Lodge provided the Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven for this post. All opinions are my own. 

Do you like the idea of about fifteen minute prep and a dinner that tastes like you spent hours. This chicken and olives recipe addresses many things busy cooks are looking for.

• Easy. It takes five minutes to cut up carrots, onion and lemon, ten minutes to brown the chicken.
• Healthy: This is paleo, gluten free, grain free, dairy free, low carb.
• Flavorful: This is a dish I’d serve in a restaurant to get my customers to return.
• Beautiful: Yes.
• Comfort Food: Does all comfort food have to be deep fried and full of cheese? No.
• Frugal. You can cut up a whole chicken and stretch this into two dinners or use affordable chicken thighs. Don’t purchase a cut up chicken. Purchase a whole chicken which is much cheaper and ask the butcher in the store to cut it up for you. But, buy healthy chicken, organic if you can.

The Chicken and Olives recipe is from the cookbook, Mediterranean Paleo Cooking, which I recently reviewed here. If you like this, you’ll want to read the review.

I was immediately drawn to the recipe on the cover because I love anything with olive and lemon.

The Process for Chicken and Olives Recipe

The Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven 7 Quart is a Great Size for Braising Chicken

I made the entire dish in the same braising dutch oven provided by Lodge. I met the Lodge people at food event in Nashville and asked if I could work with them. I’m a huge fan of cast iron and this makes my 13th cast iron addition. I use them all. I use at least one every single day. I’ve visited the Lodge Factory store in south Pittsburgh, Tennessee. If you get a chance go shopping there.



This is now my favorite dutch oven and I have three. It was roomy enough to brown several thighs at once, and then move over and add the vegetables. It holds heat well, and most of this dish was made on a very low simmer. You could put the  Lodge dutch oven in the oven at a low temperature of 300 degrees for a dish like this. You can also make this dish in a crock pot, but you would still have to brown the chicken and sauté the vegetables first.

The Oval Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven comes in this beautiful white color.

• Porcelain enamel interior and exterior
• Self-basting cover with handle traps in heat, moisture and nutrients
• 7-Quart capacity
• Stainless steel knob
• Can be placed in oven, refrigerator, freezer

Chicken and Olives uses a Whole Lemon with Saffron and Cumin, Resulting in a very aromatic dish.

The addition of cumin and saffron adds sultry flavor. The recipe calls for boiling the olives for a while before adding them, but I skipped that, because I wanted the brine in the dish. The broth that remains is so good. You could use bread to sop it up or some rice. If you want to eat paleo, try this mashed cauliflower, which is what I did.

Mashed Cauliflower recipe here

This chicken dish has amazing flavor and it’s so easy to make that I’m making it all over again this week!

You Might Love these One Pot Chicken Recipes from Spinach Tiger

One Pot Chicken, Sausage, Kale and White Beans

Chicken  with Peppers and Onions

Chicken Thighs with Cauliflower

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A Cookbook, A Dutch Oven, a Chicken and Olives Recipe

Chicken with Olives adapted from Mediterranean Paleo Cooking by Caitlyn Weeks, Nabil Bourmar and Diane SanFilippo

Course Chicken with Olives and Lemon

Cuisine Algerian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter or ghee or olive oil for dairy free
• 1 cut up chicken I used eight thighs
• fine sea salt
• ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 medium onion
• 3 carrots
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 lemon
• 2 cups pitted green olives less if you prefer
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

• In Dutch oven, melt fat over medium heat.
• Dry chicken. Season with salt and pepper and add to the pan.
• Cook for ten minutes. I started with skin side down for about 6 minutes or until browned. Turn over.
• Add saffron and cumin, continue to sauté for 2 minutes.
• Add onion and garlic and sauté for another two minutes.
• Chicken should be brown; onions translucent.
• Add broth to pot and cover. Bring to boil and reduce heat.
• Remove lid and simmer for 30 minutes.
• In the cookbook directions, they ask to boil the olives separately, but I like the flavor of the olives and Add olives and carrots, and half of lemon, sliced. and cook another 20 minutes or until carrots are cooked through.
• Squeeze the other half of lemon into the broth.
• Serve with the sauce and garnish with cilantro.

The post Chicken and Olives Recipe Braised in Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

All pictures are taken from the cookbook, photo credits to Diane SanFilippo

I was thrilled when the cookbook Mediterranean Paleo Cooking ended up in my mailbox. Nutritionist, Caitlin Weeks in collaboration with her chef husband, Nabil Bourmrar, and cookbook author/photographer, Diane Sanfilippo created a 432 page, colorful Paleo cookbook.

Caitlin is a friend of mine, a gal pal I hang out with and a Nashville food blogger. We have a large overlap with how we see and view food, although she is much more intensely Paleo. She’s also super smart when it comes to nutrition and nutrient dense foods. We both agree that eating vibrant, healthy food leads to a vibrant healthy life.

We both have hashimotos, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the thyroid. While I never have suffered the more harsh symptoms of this disease, which can be many, including intense fatigue and weight gain, Caitlin has, which led her to go to nutrition school and embark on a way of eating fights back and doesn’t trigger autoimmune reponses. She embraced the paleo diet, which led to Grass Fed Girl, which led to this eye-catching, informative and comprehensive cookbook.

As you open the pages of  Mediterranean Paleo Cooking,  you will see that  Healthy is Not Boring and You’ll Be Hungry.

Caitlin co-authored the book with her Algerian chef husband, Nabil Boumrar, who incorporated the flavors of North Africa, and Dinae Sanfilippo who did the food styling and gorgeous photography.

There are over 70 pages of information discussing Mediterranean recipes, how they evolved in North Africa, the Paleo Diet, health concerns, how to stock the kitchen, how to shop for the right ingredients, and how to meal plan.

Mediterranean Paleo Cooking is a tremendous body of work before you even get to the 165 recipes, all of which are photographed.

The recipe page not only has well written instructions, it will tell give you a list of special dietary concerns, noting if the diet is nut free, egg free, low FODMAP, AIP friendly, SCD/GAPS and lower carb. If the recipes is not any of these things, it may tell you what to leave out or replace to accommodate special dietary restrictions. If you don’t understand any of that, this book will teach you.

The Recipes in Mediterranean Paleo Cooking Cookbook are Beautiful, Nutrition Dense and Aromatic, Encompassing Many North African Culinary Traditions

We all know that eating Mediterranean style dishes means fresh, whole, real, life giving ingredients, and doesn’t mean processed food. Some of you will take to the book like an old friend, and some of you may be unfamiliar with what Paleo means.

If you love a good, hearty breakfast, you will find favorites of mine like fried sweet potato frittata, and cinnamon spice pancakes.

The meatball chakchouka is a Berber dish (the North African tribe Nabil’s family generates from) and is substantial enough to be also be served at dinner.

Parties do not have to be boring to be healthy. You can make your own cilantro gluten free crackers, to serve with a roasted pepper dip or a baba ganoush.

The many chicken and lamb dishes are full of aromatic spices and often braised in clay pots and slow cookers. Lots of cumin, paprika, tumeric, and my favorite thyme, oregano and ground coriander show up frequently. One of the dishes I want to try next is the almond meatball soup, m’touam, a traditional slow-cooked Algerian dish, because it’s different and intriguing.

Seafood is a natural part of a Mediterranean diet. Caitlin and Nabil both lived in San Francisco, so naturally cioppino, an Italian seafood soup/stew is included. Pistachio-crusted sole is just another example of eye popping healthy food that is not tasteless and boring. You can still have fried foods as long you understand healthy fats vs fats you should never touch.

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Mediterranean Paleo Cooking includes some desserts, using almond meal, coconut flour, and coconut milk in many of the recipes, all staples of the paleo kitchen. I want to try the fig brownies first.

Her motto is gluten free, organic, grass fed, no matter what. Read how she restored her health through the right food.

Pick up a copy of Mediterranean Paleo Cooking at Costco or order at Amazon below. Don’t forget your friends at Christmas either.

Come back tomorrow for the dish I made in this Dutch Oven provided by Lodge. I couldn’t believe how delicious it was, and so simple in preparation.

If you love paleo recipes, you’ll love my most popular paleo recipe, Beef Vegetable Soup and head on over to Grass Fed Girl for more recipes and a mecca of information.

More Paleo Recipes

The post Cookbook Review, Mediterranean Paleo Cooking appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Meet cauliflower hash with my perfect poached egg recipe. This is my post workout brunch of choice.

I work out four days a week. Two of these days are a tough weight training class and require a smart post workout meal, with protein and some carbs, so that I’m not hungry the rest of the day. Sometimes I eat this smoothie bowl  but some days I want a bigger meal that is warm and closer to lunch than breakfast.

Yesterday one of the trainers asked me how I keep my weight maintained with all the food events I attend as a food blogger. On Tuesday, there were two food events both with food and cocktails in one day!

Hear me now, I’m not skinny. My doctor advised me to lose two pounds. Not a joke. She said I was two pounds to perfect, but she was happy that my weight never moves more than two pounds in the last five years, even though I go to a lot of food events.

There are Three Things I do to Maintain Weight as a Food Blogger

1. I eat with much discrimination.  I don’t waste calories on junk or fast food, but when it’s good food, I eat it all.
2. I don’t eat very many carbs, grains, breads, etc. except for food events, blogger dinners, special occasions. I do eat a lot of vegetables everyday. I eat a piece of dark chocolate every night.
3. I exercise religiously several days a week, a life long habit.  I don’t believe it helps me lose weight, but I do believe it helps me maintain weight, build muscle, feel better, look better, think better, live longer and keeps me in a “healthy lifestyle” mentality. 

And, of course, I eat the food I make here, which outside of the desserts made from scratch is very healthy.

Cauliflower Hash Poached Egg Recipe

This cauliflower hash poached egg recipe is gluten free, low carb, grain free, and while it hits all those “healthy” markers, it has a gourmet appeal, and is the kind of food that feels hearty, and satisfying.

The key to making cauliflower hash is to slice the cauliflower into small thin cutlets and frying them in either coconut or avocado oil and adding in sautéed red onion. Since the cauliflower is so thin,  it browns quickly, and you don’t really need a lot of oil.

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables you can precut and keep in a plastic bag. Onion can be pre-diced and this entire meal can then be made under 10 minutes. You can add more veggies to your cauliflower hash such as peppers or even tomatoes.

I used coconut oil to make the hash, because there are just so many great benefits including weight lost and you can read more the 28 benefits of coconut oil here. If you want to learn all about the differences of cooking with several types of articles, this article on the ultimate guide to cooking oils here is a great read. 

Sometimes I like oven fried eggs, but there is nothing as pretty and perfect as poached eggs, if you can get them right. I’ve shown you how to do that here, and it still works, every time.

You may be interested in some other poached egg recipes I’ve made here at Spinach Tiger.

Kale and Poached Egg Recipe

The classic asparagus poached egg recipe has been around for a very long time. I first experienced it in Rome, and this is a dish my great grandmother used to make.

Poached eggs with spaghetti caused quite a stir with one reader from Italy who was not happy, but I was. By the way, this is an excellent post work-out meal.

Or try this unique take on hash browns.

So tell me, do you have a post-workout meal you can share with me.

More Egg Recipes from Spinach Tiger

More Cauliflower Recipes

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Cauliflower Hash Poached Egg Recipe

Thinly sliced cauliflower sauteed to a crisp golden brown with red onions makes a perfect hash for poached eggs.

Course Brunch

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1/2 red onion finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon avocado oil coconut oil or olive oil
• salt pepper
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• few sprigs fresh thyme

Instructions

• Pull apart large buds of cauliflower and thinly slice.
• Put oil in frying pan on medium heat.
• Brown cauliflower about 1-2 minutes each side or until golden brown.
• Remove to paper towel.
• Saute onion in same pan.
• Mix together.
• Season with salt and pepper
• Make poached eggs (recipe here)
• Serve immediately.

Notes

Coconut oil has been known to help weight loss by boosting the metabolism.

I love these products. This is my kitchen faucet, and I can’t live without this chef’s knife.



The post Cauliflower Hash Poached Egg Paleo Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.