This is a fun way to eat Polenta, a traditional Italian food derived from corn. Cooking in broth adds flavour and nutrients and plenty of butter is a must!

Serves 6-8

• 1 cup quick cooking polenta
• 4 cups stock or broth
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 Tbsp butter
• salt to taste

Line a baking dish with baking paper.

Bring stock (add salt if needed) to boil and add polenta stirring continuously till incorporated. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Take off heat and stir in butter and half of the finely chopped rosemary.

Pour into baking dish and smooth the surface. Leave to cool and set for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Turn out polenta onto a chopping board and use a melon baller to scoop out balls of polenta and place onto baking tray lined with baking paper. You can just press polenta into the melon baller when you get down to the last of the polenta cake.

Alternately you can slice the polenta carefully into ‘chips’ and arrange on the baking tray.

Brush pom poms or chips with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (flaked works well) and the rest of the rosemary and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden. Serve immediately.

The post Polenta Chip Recipe appeared first on Food Compass.

1 cup almond flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 Tbsp coconut flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
zest of 1 orange
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of orange juice
2 eggs
1 Tbsp coconut oil or butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 180° Celsius. Put the first 6 ingredients (dry ingredients) into a bowl and stir to combine. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Line a muffin tin with 4 cupcake liners and divide mix between them. Bake for 20 mins. Let cool completely before icing them.

For the icing:
3 Tbsp cacao butter
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp cacao powder
1 tsp coconut nectar

Melt all ingredients together and stir to combine. Put in the fridge to cool. Once icing has cooled use a knife to vigorously stir to create a creamy icing texture. Ice cooled cupcakes and enjoy.

Paleo ✓ (use Coconut Oil instead of butter)
Raw X
Vegan X
Vegetarian ✓
Low FODMAP ✓ (use coconut nectar, maple, stevia or brown rice syrup instead of honey)
Refined Sugar Free ✓
Gluten Free ✓
Nut Free X
Soy Free ✓
Dairy Free ✓ (use Coconut Oil instead of butter)
Egg Free X

Nutritional Info (per cupcake)
Calories 363g
Carbs 23g
Fat 29g
Protein 10g
Sugar 7g
Sodium 172mg

The post Jaffa Paleo Cupcakes appeared first on Food Compass.

Can kiwi food bloggers actually cook and bake good food without processed sugars and white flour?

Can they be imaginative in their use of new healthy ingredients in their meals or is it just Edmonds style meals with a boring change?

Deciding to show us how awesome kiwi food bloggers can be is Cave Girl, NZ’s very own Paleo Food Blogger.

To Test Out Cave Girls Culinary Skills We Have Sent Her A Mystery Box

A number of ingredients that are being used in the paleo, clean eating, gluten free movement.

Some of them you would have heard of and maybe all ready using yourself, others are more unusually and just beginning to gain popularity.

How will cave girl go?

• Will she shed tears of frustration?
• Will she astound you with her creations?

Go here to check out cave girls blog and her attempt at the Food Compass Mystery Box Challenge.

The post Mystery Box Challenge-Cave Girl appeared first on Food Compass.

Raw Chocolate Recipe, makes approx 20 small chocolates

Ingredients

100g Cacao butter

5 Tbsp Cacao powder

Sweetener to taste (approx 4 Tbsp liquid sweetener. i.e coconut nectar, honey, agave nectar)

Method

Make sure all your equipment is completely dry or your chocolate will separate.

Add the cacao butter to a bowl. If your cacao butter is in large lumps feel free to grate it or chop it so it will melt faster.

Melt cacao butter in the bowl over a saucepan of hot water (bain marie), making sure the bowl does not touch the water, and no water goes into your bowl.

Once butter has melted add the cacao powder and stir till dissolved.

Add sweetener and stir. It’s better to add a little at a time and taste. Note: If you add a lot of liquid sweetener it can make your chocolates set a little softer.

Pour chocolate into the molds and leave to set. Pop in the fridge to speed up the process.

Variations: let your taste buds and creativity run wild. Add a dash of salt to bring out the flavour, vanilla, or essential oils like orange or peppermint. Add chilli for a bite, or nuts, seeds or dried fruit.

The post Raw Chocolate Recipe appeared first on Food Compass.

Ingredients

Base

1 cup Dates
1 1⁄2 cups of Nuts (almonds, walnuts, or even a blend)
1⁄2 cup of Desiccated Coconut + additional 1/3 cup for lining base
2 Tbsp Cacao Powder
pinch of salt
1⁄3 cup Cacao Butter

Mousse

2 1⁄2 cups raw cashews
1 270mL can of Coconut Cream
5 Tbsp Cacao Powder
3 Tbsp Coconut Nectar (use Agave Nectar or Brown Rice Syrup for Raw)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
pinch of salt
Strawberries (about 2 punnets)

METHOD

Soak the cashew nuts in water overnight.
Tip: if you haven’t time to soak and you don’t mind the tart not being raw you can simmer the cashews in water for 15-­20 minutes to prepare.
Prepare a 22cm springform cake tin by greasing then sprinkling 1⁄3 cup of the dessicated coconut over the base. This will help the tart to slide easily from the base when removed.

Add the dates, nuts and 1⁄2 cup of desiccated coconut, cacao powder and salt to a food processor and process till finely ground.

Gently melt the cacao butter, then add to the food processor and blend again to combine.

Press the base firmly into the tin and up the sides. Place in the fridge to set.

Rinse the food processor then add all the mousse ingredients and blend till smooth. This may take a few minutes. Don’t sweat it if you can’t get it completely smooth, when eaten with the
nutty base you won’t notice any slight graininess in the mousse.

Slice half the the strawberries in half and place in the base. Pour the mousse over and smooth the top. Place in the fridge to set for at least 2 or 3 hours.

Remove from tin by sliding a knife around the sides and sliding on to a plate. Decorate with remaining strawberries, and raw grated chocolate. Serve with whipped coconut cream.

Paleo ✓
Raw ✓
Gluten Free ✓
Vegan ✓
Vegetarian ✓
Low FODMAP X

Refined Sugar Free ✓
Nut Free X
Soy Free ✓
Dairy Free ✓
Egg Free ✓

The post Cacao Dessert Recipe- Cacao & Strawberry Tart appeared first on Food Compass.

The beneficial healthy nutrients of cacao are numerous, and is made up of over 300 different compounds. We usually think of berries when it comes to consuming our antioxidants, but cacao even trumps goji berries in the antioxidant department!

Cacao is abundant in polyphenols, flavonoids and catechins and contains high levels of important minerals including iron, chromium, manganese, anandamide and in particular magnesium.

All the beneficial compounds in Cacao help to lower blood pressure, support heart health, reduce fatty liver disease and even reduce UV damage from the sun.

What’s the difference between cacao and cocoa?

As a general rule, cacao refers to products that are cold pressed and therefore retain the unique nutritional properties. Cocoa is the result of roasting which changes the molecular structure and reduces the nutritional value.

How Do I Use Cacao

Using raw cacao in your culinary creations gives you not only the nutritional benefits but the control of your chocolatey treats. As cacao is not sweet you get to add the type and amount of sweetener that is right for you.

Cacao Powder is easy and versatile to use. It has a rich chocolate flavour but is not sweet. Use to give a chocolate flavour to drinks, baking or desserts.

Cacao Butter is a solid white fat. Simply melt and flavour with cacao powder and sweetener for a real raw chocolate.

Cacao nibs are crunchy with a chocolate flavour but are not sweet. Add to desserts, baking, smoothies or even eat straight from the pack.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

What is Cacao?

Cacao products come from the tree Theobroma Cacao (theobroma meaning ‘food of the gods’ in greek). The tree produces fruit or pods which incases the fatty seeds.

The fruit are collected by hand and the seeds removed and put in bins to ferment. After fermentation the seeds are dried, usually by sun, and then crushed. These crushed seeds are known as Cacao nibs. The crushed beans then have the fat removed (Cacao butter) and the remaining substance or solids are ground into Cacao powder

The post Cacao Health Benefits & Chocolatey Goodness appeared first on Food Compass.

Not exactly….. Average lifespan figures can be misleading due to high infant mortality. Early humans also didn’t have the benefit of modern medicine or the  ability to deal with trauma, infection, parasites etc. For example even by the 1850s the average American lifespan was still less than 40 years old. This doesn’t mean everyone was grey haired and worn out by age 35.

Studies of ancient skeletons and modern hunter gatherers and foragers give indications that infant mortality was high, but for individuals who survived childhood and made it to 15 years of age they had a good chance of a long life in good health.

http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US39-01.html

http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/papers/GurvenKaplan2007pdr.pdf

Didn’t Paleo man eat different diets depending on where they lived?

A Paleo Diet is not about trying to live like our ancestors. It is looking to our ancestral past to to give us ideas about how our digestive system developed and what foods are best fitted to meet this.

Despite people in different parts of the world having different diets, there were many commonalities. They all ate meat and plant based foods that were available, which is the basis of a modern paleo diet.

Don’t we need carbohydrates to function?

It’s a common misconception that a Paleo Diet is very low in carbohydrates.

It can often be much lower in carbohydrates than the diet you are use to, but given that diabetes is now an epidemic, and often due to the over consumption of sugar and carbs, this is usually a positive change.

Paleo lifestyle followers choose to consume however many carbs they wish from fruit and vegetables, including starchy vegetables like kumara. Most people include potatoes in their diet unless they have an autoimmune issue, and some even choose to include white rice for extra carbohydrate.

But doesn’t meat cause cancer?

It is true that processed meats may increase your risk of colon cancer. Luncheon, ham, frankfurters etc are foods best avoided.

When it comes to unprocessed meats the difference is all in the cooking. Charring meat (or any food for that matter) can cause compounds that have been shown to cause cancer in test animals, so choosing lower heat cooking methods like slow cooking is a better option.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20663065

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21540747

But won’t all the saturated fat cause heart disease?

We’ve been told for years to cut down the saturated fat to reduce heart disease, but unfortunately the scientists got it wrong.

The diet heart hypothesis was the work of Ancel Keys who cherry picked his data to prove his hypothesis. The US government ran with the recommendations and the rest of the western world followed.

New studies show that saturated fat in the diet does not increase risk of heart disease and in fact by replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils can actually increase risk of cardiovascular disease.

http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8707

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract

http://authoritynutrition.com/modern-nutrition-policy-lies-bad-science/

But how do I get calcium without dairy?

Turns out dairy isn’t the only source of calcium. Dark green vegetables and seaweed, small fish, meat and bone broths are all good sources of calcium.

But having strong bones takes more than just calcium. A wide range of nutrients is needed, and a diet that enables absorption of these minerals. Phytates in foods like grains and legumes can make absorption of calcium difficult. This could explain why despite high consumption of calcium, rates of osteoporosis are still high.

http://whole9life.com/2012/02/what-about-calcium/

What about fiber?

Taking grains and legumes out of the diet is going to have an effect on fiber consumption but that is not likely to be a problem? Many of the health claims about fiber have turned out to be false.

Insoluble fiber is unable to be digested or absorbed by the body, therefore nutritionally ineffective. All the cereal products that boast of high fiber content only serve to bulk up your stools, fine if you like that sort of thing.

Vegetables and fruit are excellent sources of soluble fiber, they serve to feed the all important gut bacteria. A paleo diet should be high in plant based foods, and therefore contain adequate fiber for your body.

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/13/4161.pdf

http://chriskresser.com/myths-and-truths-about-fiber

The post 7 Commonly Asked Questions About The Paleo Diet appeared first on Food Compass.

A great recipe when entertaining as you can prepare ahead of time. The flavours are fresh and intense and spicy. Delicious!

Marinade

2 cloves garlic – crushed(omit for low F.O.D.M.A.P)

1 Tbsp oil

3 Tbsp Coconut Aminos

½ a chilli – finely chopped

Dressing

1 clove garlic – crushed(omit for low F.O.D.M.A.P)
1 lime – juice & rind
1 tsp coconut sugar
1 tsp peanut oil(omit for paleo)
1 tsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp fish sauce
½ a chilli – finely chopped

Salad

300g beef – finely sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes – halved
1 small cucumber – diced
150g green beans – blanched
½ red onion – finely sliced (omit for low F.O.D.M.A.P)
sml bunch of coriander – roughly chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves – finely sliced

Mix beef with marinade ingredients and leave in refrigerator anywhere from an hour to overnight. Bring to room temperature before cooking.
Fry beef and put aside to rest and cool.
Mix dressing ingredients.
Assemble salad and cooled beef and top with dressing.

Paleo ✓  (omit peanut oil)
Raw X
Vegan X
Vegetarian X
Low FODMAP ✓ (omit garlic and onion)
Gluten Free ✓
Nut Free X
Soy Free ✓
Dairy Free ✓
Egg Free ✓

The post Thai Beef Salad Recipe appeared first on Food Compass.

• ¾ Cup Paleo Breakfast cereal – I used Forage & Graze Berry Good Granola
• Approx 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• 400mL Coconut Yoghurt (see recipe & ingredients below)
• 3 tsp Gelatine
• Fruit

To Make Coconut Yoghurt

• 400mL Can of Coconut Milk
• 2-3 Capsules of Probiotic
• Sweetener (Optional)

Sterilize a glass jar either by boiling or by washing in the dishwasher. Mix all the ingredients in the jar and cover with cheesecloth or a chux cloth and stand somewhere warm for up to 2 days till nice and tangy. A hot water cupboard or in the oven with only the light on make good places to keep it while it ferments.

To Make The Paleo Breakfast Tart

Put ¾ cup of paleo breakfast cereal in a food processor and blend. Drizzle a little oil while stirring till crumbs just start to hold together.

Press into a cheesecake dish.

Add 3 Tbsp of hot water into a cup and stir in 3 tsp of gelatine. Mix into yoghurt and stir until gelatine is dissolved. To help dissolve gelatine you may need to warm yoghurt slightly over a bain marie. Don’t overheat though, you don’t want to kill off all the beneficial probiotics.

Pour yoghurt over base and refrigerate till set. If you want this for breakfast, you will need to make the night before.

Top with fruit and enjoy!

These quantities made 2 small 11cm cheesecakes, enough to serve 2-4 people. To make a full size one just double the quantities.
Paleo ✓

Raw X (depends on cereal used for base)

Vegan X

Vegetarian ✓

Low FODMAP ✓

Refined Sugar Free ✓

Gluten Free ✓

Nut Free X

Soy Free ✓

Dairy Free ✓

Egg Free ✓

The post Paleo Breakfast Tart appeared first on Food Compass.

The rich flavours come from real raw organic cacao powder and the mesquite powder adds sweetness and a slight malty caramel flavour. These two natural foods add antioxidants and minerals in the most delicious way possible.

The First Step Is to Make Nut Milk

1. Add a cup of raw almonds to a bowl and cover with mineral or spring water and leave overnight to soak to help break down the phytic acid.
2. Drain nuts and rinse well.
3. Add to blender with 4 cups of water. Blend well.
4. Pour milk into a cheesecloth and squeeze to separate milk from the nut pulp.

Tip: Keep the left over pulp. Spread the pulp onto a baking tray and put in a warm oven to dry slowly, turning occasionally. Once dry, you have almond nut meal to use in your cooking and baking.

To Make Chocolate Nut Milk:

• Nut milk
• 2 Tbsp Cacao Powder
• 2 Tbsp Mesquite Powder
• Vanilla

Optional other sweetener i.e dates, honey, agave nectar, coconut nectar, stevia
Blend all ingredients together and enjoy!

The post Dairy Free Chocolate Nut Milk appeared first on Food Compass.