Saveur magazine graciously sends me a recipe every day, which I usually ignore. But about a month ago they sent a new and exciting recipe for beets (not a contradictory statement).
Y'all know I love a beet. I love all beets. If I had a punk rock band, we'd be called the Flaming Beets. If I had a daughter I'd name her Beeta. If forced to choose, I would pick beets over chocolate Every. Single. Time.
However, never ever in my wildest magic-mushroom-and-absinthe-fueled imagination could I have come up with a recipe for Iraqi-Jewish beet and lamb stew.
That is why I love you, Saveur. (Call me maybe? We need a sponsor).
You will look at this recipe and cringe, but I am begging you to maintain a firm grip on your open mind. Force back the elevator doors. Do not dismiss this dish.
It is That Damn Good.
I followed the stew recipe to the letter, but changed up the rice a little bit.
Okay, I changed it as much as it possibly could be changed.
Handsome Hub and I are not Paleo. We are not even Clean Eaters. Hell, one of us is frankly a Fairly Filthy Eater.
But the other half of the couple has accepted that she cannot eat like she used to, which includes daily carb loading. Bread, potatoes, rice, an entire bag of dried apricots casually consumed in one sitting and wine? I can't do it, so I have basically written off the solids and now intake carbs primarily by the stemmed glassful.
And that brings us back to the beet and lamb stew which, on its own, is practically Paleo.
Forget the rice and reach for cauliflower. It turns out cauliflower is the unsung hero of the produce department. Had I not investigated such things, I wouldn't have believed the myriad uses for cauliflower, including preparing it in such a way that it makes a mighty fine substitute for rice. PinPeople also use it to decorate their homes. I don't understand this.
Here is the basic recipe. In this case I used olive oil instead of tallow (tallow?) and omitted the garlic - God knows there is already enough garlic in the stew. It was fabulous. The Fairly Filthy Eater did notice the substitution, but decided it was so good it wasn't worth enquiring about it.
Yes, it takes some time to prepare the entire meal, but it is one of those dishes you can make a step at a time throughout the day, maybe on a weekend, and then let it simmer.
I can't wait to get home to the leftovers.
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