Caveman cuisine

The idea is to follow the example of your caveman ancestors and fuel your body with a diet of meat (organic and grass-fed where possible), fish, vegetables, fruit and roots.

The Paleo Diet Made Easy by Joy Skipper is a simple and accessible guide to eating simple, delicious food within the Paleo guidelines, with a huge range of ideas for breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

Joy Skipper is a qualified nutritional therapist specialising in Sports Nutrition. She has a BSc (Hons) in Nutritional Therapy from The Centre of Nutrition Education and Lifestyle Management, following her graduation from the world-renowned Institute of Optimum Nutrition in 2009.

She writes extensively on healthy food for a number of magazines, including Waitrose Kitchen, Delicious Magazine, Weight Watchers Magazine and BBC Good Food and has authored several books.

Crispy duck and cashew salad

Serves 2

Preparation time 15 minutes, plus marinating

Cooking time 7–9 minutes

Ingredients

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon clear honey

1 teaspoon grated fresh root ginger

1 duck breast, about 150g (5oz), cut into strips

1 tablespoon cashew nuts

juice of ½ lemon

1 pak choi, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and grated

2 spring onions, sliced

¼ cucumber, cut into matchsticks

25 g (1 oz) bean sprouts

Method

Duck has a lot of fat on it, but if cooked in the right way, it can have crisp skin and tender meat with lots of flavour.

Mix together the oil, honey and ginger in a bowl, then add the duck strips and coat well. Leave to marinate for five minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a dry non-stick frying pan over a medium-low heat and dry-fry the cashews for three to four minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden brown and toasted. Set aside.

Heat a frying pan or griddle pan until hot, add the duck strips and cook for four to five minutes until crisp and golden.

Meanwhile, stir the lemon juice into the remaining marinade to make a dressing.

Place the remaining ingredients in a large serving bowl and toss together, then top with the duck. Serve drizzled with the dressing.

Grilled red mullet and roasted fennel with chilli oil

Serves 2

Preparation time 10 minutes, plus standing

Cooking time 35 minutes

Ingredients

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and

Sliced 1 tablespoon olive oil

4 red mullet fillets, about 150–175 g (5–6 oz) each

For the chilli oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

75 ml (3 fl oz) olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Method

Fennel is the perfect accompaniment to fish and, if you can’t find red mullet, this recipe works well with sea bream, too.

To make the chilli oil, place the garlic, chilli flakes and oil in a small saucepan and heat very gently for five minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to stand while you cook the fennel.

Place the fennel in a roasting tin and drizzle with the oil. Place in a preheated oven, 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6, for 30 minutes until the fennel is tender.

Towards the end of the cooking time, cook the fish under a preheated hot grill for three to four minutes on each side, or until the fish is cooked through.

Stir the parsley into the chilli oil. Spoon the fennel on to two warmed plates, top with the fish and serve drizzled with the chilli oil.

Moroccan rack of lamb

Serves 2

Preparation time 10 minutes, plus resting

Cooking time 15–25 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon chilli powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

juice of ½ lemon

six cutlet rack of lamb

steamed kale, to serve

Method

This is quite a spicy dish; if you want to make it milder just use less chilli powder. Be sure to ask your butcher to trim the excess fat off the rack of lamb.

Mix together the oil, all the spices, garlic, parsley and lemon juice in a bowl.Place the rack of lamb in a roasting tin and spread the spice mixture over the top.

Roast in a preheated oven, 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6, for 15–25 minutes, depending on how rare you like your lamb. Leave to rest for five or six minutes.

Serve with steamed kale.

The Paleo Diet Made Easy by Joy Skipper, published by Hamlyn, £7.99 www.octopusbooks.co.uk