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Monday, August 27, 2012

Paleo "Ravioli"

I'm about as much of a role model as, say, Karen Walker, but I do hold myself somewhat accountable as a role model to the Paleo community, insofar as I want to share what I hope are recipes you've never seen before. What I hope is that this "ravioli" is one of those recipes. 
I'll admit--I saw something similar on what Kyle calls my "lady porn" site, but it was entirely raw and had some kind of vegetable filling, so it was only somewhat appealing. But I saw its potential, and with a few flourishes, namely adding ground chicken and steaming the finished product, it's the perfect pasta substitute!
I had a hard time describing the instructions below for assembling, so look! I made it easy and just threw some how-to pictures up. And I mean, reading is for ugly people, anyway.
I made a filling with chicken, spinach, and mascarpone, but you can do anything. I'll probably do a ground beef and tomato filling next time.
I secured the raviolis with a toothpick until I served them, but for the most part, they'll hold their shape pretty well, as long as your squash is sliced thin enough.
Served with Caulif-redo sauce and you have an unrecognizably paleo meal, alongside an unrecognizable role model. That'd be me, just in case you have a hard time with context clues.

Chicken and Spinach Paleo Ravioli
Makes about 24 raviolis

  • 4-5 medium to large yellow squash
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1.5 lbs. ground chicken
  • 1 8 oz. bag frozen spinach, thawed
  • 8 oz. mascarpone cheese
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • small handful fresh basil leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Caulif-redo Sauce
1. Cut ends of squash off and slice down the middle so you have two halves. Using the narrowest setting on your mandolin, slice the squash into long, flat strips. You'll end with around 70 or so strips.
2. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt and saute for about 5 minutes, until nearly translucent. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.
3. Add ground chicken to onion and garlic and saute until chicken is cooked all the way through.
4. Squeeze all the excess water out of the spinach, then ad chicken, spinach, salt, pepper, and mascarpone to a food processor or blender and puree until mixture reaches desired consistency (I like it relatively smooth).
5. Assemble the ravioli by just barely overlapping two strips of squash (pictured above). Do the same over the middle of the first two strips, but perpendicular, creating a cross or "t" shape. 
6. Spoon filling in the center of the cross, then bring the ends of the strips together, overlapping each other. If that doesn't make sense, just see the picture above.
7. Secure with a toothpick.
8. Before serving, steam raviolis for about 4 minutes, or until squash is tender and inside is warm.
9. Top with Caulif-redo or sauce of your choice.

37 comments:

  1. IT WORKED! Those look awesome. Can't wait to make some!

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  2. YUM! looks great! Definitely going to try that soon. Thanks girly!

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  3. love this. making it. new fav blog.

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  4. Your Paleo culinary talents never cease to amaze me. I miss TwoFaced.

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  5. This post just made my entire week! Thank you. Summer squash is on sale at my grocery store for $.99 cents/lb. Will definitely be trying this one out this week :)

    Rachel @ cuttingoutcarbs

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  6. Looks yummy!

    Lauren,
    Fashionswirls.blogspot.com
    Laurensbeautydepartment.blogspot.com

    xx

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  7. Looks delicious! I would eat that if you made it for me!

    Lady porn, hahahahaha!!! Good one, Kyle!

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  8. another delicious recipe from you...yum!

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  9. Yum and genius! We just started p90x2 and they want you to eat about 47 vegetables a day. This would be an excellent way to cram some more into my body!

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  10. Holy crap. This is GNEIUS. I'm definitely adding this to the top of my recipes-to-try file.

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  11. These look fantastic! I was wondering if you know if they freeze well?

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  12. How do we make thw caulif-redo sauce?

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  13. Okay so you made this look and seem really easy...and maybe it is and you're just a better cook than I am or I don't have the right equipment! I used the cheese slicer side of my cheese grader (the kind that stands up and you can shred cheese fine, normal, sliced, or zest) and I practically sliced my thumb off and almost fainted since I was obviously hungry and making dinner. THEN my squash wasn't shredding right because they have crooks and so some pieces were small and some long. The long ones I attempted to make like your beautiful pictures but they just crumbled and fell apart. Since I had pureed meat and fresh steamed spinach and a whole bunch of yellow squash I got frustrated because I couldn't even try to fix the meal so I push olive oil on a pan and roasted the yellow squash and then made the meat and spinach paste into the sauce. I don't know what happened but it must have been one of my "bad kitchen days" kind of like a bad hair day except worse since your stomach is growling and nothing seems to go right. So major props to you my friend! The pictures are beautiful and you are an amazing chef!

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    Replies
    1. I use a mandolin to slice mine thin;)

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    2. You could also use a good veggie peeler.. to make those thin slices.. i use mine to make veggie ribbons out of yellow squash zucchini and carrots.. hope it helps

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  14. You might try these with eggplant too. I have a recipe where you thinly slice eggplant the long way then roll a filling into it ... feta (sorry I'm not paleo and I like cheese too) mixed with mint and flaked chili pepper. You get about 10 strips per eggplant cut about 1/4" thick, sautee or grill them till they are soft (grilling gives a nice flavor add), then roll it up with feta mixed with fresh chopped mint and chopped fresh or flaked red chili pepper. It's unbelievably good. You can find the original recipe at www.thejewishhostess.com/2012/03/grilled-eggplant-with-feta-mint-and-chili/

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  15. We just made this recipe tonight (tweaked slightly), and it was wonderful!

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  16. YUM!! Was definitely worth the difficulties I had trying to make the raviolis! Next time, I'll try to find some longer squash, since the ones I had were a bit short and made it almost impossible to fold over. I also think I'll try making a few ravioli before sticking to a setting on the slicer, since the thickness of the squash really makes a difference. They can't be too thin, but also can't be too thick or it won't work. Thanks for the recipe!

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  17. This looks great! I thought using cheese in a recipe excluded it from being Paleo. What am I missing? Is it more of a "good enough" type deal? I don't mean this to sound negative in any way - I just need to know if I can use cheese and the meal still be considered Paleo.

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  18. @Anonymous if you are what i refer to as "hard core" paleo, meaning you stick to every single last rule and regulation about the Paleo diet from whomever decided on all its rules and regulations, then no. Cheese isn't "paleo." That said, many people (myself included) find that their systems are capable of handling full fat dairy just fine and might even consume it here and there. I dont' personally care about yogurt or milk, but sometimes (a lot of times) I want cheese. So in an instance where a recipe calls for a couple Tbsp. of cheese, I say fuck it, let's do the damn thing. Especially for the caulifredo sauce featured here--it's not much cheese but it packs a tremendous punch.

    I was careful to add though that the filling possibilities are really endless, so you certainly don't have to use the filling recipe I've included (it wasn't that good anyway!), and can omit the mascarpone altogether.

    Not sure I'm answering you question, but basically, it depends on you, the way you like to eat, and the way that food settles in your system. Enjoy!

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  19. I made this last night. It was wonderful.
    p.s. you're really funny

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  20. Do you have any tips or ideas for a veggie, cheese free version of this? Sounds delish, but I am worried that without the meat and dairy the consistency would be too runny for ravioli. Thanks!

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  21. @Erica yeah, do any filling you want. For the record, the meat/cheese combo wasn't runny whatsoever and I don't see why any combo like that would be, but if you prefer a veggie only filling, you could probably do lots of things--sauteed, pureed eggplant; something with black beans and corn; tomato with garlic and basil; etc. Enjoy!

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  22. Love the Idea of black beans and corn.
    Going to try refried bean, corn salsa and a little cheese.

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  23. Late to the party but this looks like it would be a great meal for my newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic daughter. Do you have any idea of the carb count on something like this?

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  24. this looks amazing! would like to try sauteing the ravioli instead of steaming. and i absolutely LOVE that you referred to pinterest as your 'lady porn' site. omg...it totally IS!!!

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  25. So I made this the other night for my bf who is food guy. Summer squash isn't available any more so I used butter nut. I used fresh spinach and a soft mozzarella in a home made tomato meat sauce. Sooo in the end he loved it and went for seconds.

    Thanks for great alternative to pasta!

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  26. What a fantastic idea! I am so making these. Im not paleo, but I always look for low carb comfort food and also what to do with my millions of zucchini in the summer. Thanks for this!

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  27. This would be good for Paleo once dairy products are re-introduced, but the mascarpone is not Paleo -- any ideas for replacing that?

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  28. OMG I made these last night and sliced strips of zucinni and yellow squash and alternated them in each ravioli. I stuffed them with ground grilled chicken and pesto sauce minus the parm- I am hard core Paleo. They were amazing!

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  29. I have a giant squash from my garden that I cannot wait to try this recipe with! Could you clarify how to steam them without them falling apart? Thinking maybe sautéing them in a pan may be safer...

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  30. This is a genuine question....Is marscapone cheese paleo? I do paleo most of the time and have no problem using cheese when it calls for it. But i wondered if it was actually paleo. I hope so but I would still use it. This looks delish.

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  31. Works great with mixed brown rice black beans and sweet potato. Crush the black beans in a frying pan and brown lightly in olive, then mix with mashed sweet potato and the little brown rice. Some of us whose names will not be disclosed use just a bit of maple syrup or brown sugar.

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  32. I used to make a similar ravioli with daikon and used cornstarch and water to seal the ends...using a pastry brush.

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  33. The recipe is great, but the comment "reading is for ugly people" was very off-putting.

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  34. Do you think these would freeze well? I was thinking of making them, freezing individually on a cookie sheet, then bagging and freezing

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  35. I will be trying this with a mushroom filling I use for ravioli looks wonderful😄

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