Paleo | LCHF Made in Sweden

New Recipe at Diet Doctor

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 25 November, 2015 Comments: 2

Butternut Soup for Thanksgiving

Now you can find one of my recipes at DietDoctor, Butternut Squash Soup with Chicken, Coconut and Ginger.

This is a recipe from Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking. You can find all my cookbooks at Amazon, both in hardcover and on Kindle.

Slow Cooking has a very interesting foreword about healthy fats, written by science journalist and author Dr. Ann Fernholm, PhD.

Here you can find Dr. Fernholm’s book, “My Sweet Heart: The health effects of a century-long love affair”.

Winter in Jämtland, Sweden…

Walnut Bread

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 27 August, 2015 Comments: 11

Walnut Bread Photo; Mikael Eriksson

This bread is rich in walnuts, which imparts it with both a lovely taste and chewy texture.

I mixed in apple cider vinegar to give the bread a slight tang, almost like a sourdough.

It’s delicious when toasted, too. Try topping a slice with a hearty smear of butter and some aged cheese.

Walnut Bread

• 5 ¼ oz. (150 g) walnuts
• 3 ½ oz. (100 g) coconut oil
• 2–3 tablespoons bread spices (ground
anise, cumin, fennel)
• 6 large eggs
• 8 ¾ oz. (250 g) coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 6 ¾ fl. oz. (200 ml) almond flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• about 1–1 ½ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄3 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (100 ml) unflavored whole psyllium husk
• 3 ½ tablespoons (50 ml) flax seeds

Preheat the oven to 300ºF (150ºC). Grease a loaf tin (1 ½ quarts) thoroughly.

Crush the walnuts coarsely with a mortar and pestle, or chop them with a knife.

Warm the coconut oil together with the spices, and let it cool. In a bowl, mix the nuts with all the dry ingredients and start out with a small amount of salt.

With a handheld electric mixer, whisk the eggs until thick, and then mix in the coconut
milk, vinegar and coconut oil.

Add the dry ingredients in with the mixer on low speed. Mix well and taste for salt and spices.

Use a rubber spatula to pour the dough into the loaf pan, and press on the dough’s surface
to make it level. Wet your hand in cold water and smooth out the surface.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake in the lower part of the oven for 45 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake the dough for another 45 minutes. Let the bread cool a little in the pan, and then unmold it on to a rack. Let it cool on the rack without covering it so it stays crusty.

Slice the bread once it has cooled completely. Freeze the slices individually in order to enjoy them as needed; when defrosted in a toaster, the bread tastes freshly baked.

This is a recipe from Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking. You can find all my cookbooks at Amazon, both in hardcover and on Kindle.

Picnic at Lake Marvikarna in Södermanland…

Sunset at Lake Klämmingen, Södermanland…

Oven-Roasted Pork Belly with Orange and Chili

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 13 August, 2015 Comments: 2

Oven-Roasted Pork Belly with Orange and Chili… Photo: Mikael Eriksson

Oven-Roasted Pork Belly with Orange and Chili

Fresh pork belly is great food for those of us who want to keep our food low in carbohydrates, and free from all the additives typically found in brined pork and bacon.

This meat becomes very tender from slow cooking; its flavor stems from a tangy marinade with orange, and its spiciness from the chili.

1 lb. 5 oz. (600 g) fresh pork belly, with rind
1 organic orange
1 red chili pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari soy sauce
about 1 tablespoon salt, for the meat rub prior to roasting

Rinse the meat in cold water and dry it well. Slit the rind with a sharp knife at even intervals; only make surface slits in the rind—do not cut into the meat itself.

Wash the orange and cut off thin strips of peel with a zester. Or, peel off the outer layer with a potato peeler and cut it into fine strips with a knife.

Seed and finely chop the chili pepper. Caution: use food service latex gloves to do this and make sure not to rub your eyes! Do not remove the seeds if you prefer more heat in the dish.

Strip the rosemary branch of its needles, and chop the needles finely. Juice the orange and mix it with the tamari, chili, rosemary, and orange peel.

Place the prepared meat in doubled plastic freezer bags. Pour the marinade over the meat and seal the bags shut. Work the marinade around the meat a little to make sureit’s evenly distributed. Leave the plastic bags with the meat on a platter in refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours. Turn the meat a few times during this time.

Preheat the oven to 430ºF (225ºC).

Pour the marinade into a smaller ovenproof dish. Distribute the salt evenly on both sides of the pork collar, and rub it thoroughly into the cuts in the rind.

Place a baking rack inside the dish, and set the meat on the rack with the rind side up. Place the dish in the oven and let the meat brown for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 200ºF (100ºC) and let the meat roast for 2 hours. Baste it several times with the marinade.

Once it’s cooked, let the meat rest for a while on the cutting board before cutting it into slices. Sautéed mushrooms and a Brussels sprout gratin covered in blue cheese (see recipe on p. 147 in Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking) make excellent side dishes to this meat.

You can now find all my cookbooks at Amazon, both in hardcover and on Kindle.

Here are some pictures from last week’s vacation in Dalecarlia. We spent an unforgettable night in the Royal Suite at Åkerblad’s Hotel in Tällberg, celebrating my cookbook release.

After that we went to my small cabin in the mountains for a week, where there’s no electricity or tap water, just water from the creek that passes by just outside my house.

Åkerblad’s Hotel, Tällberg, Sweden…

Picture of the Royal Suite from Christina Åkerblad’s book about the hotels historical background..

View over Siljan from our suite at Åkerblad’s Hotel, Tällberg…

My mountain cabin…

Outdoor Cooking…

LCHF Cookbook Release

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 1 August, 2015 Comments: 6

A great day for me

All my 3 cookbooks are now available in English. It’s so exciting to hear that some of you already have got your books from Amazon, the official releasedate is Aug 4.

I would like to extend my warm thanks to my editor Lindsey Breuer at Skyhorse Publishing who believed in my books and Gun Penhoat who translated the books and adjusted the recipes to fit the American market.

Gun has done a fantastic job of finding substitutes for those Swedish products that can be difficult to find in the US, so that everyone should be able to cook and enjoy my food.

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue at Amazon

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue was released in June and now it’s time for the other two to hit the market.

Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging was written together with Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, MD. She is the founder of the LCHF movement in Sweden.

Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking has a very interesting foreword about healthy fats, written by science journalist and author Dr. Ann Fernholm, PhD.

Dr. Fernholm’s first book, “My Sweet Heart: The health effects of a century-long love affair” will be available as an e-book in September.

I hope you’ll enjoy my books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Here’s some words about LCHF Barbecue:

“I met the author on Jimmy Moore’s 2015 Low Carb Cruise. She is dedicated to creating and eating good, healthy food. The book has gorgeous pictures of the prepared recipes and the instructions are easy and concise-this book has been translated into english-all the temperatures and measurements are american too. I highly recommend this book. I have pre-ordered her other two books that are being translated into english.”

“I learned so much from this book. Birgitta Höglund is one of the original founders of LCHF and has dedicated her life to reinvent modern cooking. The barbecue book is not only about putting a piece of meat on the grill. Here we learn to serve whole healthy dinners without any harmful carbs. I have made half of her recipes and all have been a delight to make and eat.”

“Birgitta Höglund; I was afraid to order your book because I figured it had a lot of ingredients we have never heard of here in Southern Louisiana and/or climate differences would make it hard to follow. Then I noticed that all of the recipes posted were easy to follow and duplicate so I took the plunge. I ordered “Low Carb Barbecue” and preordered the other two. My Barbecue book came today and I’m so excited. I skimmed it I know with a wrinkled brow looking for thing negative AND FOUND NONE! You have done a fantastic job. I would never have thought of the zucchini in potato salad and it’s so refreshing I want to try new things. I just wanted you and the whole group to know how great I find this book and how I’m looking forward to the other two arriving. I’m telling everyone I know that it was written by my new Swedish friend. Thank you very much.”

Here about Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking:

“Birgitta is a delightful chef who lives what she shows in her books. These recipes are a new fresh outlook on dishes we have not experienced like this. All ingredients are available or explained by translation to apply ingredients we can easily locate. She has made my ketogenic lifestyle new and exciting again. Thanks Birgitta.”

About Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging:

“Wow! Fantastic recipes and photographs for new food choices for our healthy ketogenic lifestyle. Ingredients listed so anyone can reconstruct these beautiful dishes in our very own kitchens. The articles make you feel like we have sat with her in her own kitchen and cooked together. I love it and can’t wait for my imaginary visits into Swedish Keto homes with Birgitta again.”

Low Carb Ketchup

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 24 July, 2015 Leave a comment

Low Carb Ketchup

8.8 oz. (250 g) tomatoes

2 inches (5 cm) of a leek, the white part

1.8 oz. (50 g) butter or olive oil

6 3/4 fl. oz. (200 ml) water

3 1/3 fl. oz. (100 ml) tomato puree

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons chili flakes

1 teaspoon Worcestershiresauce

1 teaspoon honey or your choice of sweetener

1 sliced clove of garlic

1/4 organic vegetable stock cube

1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground caraway seeds

1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground cloves

Sea salt

Dice the tomatoes and slice the leek thinly. Fry the diced tomato and sliced leek with the tomato puree in a pan.

Add all other ingredients, bring to boil and let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Use a handheld mixer and mix the ketchup in the pan. Let simmer for another 15 minutes.

Taste the ketchup and decide if you need to increase the sourness, sweetness or saltiness.

Pour the finished ketchup into cleaned jars, put on the lid and let cool.

Store the ketchup in the fridge. It will stay fresh for a week. You can also store it in small jars in the freezer.

Organic grown vegetables from Ås Trädgård, Jämtland, Sweden

Picnic in Stockholm: Turkey casserole with a touch of India

LCHF, Paleo 18 July, 2015 Comments: 2

LCHF Picnic in Stockholm

Spicy Wok 2 servings

1 lb (400 g) turkey breast
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 small onions
1 3/4 oz. (50 g) mixed nuts (brazil nuts, hazel nuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, almonds)
½ sweet red pepper
½ yellow pepper
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and chili flakes

Cut the turkey breast in thin slices. Finely chop the nuts and thinly slice the onion and peppers. Fry the meat in coconut oil and season with salt and spices.

Put in a casserole and let simmer on low heat while you fry the vegetables with the nuts.

Mix the vegetables with the meat. Serve with a grean leaf salad with pomegranate seed, olive oil and lime juice.

We enjoyed our lunch as a picnic at Skinnarviksberget in Stockholm, the capitol of Sweden.

Spicy Wok

S/S Mariefred and Stockholm City Hall

Guest blog on Strictly Paleoish

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 10 July, 2015 Leave a comment

Blog post about LCHF and Paleo

I’ve been asked to make a guest blog post at the interesting website Strictly Paleoish.

The past six years I have been living with a grain/gluten-free LCHF diet, the last few of them I have also removed most of the dairy products (except for butter) from my daily meals.

I’ve added some more root vegetables and fruit/berries, but I still keep the carbohydrates very low and the fat content high.

This lifestyle works well for me. It has further improved my fibromyalgia, I feel better than I did in my first years on LCHF and I have become both stronger and leaner.

Here’s a link to my blog post at Strictly Paleoish.

The blog post includes a couple of recipes from my newly released cookbook, Low Carb High Fat Barbecue.

Here’s a comment about my book:

“Birgitta Höglund. I was afraid to order your book because I figured it had a lot of ingredients we have never heard of here in Southern Louisiana and/or climate differences would make it hard to follow.

Then I noticed that all of the recipes posted were easy to follow and duplicate so I took the plunge. I ordered “Low Carb Barbecue” and preordered the other two.

My Barbecue book came today and I’m so excited. I skimmed it I know with a wrinkled brow looking for thing negative AND FOUND NONE! You have done a fantastic job. I would never have thought of the zucchini in potato salad and it’s so refreshing I want to try new things.

I just wanted you and the whole group to know how great I find this book and how I’m looking forward to the other two arriving. I’m telling everyone I know that it was written by my new Swedish friend. Thank you very much.”

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue at Amazon

Aioli with Arugula and Lemon Balm

Keto, LCHF 29 June, 2015 Leave a comment

Aioli with Herbs

3 egg yolks from free-range eggs
1 1/4 cup (300 ml) cold pressed olive oil or macadamia oil
3 garlic cloves
Juice from ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper
3 1/3 fl. oz. (100 ml) finely chopped arugula/rocket
1 3/4 fl. oz. (50 ml) finely chopped lemon balm

Separate the egg yolks and put them in a tall, narrow blender bowl. Finely grate the garlic cloves.

Mix the garlic and lemonjuice with the egg yolks. Use a handheld blender or an electric handmixer.

Slowly add the oil while whisking continuously until the aioli gets thick.

Season with salt, pepper and herbs. Put the aioli in a jar and keep in the fridge. It will stay fresh up to a week.

Aioli made with macadamia oil…

Free-range eggs…

Midsummer in Jämtland. Still a lot of snow in the mountains…

Greek Tomato Omelette

Keto, LCHF 25 June, 2015 Leave a comment

Tomato Omelette from Greece…

Tomato Omelette from Greece 1 serving

6 cherry tomatoes
3 free-range eggs
2-3 tablespoons cold–pressed olive oil
Sea salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme or oregano

Dice the tomatoes. Fry in olive oil for a couple of minutes, season with salt.

Beat the eggs slightly with a pinch of salt, pour over the tomatoes. Don’t stir as much as when you make a regular omelette, it isn’t supposed to be as fluffy.

When the omelette is done, flip upside down on a plate, sprinkle with herbs and some extra olive oil. Add some butter, olives, nuts and/or feta cheese if you are really hungry.

Tomato Omelette in Makrigialos, Crete…

Olives and Tapenade in Crete, Greece…

One of my friends in Makrigialos…

2 x Chocolate Mousse LCHF and Paleo

Keto, LCHF 20 June, 2015 Comments: 2

Chocolate Mousse LCHF

Chocolate Mousse LCHF 6-8 servings

1.8 oz (50 g) dark chocolate 70-90% cocoa
2 large egg yolks, from free-range eggs
6 3/4 fl. oz. (200 ml) heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder (not vanilla sugar)
Sea salt

Melt the chocolate carefully in a warm water bath, make sure no water steam gets into the chocolate, this can make the chocolate grainy.

Stir the egg yolks into the chocolate, mix well making the batter smooth. Beat the cream but don’t make it too hard.

Stir a spoon of the whipped cream into the chocolate, mix well. Fold the chocolate into the cream, add a few grains of sea salt and vanilla powder to make it tastier.

Pour into glasses, cups or coupes. Place in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours. Serve with whipped cream and maybe a halved strawberry or a couple of raspberries.