Shepherd's Pie (paleo)

I have made shepherd's pie before - I just checked, and I posted a recipe in 2012. Maybe this one is similar?! Global pandemics call for comfort food, which for me today is mashed cauliflower baked on top of meat and veggies. Is this a casserole? I think so. I made it while sipping on a whiskey ginger and listening to Mehdi Hasan and Jeremy Scahill, who feel like people of great sanity amidst some perplexing (at best) and horrifying (at worst?) responses to the changing world, capitalism, and coronavirus. I also listened to my friend's most recent recording (just released last week) of traditional choral world music, for a respite from politics. Which was very satisfying.

The highlight of this shepherd's pie recipe is the inclusion of mustard in the topping. Yum!!! This is an excellent addition that I will now implement in my mashed cauliflower going forward.

Cauliflower topping
1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tbsp ghee or butter
1 tsp spicy mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh parsley, to garnish

Meat/Veggie mix
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chicken or beef broth
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Place a couple inches of water in a large pot. Once the water is boiling, place steamer insert and then cauliflower florets into the pot and cover. Steam for 12-14 minutes, until tender. Drain and return cauliflower to the pot.
2. Add the ghee/butter, mustard, salt, and pepper to the cauliflower. Using an immersion blender or food processor, combine the ingredients until smooth.
3. Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Add in the ground beef and cook until browned.
4. Stir the tomato paste, chicken broth, and remaining spices into the meat mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Spread the pureed cauliflower on top of the meat/veggie mix. Place under the broiler for 5-7 minutes until the top turns golden. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve.
(You could also, as the original recipe suggests, transfer everything to ramekins. I did not do this b/c it seemed fussy.)

Cauliflower soup

Cauliflower soup recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp vegan margarine or coconut oil or bacon grease
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 potato, diced
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• 4  cups vegetable broth
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• dash nutmeg

Preparation:

If you would like to use bacon: first make bacon, then eat it, or save it to crumble on top later :)

In a large soup or stock pot, sautee the onion and garlic in the oil of choice for 3 to 5 minutes, or until onions are soft.

Add the chopped potato and cauliflower and cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the vegetable broth and bay leaves and bring to a simmer. Cover and allow to cook for 25 - 30 minutes.

(bet you could add ham or something here Megan?)

Remove the bay leaves, then transfer soup to a blender and puree. Season with salt, pepper

Paleo Cauliflower "Couscous"

I ate this cauliflower couscous on Friday. And then I made it again tonight for dinner. It is SO good, I would have it a 3rd time this week if I had more cauliflower. Yum.

In addition to numerous meals of this couscous, my weekend also included numerous repeats of this song by the Roches. Up until Saturday I had never heard of them, but this dear song has been playing in my head or on my youtube since then (I listened to most of their other songs too)! I am finding them quite entertaining.

This recipe originally comes from the Clothes Make the Girl, though I made some modifications that I think make it even better (plus she uses a microwave and I don't). She is such a genius with the paleo foods - I am excited for her new cookbook coming out very soon.

Cauliflower Couscous
1 small head cauliflower
3 T coconut oil (or part olive oil)
1/2 large onion, chopped small
2 T golden raisins, craisins, chopped dates, etc
2 T chopped almonds, cashews, or pine nuts.
1 t. cumin
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. coriander
salt to taste
lemon zest (optional)

1. Heat 2 T of the coconut oil in a large skillet or heavy pot on med heat. Add onions, and saute for 5-8 minutes until translucent (you may need to lower heat a bit).
2. While onions are cooking, prepare the cauliflower. The stalk does not grind well into a couscous, so chop off the florets into somewhat uniform size pieces. You will then pulse/food process the florets in 2-3 batches in the food processor until couscous sized. *This is important, because otherwise you will not get uniform couscous pieces - you will get lots of clumps. So even though it is a pain in the butt, it is worth it! Process in batches!
3. Once onions are translucent and maybe starting to caramelize, add dried fruit, nuts, and spices. Saute another 3-5 minutes, stirring a bit, to get the flavors combined and to really bring out the flavor of the spices.
4. Add the "couscous" to the pan, stirring every so often. Add the last Tablespoon of oil/fat to the pan to keep the cauliflower from burning or getting too dry. Cook for about 8 minutes to make sure cauliflower is tender. Add lemon zest and salt to taste. Serve!

I ate mine with Meatballs with a sprinkle of cilantro and a little melted ghee. OMG it was incredible.

Cauliflower Soup w/Lamb

This is another one of my favorite soups.  I had never tried cauliflower soup, but somehow it sounded like something I would really like.  I put together this simple recipe based on some of my other standby soup recipes.  Roasting veggies before putting them in the broth helps the over-all flavor.  Roasted cauliflower is really good on it's own, and the taste transfers to a soup very easily.  The prep time is short and the end product is satisfying and filling.

Ingredients:
1/4 pound ground lamb
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2-3 cups broth (chicken, beef, your choice)
big bunch of parsley, chopped
sea salt
pepper
coconut oil

Chop and roast the cauliflower at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  In the meantime sweat the onions in a bit of coconut oil in a big pot.  Once the cauliflower is roasted add the broth, cauliflower, salt and pepper to the pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 10-15 until the cauliflower softens.  Then, blend with an immersion blender or whatever type of blender you have available.  The lamb can either be sautéed in a separate pan or boiled in the blended soup.  Either way, lamb is a terrific addition to this soup.  It would also be excellent with coconut milk as well.  I actually think the soup has a coconut-like flavor as it is.

I think I may be obsessed with soup these days.  It's my favorite nourishing and fulfilling food at any meal.

Roasted eggplant and tomato curry

There is this dish they put in the hot bar at the Seward that I really like: roasted eggplant, tomatoes, cauliflower, and peppers in a not so-saucy sauce. Feeling inspired, I bought these main ingredients, only to come home and realize I was sorta clueless about the spices. So I did some online research, coming up with not too much, and settled on re-working a Baigan Bharta (Indian dish of roasted eggplant curry) recipe. And the dish turned out great - though not really much like the one at the Seward. Oh Well. AND, I really want to try the straight up Baigan Bharta too. Have you had ROASTED eggplant?! It becomes this creamy substance that is really delicious.

My recipe is below, with these side notes: the amount of tomatoes made it distinctly saucy - you could use a small can of tomatoes if you want that to be different; garlic would be tasty in there if you can eat it; and, I did this food prep in two parts - I made the eggplant (and cauliflower) one night, and finished the dish the next. You don't need to do that, but it makes dinner on night two take only 20 minutes.

1 large eggplant
1 small head cauliflower
1 green pepper, diced large
2 T ghee
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 medium onion - minced fine
1 in ginger root - minced fine
1 medium green chili - minced
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1 c. coconut milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash eggplant and dry it. Make incision with a sharp knife all over the whole eggplant. Rub some oil over it . Place on a baking sheet and in a preheated oven. Bake for 40 minutes. While the eggplant is roasting, chop the cauliflower into pieces and toss it with coconut oil or olive oil. Put it on a flat baking dish and roast it in the oven with the eggplant - it will be done after 20 minutes. (Photo is cooled eggplant before I scooped out all the insides.)

Allow the eggplant to cool. Once it has cooled cut it in the middle, scoop out the soft flesh and place it in a bowl. Mash finely with a fork or chop. Discard skin.

Heat ghee over medium heat. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Once the spices start to pop, add the onion, ginger, garlic (if using) and green chili. When they are soft, add in the rest of the spices and saute for another minute or two. Add tomatoes, eggplant, chopped/roasted cauliflower, green pepper and coconut milk. Stir occasionally and let simmer until all ingredients are hot and softened to your liking. Because I roasted the cauliflower and like crunchy peppers, this only needed to sit for 10 minutes for me.

Paleo Shepherd's Pie

This recipe came to fruition because of too much salt in mashed cauliflower. I was whipping up the steamed cauliflower and I poured in a heap of salt. Bummer. I mean, I'm kind of a salt fiend, but these were pretty inedible. I thought they might be salvageable mixed with other stuff to temper the saltiness - and so I made shepherd's pie. Which really, what is shepherd's pie? Meat and veggies covered with mashed potatoes, right? I think the only time I ever ate it was while on a bike trip in Baltimore where the houseful of folks made a big vegetarian version. I can't remember if there was fake meat or just veggies, but I remember I liked it. Although, really, what didn't I like while on a bike trip?

In any case, I really don't have much to compare this to, but it reminded me of two things: 1) making and cooking "hobo dinners" while camping as a kid (cut up various veggies and wrap them up in tin foil with bits of burger to cook in the fire) and 2) eating at my grandma's when she served hamburger gravy on mashed potatoes. Her recipe came from the public school's cafeteria cookbook (chow mein was another of her favorites) - back when cafeteria's actually cooked food with real ingredients and thus USED cookbooks. Not that their recipe's were particularly healthful - but there were actual ingredients. (As a tangent, my mom just told me about a woman in apple valley or some suburb who has lead this effort to overhaul 5 school kitchens so that the school's can serve healthy, actual food. Apparently school cafeteria's are currently equipped only to reheat food, and if given raw meat they have no way to actually cook it. ?!)

Anyway, there is something pretty comforting to me about having hamburger and mashed potatoes together...it's such a midwestern-hotdish sort of thing. The recipe I used is here, and she uses what is probably standard to shepherd's pie: carrots and celery to accompany said cauliflower, onion and burger - with some broth. Because I was in a last minute situation, I used cabbage in lieu of carrots/celery. I halved the recipe and did not use bacon - only a pound of burger. I also threw in a little wine with the broth - don't know if it made much difference, but I think it could only be for the better if it did!

I'd totally make this again - maybe in the fall with brussels sprouts in there too. And call it shepherd's hotdish. or something.

Roasted Curried Cauliflower

These foggy, warm, but cold days are ones where I just want to watch movies and eat tasty things. Maybe it is the fog, maybe because it is the end of the week, I don't know. But this cauliflower totally hit the spot. I have never really had roasted cauliflower before, and though it is slightly more high maintenance than steaming, it is so worth it. This stuff turned out amazing. I actually ate almost the whole cauliflower it was so good!

1 head of cauliflower, cut into uniform florets
2 T. melted coconut oil, olive oil, etc
2-4 T curry powder
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Half a lemon

Preheat oven to 450. Mix up the florets in a bowl with oil/fat, curry, salt and pepper. Empty bowl onto a cookie sheet or in a cake pan. The original recipe says to have the pan be foil lines, but I didn't do that and the dishes were not a problem. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, and bake for another 20 minutes, flipping cauliflower half way through. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top, and serve. (I was so eager to eat that I forgot the lemon until partway through - it is good either way, but the lemon is a total flavor boost.)