“Who is this person you’ve become?” asks my partner when instead of serving dinner up as usual, I take photos of it with my phone just as it comes out of the oven. “It’s for my blog, I told you I’m a blogger now.” He rolls his eyes and disappears from the kitchen. He’s a really supportive kind of guy and has put up with a lot during our three years together including excessive shoe shopping, impulse furniture purchases and home decoration, turning the back yard into a free range chook area, but sometimes it just gets a bit too much for him.

There is a food revolution happening in Australia right now and Chef Pete Evans (bless his soul) is busy activating his almonds and leading his troupes of Paleo eaters into food battle. I personally think it’s absolutely fantastic news. It’s about time Australia realised that with all the fabulous  ingredients that are available in this country, eating unhealthy shouldn’t even be an option.

I follow Pete’s Facebook page and I love his passion and dedication to his cause. When I first heard of the Paleo diet, I thought it was a bit far fetched, but the way Pete describes the principles, it makes sense. I doubt I could personally become a fully devoted Paleo eater, I like my occasional slice of organic sourdough rye and milk kefir (made of un-homogenised jersey milk) far too much, but I keep an open mind and happy to give a new recipe a shot.

So when I read Pete’s latest post on Facebook that included a Paleo version of the good old Shepherd’s Pie, I was more than happy to give it a go. I did tweak it a bit to suit my taste though. I used beef mince instead of the original lamb, so technically it is a Cottage Pie, and I added quinoa (Paleo approved seeds not grains!) for a bit of carb content.

Here’s my version of the recipe:

PALEO COTTAGE PIE

Ingredients:

Bottom layer:
1 brown onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 yellow capsicum
1/2 red capsicum
1 carrot
1/2 kilo beef mince
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup beef stock
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp minced red chili
salt & pepper

Top layer:
1 whole cauliflower
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper

Brown finely chopped onion, add crushed garlic, paprika, chili and mince and brown more (about 10 minutes). Add chopped capsicum, carrots, stock, salt&pepper and simmer it covered on low heat for about an hour. Cook quinoa separately and mix in with mince.

For the topping cook the chopped cauliflower in salty water. Drain, mash, then add butter, garlic powder, lightly beaten eggs and salt&pepper to taste.

Grease a baking dish with butter, spread the mince mix on the bottom and cauliflower mash on the top. Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper and paprika powder on top. Bake in hot oven for 30 minutes or until top is lightly bown.

Enjoy!

Please let me know what you thought of this post/recipe.Thanks