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Paleo recipe Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Carrots and Fresh Thyme-min

Recipe: Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Carrots and Fresh Thyme

Sweet potatoes are a great side dish for a Paleo dinner. Bright orange and packed with vitamins A, B and C, don’t be surprised if you’re wearing sunglasses indoors and singing the alphabet whilst tucking into these!

Roasted Sweet Potato Ingredients:

  • 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into wedges
  • 6 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • Olive oil
  • High grade maple syrup
  • 2 cloves
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Roasted Sweet Potato How To:

1)     Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas mark 4

2)     Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and carrots. Transfer to a roasting dish. Drizzle over a little olive oil and maple syrup in equal parts, giving the vegetables a light coating.

3)     Throw in the cloves and fresh thyme. Toss the vegetables, then roast for around 40 minutes until well cooked.

Paleo recipe Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Carrots and Fresh Thyme-min

paleo recipes sweet potatoes potato yams ideas

Cooking paleo with sweet potatoes

Before I went paleo I ate a lot of white potatoes. Now, I eat

Paleo what's wrong with white potatoes are they allowed sweet potatoes diet carbs-min

What’s Wrong With Potatoes?

Do you have potato-blood? I hope not because that would mean that you are terribly ill. It’s an old expression, apparently. But I digress; are potatoes really that unhealthy to eat? And do they fit in with a paleo diet?

If you read a lot of Paleo blogs, I'm sure you’ll have noticed that opinions vary significantly… here are some of the viewpoints…

Paleo what's wrong with white potatoes are they allowed sweet potatoes diet carbs-min

Paleolithic or a bit younger?

Potatoes are a contentious subject when it comes to the paleo diet. Strictly speaking they don’t fit the bill, at least not at first sight. Cultivation of vegetables started the Neolithic era, and consuming potatoes is most likely developed during this period, not before. Raw potatoes are not the most delicious food you've ever had; you need to cook them before they become more edible (although some people do eat them raw, it’s not advisable).

A potato is also a ‘nightshade’, which would not have come into existence before the Neolithic period, like tomatoes and eggplant. Paleolithic people would not have eaten them, simply because they were not around. But we can’t be sure about this. And anyway – Paleo is a science – not a re-enactment, after all!

The fact that some people are not able to fully digest a potato, can lead to the theory that we never adapted to these foods, and therefore, are not supposed to eat them.  The paleo theory that some people follow “if you can’t eat it raw, it’s not paleo” seems to be valid here. Whilst regular potatoes and white potatoes are not edible in their raw forms, sweet potatoes are (but again, I wouldn't advise it!)

Potatoes and your health

Potatoes consist mainly of starch, which isn't very good for people that are insulin resistant. Although they are a ‘pure food’, it needs to be cooked to become edible. Further processing is not necessary, as it would be in the case of grains (a much easier to define Paleo no-no).

Potatoes are 100% carbohydrate. This will increase your insulin, which is fine for some people. Athletes and those who train hard are often able to eat potatoes almost every day and have no problems with them. Potatoes are a very healthy source of carbs to refill and refuel your body (especially compared to grains and other refined carbs for example). So, it completely depends on you; but if you’re overweight, already insulin resistant, and your body isn't good in coping with glucose – then I’d leave the potatoes alone.

Personal choice

Whether or not you think that you should, or should not, include potatoes into your diet is completely up to you. It is very likely that the Paleolithic humans did eat raw potatoes.

If you are already overweight, it is probably best to avoid them. Because they are so carb heavy, it’s better to leave them alone and replace them with other paleo foods that are just as nutritious, but with less carbs.

If you are sensitive to nightshades, be careful. Nightshades can cause serious bowel and digestive problems to people who are sensitive.

Potato Considerations

Should you consider to have potatoes in your diet, you might like to consider the points below:

  1. Peel the potato! Most of the toxins are located in the skin. Removing the skin, removes the risk
  2. Buy organic potatoes. Potatoes have the tendency to suck up the toxins from the ground. Since the modern human uses toxins to make foods grown, it’s better to buy organic potatoes that are not drenched in them.
  3. Green potatoes are bad. They contain saponins, which are toxic. Don’t eat the green ones!
  4. Potatoes break down to glucose. When you are trying to lose weight, potatoes are definitely banned from the menu.

I’d be very interested to hear what you think about Potatoes and Paleo? Do you eat them? Or avoid them altogether? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Barbecued Kangaroo with Strawberry Sauce & a Cube of Chips paleo diet recipe-min

Barbecued Kangaroo with Strawberry Sauce & a Cube of Chips

I love Kangaroo.  Living in Australia it is a really cheap meat – and as kangaroos aren't farmed I know I'm getting good meat.

Kangaroo goes really well with plum sauce.  Unfortunately however the stone fruit season doesn't start for another month or two here, so I had to improvise for lunch today!  I had lots of frozen strawberries so made a strawberry sauce which went really well with the Roo!

I love sweet potatoes so used them to make big chunky sweet potato chips, which I stacked like a game of Jenga.

Barbecued Kangaroo with Strawberry Sauce & a Cube of Chips
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Ingredients
  • Two small onions, diced
  • 200g organic tomato paste
  • 200g frozen strawberries
  • pinch of mustard powder
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
  • Spoon of coconut oil
  • For the Chip Cube:
  • One large sweet potato
  • Salt (I use pink himalayan crystal salt)
  • oregano
  • EVOO
  • And of course, Kangaroo
Instructions
  1. Saute the onion in coconut oil and added the tomato purée, after a few minutes, with a couple of tablespoons of water.
  2. Add in the mustard and pepper and let it simmer for a few minutes.
  3. Add the strawberries and allowed it to simmer for about ten minutes.
  4. barbecued_kangaroo_strawberry_c-min
  5. Cut the sweet potato into 18 equally sized lengths and arranged them on an over tray.
  6. Drizzle some EVOO on the chips and some salt and oregano before putting it in the oven at 200 degrees. Cook for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through.
  7. barbecued_kangaroo_strawberry_b-min
  8. Once the sauce cools, put it in the blender until it reaches a nice consistency.
  9. Barbecue the Kangaroo very simply, I try to do Kangaroo rare.
  10. Once everything is cooked Iassemble the cube using three layers of three sweet potato chips.
  11. Add a couple of spoonfuls of sauce to the kangaroo and serve!
  12. barbecued_kangaroo_strawberry-min

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The sweetness of the sauce was a great compliment to the Kangaroo.

barbecued_kangaroo_with_strawberry_sauce_&_a_cube_of_chips_paleo_diet_recipe_friend-min

Not in Australia?  I believe Kangaroo meat is available in some exotic meat stores around the World.  I'd love to hear what you think of this recipe, and if you have any top Kangaroo dishes – let me know in the comments below!

Barbecued Kangaroo with Strawberry Sauce & a Cube of Chips paleo diet recipe-min