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Gluten-free – Page 16 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

Tag: Gluten-free

Contains no wheat or gluten.

Caramelized Onion & Balsamic Dressing over White Beans, Mushrooms, and Spinach Salad
Caramelized Onion & Balsamic Dressing over White Beans, Mushrooms, and Spinach

I am not a big eater of salads. Mostly, that’s because “salad” to me equals lettuce, and I don’t eat lettuce. I don’t like it that much and my body hates digesting it. But the thing is, salad doesn’t need to be lettuce at all. I love chopped salads, and I’ve been experimenting lately with meal salads that are spinach (which I do like) with something warm and cooked over top. Putting something hot on spinach slightly wilts the spinach, which I love, and somehow makes the salad seem more like a hearty meal. This salad is one of those.

Actually, this salad is several of those. The point of this salad is the dressing, which I originally whipped up to go over a grilled steak salad. But as I was getting ready to make it again for better photos, I really didn’t feel like steak. So I made a white bean, dill, and mushroom saute, instead, and it was really good. Again, the point is the dressing. Make that, and then put it over whatever you think will taste good with caramelized onions on it (so, basically, anything up to dessert). The salad is the vehicle for the dressing. It keeps in the fridge overnight, but I’ve never had it around longer than that.

Overall, this recipe makes 2-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. It’s about 2 servings for me.

Caramelized Onion & Balsamic Dressing over White Beans, Mushrooms, and Spinach

Caramelized Onion Balsamic Dressing
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil (cooking quality, not finish quality — you’re heating this)
- 1 cup of onions, halved, then quarter each half and slice thinly. This is about one baseball-sized onion
- 1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon salt (how salty do you like your dressing? I like the high end of this range, but to just get good flavor, 1/2 teaspoon is enough)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic (about one largish clove)
- 1-2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (again, adjust for your preferred tanginess)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon faux tamari, or 1/2 Tablespoon tamari and 1 teaspoon maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
Place a large skillet (I always use my cast iron) over medium heat. When hot, add olive oil and let it heat until shimmering.

Add onions, and stir well. Cook until translucent, stirring frequently.

Add salt. Stir well, and turn heat to medium low. Cook until caramelization begins (golden browning), stirring infrequently, knowing that this will take up to 45 minutes. It’s worth it.

When the browning has begun across the pan of onions, add the garlic, Dijon, balsamic, and tamari, stirring well after each addition. Stir this over the heat until everything has really incorporated (2-4 minutes), and then remove from heat.

Bonus Salad Recipe: Mushrooms, White Beans, and Dill over Spinach
- 2 -3 teaspoons of oil
- 1 package (8 oz) mushrooms, washed and chopped roughly
- 1 can (15 oz) small white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 packed Tablespoon of fresh dill, chopped
- 5 oz of spinach, washed and torn (if big)
Heat a large skillet over medium heat — since you’re combining everything, feel free to use the skillet you made the dressing in without washing it. When hot, add the mushrooms and oil. I always add these two together since I “measure” the oil by adding just a little to the pan, adding the mushrooms, and stirring well. I keep adding little bits of oil while stirring until the mushrooms are all lightly coated. This is probably less than you’d imagine, or less than you would start out with, so it keeps the mushrooms from sticking but also keeps them from being greasy.

Cook over medium heat as the mushrooms release their liquid. Stir frequently. When they’ve shrunk and look cooked, add the beans. Stir well, and add the dill. Cook another 2-3 minutes, until all the beans are hot.

Place the spinach in a large bowl. Pour beans and mushrooms over spinach, then dressing. Let sit for about 5 minutes to wilt the spinach, then toss. Let it sit again, if you like, for further wilting, and then serve.
July 20, 2015
Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce
Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce

My friend Mary S, of the green thumb, has been gifting me garlic scapes. Since her garlic was planted in the fall and is almost as tall as me, her garlic has lots of scapes, whereas my garlic was planted in the spring, and the tallest plant might be, oh, six inches high, and there are no scapes to be seen. Since I had some basil leftover from another dish, I decided to make a sauce. You will need a blender for this recipe.

Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce
- 1 cup of tightly packed basil leaves
- 1 cup of garlic scapes, chopped into 1 to 2 inch pieces
- 1 cup of olive oil (make sure it’s safe for you, I do well with California Olive Ranch)
- 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar (make sure it’s safe for you)
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
Roughly chop up the basil leaves. Add the basil, garlic scapes, olive oil, and vinegar to the blender. Process until the sauce is pulverized to your liking. I like mine pretty smooth.

This is a pretty versatile sauce. It can be used mixed into cooked hot rice noodles or even just brown rice to use as a savory side dish. You can use it as a dipping sauce for grilled meat, or toss it with steamed veggies. You can thin it down with a little more vinegar and use it as a salad dressing. If you come up with other ways to use it, please let us know.

Enjoy!

Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce mixed with rice noodles
July 13, 2015
Grilled Caribbean Chicken
Caribbean Chicken on Denise’s fancy grill

I’m hoping this is the last post on my slow-as-tortoises laptop; new one should ship this week!

I’m not sure why this chicken is “Caribbean,” exactly. The lime juice, maybe? What I can tell you is that this is an “old” family recipe (and by “old,” I mean my mother learned it sometime in the early-mid 1980s) and it’s a family classic. And that’s what it is called. This chicken tastes like summer to me, as we always had it in the summer. It should really be grilled for the best flavor, but be aware that a marinade with olive oil in it means FLAMES, so you’ll need to be on top of putting those out (or know that you’ll have some burned chicken skin). You could also broil it, I assume, but I have never tried this. Frankly, I think the flames are part of the fun, but I’ve been told I’m a little weird.

DON’T skip the soaking step. It seems like you could, with little change, as it’s not very long, but don’t. Somehow, this keeps the chicken incredibly moist and tasty.

Grilled Caribbean Chicken

Grilled Caribbean Chicken
- 1 to 1 1/4 lbs. chicken, BONE-IN, SKIN-ON. My favorite is chicken breasts, but drumsticks are also really good. Use what you like.
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- cold water to cover
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (cider vinegar will also work in a pinch)
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
- 2-4 teaspoons salt (depends on how salty you like it — I’ve gone down to the low end and add a bit more at eating if I want it)
- 2 teaspoons dry oregano, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper, preferably freshly ground
Place the chicken in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Add the lime juice and agitate the chicken a little to make sure the water’s getting in between all of the pieces. Let sit 15-30 minutes.

Make the marinade by combining everything else — olive oil through pepper — and stirring or whisking well. Drain the chicken well and then brush or pour on about half the marinade.

Start the grill. You want medium to medium high heat, if you have a gas grill with temperature settings. For charcoal, you want a “hot” side with a three-second hand (if you can hold your hand just above the cooking grate for three seconds, you are around 300-325ºF, about right for poultry) so when your coals are ready, push them slightly to one side.

When your grill is ready, place the chicken on the grill, skin side down (or just on, if it’s drumsticks). Be ready to put out flames (a water gun is fun) or move the chicken around a bit as the oil drips down. Cook about 5 minutes, skin down, and then base your back side and flip. After another 5 minutes, move the chicken to the indirect heat side of the grill for another 5 (drumsticks) to 15 (breasts) minutes to reach an internal temperature of 165ºF. Baste again at this time (though that should be enough). Check every 5 minutes. I’d love to give you an exact grill time, but I can’t — grills vary too much.

Once your meat is done, let it rest a few minutes before cutting. It should be plenty juicy, and if you haven’t burned the skin, it should be wonderfully crispy and tasty. Actually, if you have burned the skin a bit (see the chicken breasts in the grill photo), it still tastes pretty good.

Serve with grilled veggies or just a salad.
July 6, 2015
DIY Chili Powder
DIY Chili Powder

If you’re like me (okay, probably not, as I have issues as outlined in my post, WW Kitchen Stories: Rosemary or Denise’s Spice Issues), you might have a few dried chiles kicking around. Or more than a few. Since I have so many, and since I was running low on chili powder, I started looking into how to make it. Although Mary S. of the green thumb gave me some chili powder that I tolerate after I mentioned I might do a Penzey’s order, it’s good to be able to make your own so that you know that there’s no anti-caking agents, disclosed or undisclosed, and less chance for cross contamination. Plus, I really have a crap ton of whole dried chiles, thanks in part to the harvest I got from Mary S. last year that I dehydrated.

Although this might be a bit spicier than your normal chili powder, I tried to keep it in the realm of reasonable for those of you who are not fire breathers. Feel free to switch out dried peppers based on your own tastes and/or what you have on hand. You will need a blender or a food processor.

DIY Chili Powder

Makes 1 cup.
- 2 dried, whole chipotle chiles
- 2 dried, whole guajillo chiles
- 2 dried, whole New Mexico chiles
- 2 dried, whole ancho chiles
- 2 dried, whole cascabel chiles
- 2 dried, whole arbol chiles
- 2 dried, whole habanero chiles
- 2 Tablespoons of cumin seed
- 2 Tablespoons of garlic powder
- 1 Tablespoon of Mexican dried oregano (you can use plain oregano if you don’t have Mexican)
- 1 Tablespoon of smoked paprika (you can use plain paprika if you don’t have smoked, but the smoked is nice)
Whole Dried Chiles before prep

Destem, seed, and slice the dried chiles.

Destemmed, deseeded, and sliced dried chiles

Stems and seeds removed from chiles to be discarded

Place the dried chiles and the cumin seed in a skillet over medium high heat.

Dried chiles and cumin seed before toasting

Move the skillet around constantly to shift the cumin seed and chiles until you smell the cumin seed toasting.

Dried chiles and cumin seed after toasting

Remove the chiles and the cumin seed from the skillet, and allow them to cool completely.

Once cool, place the chiles, cumin seed, garlic powder, oregano and paprika into a blender or food processor.

Dried chiles, cumin seed, garlic powder, oregano and paprika in blender

Blend or process until you have a fine powder. Before opening the blender or food processor, let the powder settle for a few minutes. You really don’t want to gas yourself.

DIY Chili Powder after blending

DIY Chili Powder after blending

Store your chili powder in an airtight container, and use as you would normally use chili powder.

Enjoy!
June 29, 2015
Strawberry Mojito Fruit Leather (non-alcoholic!)
Strawberry Mojito Fruit Leather

I have a dehydrator! One of Denise’s friends is clearing things out, I guess, and when she asked if I wanted a dehydrator, I jumped on it. I’ve tried some straight up fruit so far, but I was most excited about making jerky and home-made fruit rollups, as well as drying some of my herbs this summer.

I really like fruit leather as a snack. It’s almost as good as candy, and I had some ideas. First up: strawberry mojito. This is a super easy recipe — IF you have a dehydrator. If you don’t and want to try making these, ask around and see if you can borrow one. It takes about 8 hours to dehydrate these. You will need the liquid trays. This recipe is scaleable — I’m writing it for ONE dehydrator tray, but you’ll run it with four trays (at a minimum). Try other flavors, increase it by 4, or add other food to the other trays.

AGAIN: THIS MAKES ONE TRAY. Scale up as needed, or try your own flavors.

Strawberry Mojito Fruit Leather

Strawberry Mojito Fruit Leather
- 1 pound of strawberries, washed, with hulls and stems removed
- 1/4 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
- 1 Tablespoon, packed, mint leaves, chopped finely
Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Pour slowly into dehydrator tray and tilt, if needed to spread it out. Dehydrate at medium (140ºF) for 8-10 hours (it may take longer if it’s humid.)

Peel and eat. Will keep for about 2 weeks in airtight containers, maybe slightly longer. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap so that I’d get the experience of peeling them off the wrap — part of the remembered joys of fruit rollups.

My apologies for the rather dull photos. I didn’t check them this time around and by the time I noticed all my “pretty” photos were blurry, I’d eaten all the fruit leather. They tasted great.
June 22, 2015
Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy
Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy

Because I like transparency, you should know that this recipe was the result of a mistake. Yay serendipity!

I wanted to make crunchy granola bars like the Nature Valley ones I liked before the food allergy apocalypse hit. But I wanted to make them not so breakfast-y and more of a treat or a snack. So I found a recipe for a crunchy granola bar and decided to add cocoa powder to the sticky mixture sticking it together. The recipe called for honey, but I don’t have a safe honey or maple syrup, so I made a cane sugar syrup used that instead.

Well, I threw all the ingredients for the sticky stuff, i.e., the cane sugar syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and cinnamon, all the saucepan and began heating it. But then it didn’t want to melt. So I thought that maybe the cocoa powder was too dry and I added a bit of grape seed oil. And the mixture still looked sugary, and I began to worry that the cocoa powder would burn. It was at this point that I read the actual directions for the mixture from the recipe I was trying to modify. It said to cook the sugar and sugar syrup first and then add the vanilla and cinnamon after. Oops. So I decided that I had enough sugar syrup to do it over, but I decided to see if I could get it to melt, and as I did that, I realized that it wouldn’t be accurate if I wrote it up without the do-over and I didn’t want anyone else to risk burning chocolate. So I quickly greased a small baking sheet and dumped the mixture on it so I could start over again with the sticky stuff for the granola bars. I thought it might end up like tootsie rolls, but when I came back to it after finishing the granola bar attempt (which also didn’t really work as it didn’t set up into bars, but might make a great cereal if I had a safe non-dairy milk, sigh), it was hard as a rock. I pried it off the cookie sheet and then put it in a zip top bag in the freezer for bit and then dropped the bag on the floor a couple of times to break it up into pieces. If you were smarter than me, which you are, you’d use a metal spatula or turner to divide the candy into smaller pieces when it’s cooled a bit but is still warm and pliable. Or put them into silicone candy molds.

Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy
- 3/4 cup of cane sugar syrup (You will need to make it ahead of time – there are two good recipes and I’ve used both before. The one from thekitchn.com makes about a quart, and the one from justapinch.com makes about two cups.)
- 3/4 cup of brown sugar (make sure it’s safe for you)
- 4 Tablespoons of cocoa powder (make sure it’s safe for you)
- 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract (Here’s a bunch of recipes for vanilla extract, make sure to use safe alcohol if corn or wheat are an issue for you. I use either Vikingfjord or Luksusowa Vodka because they are made only from potatoes, where some vodkas may also use grain or corn.)
- 1/2 teaspoon of grape seed oil (or other safe oil for you)
- enough grape seed oil to grease cookie sheet
Grease small to medium cookie sheet with grape seed oil. I used a mister.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly with a silicone spatula, so that you can scrape the bottom of the saucepan really well. Make sure that all ingredients get combined really well.

Candy mixture well combined in saucepan

Cook over medium heat until the brown sugar begins melting into the cane sugar syrup. I didn’t measure the temperatures, but if you’re using a candy thermometer, you’re probably aiming for somewhere between 250°F and 300°F. Once the brown sugar is melting into the sugar syrup, pour the mixture onto your cookie sheet or into silicone candy molds.

Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy cooling on cookie sheet

Once it is cooler, but still somewhat pliable, use a metal spatula or turner to cut the candy into pieces and let it cool. Or resort to the zip top bag method as described above.

Large pieces of Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy about to be broken into smaller pieces

Enjoy! Also, it’s great with coffee.

Chocolate Cinnamon Hard Candy
June 15, 2015
Chopped Cobbish Salad in a Jar, gluten-free, allergy-friendly
Chopped Cobbish Salad in Jars

This recipe comes from two sources. First, a salad I read about on a menu and was really excited to try — until I was informed by our knowledgeable server that all the sauces and dressings at the restaurant were unsafe for me. How is it possible that not a single sauce was allergy-friendly? I don’t know. I was grateful to be steered away from food that would make me ill, and I ate my boring but properly cooked plain food instead. But I was still thinking about it, and figured I could absolutely whip up an awesome chopped salad. Secondly, after all the ingredients were chopped, it was so gorgeous that I thought I could use the “salads in mason jars” technique that is all over the food internets to make a) better photos, and b) lunch.

Keeping salad in a mason jar allows you to put the dressing on the bottom and layer the ingredients so they do not get smushed or soggy. Layer something that won’t absorb the dressing and get soggy on the bottom — I put the chicken down there. Carrots, celery, corn, bacon on top of that. Avocado under tomato (so the acid would keep the avocado green), a sprinkle of Daiya cheddar shreds (absolutely optional), and some sprouts on top. Instead of croutons, I’ve used roasted fingerling potato slices. I served it all over spinach, but use whatever greens you prefer. The dressing in this case is a super simple cilantro-lime vinaigrette, using frozen chopped cilantro (but use fresh if you’ve got it!).

Chop everything up. Add or replace ingredients as you choose — go for color. Think about your layers a bit, but layer it into jars and go to town. Lunch for days, in the time for one meal prep. It’s color, freshness, and portable flavor. This recipe makes about 4 pint jar salads (with the greens kept separate). You will likely have leftover potatoes and chicken.

Plated salad over spinach

Chopped Cobbish Salad, in a jar, gluten-free, allergy-friendly
- 4 teaspoons chopped cilantro (thawed, if previously frozen)
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 4 Tablespoons lime juice
- 6 Tablespoons best-quality olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- olive oil to coat
- seasoned salt or spice mix of your choice
- fingerling or other small potatoes, sliced thin or chopped small
- chicken breast
- mixed herb seasoning of your choice
- 6 slices bacon, cooked
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped small, or shredded
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 ear corn, cooked and removed from cob, or 1/2 cup defrosted
- grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 avocado, cubed
- sprouts
- spinach or other greens
Can you see why this needed to be layered into a jar?

First, cook your cooked ingredients.

Roasted potatoes for “croutons”: Pre-heat oven to 425°F. Wash and slice. Toss potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoned salt or other spice of your choice. Bake 20 minutes or until crispy. I can’t tell you how many of these to make — I always make a full pan because they make great snacks.

Cook your chicken breasts. I prefer to grill them on my little electric grill, but you can always use this method.

Cook your bacon until crispy, drain and crumble.

Okay. Now on to the vegetables. You’re looking for about 1/2 a cup of each vegetable, divided up into 4 servings. Given that the corn and tomatoes are sort of pre-sized, aim to get everything else between those two sizes.

Now mix up your dressing — whisk or put all the ingredients in a jar and shake. Add about 1-2 Tablespoons of dressing to each jar, depending on how much dressing you like (and remember you’ll be putting this over additional greens). Then layer in the rest of the food. I put the sprouts on top so I could pack them in. Cap it, put it in the fridge, and look forward to your next meal. When ready to serve, I tipped the jars over and shook them a little. Put the greens down on a plate and pour over the rest of the goodies. I pulled the sprouts aside so that I could use them to swipe the rest of the dressing out of the jar.

The longest I’ve kept a jar salad around was 2 days — they might last a bit more, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Jars flipped upside down to let the dressing mix in
June 8, 2015
Chimichurri Spiced DIY Tater Tots
Chimichurri Spiced DIY Tater Tots

Here’s another more adult tater tot flavor, because I love cilantro and I made a whole lot of chimichurri sauce by accident, so this seemed like a good way to use up the extra. Again you could probably pan fry these instead of baking them, but baking seems a bit easier to me.

Chimichurri Spiced DIY Tater Tots

Chimichurri sauce:
- 2 cups of tightly packed chopped cilantro
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of Adobo seasoning – optional (If you don’t have Adobo seasoning or you don’t have a safe version, mix 1/8 cup of paprika, 1 1/2 Tablespoons of ground black pepper, 1 Tablespoon of onion powder, 1 Tablespoon of dried oregano, 1 Tablespoon of ground cumin, 1/2 Tablespoon of ground chipotle, and 1/2 Tablespoon of garlic powder, this makes half a cup of seasoning)
- salt to taste
Put all the ingredients in the blender and puree it. You may not use all of it in this recipe. Marinate meat in it or coat vegetables with it and grill it or roast it, or put it in rice to flavor the rice. If you are worried you can’t use it all up, put it in an ice cube tray, freeze it, and store the cubes in a zip top bag in the freezer until you have a use for it.

Tater Tots:
- 4 large potatoes (I used russet)
- 1/4 cup of Chimichurri sauce (see above)
- safe oil in a mister to grease pan and tater tots.
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Peel and wash your potatoes. Place the potatoes on a small baking sheet. Bake the potatoes for about an hour.

When the potatoes are ready to come out of the oven, remove the potatoes and turn the temperature on the oven to 425°F. If you’re using a large hand grater, you need to wait until the potatoes are cool so you don’t burn your fingers. Since I was using the grating blade on my food processor to grate the potatoes, I grated them while they were still hot. I sliced them lengthwise just enough to get them in the food processor, and grated them up.

Grated potato after baking

Some of the grated pieces may be too long, Feel free to chop them up a bit either with a knife or a potato masher. When the pieces are small enough for you, mix the chimichurri sauce into the potatoes until they are well combined.

Potato and chimichurri sauce mixture

Spray your baking sheet with your safe oil in a mister. I used a small cookie scoop to portion out the tater tots, but you could use two teaspoons to drop the mixture on your baking sheet.

Chimichurri Spiced DIY Tater Tots before baking

Use your oil mister to mist the top of the tater tots, and place the baking sheet in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Use some tongs or a spatula to turn them over, and then bake them for another 25-30 minutes. You want to watch them closely, as you’ll notice mine were a little on the brown side.

Chimichurri Spiced DIY Tater Tots after baking

Take them out of the oven, salt to taste, and enjoy!
June 1, 2015