Ham & Cheese Soup

See that bread?  Link at end of this post...

I seem to be on a real soup faze lately.   Just like how in the summer I could eat salad-with-meat for all 60 days of summer, and when it starts to get cold, I could eat pumpkin in every single meal and beverage for 60 days straight, I have now slid over into soup season.

Yea, I say there's a soup season.  It comes after pumpkin season and it may stick around for a while because around here winter can last from November to April.

So it is that I have an entire Pinterest Board dedicated to soups.  Not just MY soups, of course, but all kinds of hearty, filling paleo/primal friendly stick-to-your-ribs soups.  And if that isn't alone enough to satisfy you, I also have several paleo biscuit recipes throughout the boards.

This soup idea came after I'd boiled down a ham bone into a crazy-thickly jelled broth, then asked my helpful husband (cough, cough) to pour it into ice cube trays to freeze.  He did that, and when he ran out of ice cube trays, he poured a whopping 3-4 cups into a giant tupperware container and froze that, too.   What the heck does one do with such a large container of ham broth?  I mean, the ham cubes make great flavour-boosters, but several cups of it?  Ham soup, I say!

Now, typical ham and cheese soup is full of potatoes--and I'm not totally against potatoes, and you can totally use potatoes, but it just so happened that I had a bag full of sunchokes in my fridge (ever tried sunchokes?  See my note after the recipe).  I'm still using up all the odds and ends that came in my final CSA boxes.  I think I have enough radishes and beets to last an entire year now...

The creamy part of this cheese soup is a simple roux that gets thinned back down, it's so easy-peasy and yes, I DID use real cheese.  Not a lot.  But no milk or cream (you could totally use cream if you wanted to).  And you could probably get away with chicken stock if you needed to, too (but you'd have to add seasonings because it has a lot less flavour than ham broth)--but I wanted to use up some of my ham broth (which is the tastiest, I must insist) and leftover ham.  Because soup is all about using up leftovers, and basically making something from nothing.

Do not skip the roux.  Do not just add tapioca to the coconut milk to thicken this soup.  Browning the butter first makes a HUGE taste difference.  You CAN, however, skip the cheese and still have a pretty nice soup, just saying, but real cheese totally makes it awesome.  Imagine Swiss, or Gruyere cheese, even.

Alright, so here goes...

Ingredients:

2 cups ham broth
2 cups water
1 cup leftover ham, chopped
1/2 leek, rinsed and chopped -white part only- (or 1 medium onion)
2 stalks celery, chopped
3-4 sunchokes (peeled and cubed) or 1 medium potato
3 Tbs butter, divided
1/2 can full fat coconut milk (or full-fat real cream)
1 Tbs tapioca starch
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese, or cheese of choice

Method:

First, pull out a heavy-bottomed soup pot or dutch oven.  Heat to medium.  While it's heating, chop your leek, celery and ham, and peel and chop your sunchokes.  In pot, melt 1 Tbs butter and saute leek and celery until tender and leek is growing translucent.  Add your broth, water and sunchokes and bring to a boil.  Let it simmer until sunchokes are tender.

While that's simmering, make your roux--Heat a frypan over medium heat and add butter.  (Measure out coconut milk, cheese and tapioca, have it ready since this part goes fast) Let the butter sit in the pan, stirring occasionally, until it just barely begins to turn amber-brown.  Then, stirring constantly, sprinkle your tapioca starch in, and keep it moving in the pan.  It will immediately begin to thicken.  Be ready to thin i back down with the coconut milk, still stirring.  It will thicken A LOT.  You may want to remove it from heat halfway through to slow it down while you keep mixing it.  Remove from heat if you haven't already, and stir in your cheese.

When sunchokes are tender, stir in your ham and cheese sauce.  Don't worry, as you stir it will mix in and become thick and smooth.  Do not boil at this point.

Voila!

Honestly, ham broth is so flavourful (and often salty) that I didn't need any spices whatsoever.  It was perfect.  I kid you not.

**So, what are sunchokes AKA Jerusalem Artichokes?...  They are not even related to artichokes.  The somewhat ginger-root-like knobby beige tubers, sometimes with a slightly pink tinge, have stark white flesh inside.  They are very low in starch, almost flavourless, and incredibly versatile.  Sunchokes can be eaten raw, something like jiicama--but where they really excel is boiled and mashed as a potato replacement--or at least, as an addition to potato to reduce the amount of starch.  Because sunchokes are VERY high in inulin--that "pre" biotic that they put in yogurt these days (and pretty much everything else) this high-fiber food can cause some (ahem) gas and bloating when your body isn't used to it.   Introduce it slowly to your diet (this soup is a relatively small amount).

Sunchokes can be grown right here in Ontario--and in fact, all over North America, even though most of us have never heard of them before.  They are not only rich in inulin, but also iron, potassium, phosphorus and vitamin C.  So don't be afraid of them.  I think you'll learn to love them.

And the bread?  That's a paleo sweet potato bread from Wholefood Simply.  She's got some great stuff on her site, so check her out!

Clam Chowder

Photo courtesy of thewellseasonedcook.blogspot.ca--sorry, loaned my camera to one of my teens...

I thought I hated clam chowder when I was younger.  Of course, I had only ever tasted the canned versions which were sweet and full of corn and red pepper chunks.  Ewww.

So of course, more than a decade ago now, when visiting a friend over a lunch hour and she offered me clam chowder I said "no thank-you" as politely as possible.  But she looked me square in the eye and called me out on it, saying, "That's because you've only ever had the canned soup kind of chowder.  That stuff is pure crap.  Try this,"  And I did, because she was my friend and I was a guest and all that, and....she was right.  Her chowder was creamy but not sweet, smooth and silky and did not have a hint of corn in it.  The secret, she swore, was bacon.  Yup.  She said that it helped to mask the texture of the clams, for those who weren't used to it's slight...chewiness.  I was sold.  And, she added, don't add the actual clams until the very end, or you'll get a lot more chewiness than you can handle.  Fair enough.  Don't need to tell me twice on that one.

It took me a while to wrap my head around how I was going to make this one a little more healthy--that chowder I'd fallen in love with (and had converted the rest of my clam-chowder-hating family into loving) had both white potatoes and navy beans.  Let's just say there were some disappointing early attempts.

But the other day, when my CSA veggie box arrived with Jerusalem Artichokes, I finally had an idea...  This was going to work out after all.  And it did.  It was awesome.  (The box also included parsnips and fresh sage, so into this recipe they went...)

Ever cooked with Jerusalem Artichokes/sunchokes?  Me neither.  Never even seen them before this.  That's one of the things I love about getting a food box--you get things you have never cooked with, and you have to Google them just to know what you can do with them.

So I learned that sunchokes are related to sunflowers, that they are tubers (like potatoes are), that they can be eaten raw or cooked, peeled or unpeeled, that they are slightly sweet, mild-tasting, and waaay less starchy than potatoes.  They can be boiled and mashed, made into french fries, roasted, shredded and served in coleslaw or over salads.  But more importantly--they are full of the prebiotic inulin.  In plain English, that means that they can cause a bit of extra gas.  Yup.  So at first, a little can go a long way.  That is why I used a blend of sunchokes and cauliflower for the base of this soup.  If it weren't for that gassy side-effect, I'd say they were a perfect substitute for white potato for the starchy-carb-adverse population out there.  Don't let that one thing put you off trying them, though.  They are tasty little gnarly things.  And this is pretty awesome chowder.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped small
3-4 slices bacon
3 c chicken broth
1/2 c parsnips or carrots, chopped into coins
1/2 c onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cans baby clams
1 tsp ground celery seed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbs fresh sage (or 1 tsp dried)
1 c full-fat cream (can substitute coconut milk, but will effect flavour a bit)

Method:

First, chop all your veggies.  Open your can of clams.  Saute bacon until crispy.  Chop bacon into bits.

While bacon is frying, pull out your dutch oven or large heavy-bottom pot and heat it up over medium heat.  In fat of choice (I used butter), saute onions, parsnips, and celery.  When onion is translucent, transfer veggies to a plate and set aside.

Add broth and juice only from canned clams.  Add celery seed, garlic powder, and sage IF using dried sage.  Add sunchokes and cauliflower and bring to boil.  Simmer over medium heat until cauliflower and sunchokes are tender.

Use either an immersion blender to puree, or move carefully to a food processor and puree until smooth.  Return to pot, reduce heat to med-low.  Add sauteed veggies back into the pot now, add canned clams, bacon, fresh sage and cream.  Stirring frequently, heat through but do not let it come to a boil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Shrimp Creole

I got shrimp on sale a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to try something different.

I found this idea on Pinterest-- (original recipe here) but it wasn't yet paleo--and I preferred to make my own cajun spice blend (I've tasted some pretty horrible store-bought blends...).  A few changes...and voila--delicious and perfect!  My whole family loved this one--and it was done in about 45 minutes, which I love, too.

Ingredients:

5 Tbs butter
2 Tbs tapioca starch
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup celery
1 cup red, yellow, or orange peppers
1/2 cup onion
2 cups chicken broth (whatever you have)
1 cup tomatoes
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs cajun/creole spice blend (below)
1 lb raw shrimp
1/2 cup green onions

1 head cauliflower

Method:

First, prep everything because this doesn't take long:  Make your spice blend.  Chop onions, peppers, celery, tomato.  Thaw shrimp under lukewarm water, peel and de-tail.  Rice your cauliflower with a food processor.

In heavy-bottom skillet over medium heat, melt butter and continue to cook until butter turns a medium brown (takes about 10 minutes).  Sprinkle tapioca starch over butter and stir to dissolve and allow to thicken for a couple more minutes.  (You are making a roux).  Add onions, celery and peppers and continue to cook until onion is almost transparent.  Add garlic and thyme and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce, and cajun spice.  Simmer for about 20 minutes.

While this is simmering, cook your rice; I prefer to cook mine for 8 minutes in the microwave with NO added water.  Set aside.

Once you broth and tomato mixture has simmered for 20 minutes, add shrimp, and continue to cook just until shrimp is pink and cooked through.  Sprinkle with green onions and remove from heat.

To serve this up like I did; spoon liquid into wide-mouthed bowls.  Using a half-cup measuring cup, press cooked cauli into the measuring cup, packing tight, then invert over middle of bowl.  Arrange shrimp around perimeter.

Can add hot sauce if you like things spicy.

Enjoy!

Cajun Spice Blend:

1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

Combine in small mason jar.  Goes with everything....

Bone Broth Tomato Soup

Sometimes I just want simple and filling--and in the wintertime, warm comfort food.

Sometimes that comfort comes in the form of a hot bowl of soup.  As much as I love a warm mug of homemade bone broth, sometimes a bit of flavour variety is needed.  Sure, sometimes boiling broth with a scrambed egg dropped in with chopped green onions (egg drop soup) is divine, but is that all there is to life? I say no.  Eating should be an adventure.

This idea came from 2 places--first, a simple tomato soup from Canadian Living Magazine here, which I paleo-ified up and served to my family to great reviews, and this recipe by my low-carb-loving friend Danny at Primal North.  This soup is waaay better tasting than that canned stuff so many of us grew up on.  And it uses bone broth, so it's good for the guts, too.  Win, win.  And it's super-fast and easy.  What more can I say?!  So here goes.

Serves 1 very hearty bowlful.

Ingredients:

• 1 c homemade bone broth, preferably poultry
• 1/2 c tomato sauce (look for no-sugar-added brands)
• 2 Tbs finely chopped leeks (or onion, or shallots)
• butter, for frying leeks
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/4 c full-fat whipping cream (or coconut milk if you don't mind a bit of coconut flavour)
• sour cream/yogurt/bacon for garnish, optional

Method:

Saute leeks in butter until softened.  Add garlic and saute 1 minute more.  Add italian seasoning, bone broth and tomato sauce, simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, add whipping cream, stir.

Add garnishes, if using.  

*I tend to freeze my bone broth in ice cube trays, and in 1-cup servings (that I freeze, remove from their containers, then stack them in a freezer bag to store).  This made preparing this recipe especially fast and easy.  How do you store your bone broths?

See the white chunks?  My yogurt garnish sank to the bottom of the bowl ;( 

Highway Cobbery

I don't know where they got the name Cobb Salad from.  There is no cob in my salad.  I hate canned corn, and those tiny baby corn cobs.  I used to pick them out of everything.  Anywhoo, a Cobb salad is really any layered salad.  This one was simple--I wanted meat with my meat.  Sometimes that's just the way I roll. 

Its hot here in Toronto right now.  Don't get me wrong; summers are short and hot and dry normally, though we've had some short, wet and cold summers lately, so I'm glad to have the heat back.  But that doesn't mean I want to heat up the kitchen.  No.  I threw the chicken in the crockpot in the early morning, poured in a splash of water and some salt and pepper on it, and walked away and forgot about it until dinner time.  You could cook it any way you like, but my way meant all the goodness from the bones was cooked into my food.  But that's just me.  At the end of the day, all I had to do was boil some eggs and fry some bacon.  Who can't do that?!  Simple.  Life should always be this simple.  Cooking should always be this simple.  Intuitive.  Flexible.

And look, this recipe is not a casserole, and not served with gravy.  I'd say not with sauce, but there was salad dressing, so there ya go.  Sauce.  I love sauce.  Any sauce.  Of course I loved this sauce.  But I think you'll like this sauce, too, as much as I did.  Taste it and you'll know.  I'm right.  I'm always right.

So,

 

Among 5 plates, I divided...

7 hard-boiled eggs

10 strips of bacon

2 tomatoes

4 chicken breasts

3 romaine hearts

1 cup cheddar

1 cup shredded carrots

And for the dressing....

1/2 cup garlic-basil mayo (recipe here )

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp fresh dill, finely mashed

2 tsp parsley

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 scoops stevia powder or 1 tsp honey

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients. 

Eat on a patio, or deck, or something like that.  Get outside and enjoy the weather.  And the flies.  There's always flies.

    

Use What You Have:
Meat	Cheese	More Veggies
Steak	Blue	red onions, sweet peppers, blanched asparagus
Ham/ Peameal	Cheddar	peas, cherry tomatoes
Tuna	Provalone	green onions, olives
Salmon	none	green onions, avocado

Korean Beef with Cauli-Couscous

I was going through my old cookbooks, trying to "thin the heard" and I came upon this recipe that I used to cook for my kids.  I just couldn't throw this one out, so I tore out the pages and threw the rest of the book out.  I do that.  Alot.  I have a binder full of torn pages containing recipes of all sorts, just waiting for the day that I feel inspired and confident enough to translate them into something more primally appropriate.  I'm not exactly an "intuitive" cook--I need the idea of a recipe as a jumping point to get started.  So I collect these ideas and I hoard them.  A friend once called me a recipe whore because I always seem to collect these recipes, but I never actually get around to cooking 90% of them.  At least not the dessert recipes, because I'd weigh 300 lbs if I did.

So anyways, the original recipe called for thin strips of fast-fry steak, something I could never cook right and have it still be tender.  But what if I used ground beef?  Less expensive, tender....  A few tweaks to make it more primally-acceptable...  And this is the result.  It has a slightly sweet, but mild flavour and it pulls together in no time (something I MUST insist on).  Despite the addition of hot pepper flakes, this dish is not hot at all and will not alarm small children's taste buds....  S'alright--I added sriracha sauce after the photo anyways, because I ALWAYS do that.


Now for the rice--who doesn't want a new way to cook rice?!  If you are at all like me, you cook mashed cauli, make cauli rice and put cauliflower into just about everything (we buy 3-4 heads of cauliflower per week).  But really, any other veggie in this recipe might overwhelm the delicate flavour, so a new cauli idea was needed.  I've roasted cauliflower before, whole florets, and loved it (not so much roasted broccoli).  So why not shred them before roasting?  The shredded cauli takes on a nutty flavour as it roasts in the oven, even more so since I tossed my cauli with sesame seed oil first.  I never liked real couscous, but this cauli-couscous I really liked.  Easy.  So here it is:

Serves approx. 5
Ready in 1/2 hour or less

Ingredients:
(For the Beef)

2 lbs ground beef*
5-6 green onions (scallions)
5 cloves minced fresh garlic
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp hot pepper flakes
1/4 cup beef stock
4 tbsp soy sauce** + 1/8 cup water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp tapioca
3 scoops stevia powder (equiv of 3 tsp sugar)

(For the cauliflower)

1 head cauliflower
1 tbsp sesame oil

sesame seeds, for garnish

Method:

First, prep everything; shred your cauli in a food processor with the grating tool.  Move it to a big bowl and toss it with the sesame oil.  In a separate, small bowl, mix your soy sauce, beef stock, honey, stevia and sesame seeds, set aside.  Chop your green onions.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Spread cauli between 2 cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes.  Stir.  Return to oven and cook for another 5 minutes, until browning in places.

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef and cook, stirring, until no longer pink.  Add garlic and pepper, cooking for another minute until fragrant.  Add the bowl of soy sauce and whatnot you already mixed up.  Bring to boil.  In that now-empty small bowl, mix your tapioca starch with an equal bit of water to dissolve.  Throw your green onions into the skillet, then while stirring, add the tapioca and allow to thicken for a few seconds.  Remove from heat. 

Taste and adjust for sweetness. 

Serve over cauli-couscous and garnish with extra sesame seeds. 



*if you choose to use beef strips, slice your meat across the grain diagonally into 2-inch strips.  Cook steak with garlic and pepper for scant 2 minutes, allowing it to remain slightly pink.  Remove from heat before adding sauce to skillet, continue with recipe above... Add meat back in at end.  Do not overcook it.

**I hear that coconut aminos is slightly sweeter than soy sauce, that it is not a perfect substitute, but in this recipe, the sweetness might actually come through very nice.  Thought I do not own coconut aminos, if I can get my hands on some, I will definitely try to sub it in this recipe and see how it goes.

Spanish Chicken and Shrimp

Ok, I was a bit lazy the other night, and I have to say, nothing beats a dinner that you can have on the dinner table in a half hour or less.  This recipe was just that kind of simple.

So this is a variation on my Smokey Paprika Paella, the lazy version, and I have to say, I actually like this one even better than the original.  And its fast.  Can I say that enough?  Real fast.




Serves 5
About 1/2 hour total


Ingredients:



Sauce:

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh minced garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp 2 tbsp lemon juice

1 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest:

1 head cauliflower

1 1/2 lbs chicken

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

1/2 spanish onion

2 cloves minced fresh garlic

2 fresh tomatoes

Method:  

First, get everything ready; chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces, de-tail the shrimp and rice the cauliflower, chop your onions and tomatoes.  Next, blend all ingredients for the sauce in a blender (or a magic bullet).  Set sauce aside. 

Heat up 2 frypans.  In one, heat on med-high, add a bit of fat of choice, add chicken and onion and saute until chicken is cooked through and onion is translucent.  Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute until fragrant.  In other frypan, heat to med-high, add a pat of butter or ghee, and saute cauliflower just until it begins to soften and brown.  Do not overcook it. 

When chicken is no longer pink, add tomatoes and cook just until they begin to soften.  Add shrimp and sauce and heat through.  Serve over riced cauliflower.  This will have a bit of heat on its own, but if you like more heat, add sriracha sauce.  Enjoy!

Smokey Paprika Paella

Ok, so here's what inspired me to try to cook paella this week.  This lovely picture came in the Insider's Report flyer.  The Presidents Choice makes such awesome sauces.  They've been making them since the first Sechewan Peanut Sauce came out (and rocked my boxed-foods world way back when).  The caption stated it contained "pure olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, chili peppers, lemon, garlic and fire-roasted tomatoes".  Oh, I could so make that.  Who doesn't love that flavour combo?  They had me at smoked paprika and cumin.  Heck, I'd poach fish in that combo.  But I didn't this time.  Because I was making paella.

Serves: 5
Time: about 1/2 hour Sorry for the grainy shot, but this is the picture they stuck with it.  I chose to skip the green peas, you're welcome.  And I could have barbecued all of my ingredients, too, it would've looked this fabulous, but would it have tasted fabulous?  No, because the flavours would not have had time to "mingle."  So I didn't, and I spared both you and me a lot of time fussing around in the kitchen.  Sometimes they do this stuff to make a good photo without taste in mind.  I like simple and tasty, presentation isn't a priority for me.  So here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

Smokey Paprika Sauce

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp lemon juice

1 fresh tomato 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest

1 lb boneless chicken (white or dark)

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

2 large tomatoes

1/3 large spanish onion

1/2 c shelled pistachios

1 red pepper*

1 head cauliflower

Ok, first throw all of the ingredients for the Smokey Paprika sauce into a blender--I used my magic bullet-- and just puree everything together.  Set aside.  **(see notes below on added uses)

Rice your cauliflower. Chop your tomatoes and onion.  Chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces (and if you buy your chicken skin on, make cracklin's in another frypan at the same time as you cook dinner to snack on while you cook....)

Alright, in a large skillet, brown chicken on all sides (chicken may still be a bit pink in the middle).    Add onions, cooking just until the onions begin to turn translucent.  Reduce heat and add cauliflower, red pepper, sauce and tomatoes.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until cauliflower begins to soften.  Add shrimp, stirring and allowing to heat through.  Remove from heat and add pistachios.  Eat!

   

Your sauce will be thicker and more red than mine is here; I used a fresh tomato in the sauce the first time around.  Using tomato paste will make for a far richer, fuller flavour and thicker sauce that coats the "rice".

This has a hint of heat to it already due to the cayenne, but feel free to add sriracha sauce if you're anything like me.  My family agreed this was a keeper recipe; they'd eat it again and again.  No one argued that it was too spicy, but no one else added extra heat, either.  Hmm.  Must be just me.

**You could throw this sauce into the fridge and it would stay fresh for weeks because of the olive oil base. This sauce would be very good on many things; fish, pork, ribs, sauteed okra...  On a lazy night, just stir-fry some chicken and shrimp with a couple of chopped tomatoes, add this sauce and serve it over top of steamed cauli-rice.
*I used a fresh red pepper because that's what I had.  If you have the time or happen to have one on-hand, use a roasted red pepper for a more intense sweet.

Cabbage Roll Stir-Fry

This recipe was one I used to cook my family over and over.  Of course, that was pre-paleo, so in order to keep  the recipe, some changes had to be made.  But the recipe had great potential; it cooked up in a half hour or less - and I'm a lazy cook, it wasn't fussy, it was stick-to-the-ribs hearty, everyone liked it and since the cabbage was shredded, it cooked up much easier on my teeth which meant I could still eat it with my braces.  The original recipe came from Chatelaine Magazine ( if you read these blogs regularly, you know I have a recipe-hoarding habit).  Before Pinterest (which I still haven't joined), I would tear out recipes from magazines, then glue them onto good paper and keep them in page-protector sleeves in a binder.  Then email became the more popular choice, so I have 2 email accounts--one is my regular email, and the other is for emailing myself recipes that I then move into email files under Breakfast, Dinner, Snack,  etc.  My email file storage is HUGE.

You can omit the honey if you're doing a Whole30, but if you're not, you'll find the tiny bit of honey really brings out the flavour nicely.

This recipe makes about 6 hearty servings
Takes about 1/2 hour
This recipe re-heats even better next day


Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground pork or beef
• 1 cooking onion, or 1/3 spanish onion
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 28-oz can chopped tomatoes
• 5-oz can tomato paste
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbs apple-cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• salt and pepper to taste 

Method:

Using a food  processor, shred your cabbage really fine.  Set aside.  Slice up your onions and green peppers.

In a very large skillet on med-high heat, cook your meat with your onions (about 5 minutes).  When meat is almost cooked through, add your tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, honey and spices, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes to allow flavour to develop.


 Now, add your pepper and cabbage to the pan.  Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender (aboout 10 minutes--I like my cabbage soft).  You may need to add a splash of water now and then to keep things moist until cabbage beginns to soften.

Taste, and add red pepper flakes as needed.

It really was that fast and easy.

For variety, you could add mexican spices in place of the thyme and basil, making it into Beef Enchilada Stir-Fry.