This Primal Life » soups and stews http://thisprimallife.com A blog about the Primal Blueprint diet and lifestyle Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:56:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Anuja’s Primal Sri Lankan Chicken Coconut Curry Recipe http://thisprimallife.com/2009/09/anuja%e2%80%99s-primal-sri-lankan-chicken-coconut-curry-recipe/ http://thisprimallife.com/2009/09/anuja%e2%80%99s-primal-sri-lankan-chicken-coconut-curry-recipe/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:02:59 +0000 shelley http://thisprimallife.com/?p=480 Sri Lankan Coconut Chicken Curry

Sri Lankan Coconut Chicken Curry

If I believed in such things, I would say I spent a former life in Southern Asia.  I have always been fascinated with this area of the world and I adore Indian cuisine.  At various times throughout my life I have tried to travel there but have always been thwarted or disrailed in one way or another (mom, if you’re reading this, I don’t mean by you).  I even tried learning Hindi on my own for a while.  My hope is that I can make it there before I get too old and stodgy and have to stay at a Hilton and take guided tours everywhere.   There’s an Indian restaurant about 30 minutes from where I live and the kids and I occasionally meet Dave there during his lunch break.  As delicious as the food is, it is a horrible place to eat primal unless, unlike me, you are able to resist naan and gulab jamun.

Although they utilize many of the same ingredients, Sri Lankan and Indian cuisine really shouldn’t be lumped together.  For one thing, Sri Lankan cuisine tends to be spicier. Chilies are used liberally and some have said some Sri Lankan dishes are the hottest in the world in terms of chili content.  Most curries are prepared in coconut milk to provide a counterbalance to the spice and some special ingredients indigenous to the region are used.

Anuja is a second-generation Sri Lankan and long-time colleague of my husband’s.  She generously sent me her recipe for a chicken curry that looked too delicious to pass up.   I love the idea of incorporating a variety of cuisines into a primal diet.  It’s so much more fun to expand your food choices by drawing upon other traditions than it is trying to make a primal mac and cheese out of cauliflower and almond milk.  If you need to make a special trip to an Indian grocery to get ingredients for this recipe take advantage of the opportunity to buy some common spices at a fraction of the usual price.   I had no idea how badly I had been getting ripped off on cumin.

Anuja’s Sri Lankan Chicken Coconut Curry

Let me call your attention to a few changes I made in Anuja’s original recipe in case you want your chicken curry to be truly authentic.  First, Anuja called for 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) of chicken pieces whereas I used 5 good-sized chicken breasts.  Second, I used the slow cooker but Anuja’s recipe simply calls for 45 minutes or so of stove-top simmering after you add the coconut milk.  Finally, I read her recipe as requiring 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper.  I reduced that to ½ tablespoon because although I have a pretty high heat tolerance, 2 tablespoons is out of my league.  Upon closer review, however, I see that she wrote cayenne chili powder, which is much milder.

Don’t forget to add the salt and lemon juice at the end as they round out the flavors in a wonderful way.

2 tsp coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
3 to 4 green or red chilies, seed removed and cut lengthways into thin strips
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tbs ground coriander
½ tbs cayenne pepper
5 large-ish chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 can coconut milk
2-3 tbs coconut cream (I found unsweetened coconut cream at an Asian grocery.  If you can’t find it, reserve some of the creamy part of the coconut milk to add in at the end)
1 pandan leaf or ¼ cup fresh curry leaves (also at the Asian grocery)
2 tbs lemon juice
salt to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet and add the onions. Sautee until soft. Add the garlic, chilies, tumeric, coriander, and cayenne. Reduce heat, sautee for another 2 minutes or so.

Transfer onion and spice mixture to a crock pot. Add chicken, coconut milk, and pandan or curry leaves to a crock pot and and cook on low for 6 hours or so (you can go longer if you need to).

Stir in them lemon juice and coconut cream. Salt to taste. Remove leaves. Serve over cauliflower rice.

]]> http://thisprimallife.com/2009/09/anuja%e2%80%99s-primal-sri-lankan-chicken-coconut-curry-recipe/feed/ 6 Primal Cream of Vegetable Soup Recipe http://thisprimallife.com/2009/07/primal-cream-of-vegetable-soup-recipe/ http://thisprimallife.com/2009/07/primal-cream-of-vegetable-soup-recipe/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:40:00 +0000 shelley http://thisprimallife.com/?p=199 soup-1

My double batch of soup. I used mostly cauliflower and broccoli with a little asparagus and turnip thrown in for good measure. I prefer to use two pots rather than try to cram everything into one pot.

Eating primal is not always very convenient.  It is easy to get caught in a situation where you walk in the door, hungry, and realize there’s not much to eat that doesn’t require a lot of preparation.  Sometimes I don’t mind spending 20 or 30 minutes making lunch, but there are a lot of other days when there’s something else I’d rather be doing.   Traditional sandwiches are out of the question and I have yet to find anything that is easy to just have on hand as a primal bread substitute.  Soup makes a convenient, satisfying meal.  I’ve noticed, however, that canned, store-bought soups are almost never primal as they tend to have beans, rice, pasta, or sugar in them.

soup-4

After pureeing, I combined the soup into one pot. I finished my soup with cream but coconut milk also works well.

Several weeks ago my mom brought me 5 or 6 small containers of frozen homemade soup.  I’ve been eating them as late dinners when I get home from class, or as a quick, convenient lunch on busy days.  I don’t usually make a lot of soup in the summer but these little containers have come in so handy that when I ran out I decided to make some more.  I made a double batch so I’d have a lot of leftovers for the freezer.  Now I don’t need to worry about being caught without something easy to eat.

Here are some of the best things about a cream of vegetable soup:

1.    You can use almost any vegetable you have laying around including the remaining bits of several.  Note, however, that if you mix an orange vegetable, such as carrot or squash, with a green vegetable you’ll end up with a brown soup.  It will taste great but might not look so appealing.
2.    Freezes well.
3.    Can be paired with any protein.  You can even just throw some meat in the bowl after you re-heat it for a hearty meal.
4.    Quality ingredients make this simple soup taste awesome!
5. Lots and lots of veggies in this soup – very filling, nutritious, and satisfying.
6.    A pretty good sized portion only has about 120-150 calories, depending on what vegetables you use and if you use half and half instead of coconut milk…  if you care about that sort of thing.

Primal Cream of Vegetable Soup Master Recipe

Yield: 4 servings (consider doubling this recipe for plenty of leftovers)

1 ½ lbs vegetables, chopped  – mix and match, if you like, or stick to a single vegetable.  Some ideas are: broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, carrot, squash, peas, mushrooms, kohlrabi, turnips, beets.
1 onion
1 tsp coconut or any other kind of oil
2-5 cloves of minced garlic
¼ cup sherry or white wine
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup half and half or coconut milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

Sautee the onion with the oil in a large pot on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, covered, until softened.  Add garlic and stir until fragrant.  Add sherry or white wine and cook approximately 1 minute until mostly absorbed.  Add vegetables and broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and cook 10 minutes more, until vegetables are tender.  Puree in batches until smooth, and return to a clean pot.  Add half and half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Heat until warm but not boiling and serve.  Alternatively, allow to cool, transfer to containers and freeze.

To reheat the soup, run hot water over the container to loosen the soup from the sides of the container.  Heat the soup in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it becomes mostly liquid.  Then increase the heat until hot, but not boiling.

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