, nutritional review by Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
in Recipes, Dinner, Meal Cuban picadillo
Ingredients
- ½ cup 120 ml unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 3 oz. 85 g unsweetened canned beets, diced
- 2 tbsp 2 tbsp white vinegar 5%
- 1 tbsp 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp 1 tbsp coconut aminos or tamari soy sauce
- 3 tbsp 3 tbsp avocado oil or coconut oil
- 1 (4 oz.) 1 (110 g) yellow onionyellow onions
- 1 oz. (32⁄3 tbsp) 28 g (50 ml) diced carrotdiced carrots
- 1 oz. (41⁄3 tbsp) 28 g (65 ml) diced celery stalkdiced celery stalks
- 1 oz. 28 g diced radishdiced radishes
- 6 6 garlic clove, mincedgarlic cloves, minced
- 2 2 bay leafbay leaves
- 1 lb 450 g 85% lean ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 tsp 1 tsp fine salt, more to taste
- 1 tsp 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 cup 240 ml beef broth
- 3 oz. 85 g ripe green olives, drained
- 2 tbsp 2 tbsp dried unsweetened cranberries (optional)
Instructions
Faux-mato sauce
- In your blender combine pumpkin puree, diced beets, vinegar, fish sauce and coconut aminos. Blend until completely smooth.
Picadillo
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When it comes to temperature, drizzle the oil into the skillet. Add in the onion, carrots, celery, radishes, garlic and bay leaves.
- Sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 8 minutes, or until tender and fragrant.
- Add the ground beef to the skillet with the salt, pepper and cumin. Mix it up, breaking the meat apart and stirring often until browned.
- Add in the faux-mato sauce and bone broth, stir in the olives and cranberries, if using any. Bring to a simmer, stir and lower the heat to medium low.
- Partially cover with a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half. Serve hot and enjoy!
Tips
If you can have tomatoes and pepper, use tomato sauce in the recipe instead of the faux-mato sauce. Omit the celery and use green or red bell pepper instead.
The dried cranberries are optional, but a nice substitution for the raisins that usually go in this dish. Having the sweet yet tart cranberries is a great compromise for the sugary raisins we omit.
Faux-matoes
When Cristina found out that she could no longer eat nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant) due to the inflammation they cause in her body, she was devastated. All of the dishes from her childhood are made with bell peppers and tomatoes! I thought changing my diet meant losing my cultural identity.
Instead, it challenged her to be more creative in the kitchen. If you’re like her and you can’t eat tomatoes, it is very helpful to keep some faux-mato sauce on hand for cooking. Store in a jar in the fridge and use it in place of tomato sauce in any dish.
That sounds fantastic. Just keep in mind any change in carb count from swapping the vegetables.