The only Navy Bean Soup I ever had growing up came out of a can and I didn’t like it very much, so I wasn’t inclined to make my own – until I had clients needing a version that was delicious and easy to digest for myriad special diets. This Navy Bean Soup version is legal for Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Navy beans are one of few beans and legumes allowed on this diet. That means it has no grains and no starches in it that are tough for a compromised gut to digest. Kids with Crohns, inflammatory bowel conditions, irritable bowel, or multiple food allergies may be able to enjoy this satisfying soup. The key to this recipe working well for tender tummies is soaking the beans overnight before preparing the soup.
As I poked around for versions to launch from for this recipe, I found old standards like Senate Bean Soup – a thick and smoky soup that, in some versions, leans on mashed white potato to thicken it so it has a rich chowder-y texture. Potatoes are a no-go for SCD folks, so those are omitted here – but add them if you like! For the broth, I often use my own homemade chicken broth which is SCD legal in its preparation. If this isn’t an option, look for unsweetened plain organic chicken broth in quart boxes such as  Imagine brand Organic Chicken Bone Broth.
Make this for a hearty cold weather meal. I love it with a favorite bread like Kim and Jakes Peasant Loaf (not SCD legal, but gluten free and full of other nutrients and fiber). For kids avoiding grains, try it with Chebe rolls baked from a mix.
Navy Bean Soup - Simple and SCD Legal
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Easy to prepare, and easy to expand with more ingredients if you like. Consider adding chopped carrots, onion, or finely cubed white potato if those foods work in your household.
Easy to prepare, and easy to expand with more ingredients if you like. Consider adding chopped carrots, onion, or finely cubed white potato if those foods work in your household.
Rinse the dried beans in a colander with running water until foamy bubbles diminish or disappear.
Place the rinsed beans in a large pot and cover with filtered water. Add ~ 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cover and let soak overnight, or for 8 hours.
After soaking, drain the beans and rinse thoroughly, then set aside.
Wipe the large pot dry. Add bacon fat, ghee and olive oil and melt over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, celery, parsley, and scallions. If desired, add other vegetables here also.
Cook these til nearly soft, about five minutes. Add thyme and bay leaves, and stir vegetables to blend herbs throughout.
Add rinsed beans and stir with vegetables and herbs to evenly combine everything. Then cover with 8 cups (2 quart boxes) of chicken broth. Stir again to distribute everything evenly throughout the broth.
Bring to a low boil. Add honey, optional maple syrup, tamari, and lemon juice. Cover to simmer at low boil for 2-3 hours, or until beans are very soft.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve with sprinkling of fresh parsley leaves and enjoy!
Butternut squash with pasta and brats – ? What the – ?
When a family member first suggested this recipe, I couldn’t imagine it working. It just sounded weird. But, this butternut and brats combo works well, thanks to the unexpected collaboration between whole lemon, garlic, and good brats. It’s a regular in our rotation now, and it can be totally AIP (autoimmune Paleo) friendly – just use a grain free pasta. My favorite for this dish is Tolerant Organic Lentil Penne Pasta. It’s hearty in texture and flavor, and beats the bland, limp taste and texture that rice pasta can suffer. For the bratwurst, a good option if you are sticking to AIP, SCD (specific carbohydrate diet), or just fiercely avoiding sugars (common in cured or processed meats including sausage and brats) is this Organic Chicken Bratwurst from Whole Foods. Any favorite brand of your own will do!
If you have time to bake a fresh organic butternut squash, this tastes best, IMO. If not, a good option can be tapped with this organic canned butternut squash. It makes the recipe even faster and easier. And speaking of fast and easy, a couple of tools are handy for this recipe, if you don’t have them already: An ice cream scoop, to scoop fresh butternut out of its skin; and, silicone oven mitts, so you can handle said butternut once it is out of the oven. Since the recipe calls for adding honey and ghee to the butternut while hot, you’ll need to scoop it out just about fresh from the oven.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
AIP Butternut and Brats Pasta
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A simple one dish meal, warm, hearty, satisfying, and surprisingly delightful!
If you are baking a fresh butternut squash for this recipe, start this about 90 minutes before you want the dish ready.
- Slice the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds, and place face down in a glass ovenproof dish with 1/2 inch of water in it. Use two dishes if needed.
- Place in a 400 degree oven and bake x 1 hour, til a knife poked through the skin moves easily through the squash.
- Once baked soft, remove the squash from oven. Scoop the baked squash out of its skin - an ice cream scoop works well for this task. You may want to wear silicone oven mitts too, as the squash will be very hot, or simply let it cool enough to handle.
- Scoop it into a mixing bowl or food processor. Add the ghee (or butter), honey, and dash of salt. Blend til ghee/butter melts through and all ingredients are evenly mixed. Set aside, keeping the squash warm.
- If using canned squash, heat it in microwave or on stove top, add ghee, honey and salt, and set aside.
Remove bratwurst from the package and slice it into thick coins, before cooking.
Heat olive oil in large skillet to medium-high temperature. Add the sliced bratwurst and brown on both sides of coins.
We happened to have a bigger than usual squash to use up on the day that we cooked up this recipe - so our images show a lot of squash. No need to go that big, but it works either way.
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) leans hard on eggs. Eggs are great, but not everyone can eat them, let alone every day in quantity for breakfast. Here’s an option that minimizes the daily eggs-for-breakfast habit while giving some helpful SCD-legal carbohydrates too. Plus, who doesn’t love pancakes? Enjoy plain or drop in fruits as your child’s progression in the SCD stages allows. Or, top with soft cooked diced apples! If egg is an issue, double the applesauce and omit the egg entirely. Pancakes will be more dense but still work.
SCD Apple Pancakes
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These SCD legal pancakes are delicate, mildly sweet and savory all at the same time. Enjoy plain or drop in fruits as your child's progression in the SCD stages allows.
These SCD legal pancakes are delicate, mildly sweet and savory all at the same time. Enjoy plain or drop in fruits as your child's progression in the SCD stages allows.
Mix the wet ingredients (first five ingredients - applesauce, honey, vanilla, coconut milk, and egg) evenly in a bowl.
Mix dry ingredients evenly in a separate bowl (the flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon).
Combine the wet and dry ingredients by adding the dry to the wet. Stir to mix evenly.
Melt ghee or coconut oil in skillet and heat on medium heat. Drop generous spoonfuls of batter onto skillet once the fat is hot/melted. Skillet should be hot enough so batter quickly sets, but doesn't burn. After a few moments, slide a spatula under the pancakes to make sure they aren't sticking. If they are, add a bit more ghee or coconut oil and let it flow under and around pancakes.
If you like, this is when to add fruit: Drop blueberries, raspberries, or thin banana slices into the pancake as it starts cooking.
Cook til bubbles just appear in the pancakes. Flip the pancakes to cook other side. Cook for about a minute or two, then remove from skillet. If there is enough fat/oil in skillet, they will cook without sticking. Add more if need be, and lift edges of pancakes with skillet to allow fat/oil to flow under them so they won't stick.
Maybe your kids will eat Brussels sprouts after all. Try this slaw instead of the traditional cabbage version. As long as you have a food processor with a grater or shredder blade, this is easy and fast. If not, you can grate the vegetables by hand but it will take more time. You can also adjust the honey or lemon in it to your preference for sweet or tangy. Even tastier if it gets an overnight in the fridge.
Brussels Slaw
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Crunchy, tasty alternate to the usual cabbage slaw.
Wash the vegetables thoroughly. Trim the Brussels sprouts stumps to remove ragged or dirty edges. Peel carrots and trim ends.
Using a grater attachment on a food processor, shred/grate the carrots and Brussels sprouts. Place the grated vegetables in a large bowl, and add raisins and hemp seeds. Stir to evenly mix.
Whisk the mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, and honey to an even consistency in a small bowl, or place in a pint glass jar, seal with lid and shake til smooth.
Pour dressing over the vegetables and toss thoroughly. For best flavor, let the slaw rest covered in refrigerator for an hour at least and overnight if possible.
I made this soup – er, sauce – as one of many options for my son when he had wisdom teeth removed. He loves bing cherries, but couldn’t eat them. So, remembering a bing cherry soup I had eons ago, I searched for an option he could eat, without cane sugar, coconut sugar, dairy products, or gluten. It was supposed to be a cool summer accompaniment to our (pureed) dinner, but he decided that this was more like a rich sauce than a soup. I decided he was right. It is lip smacking good without being too sweet, perfect for drizzling over melon chunks, Lemon Sponge Custard, or Honey Brownie Cake (both Paleo friendly), pancakes or waffles, or for stirring into your kids’ favorite plain yogurt (goat, cow, coconut, or what have you). Or, just as soup!
Bing Cherry Raspberry Sauce
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Eat this as a warm or cool soup if you're game, with chopped fresh mint sprinkled on top, or just drizzle it on your favorite accompaniments.
Place all ingredients except coconut milk in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until cherries are soft and raspberries disintegrate, about 8 minutes.
Remove lemon chunks as well as any lemon seeds you may have missed before.
Pour into a food processor or high speed blender and puree.
Place a strainer over the sauce pan. Return the berry mixture back to the sauce pan through the strainer, to capture raspberry seeds. Allow to drip for about 10-15 minutes. Use a wooden or rubber spatula to press the mixture through and scrape it off the bottom side of the strainer.
After as much of the berry mixture has been returned to the pot as possible, stir in coconut milk evenly and serve as small soup servings. You can also chill this to serve as a cold summer soup, or drizzle over fruit, desserts, waffles, pancakes or yogurt.
