Let me start this post by saying that I have an issue with the common misconception that a paleo or primal diet is centered around meat. Every time I talk to someone about the way I eat, that is inevitably the first thing that comes out of their mouth. I go on to explain that it has more to do with a wide variety of unprocessed food that happens to include things like grass-fed beef and pastured chicken. Then I go on to explain that I now eat more vegetables than I ever did before and that I’d be willing to bet that I eat more vegetables than someone who claims to be a vegetarian. It’s really time that we move past this heavy meat eating persona that is all to common and really try to showcase what we are all about — eating a wide if not huge variety of real, unprocessed food.

That’s enough of a rant for today, now for the real reason for this post. Sylvie Shirazi from Gourmande in the Kitchen has shared yet another one of her absolutely divine recipes for Braised and Glazed Vegetables with Green Olive Pesto (Pistounade). These vegetables alone with their subtle hint of butter and garlic would be good enough for me, but add the pesto and it turns into sheer bliss. I don’t know if it’s just me, but a really good pesto is a quick way to my heart and something that I would never do without.

A quick braise and glaze is just the thing for vegetables this fresh and tender. It would be criminal to submit them to the slow torture of being boiled to tasteless mush or drowned in heavy sauce. No, a light touch of butter and garlic seems a much more fitting end.

Braising is a classic French preparation which consists of a quick sauté in fat followed by a brief steam/poach in a small amount of liquid which is then evaporated to create a glaze. The resulting vegetables are still bright, fork-tender and enveloped in the rich flavors of the braising liquid.

Read the full post & get the recipe

About Chris Armstrong

I created the Celiac Handbook website in 2004. It has evolved into a portal for new (and old) ideas related to healthy and sustainable gluten-free living and avoiding the usual pitfalls of the gluten-free junk food market.

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