Low-carb: Cauliflower Mashed «Potatoes»

You know those recipes that are extremely healthy but taste like…well…like sand in your mouth? This is not one of them. This recipe is really yummy and has actually no potatoes in it. I love to use it as a side with roasted chicken or a steak and best of all, I can eat this at dinner time.

Cauliflower is very versatile, remember this cauliflower pizza crust and the paleo flatbread?

Ingredients (serves 2 hungry people or 3 not so hungry ones  🙂 )

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 whole leek (green part included)
• 1 garlic head
• 1 whole egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat your oven to broil. Chop the cauliflower, the leek and the garlic heads. Boil the cauliflower until tender. Set aside and let cool. In a pan pour 2 tbsp. olive oil and sauté your chopped leek with the garlic until semi-golden. Set aside to cool.

Pour your egg , egg whites, almond milk, sautéed leek with garlic and the remaining olive oil in your blender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend lightly for 1 min. Don’t over-blend because then it gets very liquid. Pour your mix in a Pyrex and cook in the oven until the top gets golden.

🙂 I like to sprinkle it with some paprika.

Let’s bake something

I don’t know about you guys, but me…this time of the year…it means baking.

I was reorganizing and taking a look at my Culinary Tuesdays and came up with the idea to share with you guys my three favorite sweet recipes of the blog. I will bake some new stuff and share with you the process really soon, but meanwhile…let me indulge you with some fun recipes that you can cook this holiday season and share with your friends and family.

Cinnamon Paleo cookies

Carrot cake

Lemon Pie

Basics: homemade almond milk

I remember the time when I couldn’t stand the taste of almonds; for some reason it didn’t do it for me. Now, after all this intolerance nonsense that cause my migraines, I have come to good terms with it since it’s a fantastic alternative to normal milk (which I don’t like the taste of per se).

Back in Caracas I used to make my own almond milk because it was impossible to find it in stores but when I moved to Madrid I found in the «natural» stores sugar-free almond milk. When I tasted it it seemed kind of…well kind of non natural. The taste was very artificial and the texture did not seem right. After I took a look at the ingredients it said 7% almonds. Say whaaaaat? What about the other 93%?

So to make a short story even shorter, I now make my own almond milk at home and I’m very happy with it. I mix some dates and vanilla with the milk other times I add some cinnamon it all depends on your personal taste…

Ingredients:

• 1 cup blanched almonds (soaked at least 8 hours or overnight)
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 3 dates or 2 tbsp stevia sweetener (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

The most important part here is to soak your almonds for at least 8 hours, 12 hours max. Once they have been soaked, you drain the almonds and put them in the blender. For each cup of almonds you add 2 1/2 cups water. I used to add 3 cups but the milk turned out watery and I like it foamy and thick. Then, if you like, you can add the dates and the vanilla.

Blend for at least three minutes then pour your mix into a cloth strainer and squeeze all the milk into a clean bowl. If you want you can set aside what remains inside the stainer and make some almond flour later. (I’ll leave the simple steps at the end of this post.) 

Refrigerate your milk: it lasts for about 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Almond flour: Set your oven on broil. Take out you oven’s tray and add a parchment paper. Take what’s left in the strainer and spread it on the tray. Leave in the oven for 15 min. Turn the oven off and let the flour cool inside the oven so it dries off. Once the flour is dry strain it in a sieve so you now have a fine type of almond flour. 🙂

Paleo cinnamon-carrot muffins

Since last week was Valentine’s Day, I needed (read carefully I said «needed») to make some muffins to celebrate. I tried several paleo recipes but they didn’t work out for me. I still have to master the recipes that require almond flour.

These are the ingredients that I used for mine: 

– 2 cups almond flour

– 4 tbsp. coconut flour

– 3 egg whites and 1 yolk

– 4 tbsp. melted coconut oil

– 3 tbsp. homemade applesauce

– 4 tbsp. raw stevia powder

– 1/3 cup grated carrots

– 1/4 cup almond milk

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

– 1 tsp. baking soda

– 1/3 cup walnuts (add more if you wish)

Instructions:

– Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

– Beat the egg whites to a meringue-style mix.

– In another bowl mix all the ingredients except the carrots and walnuts.

– Add the egg white mix to your bowl with the carrots and walnuts.

– Add the mix to 6 separate muffin linens (I bought mine at Tiger)

– Cook for 20 min (or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out dry).

– Let cool and enjoy 🙂

 

 

 

Paleo Flatbread

The first time I tried this recipe it came out pretty awful. Really, it did. It tasted like… well it tasted nasty. So I changed some ingredients and now I am happy with the results.

After it was ready, I cut the pieces into tiny squares and kept them in the fridge in an airtight container. They last approximately 3-4 days. When I was ready to eat them I tossed them for a couple of minutes in the oven. You can make mini sandwiches! They are low carb too.

Ingredients: 

– 1 cup cooked cauliflower rice. (Make the cauliflower rice as in this recipe. Make sure to drain all the water with a cloth.)

– 2 egg whites

– 1/4 cup flax food

– 1/4 cup almond flour

– 1 tbsp. ground oregano

– 1/2 tbsp. garlic powder

– Pinch of salt and pepper

Pretty cool right? 🙂

Directions: 

– Pre heat the oven at 450 degrees. Mix everything in a bowl and using your hands, pat out your flatbread on waxed paper.

– Bake until the edges are brown. It depends on your oven, but I usually leave it in the oven for about 30-45 min.

Stuffed red peppers

In Greek «gemistes piperies» means stuffed red peppers (or any other color peppers but these taste sweeter). They also have «gemista» that are stuffed tomatoes and peppers. My grandmother made these with rice but I prefer the low carb version.

Feel free to add a cup of rice to this recipe, I did so in one so that Jimmy wouldn’t complain.

Ingredients:

– 3 big red peppers

– 3 cups lean ground meat

– 1 small onion

– 1 cup broth

– 1/4 cup fresh and minced  parsley

– Olive oil

– Salt and pepper to taste

Try to choose big peppers so you can fill them properly. 

Start by cutting your pepper’s tops, those are going to be your «hats» to close the peppers once they are ready. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees. Pour one small teaspoon on top of each pepper with a little salt and broil in the oven for 30 min.

– Mince the onion and the parsley together. In a medium pot heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the mix from the onion and the parsley and stir for approximately 5 minutes. Toss in the meat and add salt and pepper to taste. Slowly add the broth little by little. Leave just 3 tablespoons in a small bowl to use later.

The meat will be ready when all the broth has evaporated.

– Fill your peppers with the cooked meat. If you want you can add a little rice to the mix as I did above. Take your 3 tablespoons of broth and add one to each stuffed pepper.

– Close the peppers and broil for 10 minutes.