I’ve mentioned before how much I love recreating foods from around the world to suit the autoimmune protocol. Believe it or not, my favorite cuisine to play with is Italian. You might think all the grains, dairy, and nightshades make for a tough time of it, but I have thoroughly enjoyed a wide variety of pastas, soups, and even pizza on the autoimmune protocol these past few years. But of all of them, I think this hearty stew takes the cake. It replaces traditional potatoes with celeriac, but you can also use turnips or even green plantain if you can’t find celeriac.
Zuppa Toscana
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Christina Feindel
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups bone broth
- 1 large celeriac, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- ⅓ cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in a stock pot over medium heat until crispy, then remove it from the pan, leaving the bacon fat behind.
- Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add the ground beef and cook, stirring, until browned, about 3 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the broth and celeriac and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes or until the celeriac is tender.
- Add the kale and coconut milk and cook until the kale wilts.
- Serve topped with crumbled bacon.
10 comments
What a yummy recipe! I will be trying this one soon. And a word for folks who can’t find celeriac (or celery root) locally – grow some! I start mine from seed and it’s very easy. Just plant in a larger tub; the first year you can use the stalks (cooked), which are basically short strong-flavored celery. Just don’t eat them all, leave most for the plant to gain nutrition and grow that bulb the 2nd year. If you start some seeds every year, you will always have a crop coming, and as it’s a root veggie, it can stay in the soil until you are ready to eat it. It’s also wonderful shredded with oil & vinegar as a summer slaw. Some of these less-common veggies are the easiest to grow. If you really need a substitute, I think it might be turnip, if cooked in the bacon fat – I love turnips, they have such a great flavor. You can do lots of things with them, and they should be easy to find in most markets. It would blend beautifully with the beef and kale flavors, as well.
Made this tonight. Yum! I only used 3 strips of bacon & I did add a pinch of fresh ginger and turmeric each, plus a teaspoon sea salt & garden fresh rosemary to punch up flavor. My lunches for the week! Thanks for the recipe.
I love this! I have never found celeriac when I have wanted to make this recipe, so I have used white sweet potato. Sometimes I can’t find those, either, so I’ve used regular sweet potato.
Dana,
Thanks for sharing your variation! I’m sure it was delicious 🙂
I’m not a huge fan of the coconut flavor. Is there something I could substitute for the coconut milk?
We made this soup last week and it is awesome! I added the juice of one lemon (about 2 T) at the end to mimic a recipe I had for caldo verde. So good! Everyone, including the kids, loved this soup. I wish it had made it into the cookbook.
This was really tasty and quick to pull together! I’ll be making this semi-regularly.
I make this recipe often over the last 4-5 years. I’ve recently been diagnosed with high triglycerides and so I made this without bacon and used chicken instead of beef. It was still as amazing as the original recipe.
This was delicious, thank you! Shall I assume this shouldn’t be frozen because of the coconut milk?
Emily, I haven’t frozen this recipe specifically, but I have not found that recipes using coconut milk don’t freeze. I would definitely give it a try!