It’s not freak food

Since going primal, I’ve become fairly used to hearing phrases like…

“I have no idea what to cook for you now”

or…

“I don’t think [insert name here] would like it if I started serving him/her primal meals”

and most commonly…

“But what do you eat?!”

Well guess what people, you’ll never believe it…it’s kinda crazy, I know…but we eat food! Real food!! It’s nothing special, nothing particularly weird, just real food that doesn’t happen to include grains or sugars. It may be labelled ‘primal’, ‘paleo’, or even ‘caveman’…but it’s not freak food!

I was having a conversation with a friend last week who was concerned about how her partner might respond if she served up a primal meal. So I told her not to tell him it was primal. After all, it’s just normal food. If you don’t make a big deal of the fact that there are no grains or sugars, most people probably won’t even notice! In fact, a lot of you probably eat grain-free meals quite regularly…you just don’t call them primal.

Even eating out is pretty easy once you get your head around it. Sure, you may need to ask them to hold the bread or the potatoes, but countless people have dietary requirements that mean modifications of some dishes. Isn’t that kind of service what we’re paying for when we eat out?!

I do have to admit though, one thing that I find requires a little more ‘thinking outside the square’ is nibbles (or appetisers). First thing we usually think of is cheese and crackers…or bread and dips…or if you’re really fancy, blini (little pikelet things) with elaborate toppings…primal fail! But don’t despair, there are actually plenty of other options if you just get a little creative. We went to a friend’s place for dinner last night, and of course, I was asked to take snacks! So I did guacamole with vegetable sticks, and a sweet/spicy Cajun nut mix…

Cajun Nut Mix

Cajun spice (from Annabel Langbein)

5 tbsp paprika

5 tbsp ground cumin

3 tbsp garlic powder

1 ½ tbsp each of chilli powder, brown sugar, salt (obviously I left out the sugar)

2 ½ tsp chopped dry rosemary

Place all ingredients into a bowl/pot/jar and combine.

Nuts

6 cups raw nuts/seeds (I used cashews, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)

7 tbsp cajun spice mix (this makes it quite spicy – use less if you prefer it mild)

½ C olive oil

¼ C pure maple syrup

Combine nuts/seeds, cajun spice, oil and maple syrup.

Spread mix out on baking trays. I lined them with baking paper first to reduce the clean-up!

Roast at 200 degrees celcius until dry (approx 20 mins), stirring occasionally. If you are using fan bake, they probably won’t need as long.

Be careful – because of the maple syrup and the oil, these go from being underdone to overdone in a very short space of time! I learnt the hard way…any chance blackened cajun nut mix might catch on?!

Guacamole

2 avocados

1/2 red chilli (chilli flakes or powder also work)

juice of 2 limes

1 small red onion

1 tomato

lots of fresh coriander

salt & pepper

Mash or blend avocados, chilli and lime juice. Because it was there, I used the Magic Bullet (seriously, could they not have put a bit more thought into the name? I thought the thing was a vibrator the first time I heard someone talking about it!), but mashing works just as well.

Blend or finely chop onion, tomato and coriander. Again, I used the Bullet, but if you like your guacamole chunky, stick with a knife.

Combine avocado mix and the tomato mix, and season to taste.

And a huge thank you to D for an amazing dinner last night, and for accommodating our dietary choices so well. Homemade gluten-free hoisin sauce - that's really going the extra mile!