I just spent the last hour chatting it up with Diane Sanfilippo, author of Practical Paleo, for the recording of this week’s Balanced Bites podcast. Her usual co-host Liz was unavailable so I was asked to fill in! How could you say no to an hour of girl-talk where everything from bowels to babies was discussed? Somehow both of those ‘b’ words always seem to weasel their way into my daily conversation. Such is life when you have a digestive disease and a toddler.

We talked a lot about my struggle with ulcerative colitis before going Paleo and what my diet looks like these days, moved on to some tips on how to best feed your children, and finished by dishing a little about my upcoming book!  The podcast will be up later today so make sure to download it for free! If you ever have free time (which who are we kidding most of you are moms!), in the car or when you’re cleaning the house, this podcast is always so fun to listen to and they both are a wealth of knowledge. You can go back and listen to all of their apst 87 episodes too if you really have a lot of down time.

This recipe was actually created when I was participating in Diane’s 21-day-sugar-detox, so it is fitting that I am sharing it today. I was never a fan of stuffed peppers growing up, but I think that is because they were usually so full of rice or another grain that the flavor always seemed lost on me. However, I’ve had a recent obsession with Mexican food am a total sucker for a chile verde sauce so I combined these two to make my own version of stuffed peppers. Poblano peppers are fairly mild once they’re seeds are removed and are a large, flavorful pepper perfect for stuffing. I sautéed a mix of ground beef, sweet potatoes, carrots, and spinach and seasoned them with mexican seasonings before stuffing it into these smokey peppers and topping it with my homemade tomatillo sauce. We had extra stuffing that we used with eggs the next morning as well and it made for a killer breakfast!

Stuffed Peppers with Chile Verde Sauce

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

Beef and vegetables seasoned with Mexican seasonings and stuffed into smokey peppers and topped with my homemade tomatillo sauce

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• Sauce
• 1½ pounds tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 1 to 2 serrano chilies
• ¼ yellow onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• ¾ teaspoon sea salt
  Peppers
• 4 to 6 large Poblano peppers (may also be called pasilla peppers)
• 1½ pounds ground beef
• 1½ cups diced sweet potatoes, peeled (or butternut squash for SCD)
• ½ cup yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 2½ teaspoons sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1½ teaspoon chili powder
• 1½ teaspoon ground corriander
• avocado or guacamole for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Boil the tomatillos and serrano pepper for 10-15 minutes, or until the skins have shriveled slightly and the fruit has turned a dull army green. Drain and remove any stems.
3. Meanwhile, brown the beef in a deep skillet over medium heat until cooked through. Drain the grease and return the beef to the pan. Add the sweet potatoes, onion, carrots, spinach, and spices. Sauté for 15 minutes until the vegetables have softened slightly.
4. To make the sauce: add the tomatillos and serrano peppers to a blender or food processor. Blend with the onion, garlic, and sea salt until smooth.
5. Cut a slit lengthwise on the top of each pepper. Gently scrape out the seeds from the inside the peppers and discard.
6. Stuff each pepper generously with the mixture being careful not to tear the pepper.
7. Spoon ¼ cup sauce over each pepper. Pour the remaining sauce into the bottom of a large baking dish and arrange the peppers in the dish.
8. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes until the peppers are soft and the sauce is hot.
9. Serve with avocado or guacamole.

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We tend to have a lot of people in and out of our house and I regularly serve an extra 3-4 mouths outside of my family for dinner, so I love to grab a large piece of wild salmon to throw on the grill when I am in need of something quick. I think salmon is easily my favorite fish. Poached, grilled, smoked. You name it, I love it. Do you have a favorite way to prepare or marinate salmon? If so, let us know in the comments!

One of the easiest ways to prepare it is rubbing it with this pungent blackened spice mix and simply grilling it. I also rub the same mixture on chicken drumsticks and thighs for the occasional guest that doesn’t like fish. It’s a simple meal to prepare and cleanup, which is always important in my book!

When recipes say blackened, it is mostly referring to the Cajun spices, not the cooking method. While some chefs do really char their fish on the outside, I prefer to gently sear it to create a crust and keep the inside moist and flaky. I also go easy on the spices and pair it with a cooling mango-avocado salsa because I am a self-proclaimed spice wuss. You can bump up the heat if you’d like with extra cayenne though! This dish is colorful and vibrant and besides the dried seasonings, takes very minimal ingredients. It will undoubtably light up your dinner table! Speaking of dinner tables, isn’t the grain of that wood under the food gorgeous?! I used extra stikwood to create a tabletop and I just love the way the surface looks. I need to do a wall in my house with this stuff.

Blackened Salmon with Mango Salsa

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

A mildly spicy grilled salmon with a mango-avocado salsa to cut the heat.

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 1½ to 2 pounds wild salmon fillets, boneless and skin on
• 3 teaspoons melted grassfed butter
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1½ tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp cracked pepper
• ¼ tsp thyme
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
  Mango Salsa
• 1 large ripe mango, seeded, peeled and diced
• 1 large avocado, seeded and diced
• ¼ cup diced grape tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons diced red onion
• 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1. Slice the salmon evenly into 4 to 6 smaller fillets.
2. Combine the butter and all of the spices in a bowl. Rub all over both sides of the salmon. Leave at room temperature while the grill heats.
3. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat.
4. Meanwhile, combine the salsa ingredients together in a bowl and store in the refrigerator while the fish cooks.
5. Sear the salmon, skinless side down first. Close the grill lid. Cook 1-3 minutes on the first side, depending on how thick the fillets are. (Try not to move them until you are going to flip them over to help keep them in one piece.)
6. Using tongs and a metal spatula in the other hand, carefully turn the fish over, so that the skin side is down, and reduce the heat to medium. For charcoal grills, finish cooking over indirect heat furthest from the coals.
7. Close the grill lid and finish cooking for another 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets.
8. Salmon should be just barely opaque and will start to flake along the center of the fillet when done.
9. Serve hot with the mango-avocado salsa spooned over it.

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I have no idea how this post got lost in the mix, but I snapped these photos while we lived in Hawaii last year and completely forgot to share the recipe! Just looking at the photos brings back so memories and makes me miss all of the dear friends we met while we were there. Plus that is the same spot where I shot the first 1/4 of my cookbook, so I have fond memories of that patio. It doesn’t hurt that it overlooked the ocean! I can’t believe the book is done and is going to print in just a week.

The avocados in Hawaii are so huge and buttery and we included them in almost every meal. Whether mixed into scrambled eggs like this recipe or just diced on salads, they were a staple and were always in abundance at the farmer’s markets. This breakfast (with a side of bacon!) was something we ate at least 4 times a week back then, but I had forgotten about it until now. Luckily we have Haas avocados here in California, so now that I was just reminded of how delicious this is, I will absolutely be adding it back into our breakfast rotation.

Avocado, Spinach, and Goat Scramble

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Creamy egg scramble with goat cheese, spinach, and avocado

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon grassfed butter or ghee
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 1 large avocado
• 3 ounces chèvre (goat cheese)

Instructions

1. Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach and sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes.
2. Pour in the eggs and scramble until cooked through, about 5 more minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the avocado and chèvre.

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Don’t let what I am about to say turn you off from this recipe or decide that it is not incredible. Because it is. Well, according to a dozen lemon-loving testers it is incredible.

I do not like lemon bars. There, I said it.

But don’t judge this recipe by the sheer fact that I have never been a lemon dessert fan. My readers consistently ask for lemon bars, lemon meringue, or lemon cakes, so I bit the bullet for you all and worked hard on getting this recipe right. It took quite a few tries because I wasn’t sure what the original really tasted like, and came up with a cheesecake tasting bar and a lemon jello bar before hitting the nail on the head. I performed some R&D (I even took a bite of a store-bought one just for the sake of the experiment!) and gathered a team of friends who adored lemon bars and came up with something so close to the original you won’t even miss them. Well, you may miss the dusting of powdered sugar because that is so not paleo friendly, but the taste and texture of these is spot on.

The nut-free crust is sturdy like a shortbread and holds its own against the rich, creamy, gooey lemon filling. I dusted these with coconut flour for visual appeal, but it doesn’t really do much for the taste so you can either leave it off or splurge and dust them with organic evaporated powdered cane sugar.

Enjoy these lemon bars with the special mothers in your life this weekend. Me? Well you can bet there will be something chocolate and not lemon.

Luscious Lemon Bars (nut-free)

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

Sweet and tangy lemon filled bars

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1 dozen squares

Ingredients

• ½ cup finely ground raw sunflower seeds, sifted (60g)
• ⅔ cup coconut flour, sifted (90g)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or coconut oil, plus more for greasing dish
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  Filling
• 3 large eggs plus 1 yolk, lightly beaten
• ½ cup honey
• ¾ cup fresh lemon juice, strained
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all of the crust ingredients in a food processor. Process for 15 seconds to combine. Scrape down sides if necessary and pulse once or twice more until a dough forms.
3. Lightly grease a 9×9 square baking dish with butter. Press the dough into the bottom and slightly up the sides of the dish.
4. Prick the dough a few times all over with a fork then bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack while you prepare the filling.
5. Whisk together all of the filling ingredients. Allow the coconut flour to absorb for 10 minutes, then whisk again until the filling is smooth. If there are any lumps of coconut flour, pass it through a mesh strainer.
6. Pour the filling on top of the baked crust, and bake again for 15-20 minutes or until the center is set but slightly jiggly.
7. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes then refrigerate until chilled.

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tip: grind the sunflower seeds in a blender or coffee grinder. Sift and discard any large fragments before measuring. Blanched almond flour may also be used in place of the ground sunflower seeds.

Spring is in full bloom here in California. Our hills are brown, which is always terribly backwards, but the flowers and trees are lush and boast vibrant leaves and flower buds. My herb garden started to perk back up about a month ago and I was able to pick my first few leaves for a salad dressing just yesterday. We don’t have the largest backyard so my husband found an idea on Pinterest last Mother’s Day and built me this sweet little fence herb garden. Fresh herbs provide a much more intense flavor than dried, so having them at my finger tips where I can snip off just what is needed is so nice. Especially compared to having to purchase an over abundance at the grocery store and either dry them myself so as not to waste, or have them wilt before I have a chance to use them. I am growing basil, cilantro, sage, thyme, chocolate mint, oregano, parsley, and chives. Asher has taken a liking to watering them with me as well, so we spend a few moments each night as the sun sets learning about how things live and grow and he giggles as he “accidentally” gets my feet wet with the hose. It’s the simple things in life that keep you smiling and give you something to look forward to each day!

We celebrated my good friend’s birthday a couple of weeks back, and her affinity with lavender helped inspire the menu. I have never experimented much with using lavender in my cooking and had to read up a bit on what variations were good for culinary use. I didn’t even realize that we had lavender growing in our backyard, but it turns out that it is a French lavender plant and doesn’t fare as well in cooking. The English kind is the best for stripping the leaves and infusing drinks or baking into desserts so I plan to add that to my little herb garden next Spring. I had a hard time finding any in bloom elsewhere so we chose to use the dried leaves from the bulk section at Whole Foods. This lavender lemonade was among the spread and it provided the perfect refreshment for our guests during the scorching heat wave we were going through. The adults spiked theirs with a little tequila too which really took the edge off of the heat! We all enjoyed it so much and I plan to make a double batch of it to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend.

The lovely pink tint comes from the infusing the lavender leaves in hot water, but if you do not like lavender or simply cannot locate it, you may chose to use thyme, rosemary, or possibly another edible flower.

Lavender Lemonade

 

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Prep time

2 hours 15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

2 hours 25 mins

 

Lavender infused lemonade sweetened with honey

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Beverage

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• ½ cup light-colored honey
• ⅓ cup dried lavender
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice, strained

Instructions

1. Bring water and honey to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Gently crush the lavender in a mortar and pestle or in a bowl with a meat tenderizer. Add the crushed lavender to the pot then remove it from the heat.
3. Cover, refrigerate, and steep for 2 hours.
4. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve. Stir in the lemon juice and serve over ice.

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I was fortunate enough to have received an advance copy of this beautiful work of art, and it has been proudly displayed on my coffee table since I opened the package. We have a lot of people cycle through our house during the week, and every person that has flipped through it instantly falls in love. From the opening whimsical menu cards to the beautifully styled and photographed dishes, this book is entrancing and will cause any person who picks it up to want to play the role of hostess or host. With the easy to follow recipes, and lovely full-color photos, the cook will feel confident in what they are preparing and serving. The detailed planning segments will put the type-A party thrower (me!) at ease knowing which particular items they can start 3 days out, 5 hours before, or right before guests arrive. It will also whip those procrastinators into shape!

I had grandiose plans of making a few of the many recipes I’ve bookmarked with Asher and making some fun videos for you to watch, but my own book has been keeping my head under water and the days just keep flying by me before I am able to come up for air. Asher didn’t nap today (my most productive time!) so all of my plans were at the will of a toddler. Now I am sick on the couch so if I procrastinate any longer, Bill and Haley’s next book, the 30 Day Guide to Paleo Cooking, will be on my doorstep before I know it and I’ll have missed my chance! I really wanted to tell you all about Gather and give away a copy sooner than later, so you’ll have to settle for seeing some inside photos of this gorgeous book!

Here are just a handful of the recipes that I have been dying to make, and a taste of what you can expect to see when you first open this lovely book! I had the chance to try their rendition of General Tso’s chicken last month and it was killer! I plan to see if I can substitute coconut flour for some of the baked goods recipes that call for arrowroot so I’ll report back if it works for all of those on SCD!

Just leave a comment at the end of this post for a chance to win a copy of your very own!

Giveaway ends Friday May 10th at 11:59pm EST. US Residents only please (and sorry to everyone else in advance! You know I ♥ you all just as much, the giveaway laws and shipping just don’t)

Please welcome Leanne Vogel from Healthful Pursuit as she shares a new recipe with you today! Whether youíre sensitive to dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, grains, or sugar, or are just interested in eating healthy, Leanne’s fun and simple healthy recipes; of which she has more than 550 on her blog, are a great resource for everyone.

Hello fellow grain-free enthusiasts! I’m bip-bopping with excitement today. I’ve made a brand new recipe for you, with a batch of sunflower butter to match, and I am all pumped up to chat about allergies, eating styles and the like.

You ready?

Who here feels slightly restricted by their diet? You know, when you feel down and out, helpless, and hungry for all the foods that you know aren’t good for your body?

Iím all about Food Freedom ñ a way of living where struggles, restrictions and deprivations are replaced with kindness, radiance and pleasure. The trick to capturing a bit of Food Freedom for yourself is to infuse your life with various strategies and healthy recipes to help you bust through your day with an allergen-free fist! The more tools you have, the better equipped you’ll be for the bumps along the way.

After a decade of being dairy-free and learning what it takes to thrive on the diet; along with being allergic to a host of other foods, I created the Done with Dairy Toolkit ñ a (free) guide to living dairy-free with loads of dairy-free recipes and health tips from yours truly. All of the recipes are gluten-free and a bunch of them are grain-free, too.

To give you a taste of the types of recipes you’ll find over on Healthful Pursuit and in my Done with Dairy Toolkit, Iíve prepared some super soft cookies just for you. No nuts, 5 ingredients, simple steps, ultra goodness.

Guest Post : 5 Ingredient Sunshine Cookies

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: Leanne Vogel: Healthful Pursuit

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup sunflower seed butter
• ⅔ cup hemp seeds
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg white (approx. 3 tablespoons), whipped thoroughly until frothy

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350∞F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Set aside.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine sunflower butter, hemp seeds, honey and vanilla extract. Stir to combine and set aside.
3. Add egg white to the bowl of your stand mixer. If you do not have a stand mixer, you could try to use a high powered blender or food processor instead. Whip with the wire whisk, on high, for 2-3 minutes – until puffy like clouds.
4. Add in sunflower butter mixture and mix until smooth.
5. Spoon mixture, about 1 tablespoon at a time, onto prepared baking sheet. The dough will make enough for 12 cookies. Shape them as you want them as they will not expand or level out while they are cooking.
6. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the tops begin to get golden and slightly cracked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes on the pan.
7. Store cookies in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

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Recipe notes:

• For the sunflower seed butter, you can make your own by using my sunflower seed butter recipe. The store bought stuff is expensive so making your own will save you loads of money!
• If you’re not sensitive to nuts, you could replace the sunflower seed butter with any type of nut butter you’d like. Hazelnut or almond would be great.
• Hemp seeds can be replaced with finely shredded (unsweetened) coconut.
• Not sure what to do with your leftover egg yolk? I like to poach them and add to salads, whip them into smoothies, add them to dressings and sauces, or fry up with some coconut oil and veggies.

I hope you’ll stop by my blog and introduce yourself. I’d love to have you!

Author bio: Leanne Vogel is a holistic nutritionist who has chosen to celebrate her allergies, overcome her food restrictions, release her negative relationship with food and live freely. You can find her living out her journey as she documents her latest adventures on her blog, www.healthfulpursuit.com.

Connect with LeanneÖ

Facebook: healthfulpursuit

Twitter:@be_healthful

You may remember my last baked eggs recipe with sausage and a cheesy (but cheeseless) tomato sauce. This new version combines sautéed power greens and crisp bacon and is topped with a velvety hollandaise sauce for added richness. I am enamored by the ease and flavor of baked eggs as of late, and my devotion to a good hollandaise sauce will never cease. Pair these two things together and you have heaven in a ramekin.

With this French technique, the eggs are gently broken into and baked in a small cup or ramekin, or oeuf en cocotte.  The beauty of this method is that the tops of the whites cook to perfection, but the yolk is left soft and runny. You can use your creativity and add whatever fillings you desire, but you must try this rendition. It is a simple but glorious way to start your morning and will not leave you feeling heavy or lethargic as it has just the right balance of nourishment and richness.

*these are the baking dishes I use, but any type of small oven-safe ramekin will do

Baked Eggs with Bacon, Greens,and Hollandaise

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

A rich and hearty baked breakfast topped with velvety hollandaise sauce

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 ounces bacon, chopped
• 1 cup packed mixed power greens (spinach, chard, kale)
• 8 large eggs
• ½ cup Hollandaise Sauce (click here for a dairy-free version)

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F and position a rack in the top ⅓ of the oven.
2. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Cook the bacon pieces until the majority of the fat has rendered and it starts to get crisp, about 8 minutes.
3. Add the greens and sauté until wilted.
4. Divide the mixture between 4 gratins or brule dishes. Gently crack 2 eggs into of each dish on top of the filling.
5. Carefully place ramekins in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk is runny. Baking times may vary depending on the size of the ramekins. Deeper dishes that are smaller in circumference may take more time to bake. Watch the whites closely and pull them from the oven as soon as they are no longer runny but the yolk is still soft to the touch.
6. Drizzle with warm hollandaise sauce and serve immediately.
   Tip: for leftover hollandaise sauce, store in the refrigerator and reheat gently over very low heat.

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This giveaway is now closed. Ashley Taylor is the winner! Thank you to everyone who participated.

It was about 4 years ago this Summer that I finally got some answers about dietary changes affecting Ulcerative Colitis. A friend gave me a copy of Breaking the Vicious Cycle, a book written for those with Crohn’s, Colitis, Celiac, and Autism and it was like a breath of fresh air compared to what all of the doctors kept telling me. I resisted the massive dietary change initially, but after meeting a few people who had tried the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and had success keeping their symptoms at bay, I decided to take the plunge.

“You are perishable – eat accordingly”

The only problem was that I really loved food and enjoying my meals seemed like it was going to be impossible. So I turned to the internet in search of others eating this way and didn’t find much. This was long before Paleo became popular so there was a serious lack of blogs out there catering to grain, refined-sugar, and lactose free recipes. Then I stumbled upon Comfy Belly and Elana’s Pantry. Both blogs were beautiful and the food looked like real food! I bookmarked so many of the recipes and then emailed Erica from Comfy Belly for support. Her son suffers from Crohn’s and I was so lost at that moment that I was desperate to talk to someone who was an “expert.” She and I exchanged quite a few emails and she made me feel like it was possible to see healing and eat well. It was so reassuring.

Erica emailed me a few weeks ago and asked me to review her newest cookbook, Cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and I of course said yes. She and Elana both fueled my desire to start and maintain my own blog so I am happy to get to cook from her recipes again! I am a sucker for a good loaf of banana bread so that was the first recipe I tried. It was moist and fluffy and we devoured it!  The blueberry coffee cake, sandwich rounds, and chowder all look fabulous as well.

This book is a fantastic resource for those on the SCD. There aren’t many comprehensive cookbooks on the market that cater specifically for that diet, so I would suggest it to anyone who follows it. SCD does allow low-lactose cheeses and homemade yogurt, so just beware if you are fully dairy-free. There will still be a ton of recipes for you to use though. Honestly, my only disappointment about the book is that there is not a full-color photo for each recipe because Erica’s photography is so lovely! Otherwise, she did a fantastic job creating this book and you can tell she poured her heart into it. After all, moms will do anything to help their children, so this book really shows her dedication to helping her son thrive.

I am giving away 1 copy of the book as well! Just leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner on Monday 4/29 at 6pm PST.

 Note: Chocolate Chips are NOT SCD legal, but my body can tolerate the Enjoy Life allergy free kind on occasion after eliminating them for a couple of years.

The weather is seriously warming up around here (90 degrees today!), so we have officially dusted off the grill and our patio furniture and are spending as much time as possible soaking up the vitamin D. I know, you who are on the East Coast and Midwest are rolling your eyes or shaking your fists at me right now. Hopefully this weather will make up it’s mind and you will all see the beauty that is the sun and green hills that we are enjoying right now.

A gorgeous tri-tip from US Wellness Meats was our inaugural meat for the barbecue season. It had been waiting for me in the freezer for the last few months and I was dying to season it and grill it to perfection. My mom always used to grill up tri-tip for large crowds when we were growing up, but they always came pre-seasoned and definitely were not grass-fed, so I came up with a rub that closely resembled what I remembered from childhood. We are from California, so the Santa Maria style Tri-tip is what we most often ate. The flavors hail from the small city in Southern California and yield a mouthful of flavor with each bite. The traditional rub is just fresh cracked pepper, garlic, and sea salt, and anything added past there is kind of at your discretion. I added a little fresh rosemary and a few other things from my cupboard and we all enjoyed it thoroughly!

Santa Maria Tri-Tip

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Grilled tri-tip roast marinated in a bold and slightly spicy marinade

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Recipe type: Main

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1½ pound tri-tip roast
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

Instructions

1. Rinse the roast and pat it dry with paper towels.
2. Combine the rub ingredients in a bowl and rub it all over the roast. Let the meat sit at room temperature for 45 minutes.
3. Preheat one side of an electric grill to medium-high heat or arrange and light the coals to one side of a charcoal grill.
4. Sear the meat on all sides for 8 minutes, then move it to the opposite side of the grill off of the direct heat. Close the lid and cook for 10 minutes. Flip and continue cooking for 10 minutes or until a thermometer reads 135-140 degrees for medium-rare, 140-145 for medium, or 145-150 for medium-well.
5. Slice thinly against the grain for maximum tenderness.

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