My Speedy Paleo Pad Thai

I used to cook Pad Thai a lot before going Paleo. I had a really quick recipe from eMeals (when I had a subscription!) that included fish sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar as a quick sauce.

This version uses courgettes (zucchini) noodles. These were made with this Spiralizer (although admittedly I’ve just treated myself to this one as it’s getting a bit worn). If you’re feeling patient, you can instead try to slice your zucchini thinly, or even use a vegetable peeler to try to get the same effect.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2-4 zucchini / courgettes (depends on size), spiralized/made into noodles

300g raw prawns (de-veined, etc)

3 spring onions, sliced

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1-2 tablespoons of agave nectar (to taste)

1 tablespoons of lime juice

1 large egg, lightly whisked

oil for cooking (whichever you prefer – coconut adds a nice taste)

lime wedges and chopped almonds, to serve

optional: coriander (for the authentic Pad Thai taste – I’m afraid I’m not a fan!)

 

 

Directions

1. Heat oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the spring onions. Fry for 2 minutes then add the prawns and fry until just pink.

2. Mix up the sauce in a separate bowl – fish sauce, lime juice and then agave nectar to taste. Add this to the pan and heat for 2 minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated.

3. Add the egg and scramble.

4. Add the zucchini noodles and continue to heat for 2-3 minutes until just softened.

5. Serve with almonds and lime wedges (and coriander, if using)

 

 

Let me know what you think if you try this out!

Magic Brownie Bars Trial

This weekend I decided to try out some more treats. I found PaleoOMG’s Magic Brownie Bars and was intrigued. Unfortunately I don’t have shredded coconut, so I used (unsweetened) dessicated coconut which is pretty close.

I may have left the brownies in the oven for slightly too long but actually it was really nice having dried/crunchy coconut as a topping.

These weren’t terribly chocolate-y and are more coconut-y with a slightly chewy texture. I might add more cocoa next time (or even melted dark chocolate perhaps). Anyway, these were pretty popular over the weekend, cut into little bite-sized pieces. I hgihly recommend giving them a try (recipe here).

 

Paleo Pancakes Trial

This morning I thought I’d have a nice treat for breakfast. I tried out planksloveandguacamole‘s recipe for pancakes (you can find this here).

I made a few changes (as usual because I don’t quite have the correct ingredients). I used the coconut milk which I always keep in my fridge rather than coconut cream. I also used vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla extract. It’s very easy to make as you basically drop everything into the food processor/bender – liquids first – and blend (I’m using my Vitamix).

You leave the baking powder to work for 5 minutes before dropping the mix into a hot pan. I used butter as my cooking fat.

I find that Paleo pancake recipes are a little harder to cook than “normal” pancakes and require a bit more patience prior to flipping as the mix can still be a bit runny. I’ve had a few disasters in the past trying to make pancakes out of just mashed bananas and eggs. This recipe makes those good old pancakes you remember from your pre-paleo days.

I served these with some sliced banana on the side. This recipe made 5 pancakes of this size. I kept them warm in a dish in the oven (on a low heat – around 60ºC) while cooking up batches. Yummy!

Zingy Salmon

This evening I decided to make a zingy and fresh salsa to top some salmon fillets sitting in my refrigerator.  Served, of course, with a load of roasted vegetables.

You can chargrill your own bell peppers easily if you have a gas stove – simply turn on the gas and place the pepper directly on top of the flame, rotating it every minute or so until you get the desired effect. Alternatively, you can pop them in the oven for 20 minutes while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow bell pepper (chargrilled)

1/2 red bell pepper (chargrilled)

A handful of hazelnuts

1 lime

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar*

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2  Salmon fillets

*if avoiding vinegars, you can substitute more lime (or lemon) juice to add to the tartness.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200ºC (180°C for fan oven)

Brush salmon fillets lightly with cooking oil (I use olive oil) and season with salt and pepper. Place into the centre of the oven for around 15 minutes (I like to turn if over halfway through but this isn’t really necessary)

Meanwhile, prepare the salsa: remove the seeds from the bell peppers and discard. Chop the flesh into small dice. Chop the hazelnuts and add to the peppers. Add the apple cider vinegar and juice of the lime. Chop the parsley finely and add to the salsa. Add around 1 tablespoon of olive oil and toss the ingredients together. Taste the salsa, add salt/pepper and more vinegar or lime as needed. If the taste is too tart, some ripe cherry tomatoes can be chopped and added to the salsa to sweeten it.

Once the salmon is cooked, remove from the oven and served topped with the salsa.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread Trial

This recipe is from Paleo Kitchen (I don’t just cook from this book, honestly!)… It was so yummy that I’ve baked it twice this week.

The first time, the bananas weren’t terribly ripe so I stuck them in an oven for 10 minutes to soften them up, which worked fantastically. I was a bit too cautious with the ‘swirling’ in the first attempt so second time around really went for it to make sure the chocolate and cinnamon flavour was distributed throughout the cake, as you can see below!

I found the baking time needed was a bit longer than in the book (probably about an hour in my fan oven)

 

This cake is delicious. The chocolatey cinnamon richness is a little treat in the moist banana sponge. I used dark chocolate to try to keep it as Paleo-esque as possible.

I’m taking batch number two into work tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll go down a treat. I don’t think many people are going to complain when it comes down to chocolate/banana/cinnamon cake!

 

Sweet Potato Hash

I start a set of night shifts tonight. This means a nice leisurely brunch and an afternoon of meal prep to get me through the next few days and nights.

Today I made a twist on the Paleo Kitchen’s Sweet Potato and Sun-dried Tomato Hash.

 

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

1 slice of bacon, chopped

1 sweet potato, diced

1 shallot, minced

4 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

2 eggs

salt and pepper

 

 

Instructions:

Prepare vegetables.

Brown bacon.

Add sweet potatoes and cover with lid.

Cook until sweet potatoes browned (around 10 minutes).

Add sun-dried tomatoes and shallots and cover again. Cook until browned (around 3 minutes)

Make a well in the hash and crack two eggs into the pan.

Cover with lid and cook until eggs set.

Salt and pepper to taste.

 

Enjoy!

Vanilla White Peach Muffins Trial

I recently purchased The Paleo Kitchen (I highly recommend it). When flipping through the pages, the recipe for Vanilla White Peach Muffins caught my eye and glancing at the recipe list, I noticed the only thing I was missing was peaches so promptly added them to my usual weekly shop.

Unfortunately if I’d spent more time actually reading the recipe, rather than getting excited at all the new recipes I’ve found to try, I would have noticed the recipe calls for “dried white peaches”. I have never come across these before.  So I thought I’d improvise: I used regular fresh peaches and added a little extra flour and baking powder to compensate for the juice that would inevitably seep from the delicious chopped peaches.

In retrospect, next time I wouldn’t bother adding this extra flour as I think the amount of juice that came from the peaches was very small. Not to say the muffins were dry, but were perhaps a bit more coconut-y than the recipe intends. I also might not bother chopping the peaches into quite such small pieces (I went a bit overboard, and cut them into 3-5mm chunks). I think having a mouthful of muffin with a surprise big chunk of peach would be better than the  scattered ‘dots’ I have in this version.

Of course, it’s all in the eating and these were yummy, and not too dense (which I sometimes find with paleo cakes).

My current go-to naughty treat recipe is from PaleoGrubs (pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins), but these will certainly be added to the list!