Paleo Crab Artichoke Dip with Veggie Chips

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Jane Payne is awesome! She is one of my favorite athletes at CrossFit South Bay and I was privileged to have her join me in the kitchen for this one. She makes a grand entrance with a hand stand and helps me cook up some unforgettable food.

This dish is inspired by three experiences which I explain below. Here is the video, I hope you add this one to your culinary quiver…

Throughout high school, I cooked at a Paisano’s where we served Spinach and Artichoke Formaggio. It was a little gourmet for the Midwest crowd, but once they had a taste, they were sure to order it again and again.

While living in Colorado, we’d often dine at a place called White House Pizza. They were known for their Spinach Artichoke Dip appetizer, which I especially loved because they served it with fresh veggies.

While living in Alaska, it seemed we’d find a way to add crab to just about anything. Up there, crab artichoke dip was a popular menu item, especially at Simon and Seafort’s.

So, if you’d ask where I came up with this recipe, the above experiences, combined with my exposure to The Paleo Diet, would be my answer. And, while there are certain foods that we may never see a Paleo version of, I’m always game to give it a shot. This time, it worked out in glorious fashion.

Thanks again to Jane for helping me with this one, you rock!

I am currently reading a book called Getting Things Done and I want to share some encouragement. Clear your mind by writing things down. All of the things we think of over and over crowd our mind and they needn’t. Think of this, “You never need to have the same thought twice, unless, of course, you like having the thought.” The book is all about setting up a system of buckets that will capture your thoughts and when you write them down, they enter the system where they will be addressed systematically.

I totally recommend the book and hope that it will allow me to deliver a higher quality content to my followers.

Work hard today, write your thoughts down, get some things done, and, by all means, “Keep It Paleo!”

Your Pal,

Paleo Nick

Paleo Crab Artichoke Dip with Veggie Chips

Ingredient List:

2 red bell peppers, roasted, skinned, and julienned
2 poblano peppers, roasted, skinned, and julienned
1 cup spinach, sautéed, shocked and wrung out
1 bulb garlic, minced
4 cups Artichoke Hearts, quartered
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cups oyster mushrooms, rough chopped
1 pound lump crab meat, drained and shells picked
2 – 14.5oz. cans coconut milk
1 cup Paleo Mayo
Olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Crushed red chili, to taste

Ingredients for Veggie Chips:

3 bell peppers, cut into “chips”
1 cup broccoli, cut into “chips)
5 carrots, ABC (Asian Bias Cut)
1 head celery, cut into “chips”

Preparation Instructions:

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until approximately 350°F.
Add olive oil and garlic and stir constantly until garlic begins to toast.
Add the diced onions, season with salt and pepper and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add mushrooms, stir well and cover pan with a lid to trap moisture. Cook for 3 minutes, remove lid and stir again.
Add roasted peppers, spinach, artichoke hearts, crab meat, and coconut milk and heat until a light simmer is reached. Turn off heat.
Add Paleo mayo and fold in gently. Season with salt, pepper and chili and Voila!
Serve with Veggie chips and be sure to share with your friends.
You can make this ahead of time and reheat it gently at the time of service. You can also freeze this for up to 6 months, but the highest quality will be achieved by preparing and serving this while fresh.

Your friends will love you for this one, I promise.

“Keep It Paleo!”

Zone Breakdown:

Protein:(10)

Our protein is low in this recipe, and is coming from our crab meat. We have 16oz of crab meat and we know that 1.5oz equal one block. Therefore we have about 10 blocks of protein.

Carbohydrates:(17.5)

Our total carb count includes both the chips and the dip. Our dip gives us about 9.5 carb blocks and our chips give us just over 7 blocks.

For our dip, we get 2 blocks from the 4 peppers. We can say that about 2 peppers equal one block in the measurements, so therefore the 4 give us 2 blocks.

We have one cup of spinach all cooked down which gives us 1 block.

Additionally we have one bulb of garlic. About 10 cloves gives us one block so we are going to approximate this to being about 10 cloves or one block.

We have 4 cups of artichoke hearts which give us about 2.5 blocks. One block is 1.5 cups so the 4 cups gives us 2.5 and finally we have 4 cups of mushrooms which give us one block for a total of 9.5 carb blocks in the dip.

The chips have a total count of just over 7. We have 3 peppers, and given that we say about 2 peppers give us 1 block, the three would give us 1.5 blocks.

Additionally we are using 5 carrots. On average a carrot weights around 60g, and we know that about 120g gives us one cup of carrots, so about 2 carrots equal one cup. In our measurements, one cup of carrots equal one block, so we have about 2.5 cups of carrots or 2.5 blocks.

We also are going to use 1 head of celery. 2.5 cups of celery equal one block and about 2 stalks of celery fill one cup. We are going to say that there are about 10 stalks in the head of celery, so therefore we get about 2 carb blocks from the celery.

Finally we have a small addition from the broccoli. 4 cups of broccoli equal one block and since we are only using 1 cup worth that gives us ¼ of a block.

Fats:(172)

We have a lot of fat in this recipe, mostly coming from the mayo. One cup of mayo yields 144 fat blocks. Additionally we are adding in 2 cans of coconut milk. In one can, we get about 42g of fat, and going off the measurement of 3g equal one block, that gives us about 14 blocks per can or an additional total of 28making the total fat count 172.

Balancing Act:

This is a very high fat recipe, but its game time so dig in! The protein and the carbs are a little closer together, so mix this with a protein appetizer to bring up the protein count on the table.