A paleo friendly Filipino dish, pancit!

For those that may not know, I am half Filipino. I was born in the Philippines and that's where my mother is from. My father is basically a mix of German and Polish. So as you can imagine, I had a very wide range of dishes while growing up. But my mother's cooking was always my favorite and still is to this day. Filipino dishes give me that feeling of home. I can remember when I was a little girl she would make lumpia, pancit, fried rice, adobo and these little whole fishes that always made the entire house smell! It wasn't until I was in middle school that I realized these foods were not things that my friends had for dinner everyday! Now that  live away from home, I only get to experience my mom's cooking during the holidays. Her lumpia is one of the best parts of Christmas! I also loved her pancit. It is basically the equivalent of Filipino comfort food; you can eat pancit for any meal, any time of day and it's still awesome!

With all that said, Filipino food is not exactly paleo friendly. But I have had a craving for it lately. Pancit is a dish that is normally made with rice based noodles from the Philippines which is obviously a paleo no-no. So, I did a search for "paleo pancit" to see if anyone had figured it out yet and the folks at Everyday Paleo came pretty close. They used shredded cabbage as the noodle base and also suggested adding a sweet potato to get a starchy consistency. The combination worked perfectly. I also modified their recipe slightly to add vegetables that better reflected what I remembered my mother using. And I gotta say, it turned out pretty awesome! I found myself eating two very large bowls.

My mother knows that I am eating differently now but I am curious if she'd like it. Might have to make it for the family next time I visit to possibly improve it with some secret mom tips. Now if only there was a paleo lumpia...

Enjoy!
*****

Paleo Filipino Pancit

Ingredients:
4 eggs (optional)

2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 teaspoons crushed garlic*
6 green onions, diced*
4 stalks celery, diced*
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into small bite size pieces*
1 lb pork loin, cut into small bit size pieces*

2 tablespoons coconut oil
6 cups shredded green cabbage*
1 sweet potato, spiral sliced using a Spiral Vegetable Slicer*
5 carrots, diced*

1/4 cup coconut aminos
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons sugar free fish sauce
Juice from 1 lemon
Black pepper and Celtic sea salt to taste

*A tip for this recipe is to have all your prep done before you start cooking; the recipe comes together pretty quickly.

1. Boil your eggs. If you want to learn how to make the perfect hard boiled eggs, read this blog. Works every time!

2. In a large wok heat the first 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat.  When the wok is nice and hot, add the garlic, green onions, celery, chicken, and pork and saute for about 10 minutes or until the meat is done all the way through but still tender. Remove the meat from the wok and set aside.

3. In the same wok, heat the next 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat. Add the cabbage, sweet potato, and carrots to the wok and cook until the cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Add the chicken and pork back to the veggies and pour in the coconut aminos, chicken broth, fish sauce, and lemon juice. Season with black pepper and salt to taste. Stir well and cook for another 5-7 minutes until well combined.

5. Slice hard boiled eggs and place on top of pancit. Serve in bowls with a lemon wedge.

Paleo Filipino Pancit