Twisted Paleo, 7400 MN State Highway 7 #109, Saint Louis Park, MN (2026)

03/18/2026

Paleo/Vegan and Primal (Paleo with Dairy) Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake Tarts

I love pairing the tartness of lemons with the sweetness (but not too sweet) of raspberries. I had a long list of cheesecakes on my dessert menu for my catering business in the 90s and the lemon raspberry cheesecake was universally loved. I decided that with spring close at hand, it was time I create Paleo/Vegan and Primal Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake Tarts.

In the past I always liked making cheesecakes using sweetened condensed milk, which provided a creaminess that is hard to match. But like many items I used in the past, this is something I can no longer use. However, it is something I can replicate by making a version that is Paleo and Vegan, and another that fits the Primal (Paleo with Dairy) parameters.

For the Paleo/Vegan version, I combine full-fat coconut milk with maple syrup and simmer and stir for nearly an hour until reduced and thickened. Because I wanted a light color filling, I choose Golden (also called Delicate) maple syrup, which historically was known as Fancy Grade maple syrup. This is the first syrup produced in the spring before the sap turns amber, followed by dark and very dark. Besides the color, I like it for its mild maple taste with notes of vanilla and butter.

To make a Primal version of this, I simmer and stir a mixture of lactose-free whole milk, heavy cream, and maple sugar until reduced and thickened. I chose maple sugar over maple syrup because I did not want to add more liquid that needed to be reduced.

Both the Paleo/Vegan and Primal versions of my sweetened condensed milk taste much better than the syrupy ones you buy in the can. But besides tasting better, they are much healthier. Canned sweetened condensed milk is produced by removing about 60% of the water from milk through evaporation under vacuum and adding a lot of sugar (40 - 45% of its weight after evaporation) to preserve it for a very long time. It can be safely consumed for two years past its “Best Buy” date, which is typically 18 months after production. In addition, during the cooling stage tiny seed crystals of lactose are added to control crystallization, ensuring the sweetened condensed milk retains its smooth, creamy texture for years.

I use the same vegan raspberry coulis for both the Paleo/Vegan and Primal cheesecake tarts, which consists of raspberries, coconut sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. For the crusts I use a shortbread crust made with almond flour, coconut sugar, coconut oil for Paleo/Vegan, and butter for Primal, and vanilla extract.

Pictured below is the Primal Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake Tart, but the Paleo/Vegan tart looks identical.

12/20/2025

Paleo/Vegan and Primal Versions of Frozen Turtle Cheesecake Tarts

I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing someone would start selling a Paleo version of cream cheese. There are several vegan ones available that come close to being Paleo, but all contain at least one forbidden ingredient such as lentils, tofu, xanthan gum, fava beans, etc. So for now, we must create our own substitutes.

I’m working on three different versions of Paleo cream cheese, and finally have one I’m satisfied with. I’ve been tweaking my recipe of Paleo/Vegan cream cheese for a long time and this fall I finally got serious about it. I had tried all the various methods of soaking and processing cashews but never felt my cream cheese was smooth enough.

Recently I tried a quick soak followed by an overnight soak and that did the trick. For the quick soak I poured boiling filtered water over the cashews, covered them and let sit on the counter for 2 hours. After draining and rinsing them, I covered them with filtered water and refrigerated them for about 10 hours. After processing them in my Vitamix blender and tamping them down, I had the thick smooth cream I needed.

The second nondairy cream cheese I’m working on is a cultured cream cheese that does not use lemon juice or apple cider to give it its tang. Instead, I use the powder from probiotic capsules and let it ferment. Because so many people are allergic to tree nuts, the third Paleo cream cheese I’m working on is one that is nut free and vegan, which is the most challenging of the three.

For these Frozen Turtle Cheesecake Tarts (which are also gluten free), I used a pecan and almond flour nut crust. For the Primal tart I used melted butter to bind the ingredients and maple sugar to sweeten. For the Paleo/Vegan one I used melted refined coconut oil and coconut sugar. I’ve made these crusts before but never at the same time so now I could compare them. I preferred the taste of the coconut sugar over maple sugar since its flavor is bolder and reminded me of toffee.

After sampling the Primal tart, my tasters thought I should include more chocolate. For the Paleo tart, I added a layer of dark chocolate ganache on top of the crust.

I always start with making the Primal (Paleo with dairy) version of the tart. Once I am satisfied with this I move on to the Paleo/Vegan one and work to get this as close as possible in taste to the one with dairy cream cheese.

For the Primal caramel sauce, I used cream, butter, powdered maple sugar, and honey which I combined with dairy cream cheese and whipped cream also sweetened with powdered maple sugar for the tart filling. Since honey is not vegan, I used powdered coconut sugar to sweeten both the Paleo caramel sauce and the whipped coconut cream for the filling.

The only drawback to using coconut sugar is the dark color of my filling. For this reason when I made the caramel sauce to drizzle on top, I sweetened it with palm sugar. Otherwise, the caramel sauce would have blended into the chocolate glaze and you wouldn’t even see it.

Palm sugar is made by boiling the sap collected from palm flowers until it is reduced to sugar crystals. It comes in a variety of colors but the one I buy for Thai cooking is golden in color and worked well in my caramel sauce. It has all the sweetness of sugar but with the addition of iron, protein, and potassium. (It’s wonderful in coffee!)

In response to my tasters’ request for more chocolate, I increased the amount of glaze I had used to top the Primal tart. For that tart I had drizzled caramel sauce over the top of each slice and sprinkled each with roasted pecans. But for the Paleo tart I drizzled caramel sauce over the entire tart and sprinkled roasted pecans on top, as well as drizzling a small amount of more caramel sauce over each slice.

Top: Primal (Paleo with Dairy) Frozen Turtle Cheesecake Tart
Bottom: Paleo/Vegan Frozen Turtle Cheesecake Tart

09/17/2025

Remake of Frozen Peanut Butter Pie with Oreo Crust

One of the most popular desserts on the menu for Cuisine With An Accent (the small catering business I had in the nineties) was Frozen Peanut Butter Pie with Oreo Crust. After deciding to add Primal (Paleo with Dairy) foods to Twisted Paleo last year, I decided it was time to develop Paleo and Primal versions of this.

I started with making a Primal version, which was closer to the original since I could use cream cheese and whipping cream. But these two ingredients were about all the two desserts had in common.

While almond butter is most frequently used to replace peanut butter in Paleo recipes, I think sunflower butter is a much better choice. Almonds are one of the most common tree nut allergies, while sunflower seed allergy is rare. In addition, the taste of sunflower butter is much closer in flavor to peanut butter. I also needed to replace cane sugar with either maple or coconut sugar (a small percent of the population has an allergy to coconut sugar).

Creating a replacement for the Oreo crust required crafting a new recipe. The original Oreo crust had just two ingredients: Oreos and unsalted butter. For a new “Oreo” crust that is both Paleo and Primal (as well as vegan), I start with toasting almond flour in a dry skillet. Next, I grind either maple or coconut sugar with decaf coffee granules to make a powder. After adding these and the Extra Brute cocoa powder that I use in my brownies, I added melted refined coconut oil (for vegan), butter or ghee. I reserve a small quantity of crumbs to sprinkle on top of the filling.

Rather than using a pie plate, I chose to use a tart pan since Paleo desserts are more about small bites that you can savor.

Since I am one of those people who can’t tolerate chocolate at night due to its caffeine, I understand the need to offer a version sans chocolate. For this I paired the tart with a baked low carb nut crust made with pecans and/or walnuts, almond flour, maple or coconut sugar, and melted refined coconut oil (which has no coconut flavor), butter or ghee. Because this tart goes so well with chocolate, I like to offer my Paleo/Vegan chocolate sauce as an option. I also like to dust the tops of some of the slices with Oreo crumbs or make one tart with and one without “Oreo” crumbs on top.

In my next Facebook post I will discuss what it took to convert the Primal version of this tart to Paleo/Vegan. In my last Facebook post I said I was going to start posting on a regular basis and I see that was four months ago. After years of doing farmers markets I was behind with several things at my farm in Howard Lake. It seems that ever since I keep underestimating the amount of time I need to spend there in the summer to get caught up.

06/03/2025

It has been a while since I last posted and I’m guessing people are wondering if there is still a Twisted Paleo. There definitely is, and late last year I finally cracked the code on Paleo Brownies! They are fudgy and moist with a rich chocolate flavor and a crinkly top, and because I use almond flour (which is simply ground almonds) they are much lower in carbs and higher in protein than standard brownies. There is nothing about them that would make you think they are gluten free.

I’ve been working on Paleo Brownies since 2017 so after making several hundred Brownies I was elated to finally have my recipe! After baking several batches to give away a lot of these to about everyone I know, the consensus was that they were superb, gluten free or not. Straight away I started working on a plan for producing and marketing them since they really belong in a retail environment.

They say in real estate it’s all about location. But when it comes to starting a commercial food business, I learned during covid that it depends a great deal on the economy. In 2019 I was approached by a number of stores at my markets wondering if I would be interested in selling my Sweet and Spicy Paleo (with butter) and Paleo/Vegan Mixed Nuts (with coconut oil) in their stores after moving into a commercial kitchen, and would I consider a version with just cashews.

I started doing markets again in 2021 and even with the addition of my Sweet and Spicy Cashews that people loved after sampling them, I sold a fraction of what I had sold in 2018 and 2019. After three years of doing markets, I decided I needed to wait for a better economy before investing in making the transition from cottage food to commercial and instead focus on other things – like my Brownies.

After developing a plan for introducing first my brownies, followed by my Sweet and Spicy Cashews, and then Sweet and Spicy Pecans, I concluded our economy again was unsuitable for starting a small business.

Another option for me was to sell these as a cottage food producer IF this turned out to be the year the MN legislature finally passed the bill allowing us to use food delivery services and ship our products within the state. We’ve been trying for years to get this passed and with 34 states now permitting this, our chances looked very good. I was elated when I read it had passed last month, but was stunned to see it wouldn’t go into effect until August 2027! In the past all cottage food bills have gone into effect in August of the year it passed.

Stay tuned – Twisted Paleo is working on much more, and I will start posting again on a regular basis.

08/28/2024

I was planning on spending maybe a month this summer working on projects at my farm, but they just seemed to keep multiplying. I had created a lot of summertime menus last winter but it wasn’t until last Friday when I hosted my first event since last spring. This was a birthday party for a friend who last year discovered she needed to follow a low oxalate / low goitrogens diet. This is the most challenging of all the diets I cook for, especially since the foods also need to be Paleo/Primal for me to eat, and there is not a lot of common ground between them.

Finding foods we can both have would have been especially difficult had I not expanded my diet last year to include some Primal Diet (Paleo with dairy) foods since dairy has never been an issue for me. When I was only eating Paleo foods I was making a lot of foods that included coconut, something she can’t have. In the past I was only making frozen yogurts and ice creams that contained coconut milk or cream. But now I was able to make Frozen Strawberry Greek Yogurt, which everyone loved.

One benefit of spending so much time at my farm this summer was my neighbors’ wonderful herb garden that they kindly share with me. I used to love arranging my mother’s beautiful flowers, but now I enjoy making basil bouquets. I discovered that freshly picked basil can be stored in a jar of water (or vase), covered loosely with a plastic bag, and it will keep for 1 to 2 weeks. Just keep it out of sunlight, change the water every few days and wash it only before using. Amazing!

One of the first things I noticed about the SCD and GAPS gut health diets when I started baking for them in 2022 is that they include several cheeses (including Parmesan) in small quantities. This was another reason I made the decision to add some dairy products to my diet last year. Last week I made my first pesto in several years using Parmesan cheese, which was downright exciting!

While I learned to enjoy Paleo pesto (especially when I discovered nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavor), it can’t compare to one made with freshly grated Parmesan. The birthday gal loves cheese and does well with moderate amounts, so I knew I needed to make real deal pesto. The only change I made from my old recipe was replacing pine nuts with blanched almonds (skins removed). She avoids pine nuts but does eat small amounts of almonds and I like to avoid almond skins since they are high in phytic acid which can prevent your body from absorbing minerals like calcium and potassium. I couldn't tell the difference with this swap. Another replacement for pine nuts that works well in pesto is roasted unsalted cashews.

One of the foods I missed the most after going Paleo was pasta. I bought a spiralizer once zoodles became popular and I really like these, especially given their low carbs, but I was thrilled when cassava pasta came out. I loved that it came in a variety of shapes, and while it didn’t have the same bite as the duram wheat pasta I grew up on, that didn’t matter. It was close enough.

Because cassava has high levels of goitrogens, this is not something my friend can have, but she does well with rice and brown rice. So for the first time I used brown rice pasta and made Pasta with Pesto Sauce, one of my favorite pasta dishes from the past, and it did not disappoint. I can see why it’s considered the best tasting gluten-free pasta. But even though rice is gluten free, it is still a grain and something I will only eat occasionally. I was strict Paleo for years before I learned the founder of the diet (Dr. Loren Cordain) said the diet only requires 85% compliance which means you can have three meals a week that can be whatever you want.

For our beverage I made Watermelon Mango Mocktails, which starts with muddling mint leaves and thin lime slices in the glasses and filling them about 2/3 full with ice. Add mango juice topped with lime-flavored sparkling water. Then slowly pour watermelon juice (made from a seedless watermelon pureed in a blender and strained to remove any watermelon pulp) around the inside edge of each glass. Use about 3-4 oz each of mango juice, lime sparkling water and watermelon juice. They are very pretty if you leave the layers separate, but I think they taste better if gently stirred. I only garnished mine with mint leaves, but garnishing with lime slices and watermelon slices too would be a nice touch.

04/17/2024

Twisted Paleo ETC

I’ve been working on my reinvention of Twisted Paleo, which I am now calling Twisted Paleo ETC. It includes:

All Gluten Free and either Paleo or Paleo/Dairy* (often options for both)
* plus some rice dishes and nightshade vegetables
* plus options for some items that replace Paleo sugars with Keto sweeteners
Many items are Dairy Free, Egg Free, or Nut Free
Three Healing Gut Diets: AIP, GAPS, SCD
Vegan, Keto, Low-Carb, Primal, Mediterranean, Whole30

While rice is a grain and therefore not allowed on the Paleo Diet, it is gluten free and also considered safe by the Primal Diet provided everything else is going well in your diet. I started eating rice (sushi rolls!) and wild rice in small quantities after being strict Paleo for about 6 years and noticed no ill effects. It is such an integral part of just about every ethnic cuisine that I felt I needed to include it as an option.

For as long as I can remember Thai food has been my favorite. Once I decided to include rice items, I started thinking about all the Thai foods I’ve been missing since 2016 when I went Paleo. I’ve been making Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles with Paleo compliant noodles, but what a treat to occasionally have these with rice noodles. And as much as I like lettuce wraps and coconut wraps, they don’t measure up to fresh spring rolls in rice paper wrappers.

I’ve made a lot of dishes with cauliflower rice that I’ve really enjoyed but I never attempted Thai Basil Cauliflower Fried Rice since it can’t be made (successfully) without oyster sauce. If you look at the ingredients on a bottle of this, the majority of them are not Paleo. I once tried a recipe to make my own, but it tasted nothing like oyster sauce. However, with the decision to start making rice, I searched again and came across two recipes that sounded promising. I merged them into one and could not believe how much l liked it. So last week I decided to try Thai Basil Fried Rice, one version with cauliflower rice and shrimp and one with jasmine rice and chicken.

I was having a friend over for lunch and was expecting to make the cauliflower version for her since she has two autoimmune diseases. I keep a list of foods that people I cook for either can’t eat or don’t care for (top items include cilantro, celery, mushrooms, coconut), and looking at my list for her I thought this would probably work well.

When I asked her if anything had changed with her diet she said she is now avoiding fruits and vegetables that are high in goitrogens and oxalates. I was familiar with oxalates but not goitrogens, which are items that interfere with thyroid function. I was surprised to find that these include foods I’ve always considered healthy and are included on the initial stage of the Autoimmune Protocol, foods such as cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, strawberries, peaches, and many more. She said she has no issues with rice or any of the ingredients I told her were in the fried rice except the Thai peppers, which I served on the side. Even though she had assured me she would be fine eating this, I was still relieved when I heard the next day that everything had agreed with her since I know she is never a hundred percent sure this will be the case.

The next day I remade the dish with cauliflower rice and shrimp. I had not kept any of the rice version so I couldn’t compare the two, but I really think I enjoyed it just as much, especially since this time I had stir fried the Thai peppers with the garlic which infused the heat throughout the dish. I also appreciated the fact that this was much lower in carbs than the one with jasmine rice and happy to freeze several servings for future meals.

Below are Thai Basil Chicken Fried Rice and Thai Basil Shrimp Cauliflower Fried Rice (which is also Keto)

02/23/2024

A Greek Birthday Party

I met my Greek friend Tessie when we worked together in our twenties, and we’ve been good friends ever since. I’ve cooked Greek foods for her several times over the years but her birthday this year was the first time since going Paleo.

For the first course I made an eggplant spread called Melitzanosalata (meh-lee-tza-no-sah-LAH-ta). Years ago for her birthday I served Baba Ghanoush. She said while it’s very good, it’s not Greek – it’s Middle Eastern, whoops! The Greek eggplant spread that’s similar doesn’t use tahini. This time I got it right.

Next I served Horiatiki, the traditional Greek Salad that is served in every Greek restaurant around the world. If I were to eat the same salad every day, I think this would be my choice. I can see why the Greeks never tire of it. No lettuce, just tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, red onions, Kalamata olives, feta cheese (optional or with a dairy-free version), and a simple vinaigrette seasoned with oregano.

I announced on Facebook last year that I was adding some dishes that were Paleo with Dairy (which is part of the Primal Diet created by Mark Sisson, founder of Primal Kitchen). A growing number of people on the Paleo Diet are eating dairy, especially cheese, since they say it never bothered them in the past and well, life is too short. In Sisson’s 2009 book “Primal Blueprint,” he wrote, “Dairy, if tolerated, is permissible in moderation. Stick to fermented dairy when possible (cheese, yogurt, occasional kefir) and dairy fat (cream and butter, ideally grass-fed or pasture-fed.)” I was really looking forward to making some pizzas and cheesecakes that were Paleo in all regards except for fact they contained dairy.

Next served was a Mediterranean Flatbread pizza. I’ve been working on a Paleo flatbread crust for a while and decided it was ready for its debut. I’ve been gluten-free for 8 years and thought it was close to what I remembered, but wasn’t sure. The others at the party all eat gluten, and they said they couldn’t tell the difference, just what I was hoping for.

I have plans for using it with many different toppings, but started with Mediterranean for this party. I made a spinach pesto for the pizza sauce, then topped it with shredded Mozzarella, grape tomatoes, red onion, black olives, marinated artichoke hearts, feta cheese, and oregano, then added baby arugula after baking. Looking forward to making many more kinds of pizzas and crusts.

I used to make a lot of different sangrias for parties but haven’t made one since going Paleo, even though red wine is allowed in limited amounts. In the past if I wanted one without alcohol I would use an alcohol-free wine. But last year I found a recipe for a virgin sangria that could be used to make mocktails or cocktails. Instead of wine, it called for a few kinds of grape juice, orange, lime, and lemon juice, plus a variety of fruit slices added before letting it chill several hours prior to serving.

Before serving you can add sparkling apple cider to the pitcher or glasses, or plain seltzer for less sweet, or omit for guests who prefer a non-carbonated sangria. Unlike wine, sangria should be served over ice, but never added to the pitcher to avoid diluting it, but frozen fruit can be added to keep it chilled. Everyone went with topping their glass with the sparkling cider. One had tried the seltzer, then decided they much preferred the sparkling apple cider.

For those who prefer cocktails over mocktails, sangria is traditionally spiked with brandy, but something more neutral like vodka works well, and I provided both. I tried brandy with mine and thought this was as good as any sangria I’ve had. Two others tried vodka, and two went with mocktails. Everyone loved these!

I considered various Greek cakes, but since Tessie loves cheesecakes, I went with an 11-inch Primal New York-Style Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis (raspberry sauce with seeds removed using a fine mesh sieve). This turned out to be the star of the day! Other than the cream cheese and sour cream everything was Paleo. I used a half-cup of honey to sweeten it and with 32 oz of cream cheese, 16 oz of cream cheese and 6 eggs that isn’t a lot. I thought the batter wasn’t as sweet as what I remember from past cheesecakes but everyone agreed they wouldn’t want it any sweeter.

Pictured are Melitzanosalata roasted eggplant spread, Horiatiki Greek Salad, Mediterranean Flatbread Pizza, New York-Style Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis, Virgin Sangria for mocktails and cocktails, and the cheesecake during cutting.

01/10/2024

Replacing High Carb Fruits and Vegetables with Healthier Choices

In my last post I said that the macronutrient breakdown for the Paleo Diet is about 40% protein, 35% fat, and 25% carbs. There are many things I like about Paleo, but one in particular is that you don’t have to calculate anything, so I wasn’t sure how close I am to meeting this.

On April 27, 2022, I had a post titled the Paleo Ketogenic Diet. I wrote, “Paleo Keto allows you to determine to what point you should reduce your carb intake to achieve your goals. The diet includes only foods allowed on the Paleo Diet, and you should select ones that are low in carbohydrates, high in fat, and moderate in protein. For example, choose berries and kiwis over apples and bananas, broccoli and greens over sweet potatoes and winter squash (acorn, butternut, etc.)”

While I didn’t start eating foods that were high in fat and moderate in protein, I did start choosing fruits and vegetables that are low in carbs. I used to eat a small amount of sweet potato with a little unrefined coconut oil a couple times a day, but I replaced it with low carb vegetables.

I decided to track my foods for the past month to see how close I came to the Paleo goal of 40%/35%/25%. I wasn’t surprised that I averaged about 40% protein, 40% fat, and 20% carbs. This is what works for me. I feel good, my weight doesn’t fluctuate, and my doctor is happy with my annual test results.

Vegetables low in net carbs (carbs minus fiber) include asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, celery, sugar snap peas, spaghetti squash, cabbage, eggplant, green peppers, radishes, jicama, snow peas, bamboo shoots, and all the greens such as Swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, kale, all types of lettuce, etc.

Fruits low in net carbs include blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, mulberries, avocado, grapefruit, watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, honeydew, Asian pears, prickly pears, cherries, peaches, apricots, tomatoes, olives, and coconut.

But keep in mind there is a big difference in low carb fruits vs. vegetables. I don’t limit the number of servings of low carb vegetables I eat, but when it comes to fruit, I generally don’t have more than two per day.

The sugar content of fruit is so much higher, and it doesn’t matter if it’s natural sugar – sugar is sugar. The fruit with the lowest net carbs (next to avocado, which doesn’t seem like a fruit) is blackberries with 4.9 g sugar per 100 g. If you omit greens and celery, the vegetable with the lowest net carbs is asparagus with 1.9 g sugar per 100 g.

I attended a funeral In November where coleslaw with dried cranberries and apple was served, and it was about the best coleslaw I’ve ever had. Dried cranberries are sweetened with a lot of sugar so I had my doubts that a Paleo version would be possible. But I found dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice, which made them Paleo, as well as SCD and GAPS.

Then I wondered if I could come up with a Keto version. For replacing the apple, which is high in sugar, I used jicama, a slightly sweet-tasting vegetable that is similar in crunch and texture. At Whole Foods I found unsweetened dried cranberries from a grower in Wisconsin, and by replacing the honey in the dressing with allulose with monkfuit (0 carbs), the cole slaw now meets Keto requirements. While this sweetener is considered Paleo friendly, I would prefer to use honey or maple syrup in the dressing since it is only about 1-1/2 teaspoon per serving so still low carb, although not low enough for Keto. The friends I served these to really liked both versions.

The first photo is the Paleo coleslaw with apple and dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice. Next is the Keto coleslaw with jicama and unsweetened dried cranberries. The cake is Paleo Almond Flour Vanilla Cake with Cashew Butter Frosting, and both are also GAPS and SCD. I’ve also made a Keto version of this cake and frosting that replaces the honey with an alternative using monk fruit and allulose, and it was hard to tell the difference.

12/06/2023

How Paleo and Keto Went from Foes to Friends

When I went on the Paleo Diet in 2016, Keto and Paleo seemed like polar opposites with no common ground between them. The macronutrient breakdown in percent of calories for the Paleo Diet is about 40% protein, 35% fat, and 25% carbs. For Keto, it’s about 20-30% protein, 70% fat, and 5-10% carbs.

But looking at the foods you should include on the two diets you see they share many of the same ones: eggs, fish and seafood, poultry, meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, ghee, almond milk, non-starchy vegetables, berries, dark chocolate and cocoa. The same can be said about foods they avoid (or restrict in the case of Keto): all grains, all processed sugars, soy, beans and legumes, cow’s milk.

In 2022 I noticed that many Paleo bloggers had started designating which of their recipes were also Keto. This trend has grown significantly in 2023. Bestselling cookbook author, Michele Tam of Nom Nom Paleo, now has 210 recipes that are both Paleo and Keto on her blog. Those on the Paleo Diet who are interested in losing weight do so by limiting the carbs they consume. By selecting a recipe that is both Paleo and Keto assures them it is low in carbs.

I’ve also noticed that Keto bloggers have started identifying which of their recipes are also Paleo and Whole30. Many on the Keto diet now want to choose nutrient-dense whole foods that focus on food quality and provide additional health benefits. This is what is referred to as Clean Keto. Not nearly as many are relying on highly processed packaged foods, as was the case when Keto first became popular.

A recipe that is both Keto and Paleo assures them that the carb count is low enough to induce/remain in ketosis (which means your liver releases ketones that burn stored body fat for energy instead of glucose). But it also ensures that the food contains lots of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients like fiber, which are important for overall health.

Below are Chicken Fried (Cauliflower) Rice that is both Paleo and Keto and Crunchy Thai Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing. As pictured this salad is Paleo, but by swapping a few ingredients I can make it Keto, SCD and GAPS, or Vegan.

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