I’ve been thinking a lot about buffalo lately, and so, naturally, that makes me hungry. Buffalo are not only majestic, they’re delicious as well. Despite our lovely sunny days here in Kentucky lately, the temperature has dropped pretty low. I don’t think we made it out of the 20s today. (I know, I know, that’s not cold for the middle of winter in most parts of the country, but this is almost the south and we enjoy our 50-degree December days.)

Last night, I realized I had some lovely Kentucky Proud bison stew meat from Marksbury Farm in Danville, Ky. Then I prowled around for some nice paleo stew recipes. I’m not really paleo, but I’m trying to eat less gluten, and paleo bloggers tend to make GF more delicious than a lot of others. I discovered a bison stew recipe on Civilized Caveman Cooking, I got excited about jalapenos, since I hadn’t thought to put those with bison yet. Also, it was a crock pot recipe, which was exactly what I had time for today.

I consider ALL recipes to be recommendations, so I made some adjustments based on my tastes and what was in my pantry. Here’s George’s recipe:

I used 1 lb of bison instead of 2 because I prefer extra veggies to extra meat. For the onions, I used a whole yellow onion and then half of a big purple onion. For the tomatoes, I made a major substitution, which turned this from a stew to a soup. I added a small can of diced tomatoes, but I also added a jar of Kentucky Proud spicy tomato juice from Windy Acres Farm in Scottsville, Ky.

I left out the celery and the cilantro because we don’t like them, but I added peas because I add them to almost every soup I make. I also don’t ever measure spices, so I probably exceeded the 1 tbsp of oregano. I decided to add healthy heaps of garlic powder and spicy mexican chili powder to top things off. This is what it all looked like in my crock pot when I was done.

It cooked on low for about 6 1/2 hours or so. My partner fixed up some Kentucky Proud cornbread muffins (definitely not paleo) from a mix by Weisenberger Mills in Midway, Ky. I came home to a big bowl of this!

All I can say is…WOW! It’s spicy and hearty, yet not over-filling. My mouth misses it already and I’m looking forward to the leftovers. I’m sure I’ll make this again. The only problem is the tomato juice–I picked it up from a roadside stand near Hindman, Ky–now, I have to figure out how to get more. If I can’t find it locally, I guess I’ll make the 3-hour drive to the farm and stock up. It’s on the way to my sister’s in Tennessee, so it’s not totally out of the question.