Oh my, oh my. Best chili I’ve ever made. My children, who don’t usually like chili actually like it. My husband loves it. I adapted this recipe from one in The Primal Blueprint Cookbook. I used a huge cast iron skillet to make this chili. You could also use a large pot. This makes a large amount and would be easy to cut in half.
In a large skillet or pot, heat the bacon fat over medium heat until melted.
Add in the onions and cook until soft, about 10 - 15 minutes.
Add in the garlic and cook for 5 minutes more.
Add in the ground beef and cook until done, breaking up as you go.
Add in the tomatoes, broth, oregano, paprika and chili powder. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add in the vinegars and seasoned salt. Simmer for another 15 minutes.
Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream if desired.
This recipe has all the great flavor of that famous Italian restaurant’s soup — but packs a power punch of taste and nutrition with wholesome and healthy ingredients. After making this recipe kosher and increasing the Whole-Food Goodness Factor, this is a one-pot-crowd-pleaser that will leave everyone asking for one ladle more.
(Hint: If you’re looking for a way to sneak kale from your garden to your family — THIS IS IT!)
In a large pot, sauté the onion and salt in butter until glossy.
Add the sausage and cook until browned, breaking into bite-size pieces.
Stir in minced garlic, cooking until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
Add chicken broth, scraping up the brown bits with a spoon — a free, yummy flavor boost!
Add potato cubes and simmer (covered) for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Add kale (it will wilt — always add more than you think) and cream, simmering 5 minutes more.
Garnish with pepper and serve.
Congee, also known as Zhou, Kayu, Chok, Jook and other names depending on the culture, is a thick rice porridge made typically from white rice. There are countless variations to how and what it is eaten with. Sometimes it is served as a meal in itself paired with meats, veggies, condiments and other toppings. Other times it’s served plain as a side dish with only soy sauce. In most cultures it is served as a breakfast or late supper, but in others is eaten plain as a snack from a street vendor. Because it is well cooked in copious amounts of bone broth (at least this version-it can be made plain in water as well), it is considered food medicine and is easily digestible and good for the digestive tract.
We make a large batch in the crockpot and keep it warm for several days, scooping out a bowl as often as we want it and topping with prepared veggies and condiments in the fridge. Change your toppings up each time to keep it new and enjoyable. This is a wonderful way to get your daily bone broth supplement if you have a hard time drinking plain broth.
Rinse brown rice well and cover with filtered water. Add the acidyfier. Cover and allow to soak for at least 8 hours, but preferably 24.
Drain and rinse rice (reserve 10 % soaking water if using the grain water method.)
Place rice, ginger, garlic and chicken stock into a crockpot and set to High. Cook for 6-12 hours or until rice is super soft and broken and the congee is thick and creamy. Or cook on LOW for 10-14 hours then set the crockpot to warm and enjoy for several days (stir often and add more stock/water as necessary to keep it from sticking on the bottom). Be sure to check the crockpot every once in a while during the cooking process and skim off any foam or scum that rises to the surface.
*Fermenting brown rice before cooking it allows to anti-nutrients like phytic acid to break down and the grain to become more digestible. You can ferment your grains by adding live whey drained from yogurt or kefir that has active cultures, raw apple cider vinegar like Bragg’s, or by using the grain water method.
The grain water soaking method works by soaking brown rice in plain filtered water for 24 hours, drain off and reserve 10%-which keeps a long time in the fridge. Cook rice in fresh water as usual. Next time, soak your rice in fresh water to cover plus the reserved soaking liquid for 24 hours. Drain, again reserving 10% and cook the rice as usual in fresh water. Repeat this cycle of reserving 10% and always adding the previous reserved soaking water to your next soak and eventually up to 96% of phytic acid will be reduced in 24 hours. Meanwhile you get to eat healthy and nutritious whole grains. Read more about the grain water soaking method here.
**Serve topped with you choice of toppings:
Mushrooms
Tamari
Chjopped scallions
Boiled Egg
Poached Egg
Chopped Chicken
Kimchi
Sauerkraut
Cilantro
Cabbage
Gingered Carrots
Julienne Carrots
Fresh Parsley
Snap Peas
Fried or Carmelized Onions
Serrano Chilis
Cayenne Pepper
Cold-pressed sesame oil
Coconut Milk
Coconut Oil
Toasted Peanuts
Lime
Avocado
Chili at it’s best… filling, healthy, and full of flavor!
Melt the lamb lard on low heat in a 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed kettle.
Add the chopped red onion and saute, turning up the heat a little, until the onion is softened.
Add the ground lamb meat, stir and chop it until all of the meat has browned.
Add tomatoes, tomato juice, chili beans, chili powder, salt and herbs*.
Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
* When fresh herbs are available in the garden, I gather enough of the rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil, that when it is chopped finely together, there is about 1/4 of a cup. If you do not have fresh herbs, use 1 tablespoon of a mixture of the herbs, roughly in equal proportions.
We like to serve this over cornbread and top it with cottage cheese.
You can, of course, make substitutions but the the flavor will be affected. This combination is particularly delicious.
I make these soup enhancers out of strongly flavored greens from spring and fall garden. I use mustard greens, kales, arugula, and broccoli leaves. These soup enhancers go well in just about any soup, pot roast, or other dish that could use a flavor boost.
Place the greens and water in a blender, food processor, or in a wide mouth jar for an immersion blender.
Finely chop the greens with your choice appliance.
Fill the ice cube tray with greens. Add any excess water to the green filled cubes. Adding the excess water will allow you to remove the green cubes easier from the ice cube tray.
Freeze over night.
Remove the green cubes from the ice cube tray and move to an air tight container in the freezer or toss in any smoothie, soup, pot roast, or other dish that you want to add extra flavor and vitamins to.
Compared with other legumes, lentils require much less cooking time. They are rich in in minerals, two of the B vitamins, protein, and high in fiber. They readily absorb the flavors of the dish they are cooked in and so are versatile. This simple soup is delicious and comforting. We like to eat it with some properly prepared corn bread and plenty of butter. Another nice way to serve it is poured over some cooked rice.
Pour the lentils into a colander, rinse them, and pour into a non-reactive bowl. Cover the lentils with plenty of filtered water.
Add 2 Tablespoons raw vinegar, lemon juice or live whey. Cover and let soak for 24 hours.
When you are ready to assemble the soup, drain and rinse the lentils. Pour them into a large saucepan.
Add the stock, onion, potato, celery, bay leaves, and olive oil.
Add enough filtered water to cover the lentils by at least 2 inches. (As the soup simmers, check occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid.)
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1/2 - 1 hour, until the lentils are very tender.
Add the salt just prior to serving. Remove bay leaves.
This soup reheats and freezes well. Some in our family like to add a little hot sauce to this.
From my family cookbook, an adaptable, simple but hearty soup. Perfect for a lunch, delightful with a hearty bread and salad.
In a stockpot put ground beef, cover with stock or water. Heat to a simmer and cook meat, breaking it into bit sized chunks as it cooks.
Add seasonings, tomatoes and frozen veggies. Add any desired optional ingredients.
Simmer until cooked/heated through 20-30 minutes maximum.
Serve with sourdough bread or salad or just as a hearty lunch
I love broccoli and beef in anything so I brought the two together in this simple soup! Chinese 5-spice powder adds a unique new flavor if you’re bored with salt and herb varieties of soups – especially on GAPS.
This makes a large pot of soup since we always like leftovers. Please note that the ginger and garlic is rough chopped. There is no need for minced perfection in this soup! I also use the broccoli stems because I hate waste. I peel them if they seem too tough to cook or digest easily.
Bring broth and stew meat to a boil and then lower to a rolling simmer. Let the beef cook for about an hour, checking to see that it’s cooked completely. You can also slow simmer it longer if your stew meat is tough and you’d like it to become more tender.
Add the coconut aminos, sesame oil, 5 spice, ginger, garlic and broccoli and bring it back to a boil.
Cook 3-5 minutes until the broccoli is soft enough to easily pierce with a fork, but still green.
Dish up and add mint and cilantro to each bowl.
Enjoy!
This hearty soup is made with venison and a variety of vegetables. You may substitute beef or lamb.
In a small bowl, combine the whole wheat flour and yogurt. Cover the bowl and let it sit on the counter for at least 7 hours.
Mince the green onion and garlic.
In a heavy-bottomed soup pot or cast iron Dutch oven, melt the butter and olive oil together on medium/low heat. Add the onion and garlic.
Saute, stirring, for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Peel and slice the carrots thinly. Add to the pot.
Remove the stems from the kale and then chop the kale, chard and cabbage. Add to the pot.
Cut up the canned venison and add to the pot.
Add the stock. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Stirring quickly, gradually add the soaked flour to the soup. Simmer, stirring, for 1 minute.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve. This freezes well.
* If using fresh meat, brown it in a little lard or other healthy fat before adding to the soup. Add enough water to barely cover the meat, cover and simmer for 1 - 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.
This version of tomato soup is filling and nourishing. I use basil that I preserve in the refrigerator in raw apple cider vinegar (http://eatnourishing.com/recipe/preserved-fresh-genovese-basil/), but fresh basil will do admirably. Warm homemade muffins make this a complete meal, or served as a soup course, sprinkled with a few homemade croutons, it is very nice as well.
Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pan.
Saute the onions and garlic on medium/low heat, stirring constantly, until soft.
Add tomatoes, chicken stock, pepper, basil and salt. Simmer for 1/2 hour.
Add the milk and either using a stick blender or a stand blender, blend until smooth.
Serve. Makes about 1/2 gallon of soup.
Like so many dishes, this is best the next day. It freezes well also.
This soup is savory, satisfying and versatile. Add more or less of the ingredients listed and of course you may adapt it to what you have on hand.
In a heavy-bottomed soup kettle or cast iron Dutch oven, combine the neck bones, onion, garlic, carrots, kelp and celery.
Cover with filtered water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Allow to simmer for 2 hours.
Let it cool for a little while and then strain through a clean cotton cloth.
Pick the meat off the bones and reserve.
Return stock to kettle and add the meat, cubed potatoes, cabbage, riced mashed potatoes and salt.
Simmer for 30 minutes and then serve.
This freezes well.
Before our family’s food conversion, our favorite fast food stop was a side of Wendy’s chili with french fries dunked in for good measure. It was hearty and fast — but far from nourishing. If you want to serve your family a dish that’s even more delicious and nutritious — but just as easy! — as drive-thru fare, this is the ultimate crockpot chili recipe you are looking for.
In a large crockpot, combine ingredients, stirring well.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours until flavors have melded together.
IN A HURRY? Cook on the stove top for 45 minutes until simmering.
MAKING EXTRA? Freeze in meal-size portions for an instant lunch or one-pot-dinner.
FOR GAPS: use only white navy beans.
BEAN TIP: Cook large batches of beans and freeze in two-cup increments in your freezer. You can’t beat the price of these “instant cans”!