The Primal Blueprint Cookbook (41 page)

Have you ever read a label for commercial BBQ sauce and considered the ingredients and nutrition data? It’s a good bet any bottle of Kansas City-styled BBQ sauce you pick up in a supermarket (and even a “natural” food store) is heavily sweetened and uses ingredients you’d never find in a home kitchen. Yet delicious BBQ sauce is easy, fast, and downright cheap to make from scratch, not to mention you can tweak the ingredients to create your own KC Masterpiece.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix all ingredients together in a small pan and simmer over low heat 5–10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Store in an airtight glass in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Creamy, rich pesto is a favorite topping for everything from fish to roasted vegetables. Basil is the most common herb used, but there is no reason you can’t make cilantro or parsley pesto. Ditto for the nuts. Try pistachios, walnuts or even pumpkin seeds. If you miss the richness of cheese in pesto, try blending in a few slices of avocado to smooth out the texture.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the nuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the basil and pulse a few more times. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed. Blend until smooth. Salt to taste.

For many people, dessert is an indulgence they’re not willing to give up completely and that’s okay. It’s time we stop thinking about dessert as entirely bad and off limits, and instead think of it as a sensible indulgence. By sensible, we mean incredibly delicious options that have few downsides, like berries with a little cream, a wedge of dark chocolate, or Greek-style plain yogurt with honey and fruit. All of these will satisfy your sweet tooth and offer some health benefits. But if you’re still not satisfied, read on.

The recipes in this chapter follow along the same path, but lean a little further into the indulgent category. All of these recipes, from chocolate truffles to coconut milk ice cream, are better options than store-bought desserts loaded with too much sugar, preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients. So when the sweet tooth strikes and you want to indulge without an enormous amount of guilt attached, this is the chapter to turn to, always keeping in mind that moderation is key when it comes to dessert.

If you’ve sourced local apples from U-Pick orchards, roadside orchard stands, organic CSA subscription boxes, or farmers’ markets, and noticed the apples go a bit soft, shrink a bit, and wrinkle quicker than apples from a store, that’s because they haven’t been coated with “food make-up.” Apples destined to sit for months in climate-controlled warehouses before embarking on a long distance journey are coated with food grade waxes to seal in moisture and preserve their good looks. Out-of-season, shiny grocery store apples do look great thanks to modern food storage and transportation technology, but they are unlikely to contain the same level of nutrients they had when they were freshly picked.

Consider sourcing apples locally and only in-season at the peak of freshness and leave those cosmetic beauties behind. Homemade applesauce is a great way to quickly use up fresh apples that are going a bit soft or are no longer appetizing enough to eat out of hand. (Pears may be substituted for apples).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut apples into quarters (small apples) or eighths (larger apples) and place in an appropriate-sized saucepan—skins, cores, seeds and all. Add lemon juice, then filtered water to cover apples. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and gently simmer covered for a few hours until apples are cooked through and soft and mushy. A potato masher helps ensure that apples are not sticking to the bottom. Add a quarter to a half cup of water if apples begin to stick to pan.