RECIPE - *BASICS* Fillers
- Mr T
- Apr 17, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 23, 2019
This is the paleo person's biggest challenge: How do you get full when bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes etc. are off the menu?! - Here I will share with you what I eat to fill up and also how I eat them, or the way I now view them....
Sweet Potatoes:
These are my biggest go to and what I eat a lot of. Thankfully in Japan satsuma-imo (さつまいも) is common, sold in bulk and depending on the season can be VERY cheap, but is generally affordable year round.
How I cook them:
Steam - Simply slice (5mm-1cm thick) and half the rounds if they are large, so you have bite size pieces. Put them in a steamer, or in a covered colander on top of a pan with a cm of water in it and steam for approx. 20mins until tender.
Roast - Cut into 'chunks', I go for anywhere from usual roast potato size, to bite-sized chunks, coat generously in extra virgin olive oil and whatever flavouring you desire (just sea salt & cracked black pepper / garlic & rosemary / cumin, paprika, chilli etc. etc.), then roast at 210°c for approx. 40mins until tender and browned.
Mash - Cut into 'chunks', cover in water and boil for 20mins until tender (even slightly waterlogged is ok). Drain, add whatever flavourings you like (see 'roast' suggestions above) and add some 'liquids' (almond milk, butter, extra virgin olive oil, just water) to help with mashing and to stop the mixture from being too dry.
Yaki-imo (baked sweet potato) - Whole potatoes, straight onto the oven rack and baked at 180°c for approx. 1hr 15mins until soft all the way through and the skin becomes loose.
Oh, and I always leave the skin on (even when mashing)! I just wash (a little scrub and slice off any hard black 'sap') and then cut. The skin is so thin that it requires no chewing to eat and contains most of the vegetable's nutrients.
How I use/view them:
These can be the base/bulk for almost any dish. They can obviously replace your standard white potato if you're having a 'meat and two veg' type meal, or I use them where rice or pasta may have usually gone... Like pasta bolognese? Try your normal bolognese sauce on top of sweet potato mash or on a cut open baked sweet potato instead!... Like curry and rice? Try your curry on top of chunky steamed or roasted sweet potato!... Their sweeter taste doesn't go with everything (for example - I don't like it with Chinese cuisine flavours), but I encourage you to give it a try with different things and see for yourself - that's what I've done and I've discovered many of my favourite dishes this way!
Pro-tip!:
Look out for the pre-yaki-imo sweet potatoes in your local supermarket! These are often the same price or even CHEAPER than the raw sweet potatoes (often sell for just ¥100)! Why would I spend my time cooking them myself when the supermarket will do it for me and so much better?! I love the soft moist consistency of the inner and slight smoked/charred taste of the skin that they achieve! Of course, they are not always cheaper and you may not always want the potato cooked in this way, but when you do and the price is right, save yourself some time! Buy multiple, let them cool, put them in the fridge and they will keep in the same way home cooked sweet potato will.
As you can see above the raw sweet potatoes at my local Hanamasa are 400yen for 4 thin potatoes, whereas you can get a large pre-cooked one for 200yen, which is about the same as 2 of the thin raw ones.... so, for the same money I have the store cook it for me!
Vegetables:
Basically any vegetables which are hearty and filling and often 'cheap' relative to their bulk! I try to look for a variety of colours in my dishes, so getting some greens, whites and oranges is important to me to signify a healthy balanced meal and make it visually appealing. Some of my staple favourites, which feature in many of my meals and help 'fill the gaps' between my trusty sweet potato, are:
Broccoli - Cut into florets and steamed for 3-4mins is the way to go here.
Pumpkin (the green skinned Japanese variety) - Cut into roughly 2-3cm cubed 'chunks' (with beautiful dark green skin on of course!) and either steamed or roasted for 20-30mins.
Carrots - No peeling! Washed, cut into slices and steamed for 5-6mins or cut into 2-3cm 'chunks' and roasted for 20mins.
Daikon - Again, no peeling! Just washed, cut into slices which are then quartered and then steamed for 5-6mins.
Again, just like the sweet potato, I use these as the bed to any other dish and treat these like my rice/pasta base. That bolognese/curry/whatever, just gets dumped right on top!
Riced vegetables:
If you want that 'rice texture' it is fun to 'rice' (as a verb!) your own vegetables. Cauliflower and broccoli are popular vegetables which easily 'rice'. You simply cut across the florets and allow them to naturally fall into rice sized pieces, then give these a very quick steam to make them hot and use as you would rice with your meal.
If you don't have the time or inclination to rice your won vegetables I have seen pre-riced cauliflower in Tokyu Store in the fresh bagged salad section and even Aeon's My Basket now has frozen riced cauliflower and broccoli.
Spiralised vegetables:
If you want that 'pasta/spaghetti/noodle' feel, then you can spiralise vegetables such as courgette (zucchini), carrots or daikon (using this sort of gadget) and again, give them a very quick steam, or a quick sauté in a pan, then just use as you would pasta/spaghetti/noodles. Or, when in season, get spaghetti squash! Simply halve it, clean out the seeds, rub with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 40mins-1hr at 210°c. When cooked, scrape the flesh out and into 'spaghetti', using a fork.
Doesn't it just MAKESENSE to fill up on nutrient rich vegetables, rather than empty calories, which spike your insulin levels, such as breads and pastas?
When you really think about it pasta and bread is mainly just flour, with some egg and often a lot of salt & sugar.... You don't need to be a nutritionist to see how filling up on a wide range of vegetables is going to be much better for you than eating a pile of processed flour, salt and sugar! It's really about looking more closely at, or into the food you are eating.
Where as most people might look at this dish and see a 'healthy meal'...
...I look at that same dish and see this...
... a large pile of flour and a small scattering of greens. Does it MAKESENSE to call that healthy?!
Flour alternatives:
If you have the time to make your own breads / pastas, there are a lot of alternative flours on the market now, such as coconut flour and almond meal. However, this does not fit my busy lifestyle and I only occasionally dabble with them on weekends for fun.
And finally.... RICE!:
What?! Rice?! I thought you said this was an evil, non-paleo grain, which is empty calories, devoid of nutrients and will spike your insulin levels?!.... Well, yes. Rice is NOT paleo, it is a grain, it is mainly empty calories, devoid of nutrients and will spike insulin levels BUT it sits relatively low on the glycemic index, meaning it won't spike those levels too much and is generally much better than the real evils, Mr Bread & Mrs Pasta. And when the paleo diet can feel so restrictive and rice is everywhere in Japan, I feel this is one of the allowances you can allow yourself infrequently and in smaller doses. For example, if I am tired of sweet potato and fancy a little rice, rather than it be the bulk of the base of my plate, it will occupy maybe 40% of my base and the aforementioned vegetables will occupy the remaining 60%.
So brown or white rice? Well, white rice is practically devoid of nutrients and more heavily processed (the outer brown 'husk' being removed), where as brown rice contains many more vitamins and minerals, but also has its defensive brown 'husk' on the outside, containing anti-nutrients. It are these anti-nutrients which can wreak havoc on a person's digestive system and more than likely will inhibit the absorption of those vitamins and minerals.... so, most of the time I will tend towards white rice, sometimes mixed with a little brown, just because I like the taste and texture.
This is a good article which explains rice (white and brown) and why some paleo enthusiasts still include a little in their diet.
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