Recipe: Lola's Chicken Meatball and Kale Soup

Lola's Chicken Meatball and Kale Soup

Lola's been experimenting with kale lately, and here's one she posted to our Face Book group!

1. Cook until tender:

• 3 chopped carrots
• 3 ribs chopped celery
• 1 large onion diced
• red pepper flakes
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced

2. Mix together: 

• 1 package (about 1 lb?) ground chicken
• Garlic powder
• 2 palm fulls (about 1 1/2 oz?) grated Parm. Cheese
• Salt and pepper

3. Add 2 cartons of chicken broth to tender vegetables. 

 

4. When broth is very hot, with melon scooper (that's right!), drop chicken meatball mixture into hot broth. They will cook in the broth and they will float and be opaque when they are done.

5. Add several handfuls of cleaned, chopped kale, cook until tender.

Recipe: Lola's Turkey Sausage Ratatouille

Lola's Turkey Sausage Ratatoille

*Fair warning, I do not measure. I eyeball it and just add whatever I want. The following recipe is wrote with loose measurements. I added 2 zucchini because that is what I had.. and I bought summer squash on the sale shelf.. so that is how many I used. LOL

• Turkey Sausage removed from their casings
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 onion (I used a sweet onion) diced
• 2 small zucchini diced
• 5 small yellow summer squash diced
• 1 bag (about 2 cups?) mushrooms sliced (I had bought a mixed variety bag on clearance at my store)
• dash of olive oil
• 1/2 jar of your preferred pasta sauce
• parsley
• basil
• salt and pepper
• red pepper flakes

Technique!!! For me, its all about technique.  Removing the casings and browning the sausage is key. The little yummy flavor bits that stick to the pan will lift when you add the squash and mushrooms. The moisture from the vegetables will de-glaze the pan and flavor the entire dish. (this is also the technique I use when making a soup that contains sausage.... always brown sausage first or you are basically "steaming" the sausage in the vegetables.... which doesn't sound appealing to me.. blarh!)

1. Brown the crumbled sausage. 
2. Add all vegetables and spices and and cook on low. 
3. Stir thoroughly and cook on low until vegetables are crisp/tender (I don't like them completely mushy..).
4. When vegetables are the consistency you want, add 1/2 a jar of pasta sauce or a can of diced tomatoes if you prefer. 
5. Mix through and heat thoroughly.
6. I served with a bit of finely shredded Parmesan cheese on it.

Use whatever vegetables you want: Zucchini, onions, eggplant, peppers, whatever you have on-hand.

Ideas: Serve with spaghetti squash as a "pasta", or mix the spaghetti squash and ratatouille together and bake like a casserole.

Maybe stuff a zucchini boat and bake ? Stuff peppers with this mixture? Serve over riced cauliflower?

Let me know how you vary it and make it your own!!!

Recipe: Joie's take on Paleo Stuffed Peppers with a Pureed Cauliflower side

OMG these turned out so flippin' NOM! Who needs the rice filler?

I followed and tweaked this recipe... .The Caveman Gourmet's Stuffed Bell Peppers

I did a pound each of lean beef and Italian sausage

And my pic looks JUST like that one!! 

I served with pureed cauliflower.... (cauliflower, a bit of coconut milk, butter, garlic, chives, salt, pepper, some Parm cheese and a dab of coconut flour to tighten it up)

Recipe: Sweet-n-Sour Cabbage with Hot Sausage, updated with Pix!

There's a little back story on this recipe. My mother in law had a falling-apart diabetic cookbook from the 60s, and in it there was a recipe she found for sweet and sour cabbage. Either she or I (and it was probably she) came up with the idea to add the hot link sausage to it, and I've been making it ever since.  I've passed this recipe down to tons of people, and even had it privately published in a cookbook at my place of employment. So, it's out there.

Tonight I changes one ingredient to make it more in line with the Paleo / Primal lifestyle. I say that, but know that there is still a sweetener in this.  I have found that honey raises my glucose, but slower, and not as high as processed sugar.  Just keep that in mind if you are in the process of going off the sweet stuff.

That said, it was GOOOOOOD! I'm super-stoked that it worked as well as it did.

Ok, so now here's the recipe:

Sweet-n-Sour Cabbage with Hot Links 

• 2-3 slices of bacon OR one tablespoon of bacon fat
• one large onion sliced into half rings, or smaller if you like
• one large (or 2 small) red cabbage, cored and sliced, the thicker white parts removed (they tend to be bitter)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar (ACV)
• one lb. of your favorite spicy link sausage, going as pure as you can afford***
• large pot with a lid (I use a wok, but i don't recommend it, the vinegar will strip your seasoning off of it)

prep time: 10-20 minutes
cook time: approximately 20-30 minutes

1.  in a large wok or stock pot, cook you bacon until crisp, set aside and when cool, crumble. Use the resulting bacon fat in the pan to cook the onions until partially translucent. 
2. mix the honey and ACV with a whisk until incorporated in a separate bowl or glass (I use the measuring cup)
3. slowly add sliced cabbage to the pot, alternating with a splash of the honey/ACV mixture. Coat the cabbage well each time, otherwise it will turn gray and look very unappetizing.
4. once all the honey/ACV mix and the cabbage are mixed into the pot, re-add the crumbled bacon and put a lid on to simmer.
5. cook the cabbage down to desired tenderness, stirring it once or twice. The more you let it cook down, the more the sweet-n-sour flavor permeates the cabbage. This takes about 20-45 minutes depending on how much cabbage you are using.
6. cut up the sausage into 1-2 inch pieces (or cut each link in half) and mix into the cooked cabbage. replace lid and cook another 15 minutes, until the sausages are cooked thoroughly. You'll know when the skins have split.
7. plate and serve. 

Now, you might be wondering which ingredient I swapped to make this more Paleo, and it was the honey. The recipe used to call for 1/2 cup of brown sugar.  Other than the addition of the sausage, there recipe is still the same as the one from my MIL's 1960's diabetic cookbook.

It struck me that 50 years ago, there wasn't the stigma of Fat = Fat. There were plenty of recipes in that book that called for bacon fat or lard.  It's only in more recent times that "health officials" tell you not to eat the fat.

That tells you something doesn't it?


***as far as the sausage goes, I really haven't really found a spicy "pure" sausage yet. YET.  I would love to find a nitrate-free / sugar-free hot sausage. This time I used Scott Peterson's Pure Beef Hot Link Sausage, and yes, there were nitrates in it.  But I'm always on the look-out, so if you find some somewhere, send me a note.

Also, if you want to make and have it be spice, this but can't/don't use spicy sausage, I've thrown in a teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes to the pot and gotten great results.

UPDATE (06/09/13):  I made this again last week, and took pictures.  They aren't great photos, but it's better than nothing. I've actually had a few requests for photos, so here you go!

adding the cabbage, and coating with the liquid mixture.

Cabbage cooked down, adding the sausage.

Viola! Happiness in your mouf!