Gravy! OMG! (recipe)

Boy, I miss gravy. Mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. That was my comfort food for years. I lived off it through college. At every school I ever attended, the cafeterias sold little containers of mashed potatoes and gravy for twenty-five cents. A cheap and alternative option to a real lunch!

Fast forward 100 years and neither gravy nor mashed potatoes are on the Paleo Diet with a Hashimoto's Twist. Potatoes are not only nightshades and capable of creating health havoc, but they are also high in starch/sugar and lectins*, another misery-causing substance. To reduce the amount of lectins found in lectin-high foods with skins, it is advised to peel them as the skins have a greater lectin concentration. This is especially important for tomatoes and one reason Roma tomatoes were developed - less skin and more pulp.

Old-fashioned gravy like grandma used to make is all about the gluten: wheat flour. That's what gives it that creamy, soothing, comforting, sticky texture. Gluten is definitely not on my diet so gravy has been a forbidden for years. Besides, what would I put gravy on if I can't eat potatoes?

When my digestive tract failed a few months ago, there were few foods I could eat so I had to tweak the Hashimoto's diet. This caused me great stress as I had no idea how adding the few food choices I could tolerate would affect my health. Happy to say, so far I'm fine. I think. I hope. When I started a blended diet (yuck), I found sweet potatoes blend very nicely and creamy soups worked wonderfully. Sweet potatoes are higher in fiber and have a lower glycemic value than potatoes, however, they do have lectins and have low levels of goitrogens**. I have avoided them in the past.

People on grain-free diets are using cauliflower as a side dish alternative. It is especially popular as a rice substitute as the tiny bits are much like rice grains in terms of texture. Cauliflower is, however, a goitrogen. There is some debate over thyroid function being affected by goitrogens. From what I have read, cooking foods eliminates the goitrogens. It's only raw goitrogens that are problematic. If you have eaten a lot of raw goitrogens and experience feeling unusually cold, that's your thyroid being suppressed. Lately I've been drinking fresh cabbage juice which is supposed to heal my digestive tract and it never fails three hours later I'm hit with unexplained fatigue and the need to nap. It's hardly unexplained anymore.

Anyway, who would have thought cream of cauliflower soup would be the perfect GRAVY!!! It even looks like chicken or turkey gravy! Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, trimmed, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2-3 stalks of chopped celery
1 large, chopped yellow onion
1 teaspoon chopped (one clove) garlic
2 cups homemade chicken broth with lots of fat
1 cup/can coconut milk
1/2 to 1 teaspoon curry (optional)
salt and pepper

In a large pot, add olive oil and butter. Saute onion and garlic on medium heat until transparent. Add celery and cauliflower cooking slightly and stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper. Add chicken broth. Bring to boil, reduce heat slightly, simmer covered until cauliflower is soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly. Blend in a blender until creamy. Return to pan adding curry and coconut milk. Bring to slow simmer and heat for another ten minutes. It will be really thick so stir it constantly. Add water or more coconut milk if thinner is preferred.

Pour over mashed sweet potatoes or potatoes, if you are so inclined. Also good over chicken or turkey or Thanksgiving dinner. I think I could pour this over everything! AND it makes a very good soup for those cold winter months!

YUM!


*Lectins are foods that are capable of penetrating the wall of the stomach causing leaking gut and inflammation. Most hazardous lectin-high foods include: beans of any kind, wheat, peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and cashews (which are actually beans...or drupes...so confusing!)

**Goitrogens are foods that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. Bad goitrogens: bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, mustard and mustard greens, radishes, rutabagas, turnips. Foods with small amounts of goitrogens: bamboo shoots, peaches, peanuts, pears, pine nuts, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes.

Cauliflower Kisses (recipe)

There are lots of recipes out there using cauliflower. I've never been a big fan of cauliflower. It's not because I don't like the taste. Maybe it's the weird texture? I saw these cute little cauliflower rosettes and I thought they were so adorable I should try the recipe and maybe I would find a fun way to eat cauliflower. Or at least a tolerable way.

The recipe, from my friend's Paleo collection, was originally from Low Carb, So Simple, a website featuring "gluten-free, sugar-free and five ingredients or less". The recipe is really titled Duchess Cauliflower. I hope no one minds if I rename it. I think Cauliflower Kisses is much nicer. And they look sort of like Hershey's Kisses! Only made with something less evil and definitely healthier.

Because the recipe calls for butter, they are only Paleo rather than Paleo-Hashimoto's, but still very healthy. Perhaps the butter could be replaced with coconut oil? I don't know if they would taste as good and I'm not crazy about coconut oil. I use it in so many recipes as it is.

Ingredients:

1 lb. cauliflower
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs
1/3 cup coconut flour
pepper (optional, the original recipe doesn't call for it, but I added it)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook cauliflower until soft. Pour out all water and place cauliflower in a blender. Add butter and salt and puree until smooth. Cool slightly. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl, add to cauliflower, and continue to puree. Add flour and whisk to mix. Let stand ten minutes. I think this give the coconut time to expand because the mixture becomes soft and fluffy.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper or olive oil. Use a pastry bag (or like I did, a small plastic bag with a hole cut out from a corner) and pipe rosettes on the baking pan.

Bake 15 - 40 minutes depending on the size of the rosette. The tips and edges will start to brown lightly. When done the bottoms will be toasty browned like hash browns.

Serve warm. Yum.

When piping the rosettes I took more photos than necessary because I kept thinking, Boy! I hope these things taste as good as they were fun to make! Wasn't that some company's advertising saying? These didn't disappoint! REALLY FUN TO EAT. They were really fluffy and yummy. It was all I could do to stop eating especially since they were bite-sized, but fortunately, cauliflower is very filling.

Posing for photograph, then popped it in my mouth!

 

Cauliflower is also a goitrogenic food, in other words, it suppresses thyroid function. This is not a good effect for people who have low-functioning thyroid. Some don't believe this is much of an issue and the benefits of goitrogens outweigh the warnings, but many suggest people with symptoms of hypothyroidism should limit their intake of goitrogens. Examples of goitrogenic foods include broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, peaches, pears, radishes, soy, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes, turnips among others. I am really happy to have a reason NOT to eat kale.

ENJOY!