Whole30 Greek Taco Salad

Earlier this week I bought a pound of ground lamb at the grocery store with no real plan for it. I was just excited that it would be a nice change and we already know Tommy can eat lamb. I was looking up ground lamb recipes and stumbled upon Jeff Mauro's Greek Taco Recipe. We have enough of these ingredients to be able to make something very similar. And it didn't take very many adjustments at all to make it Whole30 compliant. I also added chopped avocado to the salad. 

I only had 1 lb of lamb, so that's what I used. And I had giant regular yellow onions and not red onions. For the red wine I used red wine vinegar. For the cucumber and tomato relish I used 1/4 of an onion since my onions were huge. I made my own tatziki sauce that fit the program. The sauce was the best the second day and then got weird after a couple days. 

The first time I had the salad it was delicious. But the leftovers weren't as satisfying. I think the sauce is best prepare in advance and then the salad is best the first time. 

Whole30 Tatziki Sauce

1 cucumber
Pinch of salt
1 cup cream from a can of coconut milk
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried basil

1. Peel the cucumber and grate it on the big hole side of a box grater. Place the cucumber in a collander fitted over a bowl and season with a pinch of salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Squeeze the cucumber to remove more liquid. Combine the cucumber and the remaining ingredients in a bowl. 
3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. Stir before serving.

Lamb Roast and Lamb Broth

I picked up a 1 lb lamb shank a while back since it looked good but I really didn't have any plans for it. Last night we had a crock pot lamb roast with veggies. And then overnight I made more broth out of the lamb bone and a leftover pork bone that I had in the freezer. The lamb roast was soooo good. My only complaint was that the lamb shank was small so there were no meat leftovers. I served it with my Corn-Free Cornbread. We're still not sick of that cornbread. 

The broth tastes a whole lot like my chicken broth. Oh well, it'll still be good. Just not quite the meaty broth taste I thought it might have. I happened to have a can of beef broth in the pantry and just looked at the ingredients. It includes things like MSG and caramel color. No wonder my homemade broth tastes different. I'll just have to get a little creative to make French Onion Soup taste like it was made with beef broth.

Lamb Roast

1 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 ribs celery, sliced
1 lb lamb shank
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp minced garlic
2.5 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1. Layer the ingredients in a crock pot in the order listed.
2. Cook on low 7-9 hours.

Lamb and Pork Broth

1 bone from a lamb shank
1 bone from a pork picnic roast
3 ribs celery
2 carrots
1 onion
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme

1. Combine all the ingredients in a crock pot. Fill with water. Cook on low overnight (10-12 hours).
2. Let cool.
3. Strain the broth and discard the solids. Refrigerate or freeze in 1 and 2 cup containers.

Leftover Madness Part 1 (Lamb and Gnocchi Soup)

I did a lot of cooking this week. And we have a ton of leftover roasted turkey from dinner at a friend's house. Our fridge is so full of leftovers that there's barely room for beer. It's a great problem to have, but I can only eat the same meal so many times in a row before I'm sick of it. 

So now it's time to clean the fridge and re-purpose our leftovers. Part 1 of our Leftover Madness is turning the remaining Lamb and Vegetable Roast into Lamb and Gnocchi Soup. This soup is pretty straight forward, and since it was made from leftovers that cooked in the crock pot all day, the flavors are a lot more developed than you would get from a quick soup. I used the leftover sweet potatoes to make the gnocchi and used the leftover liquid from the crock pot and veggies to make the soup.

For a while, Tommy was eating these gnocchi twice a day everyday. I've tried them with a lot of different combinations of flours and starches, and my favorite are millet flour and potato starch. You just mix all the ingredients together, roll into little logs, slice and boil for a couple minutes until they float. They're easy to make in a large batch and the uncooked gnocchi freeze well. You just pop the frozen gnocchi into boiling water and they just take a few minutes longer to cook. 

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes or pumpkin
1 cup millet flour
1 cup potato starch
1 Tbsp flaxmeal or whole psyllium husks
3 Tbsp hot water

1. Fill a medium sauce pot with water and bring to a boil. 
2. Combine flaxmeal or psyllium husks and hot water in a small bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes to gel.
3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Knead the dough by hand until it can be rolled into a log. If it's too sticky, add more flour or starch. If it's too dry, add water or stock 1 tablespoon at a time.
5. Roll into 1/2 inch diameter logs. Cut into 1 inch pieces.
6. Boil gnocchi in batches for several minutes until they float. Drain and set aside. Serve with sauce or use in soup. 

Lamb and Gnocchi Soup

1 recipe Sweet Potato Gnocchi
1 cup shredded cooked lamb or cooked Italian sausage
Leftover cooking liquid from Lamb Roast
Water
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
Leftover veggies from Lamb Roast

1. Measure leftover lamb cooking liquid. Add enough water to make it 4 cups. 
2. Add all ingredients except for gnocchi to a dutch oven sized pot.
3. Bring to a gentle boil.
4. Add gnocchi and simmer for 15 minutes.

Note: If you don't have leftovers, use 2 cups beef broth and 2 cups water instead of the leftover cooking liquid and add 2 tsp Italian seasoning. If you don't have any leftover roast, use 2 links of Italian sausage cooked in the pot before step 2. 

Lamb and Vegetable Roast

We are in the process of trialing lamb with Tommy, and so far so good! I made a lamb and vegetable roast and it was super easy and delicious. Tommy seems to like the lamb ok so that's a plus.

I served the lamb and veggies with Brittany Angell's Sorghum and Teff Dinner Rolls. The rolls had a nice moist springy texture. I was worried that there would be trace amounts of wheat left in the muffin tins from the last time I made wheat muffins, so I thought the liners would be perfect. Unfortunately the rolls completely stuck to the cupcake liners. Oh well, at least they taste good.

Lamb and Vegetable Roast

4 lb lamb roast

1 large onion, diced

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

4 celery stalks, sliced

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

2 tsp dry rosemary

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1. Put lamb roast in crock pot.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients.

3. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.