I remember when I first went “paleo” about 5 years ago I was militant. Like absolutely bloody fun-police. Not a single legume (no f’ing peanut butter) or white potato would pass my lips. Seriously. If I could go back now and uppercut myself I would. I’d 100% tell myself to just calm the fu&k down and just eat real food rather than freaking out about a white potato on my plate instead of a sweet potato. My personality at the time was very much ‘all the way or not at all’ and that applied to most aspects of my life, I was crossfitting and was training way too hard, my energy was low and my adrenals had $hit themselves so my solution was that I should ‘crossfit harder’ and ‘paleo harder’. It took me a while and a complete body meltdown to realise that sometimes more isn’t always better, it’s just more and what I actually needed to do was train less and relax my strict attitude around food. I stopped doing crossfit (which I loved and still do, it’s just not a form of training that serves me right now), I started doing yoga, meditation and walking. I realised that being obsessed with a strict paleo diet did not serve me and that my body actually did fine with a bit of good quality peanut butter, organic butter and some white potatoes so I could continue to have a very nutrient dense diet and still include the things that worked for me, jeezus, it’s not like its a Big Mac *face palm. So 5 years on and if I had to identify the way I eat (which is not a DIET, it’s a lifestyle choice that I no longer even think about) I would say I still follow a ‘paleo template’ but all that means is that I eat a real food diet, I avoid processed junk & refined sugars, I don’t do dairy aside from butter because my body craps itself and gluten makes me feel like $hit so I do my best to avoid it. Legumes I have occasionally and I focus on food quality as much as possible and do my best to prioritise my money to allow for organic and free range produce. My training is far less focused on any fitness or strength goal but rather to be fit (enough), strong (ish, so I can lug G around) and mobile for life (so that I can still climb trees and play with G in 10 years time), I generally get in 2-3 sessions of some kind of movement each week, sometimes they are super effective like a PRIMALTHENICS SESSION, other times like yesterday I took G to the gym with me and instead of a workout we swung from the ropes and kicked a soccer ball around for 1/2 hour. Hardly aerobically effective but we moved and had fun so that’s a win.
Anyway, that was a lot of banging on when you really just came here for the spuds! You can absolutely sub in sweet potatoes if that’s your jam and basically top these bad boys with anything you like, I’m thinking bacon, anchovies & organic sour cream would be bloody epic too. You can make this vegan by using this VEGAN MAYO recipe and adding in the KIMCHI HOT SAUCE or Kimchi.
Smashed Spuds with Kimchi Mayo
Ingredients
- 6-8 small-med potatoes
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1-2 good pinches salt & pepper
- 1 punnet baby tomatoes
- 2 tbs chopped herbs (any you like)
- KIMCHI MAYO
- 1 lge egg
- 150 ml macadamia oil or olive oil
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup Green Street Kitchen Kimchi Sauce (or 1/4 kimchi including liquid)
- 1-2 tbs apple cider vinegar if required
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Wash potatoes to remove any lumps of caked on dirt, don't worry about a little dirt, it's loaded with beneficial soil based bacteria which are probiotic, especially if you buy organic. Place the potatoes in either a steamer or you can boil them and cook for 20 mins to partially cook and they are just beginning to soften. It may take longer depending on the size of the spuds.
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Once your potatoes are beginning to soften (poke them with a fork to check) you can remove from the steamer and pop into your baking tray. I used the base of a glass jar to press down gently on the potatoes to smash them slightly.
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Add the tomatoes (any any other veggies you like) around the potatoes and drizzle with the 3 tbs of olive oil and give a good sprinkle with salt & pepper. Pop into the oven for 20-30 mins until the potatoes are starting to crisp and the tomatoes are blistered then remove and set aside.
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For the mayo, I prefer to use a nutribullet but you can use a food processor if you wish, you'll just need to drizzle the oil in slowly with the machine running instead of adding it all in at the start. If using a bullet, add all the ingredients to the bullet and blend until it thickens. Have a taste and adjust with salt and apple cider vinegar as required depending on your taste preference.
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Sprinkle the potatoes withe herbs and drizzle with the mayo then dig in! The leftover mayo will keep for us to a week in a sealed jar in the fridge.
You seem absorbed by presentation and lack content. Paleo is fallacious. Whole food health is much better. Paleo is about monetization and nothing else. BTW…carbs we’re Paleo Staples.
Might want to work on your punctuation Paul. Thanks for your feedback but if you actually knew anything about me you’d know that for me ‘Paleo’ is merely a descriptor to allow people to easily know if this food will suit their dietary requirements. I follow a ‘real food approach’ but also know that gluten and dairy don’t agree with my body so hence it’s MY food Religion. I’m sure carbs were, as you can see this recipe is POTATO which is a great form of starchy carbohydrates.
Loved the story about you and your daughter! My mom was a country girl from South Carolina, USA, who moved to New York City. She hated the quality of food she found here. (This was back in the forties.)
My brother and I grew up on foods made from scratch. We did eat carbs and beans: fresh baked breads, bean soups, root vegetables, but not a lot of meat. That made a difference in our health. Keep up the good work. There are too many additives in our diets. And the affect of these substances over our lifetime have not been properly studied.
Thanks
Hi….
I am very impressed with this and would like to join you in this lifestyle….I want to feel more energetic for life