Chunky Apple Ketchup. Looking for a unique condiment to add some special flavor to your week?
Here’s one: a sweet, fruity ketchup made with fresh tomatoes, apples, and pears. It sounds a little strange, but it’s actually delicious; just try it! Once it’s cooked, it’s almost like a very thick salsa, perfect for topping burgers, pork chops, or chicken breasts. For this recipe, you can use any tomatoes you can lay hands on. If you feel like mixing a couple different kinds, all the better: it can give the ketchup an interesting flavor. To get the flavor of all those spices into the final product, you’ll wrap them in cheesecloth and let them simmer with the ketchup as it cooks.
Sweet Potato Hummus. Hummus is a perfect party snack or finger food – if only it weren’t made out of chickpeas!
Here though, you can get that creamy, dip-friendly texture without any legumes at all: just use mashed sweet potatoes as the base of the hummus in place of the chickpeas. To make the mashed potatoes, first bring a big pot of water to boil. Throw in the potatoes and cook until they’re soft (typically this takes 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes). If you’re impatient, you can cut them up so they cook faster. Then just toss them in a blender or haul out your potato masher and have at ‘em until they’re smooth. Fire-Roasted Salsa. Salsa is a wonderful Paleo-friendly condiment for just about everything: it’s good on salads, burgers, or grilled meat, or just as a dipping sauce for whatever finger-friendly vegetables you like.
And the perfect salsa-making season is when tomatoes are at their cheapest and most delicious: in other words, now. It’s not just fresh tomatoes that make this recipe tasty, though. Roasting them brings out even more flavor, and generous amounts of spices, cilantro, and lime juice give you a nice contrast between the heat of the spices and the sweeter flavor of the tomatoes.
And then there’s the jalapeno, which you can easily use to turn the spice level up or down. If you want a milder flavor, remove the seeds from the jalapeno before tossing it in the blender. Mayonnaise, Revisited. We’ve already touched on mayonnaise, but we also realized that mayo is so versatile and delicious that it’s worth revisiting and reiterating how simple it can be to prepare at home.
Add to that the fact that healthy store-bought mayonnaise is not something that exists at the moment; all of them are prepared with oils that are very high in polyunsaturated fat. Making mayonnaise doesn’t have to turn into an endurance test of your whisking abilities, thanks to the help of common kitchen tools. Making mayonnaise by hand with only your arm, a bowl and a whisk can certainly empress a few and makes for less cleaning, but it can frankly be exhausting and very frustrating if the mayonnaise ends up breaking. Using either a blender, food processor or handheld immersion blender is the easiest way to whip up a perfect mayonnaise every time. Choosing the oil right. Melon Salsa. Sriracha Sauce. Do you love the eye-searing burn of a chili pepper on your tongue?
Is your spice cabinet full of chili powder, red pepper flakes, curry paste, and exotic spices from every ethnic cuisine you can find? Then you’ll love this homemade sriracha sauce: it adds a fiery zip to anything you drizzle it over, from meatballs to stir-fries to soups and stews. Cranberry Relish. Imagine a perfectly roasted turkey breast, hot out of the oven, crispy golden-brown skin gleaming with fat.
Just the meat is enough to set your mouth watering but you can actually make it even more irresistible with a well-chosen relish. Most people in the US have a very limited view of relish – we just think of the green condiment we get on our hamburgers and hot dogs – but in fact that’s just one variety. Sardine and Roasted Garlic Spread. It’s very useful to have easy spread and sauce recipes on hand.
You probably won’t make use of them too often, but when your in a pinch, it’s great to have something to whip up quickly. I especially like this following recipe because it contains ingredients that I always have well stocked at home in my Paleo pantry. Oftentimes, it can be difficult to figure out when a spread like this would come in handy. Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette. More often than not, the recipes I share here come along with a story.
This is usually the case because I get my inspiration for many things throughout my everyday life. So what’s today’s story? Well, a good friend of mine recently asked for my help as she’s planning one of the most important days of her life; her wedding! Guacamole With Radish and Oranges. You get together for a gathering, everyone is to bring food, so it’s your chance to shine!
Maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but I quite enjoy the friendly competition of trying to outdo all the other guests with an eye catching dish. This unique guacamole will do just that. The ingredients are nothing unusual, but the way it’s presented makes up for it. The concept is just like that of a twice baked potato, but no baking or potatoes are required. You’ll be using the avocado skins as shells to serve the guacamole.
I use avocados quite a bit. Red Pepper Dip. Snacking is often regarded as unhealthy, but this is mainly due to the fact that most popular snacks contain some pretty nasty ingredients.
Even if a healthy Paleo diet helps keep hunger at bay and even if eating every few hours is not a particularly good habit to have, it doesn’t mean that snacking is out of the question, especially when the snack is homemade from natural and fresh ingredients. They are especially great for very active people, who often need more calories to fuel their activity level or for people on the go who require food that’s easy to bring with them. When it comes to paleo snacks, there is very little available at grocery stores that come in the form of a prepared snack and meet the Paleo criteria.
I therefore decided to come up with my own version of veggies and dip. One of my favorite snack recipes is one that I have already shared with you, Baba Ganoush. Homemade Paleo Condiments. Oftentimes the things we miss the most from our previous diets are not so much the bread, pastries or breakfast cereals, but rather the small and flavorful additions that we know of as condiments. I’m talking here of the most popular mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, pickled cucumber relish, horseradish, barbecue sauce and Worcestershire sauce. I already dedicated a post on making homemade mayonnaise, but the other condiments deserve their place as well and can be perfectly healthy Paleo additions, as long as no nasty ingredients are added.
Mexican Salsa Verde. Salsa verde or green sauce or sauce verde is a specialty in many countries like France, Italy and Mexico where the all have their version. Italians make it with capers, anchovies, mustard and olive oil and the French version is a tarragon flavored mayonnaise. Mexicans make it with tomatillos, cilantro, lime juice and jalapeños for a tangy and spicy green sauce you can use for various purposes. Its perfect as a dip for vegetables, a sauce to serve mussels or a sauce to serve with meat like roast beef. Let your imagination run wild as to where to use it. The tomatillos are usually roasted, but you can alternatively simmer them for about 5 minutes for similar results. Serves 4 people. Quick and Easy Guacamole. Guacamole is a Mexican dip that features predominantly the avocado, one of Paleo eaters’ favorite fruit Guacamole is really quick and easy to make and will satisfy everybody.
Avocados are almost 75% fat and most of it is monounsaturated, so it’s really a great thing to consume on a regular basis. Avocados are also full of potassium, vitamin K, vitamin E and B vitamins. To my surprise, I discovered that they have a very high amount of fiber, 75% insoluble fiber and 25% soluble fiber.
Guacamole is usually consumed with tortillas, but we know better than corn and grains and prefer to have guacamole with raw vegetables or simply right off the spoon since it’s so good and healthy. This recipe make about 2 1/2 cups. Ingredients. Paleo Mayonnaise. And to think that I believed I wouldn’t enjoy mayonnaise ever again on Paleo, boy was I wrong! Paleo is the chance to discover blends and flavors of mayonnaise that will stay unknown to most people.
For example, the baconnaise, the duckonnaise or the beefonnaise all made from the fat of their respective animal, pork, duck and beef. Paleo Baba-Ghanoush. Baba-ghanoush is an Arabic dip similar to hummus. Homemade Basil Pesto Recipe. Pesto is a green sauce originating from northern Italy that typically calls for fresh basil and pine nuts. It can also be made with parsley in place of the basil and walnuts or cashews in place of the pine nuts. Some mint can also be added to the basil. The traditional recipe also calls for Parmesan cheese, but it honestly doesn’t lose much in term of flavor when omitting the cheese. Salad Dressing And Vinaigrettes. A great way to make an ordinary salad stand out is to use a vinaigrette that brings depth and zing. We often fall into the trap of making the same few types of vinaigrette over and over again and might become tempted by the abundance of choices offered in grocery stores. We must make it a habit though to make our own dressings and vinaigrettes because the commercial ones often feature nasty ingredients like some unwanted vegetable oil or sweetener.
Peach Butter. I recently received an enormous amount of fresh peaches from a friend. Apple Butter.