I know this looks like a long ass list of ingredients, but bear with me. I’ve tried my hardest to simplify the process of adding a ton of flavor without having to be a slave to the method or the list of ingredients. What I mean is…I am lazy. I really dislike recipes that make you constantly look back and forth at the dizzying lineup of spice quantities. 1/8 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon and 1/2 tablespoon. That’s recipe whiplash and I’m suing. So, for the recipe below, almost everything is measured by ones. Not hard to remember, and easy to customize if you’d like more or less of any particular flavor.

Ingredients

For the Chowder

• 2 T coconut oil
• 1 t cumin seeds
• 1 t brown mustard seeds
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, finely minced
• 1 yellow onion, diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t curry powder (sweet or hot)
• 1 t garam masala
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 2 lbs white, flaky fish (we used cod)
• salt
• juice from 1 lime

For the Crou-tains

• 2-3 green plantains, diced small
• 3 T coconut oil
• salt

Method

For the Chowder

In a medium sized soup pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Let them dance around the pot for a minute or two and then add the ginger, garlic and onion. Saute until the onion is cooked through. Add the curry and garam masala powders. Dump in the can of the coconut milk. Stir everything around to combine.

Now add the fish. Just toss the whole fillets in there. Stir them around in the pot, every so often, until they’re cooked through. Take 2 forks and pull the fish into flakes (just like if you were pulling apart a chicken breast or beef brisket). Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the lime juice.

For the Crou-tains (Paleo Croutons)

In a large saute pan, melt the coconut oil. Add the diced plantains. As always, the smaller the dice, the faster they’ll cook. Let the plantains fry until they’re cooked through and have a nice crust on the outside. Shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

Just like regular croutons, the crou-tains taste better the day they’re made. Not that they’re inedible the next day, they’re just not as crispy.