Potato salad with home-made mayonnaise

Cooked and cooled potatoes are an excellent source of resistant starch, a prebiotic that helps feed the probiotics (good bacteria) in our gut. Potato salad is one easy and yummy way to incorporate cooked and cooled potatoes into your diet. It readily lends itself for school or work lunches, eaten straight from the fridge as leftovers or prepared ahead of time for every day dinners, dinner parties or picnic lunches.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato, cut into 1cm cubes (approx 150g)

• ½ carrot, cut lengthways then into rounds

• ¼ cup peas (you can buy frozen organic peas in most organic shops)

• 1-2 rashes of pastured bacon or rounds of diced pastured ham (optional)

• tallow (or natural fat of choice) for frying bacon

• 1-2 tablespoons home made mayonnaise (see recipe below)

• unrefined salt

• cracked pepper

Directions:

Steam potato, carrots and peas until soft. Add to a bowl.

Meanwhile, dice bacon and stir fry in a small saucepan in tallow (or fat of choice) until cooked. Add to the bowl. If using ham instead of bacon add it to the bowl.

Mix ingredients in bowl to combine.

Refrigerate for 24 hours to allow resistant starch properties of the cooked and cooled potatoes to form. When ready to consume, stir through mayonnaise and season with any additional salt and pepper.

Serves 1-2 depending if consuming as a side or a main.

Note: I tend not to peel the skin on potatoes unless they are particularly grubby / full of soil. This typically depends on the variety of the potato. Sometimes a little scrub with a brush and water is enough to remove excess dirt.

Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks

• 1 tsp Dijon style mustard

• 1.5 tbsps lemon juice

• 1 tbsp whey (optional)

• 1/8 tsp unrefined salt

• cracked pepper

• ¾ cup olive oil

Directions:

Blend together all ingredients, other than the olive oil, with a hand held blender. With the blender still running, very slowly pour in the olive oil a little at a time. The result should be a thick creamy paste.

Makes 1 cup. Keep refrigerated.

Note: Without the whey, mayonnaise will keep for about 2 weeks. The addition of whey will help your mayonnaise last longer, adds enzymes and increases nutrient content. With the whey, mayonnaise keeps for several weeks in the fridge and will become firmer with time.

Grecian herbed fish in broth

This is one of my and my kids’ favourite ways of eating wild fish and nourishing bone broth in the one meal. The Grecian flavours throw me back to my childhood and my trips to Greece. The entire meal is made on the stove top and once everything is chopped up and you have access to home made bone broth, it doesn’t take much time to make. So perfect for both everyday dinners and as well as an impressive dinner party meal. Be sure to buy fresh wild as opposed to farmed fish which you can read about here.

Kali Orexi (that’s Green for Good Appetite)

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Ingredients:

3 tablespoons (60g) butter
1 onion (approx 200g), diced
3 knobs of garlic (approx 15g), diced
1 carrot (approx 150g), diced
1 potato (approx 100g), diced
1 zucchini (approx 150g), diced
2 stalks of celery (approx 200g), thinly sliced into half moons (I use  a mandolin)
650-750g fillets of white wild fish (e.g. Barramundi, Hake, Snapper, Perch, Ling) 
2 cups 500ml salted chicken bone broth/ stock (purchase from our online store or from Broth Bar & Larder or learn to make your own via my online bone broth workshop) 
2 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon unrefined salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
A few good turns of cracked pepper
1 bunch fresh parsley, roughly chopped, for garnishing

Directions:

Melt butter in large heavy based pot (eg cast iron) or frying pan on medium to  low heat. Add onions and garlic and stir fry for a few minutes until onions and garlic start to soften. Add potatoes and carrots and stir fry until they start to soften. Add celery and zucchini and cook, covered, until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally. Once tender, stir through dried herbs and salt and pepper. 

Meanwhile heat broth and tomato puree in a saucepan and blend together with whisk or stick blender. Add raw fish on top of the vegetables and pour  the heated broth over the fish and vegetables. Cook, covered, until fish is cooked through.  

Ladle into four bowls and garnish with a handful of fresh parsley and a wedge of lemon.

Serves 4

Hot Chocolate

One of my favourite hot drinks is a hot chocolate. I have it most days without guilt as it’s free of any sweetener. Cosy, comforting, and warm. And I’m a sucker for raw cacao powder. Sometimes I think I eat my body weight in it.

Luckily raw cacao powder is the fourth most nutrient-dense food on the planet according to the Mat Lalonde scale of nutrient density – super high in phenols and anti oxidants. Yay! Because it is uplifting it is also a healthy swap for a coffee (without the jagged nervousness and heart-racing anxiety) and I personally have used it in this manner to circuit-break a coffee addiction as have many of the my health coaching clients. 

I make my hot chocolate in numerous ways depending on the amount of richness I crave. So instead of listing different ingredients I set out my recipe below in terms of a formula (much like my smoothie recipe) as that’s how my brain works:

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Ingredients

—  Liquid base: 1 cup full fat milk, coconut milk, almond milk or boiling water (or combo of one or more). If I’m after something light I’ll go for boiling water, if I want something more substantial and satiating I’ll go for full fat milk. 

— Raw cacao powder: ½-1 tablespoon depending of taste.

— Optional protein booster: 1 tablespoon Collagen Hydrosolate and/or Gelatin Powder which you can purchase direct from GelPro Australia here or here respectively or from our retail store Broth Bar & Larder.  I discuss the virtues and differences between Collagen Hydrosolate and Gelatin Powder in my online bone broth workshop. The former provides additional osteo skeletal report and support for hair skin and nails, whereas the latter is more about gut healing and sealing. So if you need support in these areas, consider adding these in. Both products are tasteless and dissolve in hot liquid (collagen also dissolves in cold liquid but gelatin only dissolves in hot liquid). 

— Optional fat bomb: ½ - 1 tablespoon cream, Brain Octane, MCT oil, virgin coconut oil, grass fed butter, or 1 egg yolk, or 2 raw cacao butter buttons. Good to add a fat bomb in if your liquid base is simply water. These traditional fats makes your hot choccy more nourishing and satiating. 

— Optional flavour bomb: these add not only flavour but also therapeutic benefits:

• A drop of Young Living essential oils such as cinnamon bark (my fav!), orange, tangerine, citrus fresh, peppermint (very uplifting), cardamom, or Vanilla. To read why I exclusively use Young Living essential oils and how to purchase them please click here.

• 1/2-1 teaspoon of medicinal mushrooms. Reputable brands include Masons Mushrooms by Superfeast or Lilium Love

• A sprinkling of chilli flakes (with a drop of Young Living orange essential oil for a choc orange hot choc).

Directions

If making with boiling water, place everything (other than essential oils) in a blender and process until mixed. If making with milk, then place everything (other than essential oils) in a small saucepan and gently heat (do not boil!) and blend with stick blender. Add in any essential oil. Pour into a cup and dust with raw cacao powder if desired.

Sip slowly and enjoy!

thermomix version

If making with boiling water, place everything (other than essential oils) in a blender and process until mixed. If making with milk, then place everything (other than essential oils) in a small saucepan and gently heat (do not boil!) and blend with stick blender. If making with Thermomix, heat at 60-70 degrees, for a few minutes on speed 4.

Add in any essential oils at the end of heating. Pour into a cup and dust with raw cacao powder if desired.