Familiar Recipes -- Primal/Paleo Versions

I've seen quite a few weird recipes on the primal and paleo websites, and I tried some; frankly, they are mostly disappointing. Eating delicious food is one of the enjoyable moments of the day, so I like it to taste good! I also understand that it's healthy to eat the parts of the animal that Americans don't usually touch, but I'm not quite ready to eat liver and brain and sweetbreads.

So today I am going through my recipe collection from the past 35 years and separating the Primal, Almost Primal, and Not-at-all Primal, so we can eat food that we have enjoyed all these years, just without the sugar and grains. (Unfortunately, my delicious mac-and-cheese recipe falls in the "not-at-all primal" category.)  I am planning to post my converted recipes here as I type them.


Some of the websites say that occasionally eating rice or potatoes is OK, so I plan to keep those but maybe cut back on the quantity. If a recipe is primal except for a tablespoon of sugar, I'll see if it can use honey instead, or no sweetener at all. I think I can omit the kidney beans from my chili recipes  and use some other vegetable instead.

Desserts are probably not as adaptable to primal. My thought on dessert is if you really want to eat something sweet,  make it good, and eat it rarely (no more than once-a-month). So I won't indulge on a bag of store-bought cookies or pastry, they just aren't good enough to break the diet/lifestyle for, but I might have one piece of something really really good, every few months or so (that's how I justified having a few delicious Butter Ball cookies at Christmas). The longer I go without eating sweet stuff, the less appealing it is anyway.

Here's what I made for dinner last night: a Salmon recipe that Greg made back in 2007. Tamari is gluten-free soy sauce,  it is ok in small amounts. The Beet, Apple, and Orange salad came from Allrecipes.com.

Greg’s Marinated Salmon
4 salmon filets
Marinade, whisk together:
¼ c olive oil
2 Tbs tamari sauce
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs sliced green onion
1 cloves garlic minced
¾ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp crushed red pepper (cayenne)
1/8 tsp salt

Marinate salmon in glass dish 4-6 hours. Grill 10 min per inch of thickness. Turn halfway through cooking.  (Last night it was already too dark and cold to grill, so I baked the salmon at 400 for about 20 minutes.)


Beet, Apple, and Orange Salad
1 1/2 pounds beets
2 cups shredded beet greens
1 orange, peeled and cut into sections (cut sections in half)
1 apple -  cored and sliced, then cut slices in half
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs raspberry vinegar*
1/4 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs unsalted sunflower seeds, toasted, optional

Wash and dry beet greens. Shred greens to measure about 2 cups and set aside.
Place beets in a sauce pan with enough water to cover. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and allow to cool.
Trim and peel off skins; cut into 8 wedges.
Combine orange sections, beets and apples in a bowl.
Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, salt and garlic. Pour over beet mixture and toss well.
Arrange 1/2 cup beet greens on 4 salad plates. Top with beet mixture, sprinkle with sunflower seeds and serve.
*I didn't have raspberry so I used balsamic vinegar. I also didn't read this correctly and tossed the greens in with the beets and oranges, and it was just fine that way too.

And for tonight, I'm trying this recipe I found on The Domestic Man called "Mimi's Sticky Chicken"  using a pastured chicken from White Oak Pastures farm:
(update: this was nothing special, not worth the time)
Mimi's Sticky Chicken
2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 whole roasting chicken, about 3 pounds
1 cup chopped onions

Combine all spices in small bowl.
Rinse chicken, inside and out. Drain well. Rub spice mixture over skin and the inside of chicken.
Place in a zip-lock bag, seal, and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to roast, stuff cavity with onions. Place chicken breast side down in roasting pan.
Roast uncovered at 250ºF (that's not a typo...it's really 250º) for about 5 hours.
Baste occasionally with pan juices or until pan juices start to caramelize on bottom of pan and chicken is golden brown.
Serves 4.