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Puerto Rican-Inspired Green Plantain Mash (Mofongo)

November 24, 2012 in Side Dishes, Starchy Staples, Veggies

Mofongo is a traditional fried plantain-based dish from Puerto Rico. It is typically made with fried green plantains mashed together in a wooden mortar and pestle, with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon. It is often filled with vegetables, chicken, crab, shrimp, or beef and is often served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.

This version of mofongo is a fantastic paleo mashed potato replacement.  Delicious and starchy, but also with a relatively neutral flavor, it would go well beside just about anything.  I would even fry up leftovers with eggs for breakfast.

I must thank Gloria for sending me the base recipe for Cuban kufu (and her suggested modifications for mofongo) for me to work from to put together this absolutely awesome starchy side dish.  You will not miss mashed potatoes any more! (As an aside, kufu is the same dish made with ripe plantains.  It has a very different flavor, but worth a try if you’re like me and are on a plantain kick! The only difference is that the ripe plantains don’t take as long to cook.)

Green plantains are fairly starchy, but if you can handle starches then this recipe is AIP-friendly.

Ingredients:

  • 3 green plantains (also called raw bananas)—the greener, the better!
  • 6 oz bacon
  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • (extra bacon grease, lard, or butter may be used to make a thinner mash)
  1. Peel plantains and cut into 1” semi-circles.  I made that sound too easy.  Peeling green plantains can be an exercise in frustration.  Cut in half lengthwise and then in half crosswise.  Get your thumbs under the peel and pry off.  If the peel breaks, use a paring knife to cut off whatever is stuck on.
  2. Place plantains into a pot with 2” of water.  Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce to maintain a simmer.  Simmer covered until plantains are tender when pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, cut bacon into small pieces (I like a pair of scissors for this job).  Dice onion finely and finely chop garlic.
  4. Add bacon to a cold frying pan then turn on the heat to medium high.  Cook bacon 5 minutes, then add onion and garlic, stirring occasionally.  Continue cooking until bacon is crisp and onion is soft and caramelized.
  5. Drain plantains when they are finished cooking, but keep the cooking liquid! (I like to drain into a large pyrex measuring cup).
  6. Add ½ cup cooking liquid back to the plantains.  Mash with a wire potato masher to your desired consistency.  Add bacon, onion, garlic and all of the grease from the pan.  Stir to incorporate.
  7. If you like a thinner mash, you can either add more of the cooking liquid or you can add additional bacon grease (or substitute lard or butter).  Mofongo tends to get thicker as it sits, so if you have any leftovers, you will likely want to add some liquid to them before reheating.
  8. Enjoy!

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Butter-Poached Kohlrabi

November 7, 2012 in Side Dishes, Starchy Staples, Veggies

Kohlrabi seems to be everywhere these days:  at the Farmer’s Market, Whole Foods, the grocery store.  I’m mostly seeing green kohlrabi but also some red (which is actually very purple in color, which means my youngest daughter loves it since purple is her favorite color).  It doesn’t matter which you have for this recipe (I really think they taste the same, although there may be some kohlrabi connoisseurs out there who disagree).

If you aren’t familiar with kohlrabi, it’s a cruciferous vegetable.  You can eat the leaves (which are quite bitter), but the main part that we eat is the bulb-shaped stem.  I was first introduced to this vegetable in my mid-teens while visiting some family friends who grew it in their garden.  I have always thought of the flavor as a combination between a cucumber and a radish, although some people describe it as being similar to broccoli stem or even having a mild apple flavor.  It is delightful raw as a dipping veggie (peel and then cut into fingers), but it also is a lovely contribution to pasta sauces, stews and has a lovely flavor to enjoy just on its own.

This is a fairly simple way to prepare kohlrabi that works as a side dish to just about anything (I think this is particularly nice with fish).  If you can’t eat butter or ghee, you could easily substitute bacon fat, lard, tallow, or coconut oil.  Obviously a different fat will impart a different flavor.  Bacon fat is also extremely tasty (omit the salt in this case) and makes this dish autoimmune protocol-friendly.  You can also mix up the herbs.  Tarragon is a particularly good substitute for fresh sage, but thyme and even oregano are nice combinations too.

The trick to kohlrabi is peeling it.  You can use a vegetable peeler or a knife.  Once you get it started with a knife, you can usually peel down a good piece of the outer rind (this is very similar to peeling broccoli stems).  When in doubt, aim on the side of peeling too much rather than too little since that peel can be very tough.  Don’t toss the leaves… I’ll be posting a recipe that uses them next week!

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

  1. Peel kohlrabi and chop into ½” cubes.  Finely chop sage.
  2. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Add kohlrabi and cook, stirring occasionally, until kohlrabi is cooked al dente (about 15 minutes).
  3. Add salt and sage.  Stir and cook for 2 more minutes.  Enjoy!

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Spaghetti Squash with Sage and Brown Butter

October 22, 2012 in Side Dishes, Starchy Staples, Veggies

Sage and brown butter is one of the classic simple pasta sauces and one that adapts extremely well to paleo noodle substitutes.  My favorite noddle substitute to use with this simple sauce is spaghetti squash (something about the flavor of spaghetti squash that marries really well with butter).  This dish is absolutely divine as a side to steak, but works great beside just about any grilled meat.

It is a slightly different flavor, but this also works very well with lard instead of butter (along with omitting the pepper, this makes it autoimmune protocol-friendly too!).  A mix of tallow and coconut oil would probably work as well.

I have tried a variety of different methods to cook spaghetti squash.  They all work.  My favorite is to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake upside down on a cookie sheet in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 375F.  I feel like the spaghetti squash is the most firm (and thus noodle like) with this cooking method.  You could also cook it whole (pierce all over with a fork first) in the oven at 375F for an hour (this has the advantage of being easier to cut and scoop out the seeds).  You could also cook it whole in the microwave (pierce all over with a fork first, and place on a plate or in a large bowl) for 10 minutes (again, super easy to cut and scoop out the seeds).  Microwave is the fastest method and one I end up falling back on when I don’t plan ahead enough.

This serves 4-5 as a side dish.  If you are going to make this dish the star of the show with some sliced grilled meat for protein, it serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

  • 1 small spaghetti squash
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (add 1 Tbsp of butter if your squash is on the larger side)
  • 10-12 whole fresh sage leaves
  • 1/8 tsp salt, to taste
  • 1/8 tsp cracked pepper, to taste

  1. Bake the spaghetti squash by your preferred method (see paragraph in the recipe intro).  Let cool until it can be handled easily.
  2. Scrape out the strings of the spaghetti squash with a fork and set aside.
  3. Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Once melted add the sage leaves and cook until the sage is crisp, about 4-5 minutes.  Watch closely so the butter doesn’t burn.
  4. Remove the crisp sage leaves and aside.
  5. Add the spaghetti squash strings to the butter.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and gently mix together to coat the squash.  Cook 2-3 minutes, just long enough to reheat the squash.
  6. Crumple sage leaves and mix back into the squash.  Serve!

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Lemon Parsley Cauliflower “Rice”

October 17, 2012 in Side Dishes, Starchy Staples, Veggies

I have to admit that I’ve never really liked rice, not unless it was drenched in the sauce from several different Chinese food dishes from an authentic restaurant.  When I first started eating low carb, I often made rice as a starch for my husband because it was so easy for me to abstain and just stick with my low-carb veggies.  Now, we don’t eat rice at all except for very rare occasions when I’ll make some for my husband and kids.  If a dish calls for rice (typically a stir fry or Indian-inspired dish), I make the standard paleo substitute of cauliflower rice.  But, I have to admit that, unless it’s going to be drowned in sauce, I find this just as boring and bland as rice itself.  At least, I used to find it boring.  I started playing with flavorings for cauliflower rice to jazz it up and make it stand alone as a flavor on the plate (no sauce required!).  The inspiration for this variation comes from a recipe from my old Good Housekeeping cookbook that I used to make with fish fairly often.  Besides being delicious beside fish, it’s also pretty awesome beside pork.  Makes 4-5 servings.

Ingredients:

  • 1 small head of cauliflower (4-5 cups riced)
  • 3 Tbsp cooking fat (I like half tallow or lard and half coconut oil )
  • 2 tsp lemon zest (approximately 1 lemon)
  • 4 Tbsp chopped fresh pasley
  • 1/8 tsp Salt , to taste

  1. Trim cauliflower and place florets in a Food Processor (you may have to do this in batches).  Pulse until chopped to rice grain size.  Set aside.
  2. Heat cooking fat in a large frying pan or Wok over medium-high heat.  Add cauliflower to the oil and cook, stirring frequently until cauliflower is cooked al dente (about 6-8 minutes).
  3. Stir in lemon zest, parsley and salt.  Cook 1 minute.  Enjoy!

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