Recipe: LOD and Primal Friendly “Tacos”

Making lunch a few minutes ago I created a meat base for tacos that works for both the LOD (Low Oxalate Diet), and Primal eating plan.  Since I’m not making full tacos, you’ll have to come up with taco toppings on your own. Since everyone had favorite tacos toppings, no matter what your personal eating plan looks like, I’m sure that won’t be too hard.

Amounts are estimated because when I started this I hadn’t planned on sharing the recipe and I usually cook by eye and smell, not exact measurements, sorry.

1 1/2 pounds ground beef — Note, I did NOT use lean ground beef for this.

5 cups raw (not packed down), shredded collard greens. (I buy my collard greens shredded in a bag)

1 cup raw carrots, shredded (for LOD, I used about 1 carrot per person)

1/2 small package of sliced mushrooms, diced.

1 onion, sliced

Garlic powder

Salt

Tabasco Sauce

Apple cider vinegar. ( I used ACV with the mother)

1. Cook the ground beef and sliced onions until the beef is almost cooked through.
2. While the ground beef is cooking, put the raw collards in a food processor and process until collards are minced. (Finely minced is the only way my family will eat collard greens. If your family likes them in bigger pieces, then process accordingly)
3. Season with garlic powder, salt and Tabasco Sauce to taste.
4. When the beef is almost cooked through, stir in the collards and carrot. The collard greens will absorb the fat from the ground beef.
5.  When the collards are almost done, add the mushrooms.
6. Add about 1 TBS apple cider vinegar and cook a minute or so more.

Why did I add the ACV? When I tasted it after adding my seasonings, the mixture was seasoned well, but was lacking that tang that I expect from taco meat. I thought the Tabasco Sauce would supply the tang, but cooking it seemed to lesson the tangy  effect. My husband’s not a fan of really spicy foods, and I thought I had reached his limit of Tabasco Sauce, so adding more was out of the question. So, instead I added about one Tablespoon of ACV and then cooked the beef mixture a little longer so the vinegar smell would dissipate.

At our house, we wrap tacos in romaine lettuce leaves and top with olives, shredded carrots, tiny bits of diced tomatoes, and canned green chili peppers.

This made about 5 servings, and everyone loved it.