Experiments in Paleo meets Tex Mex

It has a long way to go but at least it finally sprouted!

If you know me, you know that I heart Tex Mex. Fortunately a lot of the ingredients found here in India lend themselves to the Tex Mex cuisine. Confusingly though, avocados are not as popular here and are insanely expensive. They went from being about 25 cents apiece in Kenya to 5 dollars a pop here. It's a travesty; I'm attempting to grow my own avocado tree in rebellion. 

Despite the ridiculous prices, I occasionally splurge and indulge on my favorite fruit. This was one of those days. Since I'm off bread, my favorite avocado toast was out so I decided to make a chicken avocado tortilla soup sans the tortillas. I adapted a few recipes to suit my tastes and pantry; original recipes found here, here, and here.

1 1/2 tbsp ghee
1 red onion
8 cloves of garlic
1 kg chicken mince  
6 c chicken broth
1 tsp Tabasco® sauce
4 jalapeño peppers 
1 tomato, seeded
1/4 c fresh coriander (cilantro) 
1 avocado
1 large lemon/lime
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and black pepper (to taste)

Experiments in Paleo: Cauliflower Omelet

This is another recipe I found in the cookbook I mentioned in my last post. You can find the original recipe online here. Whole Foods also has a cheesy alternative here. 

Photo credit (Mine did not look this perfect)

Ijjit Qarnabit

4-5 eggs
1 tbsp ghee 
3/4 c coconut milk
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 cups raw cauliflower, grated
1/3 c onion, chopped
1/2 c parsley, chopped
salt and black pepper (to taste)

Experiments in Paleo: Zucchini Hummus

In my ongoing experiment with the fad of eating like our ancestors (only healthier) I found a great online resource with Chris Kresser. Now, I'm not granola-y and am more than a bit wary about health claims that link every disease or mental illness solely to nutrition, but eating healthier can't hurt and if you sign up on his site you can download his recipe e-book for free. This is where I discovered paleo hummus. I LOVE hummus so I had to try this recipe sans my beloved chickpeas. It's tweaked a bit to suit my tastes (e.g. extra garlic & lemon).

Before you can make "hummus" you need tahini. Here's how I make my fresh tahini.

Experiments in Paleo

As part of my foodie adventure, I am always up for trying something new (and weight loss friendly!). When a friend mentioned to me that she recently switched to a paleo-inspired diet and was able to re-adjust to life without carbs fairly quickly I figured why not give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. After quite a bit of googling and reading, it sounds like a pretty simple diet for us since we already don't eat packaged food and have access to inexpensive farm fresh vegetables and meat. From what I can tell, we need to switch to more healthy fats and up our protein and vegetable intake. Fortunately, we live in the land of ghee so cooking with clarified butter is not a problem and olive oil isn't blacklisted. Reducing fruits might be more of challenge, but substituting antioxidant-rich berries and low-fat nuts should help with the transition. The main challenge, I think, will be cutting out the grains and legumes. Since we eat a lot of bread, pasta, rotis, rice, and daals, the first order of business was to find some satisfactory alternatives. Fortunately, I found quite a few rice and flour substitutes.

Tonight I'm trying out a recipe for cauliflower rice and pairing it with grilled chicken.

Southern Delights: Hungry Expat's Yellow Potato Salad

Photo credit

I love Indian food (probably because I don't have to cook it), but I was craving something different for dinner and decided to make some potato salad. This is a conglomeration (like most of my recipes) of several different versions of this dish. Hard boiled eggs are a staple in most southern recipes, but if you aren't feelin' them they are definitely not required. I'm used to my mom's recipe which uses more mustard than most so you can also cut back on that, depending on your tastes.