Carbonara GF Pasta Recipe

A very teenage-friendly meal. I feel like I get big brownie points when I serve this. Leftovers can be reheated for school lunches. This is a great way to get nutrient-dense egg yolks into kids plus this dish is loaded with bacon and cream – so full of healthy fats. No wonder it is so tasty! I acknowledge that carbonara isn’t traditionally made with cream BUT I have included it to add extra creaminess and nutrient density.

I often serve this when unexpected teenagers stay over for dinner as eggs, bacon, cream and garlic are staples in my fridge and there’s always a packet or two of gluten-free pasta floating around in the pantry.

Ingredients:
1 packet of gluten-free spaghetti, fettuccini or other pasta of choice
20g garlic, diced
200g pastured bacon, diced
1 tablespoon extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
4 egg yolks
200ml cream
1/2 teaspoon unrefined salt
A few turns of cracked pepper
Reggiano Parmigiano (parmesan) cheese, shaved or grated (optional)

Directions:
Cook pasta according to packet directions. I like to add a teaspoon of unrefined salt and a splash of olive oil to the boiling water that the pasta is cooking in to add flavour and prevent the pasta from sticking.

While the pasta is cooking, sauté garlic and bacon in olive oil in a large frying pan or cast iron pot until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat. Add in the egg yolks, cream, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover to keep warm.

Strain the pasta and add it to the sauce mixture in the frying pan or cast iron pot, stirring to combine so the pasta is well coated.

Serve in the same frying pan or cast iron pot or transfer to another serving dish if desired.

Top with a sprinkling of Reggiano Parmigiano (parmesan) cheese.
Serves 4.

Love Soulla  xx

Avoyolemoni Soupa (Greek egg and lemon soup)

This is a very traditional soup served at Greek Easter after midnight mass to break the Easter fast of Lent. I added a wholefoods spin to my parents’ traditional recipe by soaking the rice (to learn why this is important read this earlier post here) and ensuring that I purchase a certified organic or at the very least a pastured chicken that is not fed GMO grains. 

This is the only time I make a chicken stock (or broth) with a whole chicken. Usually I make a chicken broth using chicken bones only as set out in my online bone broth workshop which you can check out here. 

I love this soup so much not only because of the fond memories it evokes but because of its innocent and comforting flavour. There’s only a handful of ingredients but the trick is all in the technique to make it frothy and creamy without the eggs curdling. 

This is my daughters favourite soup and I hope that she will pass down the recipe to her children and many generations ahead. 

This soup is traditionally served with Greek Cypriot Flaounes. Between these 2 recipes, your wholefoods Greek Easter is sorted. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I do and please tag me in your posts (@staraniseorganic) so I can see your creations. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white rice

• 1 whole organic or pastured chicken

• 3 pastured eggs

• 2 teaspoons unrefined salt plus extra for seasoning chicken meat

• cracked pepper

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice plus extra for seasoning chicken meat
  

Directions:

1. Soak 1 cup rice in 2 cups of water overnight then strain and rinse. 

2. Place 1 whole chicken in a large saucepan and add 1.5L waters. If whole chicken doesn’t fit into your saucepan cut it in half with a sharp knife. 

3. Cover, bring to a boil (this takes approx. 10 minutes) then slow simmer for 3 hours (you can slow simmer for longer e.g. 6 hours but be sure that the heat is very low so that not much if any of the liquid evaporates). The result should be a beautiful chicken stock. Strain the stock into a large bowl (while keeping the chicken in the saucepan, covered, to stay warm). 

4. Add rice to a small saucepan and add 2 cups of the strained stock. Cover, bring to the boil then simmer until rice is cooked through and the stock has been absorbed, stirring occasionally. 

5. Beat eggs well until frothy with hand held blender. 

6. Add 1 cup of stock in a smaller bowl and very slowly pour in the eggs mixing with a stick blender. Add this egg/stock mixture into the large bowl of stock and mix again with the stick blender until the mixture is frothy on the top. Add in the rice, lemon juice, salt and cracked pepper and stir well to combine. 

7. Place the chicken a platter, roughly breaking it up into pieces (you can try to remove as many of the bones as you can at this point).  Season the chicken with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

8. Ladle the soup into bowls.  Serve with the chicken either on a side plate or added into the soup. 
   

Serves 6 as a main or 8 as an entrée. It is likely you will have some chicken left over. 

Kefthethes (Greek meat balls) with tomato sauce

I have super fond memories of my mum’s keftethes growing up....

Dipping them into tomato sauce, devouring them one by one….I reckon I ate my body weight in them in any given sitting. I haven’t met anyone, young or old, who doesn’t love them.

They are a great party food (especially for kids’ parties), convenient for picnics and school/work lunches (make in bulk and freeze in between sheets of baking paper) and can be made into larger sized flatter patties for hamburgers. People (especially children and those transitioning off a vegetarian diet) who find the texture of meat (eg steak) difficult to consume may find meatballs/patties more digestible and palatable.

While you can make this recipe without coating the meatballs in flour, the flour tends to hold the meatballs together and prevents them from sticking to the pan. I use a 100% gluten-free activated buckwheat flour made by grinding up my activated savoury buckwheat groats in a spice/nut/coffee grinder.

I wont lie, meatballs are probably one of my most labour intensive recipes to make, hence why I don’t make them nearly as often enough as my kids would like. I LOVE cooking but anything that takes longer than 15 minutes in my kitchen is not an everyday food. It’s frying them up that’s the time consuming (and messy) part. If you accept that your stove top will be splattered with coconut oil, you’re hands covered in meat patty mixture, and your benches covered in buckwheat flour, then you’ll be fine! I always like to tell it like it is. But the reward is worth the effort. The joy that you will bring to those who eat them will be worth it, especially when they are eaten fresh and warm straight from the pan dipped into some home-made tomato sauce.

Kefthethes are a great source protein (minced meat) and healthy saturated fats (eggs, natural fats for frying). I also sneak in some vegetables so if your kids are fussy with their veggies, here’s a good place to hide them (shhh!).

So I now share with you a modified version of my mum’s recipe which I have tweaked over the years.  I have also included my own home-made tomato sauce recipe because there is no sugar-free tomato sauce on the market (to my knowledge) and tomato sauce is so ridiculously easy to make that there is simply no excuse for buying the commercial crap-filled variety.

Enjoy and kali orexi (that’s Greek for good appetite)!

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The players...

500g 100% grass fed beef or lamb mince (the fattier the mince the better for both taste and nutrition). If the mince is lean you can add extra beef/lamb fat if you have available

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 eggs

2 carrots

1 teaspoon unrefined salt eg sea salt, Himalayan crystal salt

cracked pepper

3 teaspoons herbs/spices of your choice eg one or more of oregano, sumac, thyme, basil, chilli, paprika

handful of chopped fresh parsley (optional)

coconut oil, beef tallow, butter, ghee (or other natural fat of choice for frying)

activated buckwheat flour or rice flour (optional) (approx 1 cup)

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Game On...

If you have a food processor: roughly chop onions and carrots with a knife and add to food processor. 

Add all other ingredients (other than fat of choice for frying and flour) to food processor and process ingredients until they are well mixed (using the processor’s blade function). If the volume of food is too great for the capacity of the food processor then process in smaller batches and combine all food in a large bowl, mixing well with your hands.  

• If you don’t have a food processor: grate carrots finely, dice onions and garlic finely. Chop parsley finely. Beat eggs. Add mince to a large bowl together with all ingredients (other than fat of choice for frying and flour) and mix well with your hands.
  

• If time permits, leave mince mixture to marinate covered in fridge overnight or for several hours to allow flavours to infuse. Drain any excess liquid from mixture.
  

• To make the flour process activated buckwheat groats or activated rice in a nut/spice/coffee grinder or Thermomix until ground into a fine powder. Add flour to a shallow plate or small glass container ready for the meat balls to be coated.

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Heat a liberal amount of fat of choice in a stainless steel frying pan on low heat (I have several frying pans on the go at the same time to save time).

Roll a small amount of the mince mixture into a ball in the palm of your hand (about half the size of your palm, or 40g).

Pat the outside of the ball into the buckwheat /rice flour so it is well coated. Repeat for as many balls as can fit into the flour plate/container.

Fry the meat balls on one side until golden brown. Fill the pan(s) with as many meatballs as you can comfortably fit. Gently press the top of the balls down is you desire a flatter patty. Using a stainless steel spatula, turn the patties over to brown the other side. You may need to gently ‘nudge’ the meat balls periodically in the pan with the spatula to prevent them from sticking to the pan. You may need to replenish the butter/oil/tallow throughout the frying time. This calls for a very generous amount of natural fats to prevent the balls from sticking especially if you use a stainless steel pan (like I do) or if you have not coated them with flour.

When cooked, place on plates or cooling racks lined with paper towels to absorb excess fat.

Makes approx 30 x 40g meatballs. Serve with home-made tomato sauce if desired (refer to separate recipe below).

Keftethes can be made in large batches for freezing in between sheets of baking paper. Freeze when completely cooled. Defrost a few at a time for school/work lunches. When defrosting, place meatballs on paper towels in a container to absorb moisture. 

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Variations...

• Instead of minced meat, use the meat pulled off the bones after making beef/lamb broth. You could also add some sneaky offal such as 1 lambs brain, some livers, kidneys and/or some bone marrow (reserved from making bone broth) to make up an approx total weight of 500g (eg 70% minced meat and 30% lambs fry).
  

• Instead of (or in addition to) carrots, add other root vegetables eg potatoes or sweet potatoes. You could add above ground vegetables such as zucchini but be sure to drain very well the liquid that comes out of these vegetables after you grate or process them otherwise the mince mixture will become too runny and the meatballs will not hold together.
  

• Instead of pan frying the meatballs (which can be time consuming as I alluded to above), make baked meat balls in tomato sauce by placing the balls in a large oven proof dish, generously cover with tomato puree or home-made tomato sauce (refer to separate recipe below) and (if desired) grated parmesan cheese and bake uncovered at 120 degrees for 1 hour.
  

• Spiced Chicken patties Follow the Keftethes recipe except substitute the following ingredients:
  
  > 500g cooked chicken meat (eg meat from the carcasses after making chicken broth) in place of red meat. You could also add offal such as 1 lambs brain, some livers, kidneys and/or some bone marrow (reserved from making bone broth) to make up an approx total weight of 500g.
  > 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon sumac, ½ teaspoon turmeric and ½ teaspoon paprika as suggested herbs and spices.
  > Handful of chopped fresh coriander in place of parsley

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now for the Tomato sauce -
The players...
 

1 cup tomato puree (note- always buy in glass jars and not tins as the acid in the tomato leaches the BPA from the tins into the contents)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon whey (optional)

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce (I like the Melrose certified organic brand)

1 teaspoon maple syrup (optional)

½ teaspoon unrefined salt

1/8 teaspoon chilli powder (or more depending on taste)

a good sprinkling of cracked pepper

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How they tango...

Mix all ingredients well with a stick blender or fork. Makes approx 1.5 cups.

The addition of whey will help your sauce last longer, adds enzymes and increases nutrient content. If you have added whey, let the sauce sit at room temperature covered for 7 hours before refrigerating. Tomato sauce keeps for several months in the fridge. Without the whey, tomato sauce will keep for about 3 weeks.