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MaryKate – Page 14 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

Author: MaryKate

Eat Your Veggies for Breakfast Patties
Eat Your Veggies Patties

Everyone who knows me for a little while knows that I live for potatoes. I will eat them in almost any form, any time of day, and many meals in a row — and multiple forms in one meal, if that happens to be an option. I’ve posted other potato recipes here, but this may be one of my favorite.

See, about two years ago, I found a good hash brown patty. Cheap, no weird ingredients, and while they did not cook quickly, they could be left alone while I did the rest of the stuff that needs to get done in the mornings. But that was two years ago, and I’m still eating them. As much as I love the potatoes, I was actually (shhhhh, don’t call out the heresy) getting bored of the same hash browns every morning. I thought maybe I could work something else out, something that would keep the potato part of my breakfast ritual, but add in some additional veggies.

This is what I worked out — this is a soft potato pancake with a great texture from the zucchini and carrots, and a nice savory profile. If potatoes for breakfast aren’t your thing (heresy!), these make a great side dish, as well.

Cooking Potato Magic

Eat Your Veggies for Breakfast Patties
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 1.75 lbs.)
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup non-dairy milk, warmed
- 1 Tablespoon Earth Balance soy-free margarine (or safe-for-you substitute)
- 1/4 cup green scallion tops, chopped (about one bunch worth)
- 1/2 lb. carrots, shredded (organic if possible — this makes a big difference in taste)
- 1/2 lb. zucchini, shredded
- 1-1/2 teaspoons dill
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (beware of malt — gluten — added to cheaper versions)
- 1 Tablespoon ground psyllium husk
- oil of your choice, for sauteeing, less than 1/4 cup overall, but it’ll depend on the size of your pan and how many batches of potatoes you do
Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Add salt. Bring water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender. If you salt the water well, you may not need to add more salt to the recipe over all

Chop scallions and shred the carrots and zucchini.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, add a tablespoon or so of oil — you want enough to coat the bottom of the pan, but not deeply. Add the carrots, dill, and garlic powder, stir and sauteé over medium for a few minutes. Then add the zucchini, stir well, and when the carrots are tender but still have a bit of crunch, you’re done.

In another pan, over low, heat the non-dairy milk and margarine or fat just until warm and melted.

Drain the potatoes and mash with the non-dairy milk and margarine. Then mix in the scallions, carrots, zucchini in with the mashed potatoes, adding the turmeric, psyllium husk, and vinegar, and mixing very well. Taste and adjust the seasonings if you need to.

Form patties of about 1/4 cup each — I used a measuring cup to scoop and then formed the patties with my hands. This made about 15 patties, which is so perfect for a work week of breakfasts. The patties are all cooked, but to make them awesome, you’ll pan fry them right before eating.

Now, you can cook these immediately, if you’re a morning person and did all this in the morning, but you can also refrigerate the patties you just made (put wax paper between the layers and cover them, airtight) and pan fry them fresh and hot in the morning.

Either way, heat your skillet first, over medium, then add a skim-coat of oil. If you’re cooking them just after making them, 2-3 minutes per side should give you a nice golden brown crust on each side. If they are coming out of the fridge, it took 8 minutes for the first side, 6 for the second, using a cast iron skillet over medium heat, to get a perfect crust and thoroughly heat the patties throughout.
April 7, 2014
Roasted Vegetable Stock
Garnished Broth. Photo by Jack Andrews

I know. It’s spring. Or, rather, “spring.” The thing is? It’s still pretty cold here, and on top of that, damp. So, basically, it’s still soup weather, and rather than being cranky about it, let’s just make some good veggie stock to cook up some of the vegetables that might, in a perfect world, soon be coming out of the ground. Or, maybe, going into the ground. Man, this whole seasonal blah is really not inspiring me! But I’m hungry, and soup is good.

So. Soup stock. As with Denise’s Roasted Beef Stock, this vegetable stock gets a lot of its flavor from caramelizing the sugars in the vegetables by roasting them first. Deglazing the roasting pan with white wine or sherry adds a little extra hit of flavor, but if you don’t have or don’t want to use alcohol, water will work. Just make sure to scrape the bits up really well — there’s flavor in there.

This stock can be the base for pretty much any soup, though if you’re going for a specific flavor profile, consider that when choosing your herbs. I’ve given very specific measurements here because part of the reason we’re posting basics like stock is that we know that some people have always purchased stock, either in bouillon cubes or in boxes or cans. Allergies take away that option (damn allergies) or make it difficult, so if soup stock is part of your learning curve, we’ve got it covered. BUT. Stock is inherently flexible, so feel free to play with the recipe. You do not need exactly what I’ve used, and the measurements are overly precise (unnecessarily so) just in case you’re a newbie and want that. I weighed everything that was roasted, just for you, and since I was doing that, did metric and US weights. I don’t actually know metric measurements otherwise, so they aren’t included other than that. Sorry about that.

A note on ingredients and prep: in a stock, you’re extracting flavor. So you want the best produce you can buy, and you want to alter it as little as possible. Because of this, when possible, I buy organic vegetables to roast, and I wash them well. I don’t peel them. Chop them roughly, and remove only parts that are bad or brown, and any parts that might burn (onion skin).

Ungarnished Broth. Photo by Jack Andrews

Roasted Vegetable Stock

There are two sets of ingredients in this recipe. The first set get roasted. The second set go straight into the stock pot.

Roasted Ingredients

To go into the oven:
- 7 carrots (9.5 oz, 269g)
- 7 stalks of celery, plus core (15 oz, 425g)
- 2 apples (12 oz, 345g)
- 1 onion (8.5 oz, 237g)
- 4 large shallots (1 lb., 453g)
- a handful of garlic cloves, about half a head on a typical US-sized clove (2 oz, 64g)
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 Tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup of white wine, red wine, sherry, or water (reserved — use this after roasting)
Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Chop the carrots and celery into about 1 inch chunks — remove any greenery from carrots, and remove and reserve all the celery leaves (see below). Quarter the apples and remove the part of the core containing the seeds. Quarter the onion and halve each quarter — remove all the papery skin. Same with the shallots (note — I used shallots here because they looked good at the store when I was buying the veg — you could just use another onion or two here, but less in weight than shallots, as shallots are milder). Remove the skin on the garlic cloves.

Place all the veg in a baking pan or roasting pan with sides, metal is preferred. Douse them with olive oil and salt, and turn everything around in the oil until it’s well-coated.

Put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. You’ll need an hour, possibly an hour and a half to get a good caramelized brown all over all your veg, so plan accordingly. Check every 30 minutes, and beware of sticking your head close to the oven as you open it — there’s a lot of steam in there. And yes, I forget that every.single.time.

Now, your second set of ingredients for the stock — the ones that do not get roasted.

Into the stockpot:
- another handful of garlic cloves
- all of the celery leaves — don’t waste them!
- 1/2 a bunch of parsley
- 3-4 sprigs of dill, or another fresh herb that looks good at your store and is soup-appropriate (rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme — all would be good options)(optional, but adds freshness)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 Tablespoon whole peppercorns (this does NOT make your stock hot — the peppercorns aren’t broken, so most of the oil stays in, but it adds a nice flavor) (if you are Denise and you’re making this, you would likely add dried chilies here instead, but those will be hot — if that’s your thing, do it!)
- about 10 cups of water
Get all this (MINUS the water) ready in your pot while everything else roasts.

When the roasting is done, scrape the roasted veg directly into the stockpot. Deglaze your pan with your water or wine by pouring the cold liquid on the hot pan and using that to scrape up all the roasted bits stuck to the pan. Add that to the stock pot.

Then add water, enough cover all the stuff in the pan by about two inches. Bring this to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Strain out and discard the vegetables and herbs, and either use it to make soup right away, or store it. This should keep in the fridge for about a week, or store it in the freezer. With 10 cups of water, I got not quite 3 full quart jars of stock.
March 24, 2014
Hamburger Green Bean Hot Dish
Hamburger Green Bean Hot Dish

So, in North Dakota (and, I think, Minnesota), a casserole is called “hot dish.” It’s a simple descriptive name, but it can be said so evocatively — and hot dish is exactly what this raw end of winter needs, if you ask me. Last week was, if I can be blunt, a bit of a bitch, and warm comfort food was definitely called for, for sanity’s sake. And all comfort food in my world must include potatoes. This hot dish features a casserole staple — ground beef — mixed with green beans and seasoned tomato sauce, topped with mashed potatoes. It’ll chase the winter chill right out of you.

This is a recipe from my childhood, but apparently it pre-dates my parents’ marriage, too. When I called my mother to ask about a weird direction in the recipe, she admitted she’d been making the recipe since she was in high school and no longer has a written recipe. It’s cheap, quick, and easy, on top of being comfort food, and I needed to alter only a few things to make it allergy-friendly.

Brilliant Ring of Mashed Potato

Hamburger Green Bean Hot Dish
- 3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1/4-1/3 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond — any of them should work)
- 1 Tablespoon Earth Balance margarine (or other safe-for-you option)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 lb. ground beef
- 2-1/2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon dill
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1/2 lb frozen green beans
- one bunch of scallions, chopped, green parts only
- salt and pepper, to taste
Boil potatoes in salted water until tender.

Brown onion and beef in a skillet over medium heat. You don’t need to add oil — let the grease from the beef come out, then add the onions, and they will cook in the beef fat. Cook until onions are fully translucent. Drain off grease.

Add salt and pepper. Add oregano, dill, and garlic, and stir well.

Add tomato sauce, green beans, and scallions. Bring mixture to a boil. If you do this over medium, it gives you time to mash the potatoes.

Mash potatoes adding the margarine and milk — you may not need it all, so only add about 1/4 cup to start with, and see if you need the rest. The mashed potatoes should be a little stiff, as they will absorb some of the tomato sauce while cooking, and more when served.

Taste the beef mixture and the potatoes. Add more salt and pepper if you need it.

Pour beef mixture into a greased casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes. By family tradition, I piled the mashed potatoes in a pretty ring around the edge of the dish, but I’m sure this is not necessary.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, uncovered.

Eat hot. Also reheats well.

Hamburger Green Bean Hot Dish
March 10, 2014
WW: Living with Food Allergies — Identity
Yes, this is how I see myself sometimes. Photo from dccomics.com

“You are what you eat.”

Right. So what are you when you can’t eat half the foods that you used to love? Or any of the family recipes you grew up with? Or your favorite dish of your best friends, or the perfect brownie recipe you spent two years perfecting?

What are you? Lost and frustrated. And others — your friends and family — are lost with you.

Our food culture today is a bizarre landscape that includes mega-star cooks, entire networks dedicated watching people cook food you will never make, “food deserts,” corporate organics, farmers’ markets, some shady corporate political maneuvering, and an entire populace generally both obsessed with and confused by food.

This article has nothing to do with food allergies; it’s about making small changes to your diet to eliminate “non-real” food additives. I think this is the kind of article that expresses our collective cultural confusion about food. A diagnosis of food allergy or intolerance means you start reading all labels and learning things you maybe wish you did not need to know about how our food is produced. While I’m all in favor of people figuring out what makes them healthy or well, the seemingly random declaration of some foods as “real” and morally superior or “good” and others “fake” and “bad” doesn’t seem to serve a greater purpose, but it does start to explain the comments that those of us who “insist” upon bringing our own food to social events hear so often —
- “Oh, you’re so good to eat that way!”
- “You’re so healthy!”
- “That must be how you stay so skinny!” or “You must be losing so much weight on that diet.”
- “I’m so bad for eating this cookie!”
As we talked about last week, it’s a different health-based reason than most people think, but allergies often seem to get lumped with diet choices and food fads, undermining their seriousness and the toll they can take on your life. A food allergy diet is not a choice. It’s not a moral statement. It’s food that doesn’t kill you.

I read a maybe more pertinent essay last year that really got into food and what it means to us, individually and as a culture. This open letter to Paula Deen from culinary historian Michael W. Twitty is really worth reading, as I’ve been thinking about it since last summer. Part of what Twitty was saying is that the conversation around food has been somewhat divorced from both its history and meaning. At its base, food is energy. We consume so that we continue; it is fuel for our bodies. But food is a much larger social construct. Food is identity, it is connection, it is love. What we eat defines us, not in the childhood mantra of “you are what you eat,” but in our connections to the world.

Culinary traditions bind families and communities together, even through migrations as Twitty describes in the large mid-20th century movement of African-American communities from the rural south to the urban north. Think about your family’s traditions. Was there a special food for birthdays, or celebrations? A Sunday meal? A holiday treat? I think I could tell the story of my life through foods, from Cookie Monster birthday cakes, that one cookie recipe my grandmother made, through my mother’s stir-fry phase, through the successes and failures in the harvest gold kitchen of my first apartment, and through that absolutely magical brownie recipe.

This is one of the very reasons that adult-onset food allergies are so difficult. When the foods that define your family and traditions are now forbidden to you — when going to a family gathering means enduring the many queries about why you are no longer participating in the sharing of history-laden sustenance, or why you brought your own food, or explaining again that, no, you cannot “just have a bite” of that — you have to work around to finding that identity again. All of the old comforts are gone, and seeking the new, while potentially exciting, is rarely comforting.

When my forbidden foods list extended just to dairy, I found that food traditions other than Midwestern American — or anything North American — were easier and therefore worth exploring. Dairy is rarely used in traditional (even “Americanized traditional”) Asian cuisines. Chinese was safe, sushi was awesome, and even Indian was navigable. Vegan cookbooks taught me to bake without dairy and without eggs, as well as how to focus on vegetables and really use the depths of my spice cabinet.

As the list of forbidden foods has expanded, the ease of eating out has decreased. I didn’t realize for the first year or so how much I had let fear of getting sick circumscribe my life. Giving up control of my plate meant the potential for getting sick — not likely anaphylaxis (or not so far), but every time I get sick I have to re-face and re-conquer the fear of eating out after I’ve gotten back to being well. I was turning down social opportunities, packing my own food, afraid of the consequences. And I was missing out, not necessarily on opportunities to get sick, but on opportunities to socialize, make and build connections, and to learn how to be a good advocate for myself in restaurants. Not that the latter always works, but it is a skill that you need to learn and practice.

The other skill is learning to balance — my need to find and take advantage of safe social situations, my ability to create food-free or not food-centered social opportunities, and my own health. The trials of learning this balance are now part of who I am, as are my food allergies, and this outlet Denise and I created online. One of the reasons we started this blog was that we both needed a positive outlet for the frustration of needing to recreate the entirety of our foodscapes. The blog — well, our editorial calendar, which changes, but gives us structure — helps keep us focused on working out recipes for foods we want to eat again. Sharing them out via the internet, and the feedback we get from our readers encourages us to keep working on new things rather than getting stuck in our own ruts.

Beyond the food, the many conversations we have about our own frustrations and triumphs and failures has lead to this series of essays as we’re starting to feel more like the food allergy online world is a community that we want to participate in beyond our recipes. We’re glad you’re here, and thanks for reading.
March 5, 2014
Twice-Baked Meal Potatoes — Tuna Casserole Style
Tuna Casserole Twice Baked Potato

This is another one of those posts that is a recipe, but more an idea than a straight-up, dictatorial recipe. When I was a kid, my mother would sometimes make “potato boats” for special occasions. It’s not that twice-baked potatoes are hard, but the baking things twice part does take time — and there’s the cooling off in between so that you can handle the potato. In college, a friend told me her family used to make meals of these potatoes. A meal made up of potatoes is right up my alley, and I was thinking all sorts of possibilities come out of this.

So this is a tuna casserole-style potato boat meal, but there have to be an infinite number of other options. How big is your imagination? How about a leftover chili twice-baked, topped with some vegan cheese? Or a jambalaya potato, stew potato, curried spinach potato? What do you have leftover in your fridge? (Bonus suggestion: While I tried really hard to do a twice-baked sweet potato, structurally, it was not possible. But leftover chili over a sweet potato is an incredible lunch combo.)

For this recipe, though, I’m going with a reimagined classic, tuna casserole. In this version, the mashed potato takes the place of noodles, and I’ve made a mushroom duxelle sauce to use in place of the can of cream of mushroom soup, relying on a herbes de provence blend of herbs to elevate this to a more adult palate of flavor while not destroying the comfort food base. These can be prepared the day before and just baked the final time before serving.

Potatoes in Process

Tuna Casserole Twice-Baked Meal Potatoes

Makes 4 potatoes
- 4 large baking potatoes
- 1 1/4 cup cooked chopped broccoli
- 5 Tablespoons Earth Balance or other fat
- 1/2 cup onion, diced
- 8 oz white button mushrooms (one small package), cleaned and chopped
- 1 Tablespoon herbes de provence blend of herbs
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon non-dairy milk
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 6 oz of safe for you tuna (watch out for soy, particularly, if that’s an allergen)
Bake potatoes at 350°F for 90 minutes.

If you need to, cook and chop the broccoli.

In a large skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of your fat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms, and cook until they’ve shrunk and released their moisture. Then add the herbs, dry mustard, and stir thoroughly. Add the additional 2 tablespoons of fat, melt it, and then add the non-dairy milk and cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.

When the potatoes are baked and then cool enough to handle, cut a slim slice off the top, length-wise, and scoop the cooked potato out into a bowl, being careful not to destroy the skin. Do this for all the potatoes. Add the mushroom mixture and mash the potatoes thoroughly, adding more non-dairy milk if needed. Mix in the broccoli and the tuna.

Spoon the mixture back into your prepared potato skin shells, making a pretty mound on top of each.

At this point, you can either cover these and refrigerate them, or you can proceed straight to the second baking.

If you are baking potatoes that you’ve just prepared, they are at room temperature or warmer, so bake them at 350°F for 25 minutes uncovered.

If you have refrigerated the potatoes overnight, cover them with foil and bake for 25 minutes at 350°F. Then uncover and bake 25 minutes longer.

Enjoy with a little side salad — or just on their own.
February 24, 2014
Be My Vegan Valentine Dinner
Be My Vegan Valentine Dinner

So Denise posted a Meat-Eater’s Menu for Romance last week. But we know that not all of our readers are meat eaters — and I tend to vacillate. What if you or your significant other don’t eat meat? No fear! I’ve got a tasty vegan menu for sharing — or indulging in by yourself. This is my version of a refined plate, with subtle and complimentary flavors for a fine dining feel in your safe, allergen-free home: Grilled Coriander-Cumin Portabella Mushrooms, Toasted Garlic Green Beans, and Wine-Baked Red Potatoes.

There is nothing hard about this menu, but the timing is important to get everything to come out at the same time. So I’m going to give you each dish’s ingredients up front, then break down the timing by doing all the instructions for the meal as a whole instead of each dish. Hopefully that won’t be too confusing since I’ve told you up front, and timing’s always the hardest part for me.

Since I’ve not made a dessert either, I’d echo Denise in suggesting a fine bar of chocolate to share, a pint of your favorite safe ice cream, or check out our desserts category for ideas. I’d tell you that this is heart-healthy or some other such cheesy pun-age, but who knows? It’s tasty, and allergen-free, plus animal-free. Enjoy.

Artistic Plating, my best attempt

Be My Vegan Valentine Dinner

Wine-Baked Red Potatoes (adapted from an Edward Espe Brown recipe)
- 2 pounds small red potatoes — look for about ping-pong ball size or smaller
- 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 5-10 sprigs of fresh herbs (dill, rosemary, or thyme are recommended — buy whatever you like best and looks freshest)
- about half a bottle of red or white wine, your choice (but don’t get something sweet). I had some of each, so I used about 1/4 a bottle of red table wine, and about the same amount of a chardonnay. Pick something you like OR if you don’t drink wine regularly, get a table wine — a blend of wines that should be neither too dry nor sweet.
- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk or cream — if you make your own, just cut the amount of water in half
Toasted Garlic Green Beans
- 1/2 pound (be generous with this) green beans
- 1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil — you will use about half of this for the mushrooms)
- 2 Tablespoons chopped garlic
- salt to taste
Grilled Cumin-Coriander Portabella Mushrooms
- 4 mushrooms, washed and de-stemmed
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- pinch of cayenne (optional, but adjust for your desired spice-level)
- (you will be adding some oil to this from the green bean recipe)
Cooking times:
- The potatoes are going to take about 2 hours — they can go more, if you want, but do not plan for less.
- The green beans themselves will take maybe 10 minutes, but the garlic will take about a half an hour before you cook the beans.
- The mushrooms will take about 8 minutes if you have a two-sided grill (like a Foreman grill), and about 13 if you’re using a skillet or grill pan.
- IF you time it right, this will all be done in 2 hours, with a few periods of activity but a lot of downtime. We’re working in the order of these bullets — potatoes, garlic, green beans, mushrooms.
To begin, preheat the oven to 375F. Wash and scrub your potatoes. If you were unable to find smaller red potatoes, cut the ones you have down to approximately the size of ping-pong balls. You need a baking dish that will hold all of your potatoes in a single layer with a little space around them — I have an 8.5″ by 11″ glass dish that is perfect for this.

Lay your herbs out on the bottom of the baking dish so that you have an evenly dispersed layer. Put your potatoes on top. Throw the whole garlic cloves in scattered around the dish. Then add your wine — it should come about halfway up the potatoes, which is why I haven’t given you an actual measurement — just pour it in until you have enough.

IF your potatoes are cut, add salt and pepper now. If they aren’t, I prefer to add the salt and pepper at the table. Cover the dish with foil, but don’t scrunch it too tight — you want some of the steam to escape, but not most of it. Put the potatoes in the oven and set the timer for an hour. Now go find something to do for an hour. You are not needed here.

One hour later …

Reset your timer for 30 minutes. Leave the potatoes alone. They still don’t need you.

Put a skillet, cast iron if you’ve got it, over medium low heat and let it heat empty. When the skillet is hot, add 1/4 cup of olive oil. Let the oil heat up, and then turn it down to low. Add your 2 Tablespoons of chopped garlic and stir. Stir it every 10 minutes or so over the next half hour — you are aiming for a golden brown garlic here.

Golden brown garlic, almost perfect

While the garlic cooks, rinse your green beans and trim the ends off. Set these aside to drain and dry while the garlic cooks.

Depending on your speediness, you probably have 15 minutes or so to clean up some dishes or go read some internet.

When your timer goes off, check on your garlic first — is it golden brown? If so, tilt your pan and skim out the garlic, leaving the oil behind. Set the toasted garlic aside. If it’s not quite done yet, move on to the potatoes, but keep an eye on the garlic.

Take your potatoes out of the oven, or just open the oven and slide the rack out so you can reach the potatoes. Remove the foil. Add the cashew or almond or soy cream or milk, whatever you’re using. Put or push the potatoes back in the oven, leaving the foil off. Set the timer again, for another 30 minutes.

If you haven’t removed the garlic, it should be done now. You can safely leave the oil on over the heat — you’ll be cooking the beans in about 15 minutes.

Turn on your grill or put your grill pan over medium to medium-high heat.

If you need to wash your mushrooms, do so. Then mix up the spice mix, making sure to incorporate the spices into the brown sugar. Tip your skillet up and scoop out about half of the oil into the spice mix. You don’t need to be exact here, but it should be about 2 Tablespoons if you’d rather measure. Mix the oil into the spices well. Brush the tops of the mushrooms well with this mix, and then liberally baste the interiors of the mushrooms with the oil-spice mix.

Turn the heat in the skillet for the green beans up to medium, and add the green beans. Stir occasionally.

If you’re using the grill pan or skillet for cooking the mushrooms, start now — tops down. You’ll cook them for 6-10 minutes on the first side, and another 5-8 on the other. If you’re using an electric grill, you only need about 7 or 8 minutes total. Plan accordingly.

This should net you three lovely decadent vegetable dishes all done at the same approximate time. Slice the mushrooms, sprinkle the garlic over the green beans, and cut the potatoes in half and salt if they weren’t salted before cooking. Light some candles for ambiance, add some amusing conversation, and enjoy a nice dinner with someone special — or add a good movie and call yourself special. Hey, no judgements.

Happy Dinner — good food is for everyone
February 10, 2014
French Onion Soup
French Onion Soup

I first learned to make this soup from a 1970s slow-cooker cookbook, in my first year of graduate school when my roommate and I worked our way through all the soups in the book. They were cheap, they could be made ahead to be hot when you got home, and the Pacific Northwest almost demands you eat soup. That recipe relied on a lot of commercially-prepared tricks — bouillon, some sort of gravy seasoning, strange things that I don’t keep in my house and which probably aren’t actually safe. So this recipe relies on you taking the time to build the flavors a little more naturally and gradually.

If you have a safe stock, you can use it, but if you make your own, the flavors will be richer and you have the added bonus of tallow, a by-product of the stock that makes for a flavorful cooking fat. This recipe, as written, should be safe for the majority of allergen sufferers. You will need a safe-for-you bread and cheese substitute, if you want to add those elements at the end.

This is a soup you can make to impress people. Don’t get me wrong — there is nothing about French onion soup that requires great skill, just some time and patience. It’s one of those recipes that people think is harder than it is, and therefore are generally impressed when you make it. Plus, it’s kind of decadent. So play with this a bit and then keep it in your arsenal for the future. If you have no one you wish to impress, maybe just indulge yourself.

Oh, and bonus, in the realm of entertaining OR indulging, it can definitely be made ahead of time, probably up to a week, or it freezes remarkably well. I tend to find French onion soup a lovely treat, but once in a while is enough — I’m not going to eat this all week for lunch. And this makes much more than a few servings, so freezing it to eat later or use in other recipes is great.

Plan on about two hours — one to prep and cook the onions, another to let the soup simmer.

Soup is Good Food

French Onion Soup

4 Servings
- 4 cups roasted beef stock
- 1/4 cup reserved tallow (fat skimmed from the top of the chilled stock) or butter or margarine or oil of your choice
- 3 sweet onions, quartered and sliced thin, about 3-4 cups
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar (check for caramel coloring, which can be allergenic)
- freshly ground pepper, to taste
- white bread, toasted, optional (I used this recipe, made without rosemary on top)
- 4 slices Daiya provolone-style cheese, or other safe-for-you cheese sub, optional (see link for ingredients — does contain coconut, and likely corn derivatives)
If your stock is in the fridge, take it out. Let it come to room temperature while the rest of your prep and cooking happens.

Place your stock pot over medium heat, adding tallow when the pot is hot.

When your fat is melted, add the onions. You can do this in two ways — throw them all in, which will take longer, with more stirring, to evenly brown, or do your onions in several batches. I prefer the latter, as you get more even caramelization, but the dump it all in method works fine. Either way, add the salt as the onions turn translucent (they seem to absorb it best at this time). If you’re doing the onions in batches, split your fat and salt accordingly. This will take about 45 minutes or so, and you should stir every 5-10 minutes, depending on how your onions are sticking. You will need to stir more as the onions start to brown, but don’t stir constantly. You have to let the flavor happen.

onions, caramelized.

Once all the onions are browned and caramelized, which will take some time, be patient, add the vinegar, pepper, and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer for at least an hour.

Serve very hot. If you’re using them, ladle soup over the toasted bread, and topped with faux cheese, allowing the faux cheese to melt. It’s not pretty, but it tastes great.
January 27, 2014
Vegan Black Bean Pumpkin Taco Salad
Vegan Black Bean Pumpkin Taco Salad

During the holidays, I fully explored that cookie obsession that was in evidence in all of our Friday posts. Overall? They weren’t too bad, though the results were a little mixed. Turns out that parchment paper is an amazing invention that no gluten-free baker should be without, and keeping the dough cold is important. Also, I’m pretty bad at rolling out dough. Luckily, I had help.

But because gluten-free baked goods don’t last as long as other baked goods (they dry out and/or mold rather quickly), I ate. And ate, and ate, and ate. Mmmmm, cookies. ALL the cookies. Thing is that sugar, when consumed in great quantities for a week or so, makes me crave vegetables, and this time around, particularly spinach. Mostly, I eat a little spinach salad here and there, or I saute it with garlic, and I’m frankly bored with both. I was planning to make tacos, but since I had the spinach, taco salad seemed the thing to do. The hot topping balances out the cold salad part, giving a great balance between wanting the raw spinach and needing hot food for dinner when it’s cold out.

This recipe is perfect for a quick weeknight meal, as it comes together in a matter of maybe 10 minutes. Honestly, it takes as long to assemble the salad as it does to cook the topping, and the salad can incorporate whatever you have around. I’ve written it up as I’ve made it and like it, but you know we’re all about tinkering around here.

Vegan Black Bean Pumpkin Taco Salad

Vegan Black Bean Pumpkin Taco Salad

Makes 2 large, meal-sized salads

For the cooked taco topping:
- 1 Tablespoon oil (I’ve been using safflower)
- 1/2 cup chopped onion (this is where having extra chopped onion in the freezer is really a time-saver)
- 1 Tablespoon of taco, Mexican, or southwest-style seasoning mix (I used Arizona Dreaming)
- 1/2 can (8 oz.) canned pumpkin (I am pretty sure that mashed butternut squash or sweet potatoes would also work well here — let me know if you try it)
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed well
Heat a saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add the seasoning, and stir well into the oil and onions. Add the pumpkin, stirring well, and then the black beans. Lower the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes, or until everything is heated through.

Then, make your salad.
- 2 large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped (or salad greens of your choice)
- 1/4 cup of shredded vegan cheddar (optional)
- 1/2 of a Hass avocado, sliced (optional)
- sprouts, if you’ve got them and like them (I do, but optional)
- any other fun salad toppings you might dream up
- 1/4 cup of red salsa (recipes from us here and here, if you want to make your own)
Lay out your spinach, lettuce, or greens on two plates or in large bowls. Top each with half the taco mixture, in several dollops to spread it out over the salad. Add the cheese (if using) and other vegetables or toppings, and pour the salsa on top as a dressing. If you’re using the avocado, I suggest a sprinkle of salt on just that.
January 13, 2014