Paleo/Caveman Diet And Gluten Free Recipes Tailored For British Tastes Using Foods Commonly Available In English Stores And Supermarkets
By Michelle Newbold
Published by Michelle Newbold at Smashwords
© Michelle Newbold 2012
Copyright Notice
First Published in 2011 in Great Britain by Michelle Newbold
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted by any means save with the written permission or accordance with the provision of the Copyright Act of 1956 (as amended). Any publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Copyright © Michelle Newbold 2012
Michelle Newbold is hereby identified as the author of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
If you are interested in following the Paleo or Caveman way of eating, you may already have read a lot of background information into why the human body is designed to function better on a diet as close to that of our hunter gatherer ancestors.
As agriculture has only been around for the past 10,000 years and our bodies have not evolved quickly enough to adapt to the modern diet of dairy and grain-based food, so we are still engineered to be eating a diet of meat, fish, fruit, nuts and vegetables to maintain our bodies in the best possible health.
It’s quite astounding how many people are gluten intolerant, and there are thousands more who are unaware they are sensitive to some compounds found within wheat and other grains. Mostly these people will have mild symptoms that show up as headaches or digestive upsets, aching joints, bloating, or a feeling of lethargy, that they just put up with as part of normal life without them realising that grains may be the underlying cause of their health niggles.
Dairy too can cause problems, and there is also a large slice of the population that are lactose intolerant. Our caveman ancestors roamed the land in search of food every day, and they would definitely not have carried a cow over their shoulders just on the off chance they fancied a drink of milk on their journey. Cattle had not been domesticated yet, so our ancestors maintained their fluid balance through drinking good old fashioned water, and the fluids naturally contained in the fruit and vegetables they gathered along the way.
Cheese is often linked with causing migraine headaches, and those who suffer from these terrible debilitating attacks will quite often reduce the frequency and duration of attacks when cheese is eliminated from their diet.
So by following a diet that closely resembles that of our ancestors, we may see a great improvement in our health. This has been proven quite a few times in medical experiments over the years where doctors and scientists have returned volunteers to a more natural diet, and performed numerous tests on their subjects measuring blood pressure, cholesterol lipid counts, lean muscle to fat ratios etc. the results of which all show remarkable improvement for the better.
If you are reading this book because you are interested in following a more natural diet, or because you already know you are gluten or lactose intolerant, then you will find a nice range of recipes on the following pages that will suit your needs.
However, if like me you are British, you may have become aware that the majority of recipe books on the market are aimed at a mainly American readership. There is nothing wrong with this of course, but it can often prove difficult or expensive to source some of the ingredients used in these recipes, as they are not commonly found in British shops or supermarkets.
Knowing what to substitute for buffalo meat, or that cilantro can be swapped for coriander for example, can also slow you down, as will converting the American cup measurements for UK grammes. I personally have no idea what how to weigh out half a cup of sliced mushrooms – do you? And what exactly is a stick of butter?
Now that I mention it – butter, honey and vinegar are not really acceptable for a true, die-hard, strict Paleo enthusiast. But then neither would any processed meats such as bacon or sausage.
Unless you have unlimited time on your hands that you can dedicate to hunting down your prey, searching out and digging up root vegetables from your local park, shooting birds from the sky, and climbing trees to pick fresh nuts and raid bee nests for honey, then I suggest a bit of leeway when it comes to choosing your ingredients for your meals. I have included bacon and sausage in the recipes.
I do apologise if the odd bit of butter creeps into a recipe here or there, but I do love butter and cannot sacrifice it. If you wish to substitute any you find for olive oil, please do so.
I have read that if you stick to eating Paleo for about 85% of the time, this will be great for your health, so for myself I make a little allowance for butter, coffee and a little 85% cocoa dark chocolate as an occasional treat.
The overall aim of this book is to give the average British reader a bundle of recipes that use ingredients easily found in shops, supermarkets and farmers markets in the UK and use British measurements. The recipes are based around British staple foods such as beef, chicken, lamb, pork, fish and vegetables, with a few fruit based desserts thrown in for good measure.
There are numerous recipe books and websites that include dessert ideas such as grain-free fruit cakes and cookies, but I find they often use a lot of ground nuts in place of flour, which actually works out to be very expensive. A small bag of ground almonds in my local supermarket was priced at £3.99, and would not have been sufficient for a recipe I was considering making, therefore, I gave up on the idea. Somehow I cannot see Mr Caveman of old stalking a deer with a spear whilst carrying a slice of nut based fruit cake in his pocket.
I also wanted this book to be cost-effective and do-able for people to follow without breaking the bank, so for this reason I have not included any breakfast bars, biscuit replacements, or cake substitutes that use expensive ingredients. Hence my preference for more naturally occurring, and cheaper, fruit based desserts.
Time is precious too, so the recipes have been chosen for their ease of preparation and/or cooking time, which means you will not be spending hours in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove.
So what are you waiting for? Lets get stuck in….
Full English Breakfast – Paleo Style
Spinach Mushrooms with Bacon, Egg and Pesto
Easy Ratatouille With Poached Eggs
Minty Salmon & Broccoli Frittata
Tenderstem Broccoli with Sautéed Onions & Bacon
Sticky Slow-Roast Belly of Pork
Pork, Apple & Sage Burger With Caramelised Onions
Herbed Pork Fillet With Roast Vegetables
Pork & Peach Kebabs With Little Gem Salad
Cooking with Beef : How To Cook Steak
Steak With Grilled Peppers & Coriander Salsa
How to Choose and Cook Chicken
Chicken, Watercress And Orange Salad
Rosemary Chicken With Tomato Sauce
Spicy Chicken with Vegetable Sauce
Moroccan-Style Chicken With Carrot & Orange Salad
Cooking Mackerel And Other Oily Fish.
Smoked Salmon With Prawns, Horseradish & Lime Vinaigrette
Baked Salmon With Fennel & Tomatoes
Charred Salmon With Fennel & Olive Salad
Barbecued Mackerel With Ginger, Chilli & Lime Drizzle
Smoked Mackerel With Quick Grilled Ratatouille
Mackerel With Warm Cauliflower & Caper Salad
Grilled Mackerel With Orange, Chilli & Watercress Salad
Sardines Stuffed With Orange Slices & Bay Leaves
Grilled Sardines With Cherry Tomatoes, Rocket & Fennel
Sauces Condiments and Crudités
Gluten-Free Desserts That Are Paleo Friendly And Not Too Expensive!
Breakfast is often considered the most difficult meal of the day to adapt to the Paleo way of eating, and for the gluten-free dieter too when you consider the traditional breakfast choices of cold cereal with milk, toast with butter and jam, or porridge.
You don’t have to go too far back in our history to see we ate much healthier choices of breakfast. The traditional full English breakfast for example is still eaten today, and was the staple breakfast of our Victorian ancestors, but today it is usually reserved for the weekend when we have more time to prepare and eat it at our leisure.
However time pressed we are during the week, we could still manage to rustle up a modified version of a cooked breakfast with a little planning. Boiled eggs can be prepared while you take your morning shower for example, or you could poach some fish in a frying pan with a little water while you are dressing.
If you are really pressed for time in the morning, why not have some ready prepared breakfast items that you can grab and take with you to work. Hard boiled eggs, small packets of mixed nuts or trail mix, left over cold cuts of meat can be popped into a sandwich bag and carried with you. My particular favourite is a slice of cold vegetable frittata with a small tub of tomato salsa to dip into. Delicious!
I have have included a recipe for gluten free granola and a muesli-type breakfast for those people who really miss their morning cereal. You can eat these with a little coconut milk, almond milk, or with a splash of fresh orange juice if you wish. The granola recipe is also nice eaten dry as a snack.
Some of the cooked breakfast recipes here can be prepared in advance, then stored in the fridge and reheated in the microwave for a delicious and quick breakfast.
Full English Breakfast – Paleo Style
4 rashers good quality lean unsmoked back bacon
4 portabello mushrooms
12-16 cherry tomatoes
6 tsp olive oil
2 good-quality free-range pork sausages
2 free-range eggs
1 handful fresh berries (whatever is in season)
Lay the bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes on a foil-lined grill tray. Brush the tops of the mushrooms with 3 tsp of olive oil. Heat the grill to very hot. Lay the sausages on a small foil-lined grill tray and grill for about 10 minutes until cooked, turning occasionally.
Fry the eggs gently until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.
Place the tomatoes, bacon and mushrooms under the grill for 3-4 minutes until cooked through.
Arrange everything on a plate and serve with the fresh berries to follow at room temperature.
Spinach Mushrooms with Bacon, Egg and Pesto
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 Portobello mushrooms, stalks trimmed
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon
150g/5½oz baby spinach leaf
5 tbsp water
2 free-range egg yolks
Salt and ground black pepper
For the pesto sauce
55g/2oz baby spinach leaves
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
100g/3½oz pine nuts
Salt and ground black pepper
Preheat the grill to high.
Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat.
Wrap a strip of bacon around each mushroom and seal with a toothpick to keep in place. Add the wrapped mushrooms to the frying pan and cover with a sheet of foil, or a lid if your pan has one. Cook for about six minutes or so, shaking the pan occasionally. Remove from the heat once the mushrooms are cooked, and leave to one side.
Place the spinach in a microwave-safe bowl with the water. Cover with cling film and cook in the microwave on full power for two minutes, or if you prefer, steam in a pan gently until wilted, or use a steamer. Remove and put to one side.
To make the pesto, place the 55g/2oz spinach, olive oil, garlic and pine nuts in a food processor and blend together. Season, to taste, with salt and ground black pepper and transfer to a serving bowl.
Place the wilted spinach on top of the cooked mushrooms and place an egg yolk on top of each. Season, to taste, with salt and ground black pepper and place under the grill for one minute, or until the yolk is cooked to your liking.
To serve, place the mushrooms on a plate and drizzle with pesto.
Easy Ratatouille With Poached Eggs
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 red or orange pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 aubergine, diced
2 courgettes, diced
400g can chopped tomatoes
4 large eggs
Handful basil leaves
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion, pepper, garlic and rosemary, and then cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened. Add the aubergine and courgettes, and then cook for 2 more minutes.
Add the tomatoes, then fill the can with water, swirl it around and tip into the pan. Bring to the boil, cover, then simmer for 40 minutes, uncovering after 20 minutes, until reduced and pulpy.
Make 4 spaces for the eggs in the ratatouille. Crack an egg into each hole and season with black pepper. Cover, then cook for 2-5 minutes until set as softly or firmly as you like. Scatter over the basil and serve.
Can be frozen without eggs. Try making enough for 3 days worth of breakfast, and store in the fridge to be reheated for breakfast – always cook the eggs fresh.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
Small bunch coriander, stalks and leaves chopped separately
2 400g tins of tomatoes
4 eggs
Vary this dish by flavouring the simple tomato sauce with whatever you have to hand - curry powder, pesto or fresh herbs
Heat the oil in a frying pan that has a lid, then soften the onions, chilli, garlic and coriander stalks for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the tomatoes, and then bubble for 8-10 minutes until thick. Can be frozen for 1 month.
Using the back of a large spoon, make 4 dips in the sauce, and then crack an egg into each one. Put a lid on the pan, and then cook over a low heat for 6-8 minutes, until the eggs are done to your liking. Scatter with the coriander leaves and serve.
This dish can be made in bulk and a portion reheated for breakfast, but remember to cook the eggs fresh each day.
Minty Salmon & Broccoli Frittata
1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
2 skinless salmon fillets
1 tbsp olive oil
A small handful mint, finely chopped
8 eggs, beaten
Boil the broccoli pieces for 4 minutes until everything is tender. Drain well. Meanwhile, place the salmon fillets in a microwaveable dish, splash with a little water, then cover in cling film and microwave on High for 2½ minutes until the fish flakes.
Heat the grill. Flake the salmon into large chunks and poke amongst the broccoli. Stir the mint and some seasoning into the eggs, and then pour into a frying pan pan. Leave for 6 minutes over a low heat until the sides are set and just the centre is a little wobbly, then flash under the grill to set completely and brown. Serve in wedges with a big green salad on the side, or chill and eat slices cold for breakfast.
Tenderstem Broccoli with Sautéed Onions & Bacon
300g Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
140g streaky bacon, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Cook the broccoli for 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, run under cold water until completely cooled, then put to one side.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and bacon. Cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes, adding the garlic halfway through, until the bacon is crisp and the onions are soft and golden.
Add the broccoli to the pan, and then toss through to coat in the oil. Cook for a couple more minutes until the broccoli is completely heated through. Season with pepper, and then serve immediately.