Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wp-ultimate-recipe domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/maryzahc/public_html/adultfoodallergies.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121
Tree Nut-free – Page 13 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

Tag: Tree Nut-free

Does not contain any tree nuts or coconut.

Apple Cinnamon Gluten-free Vegan Pancakes
My friend Laurie sent me the sample packet of Anti-Grain flours for my birthday, and the first thing that came to mind for apple flour (which is literally just dehydrated apples — an easy ingredient list to tackle) was pancakes. I love pancakes. Denise did pancakes a while back, but I thought pancakes with an apple flour base would be a nice change of pace.

I also wondered if aquafaba (chickpea brine) as an egg replacer might make a lighter, fluffier pancake, than chia or flax eggs. I tried it, but wasn’t thrilled with the results — I mean, it tasted great, but the texture wasn’t what I wanted. So I whipped the brine, which made all the difference. Admittedly, this adds an extra step and an extra bowl to your pancake adventure. As much as I hate dishes (and I don’t own a dishwasher), this extra bowl is worth it.

I’ve used a mix of oat flour and sorghum flour. If you cannot tolerate gluten-free oats, use all sorghum.

Apple Cinnamon Gluten-Free Vegan Pancakes

serves 4
- 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour (can sub sorghum, if you can’t tolerate oats)
- 1/4 cup apple flour
- 1/4 cup sorghum flour
- 1 Tablespoon tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons oil (I prefer the flavor of coconut, but use what works for you)
- 1 cup non-dairy milk (I generally use almond)
- 1/2 cup of whipped aquafaba foam (chickpea brine whipped into an airy foam)
- Oil for the skillet or pan
Whisk the dry ingredients together.

Add the oil and non-dairy milk and whisk.

Fold in the aquafaba foam.

Heat the skillet or pan over medium heat and lightly oil it. Pour batter in , about 2 Tablespoons at a time. About like this:

(That’s a 12-inch cast iron skillet, for reference).

When the pancake is slightly dry at the edges, that is usually when you can flip it. I’d give you cooking times, but it seems to vary so much from batch to bath that it’s better to look for doneness. If you want to make all the pancakes and keep them warm, put them in a pan in a low (200ºF) oven to keep them warm.

This makes about 4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. I’m really not sure what a “proper” serving of pancakes is — enough that you’re not hungry when you’re done, I suppose. Top with whatever butter or margarine is safe for you, and maple syrup, if you can have it. Jam is also quite nice on pancakes.

IF you have leftover pancakes, these reheat well, and also taste pretty great cold.
September 14, 2015
Brown Rice Pulp Chips (+ rice milk)
Brown Rice Pulp Chips

I occasionally want to use rice milk in cooking, but I really dislike all the commercial rice milks that I’ve tried. I find them thin and flavorless. But in trying to use up some leftover rice, I discovered that by adjusting the amount of water (and using really good rice, I could make a thick, almost cream-like rice milk that worked pretty well in baking. I still don’t really like rice milk for drinking — there’s something sort of “dry” about the flavor. That’s odd, I know, but that’s the best description I can come up with.

Anyway, any time I’m making rice and think I’ll have time for rice milk later in the week, I make a cup or two extra. It doesn’t take that much longer in the rice cooker. I’ll take the leftover rice and let it soak in mason jars overnight, and then blend it up the next day. If you strain it, it’s nice and smooth (depending on what you want to use it for, consider not straining it. It seems to add some bulk to bread and cake unstrained, but none of those recipes are blog-ready, I’m still playing.) But I hate throwing out the pulp and wondered if I could season it and make crackers out of it.

It worked! But they really have more of a chip texture than a cracker, so I’m calling these chips. I did these in the dehydrator, but if you don’t have one, I’m guessing that doing this on low in the oven would work. The times I’ve given will be wrong, though. I didn’t try this because I’ve not made them yet this summer when it was cool enough to want to use the oven. You can also use whatever seasoning you like, but I don’t really recommend a salt-free one. Those turned out really bland. I tried a bunch of the seasonings in my kitchen, and I’ve listed what I liked best.

On rice: I use a brown jasmine rice I buy in large bags at the Asian market in Nashua. Brown jasmine is my “all-purpose” rice at this point in time. It’s likely that the brown rice adds to the leftover pulp, so I would suggest using brown rice for this. But if you try it with a white rice — or something else, please let us know in the comments. You do get rice cream (which is easily thinned down to rice milk) and crackers out of this, so it’s a 2-for-1 recipe.

I did not give an exact number of chips, as it’s come out a little different each time for me, despite all attempts to create stringent measurements. Since this is basically a way to use up something you’d throw out otherwise, maybe a little uncertainty is okay?

Brown Rice Pulp Chips up close

Brown Rice Pulp Chips
- ~ 3-4 cups cooked brown jasmine rice
- water (see directions)
- seasoning of your choice (I liked Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle best)
Fill a quart mason jar with the rice, lightly packing it in. Fill the jar with water. Put it in the fridge overnight. I’m not 100% sure it needs to be refrigerated, but better safe than sorry. The rice will soak up a lot of this water, and I think it makes a smoother milk.

Empty the water and about half the rice from the jar into your blender. Add a cup of water and blend. If you need more water, add it, but your goal is to blend the smoothest rice milk with the least amount of water here. You will need more, but add it gradually

Repeat with the other half of the rice, but add about 1 1/2 cups of water to begin, as you don’t have leftover soaking water.

Now strain the rice milk through a fine sieve. Keep stirring the mush to drain as much milk as possible out of the rice pulp.

I usually get about a quart of rice cream out of this.

With the leftover pulp, drop in about 1 Tablespoon blobs onto the fruit roll trays of your dehydrator (or onto a cookie sheet if you’re trying the oven). Sprinkle generously with seasoning.

Run the dehydrator at 155ºF for 9 hours, and check to see if your chips are crispy. They may need a little more time when it’s humid out. Lock these up in an airtight container to keep.
August 31, 2015
DIY Curry Powder
DIY Curry Powder

Besides the fact that I have a spice obsession (as outlined in my post, WW Kitchen Stories: Rosemary or Denise’s Spice Issues) and it seems dumb to pay for blends when you already have all the stuff to make the blend, I’m getting to the point after the cumin scare that I’m going to try to make as much stuff from whole spices as I can, so that there’s less chance for adulteration with undisclosed allergens, anti-caking agents, or cross contamination. There’s only a few ground spices in here, but my plan is to eventually only buy whole spices and grind all my own stuff.

I tried to keep it reasonable for non-fire breathers, but you control how much curry powder you add to stuff. Start small and then taste, you can always add more, but you can’t really subtract easily. Also, if you want to make it a bit hotter, add 3 or 4 more dried chiles to the mix. Be aware that you will need a blender or a coffee/spice grinder to make this.

DIY Curry Powder

Makes about 1 cup.
- 6-8 dried chiles (I used Sanaam, but Arbol or Japones would work fine)
- 5 Tablespoons of coriander seed
- 4 Tablespoons of cumin seeds
- 2 Tablespoons of fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoons of black mustard seed
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 teaspoon of whole cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon of black peppercorns
- 1″ piece of cinnamon stick
- 1 Tablespoon of ground Turmeric
- 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon of ground fenugreek seed
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Destem the chiles if necessary. Place the chiles, coriander seed, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black mustard seed, green cardamom pods, cloves, black peppercorns, and cinnamon stick in a skillet over medium heat.

Seeds, spices, and chiles in skillet before toasting

Move the skillet around constantly to shift the seeds, spices and chiles until you smell the cumin seed toasting, some of the seeds popping and the spices darken.

Seeds, spices, and chiles in bowl after toasting

Remove the spices, seeds, and chiles from the skillet, and allow them to cool completely.

Once cool, place the spices, seeds, and chiles from the skillet and the ground turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, and nutmeg into a blender, and blend until you have a fine powder. Before opening the blender, let the powder settle for a few minutes so that you don’t gas yourself.

If you are using a coffee/spice grinder, place the ground turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, and nutmeg into a bowl. Grind the spices, seeds, and chiles from the skillet in coffee/spice grinder in batches, adding the batches to the bowl until you have ground all of the spices, seeds, and chiles. Using a wire whisk, mix well so that the ground turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, and nutmeg are fully incorporated into the newly ground spices, seeds, and chiles from the skillet.

Store in an air-tight container and use where you would use curry powder. Stay tuned for some recipes using it in the coming weeks.

Enjoy!
August 24, 2015
Aquafaba Vegan Salad Dressing
Aquafaba Vegan Salad Dressing

So with the corn allergy all of the vegan mayonnaise products are a big no-no for me, as canola is notoriously cross-contaminated with corn, and I started to react to my favorite product. I haven’t had a safe mayonnaise in over a year. When I saw the aquafaba experiments with mayo, it rang a bell as a lot of the vegan products have pea protein, so I thought I’d give it a go. Only problem was, in order to get some aquafaba, I had to find time to pressure can some garbanzo beans at home, as I don’t really have a safe commercial garbanzo bean product I can buy. A few weeks ago I canned some garbanzo beans, but I just managed to find time to do the experiment recently. I used this recipe to start, but I modified it a bit because I was looking for a flavor that was more like Miracle Whip, as that was my mayo/salad dressing product of choice when I could still eat eggs, milk, and corn (I have more allergies, but those are the problem children for commercial mayo products). When I think of all the things I can make again, I seriously want to cry. Many thanks to Peanut Butter & Vegan for the post on using aquafaba for mayo to get me started. As suggested by the original post, I used an immersion (stick) blender, but if you try it in a regular blender, let me know how that goes.

Aquafaba Vegan Salad Dressing

Makes about 1 cup.
- about 1/4 cup of aquafaba (the liquid from a can of garbanzo beans)
- 1/2 Tablespoon of lime or lemon juice (I used lime because I had limes in the house, but no lemons)
- 1/2 Tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (I used Bragg’s as it is generally safest for people with corn allergies)
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon of sugar
- dash of paprika
- 3/4 cup of safe for you, neutral tasting oil (I used grapeseed oil)
In a small bowl or measuring cup that isn’t much bigger in circumference than your immersion blender, add the aquafaba, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, mustard, sugar and paprika. Mix with the immersion blender for a few seconds so that the ingredients are all combined. Slowly drizzle in the oil, while the immersion blender is running, moving the immersion blender around when the mixture becomes thick to make sure all the oil gets incorporated. Once the mixture is nice and thick, place the salad dressing in a container and place it in the fridge, where it will continue to thicken.

Aquafaba Vegan Salad Dressing

Yay!! You have salad dressing! Go forth and make yummy dishes that require mayo/salad dressing like substances!
August 10, 2015
Chili Flavored Russet and Sweet Potato Chips
Chili Flavored Sweet Potato Chips

Chili Flavored Russet Potato Chips

I’ve been meaning to fry stuff for sometime, because I miss fried food and the last time Mary Kate and I had a fry-a-palooza was this past Thanksgiving. And I wanted potato chips. I tried a recipe where you baked them, but it took two hours of prep, and seriously, I can fry them faster than that, with less aggravation. This is one of those recipes where having good tools helps. I used a mandoline to slice the russet potato and sweet potato, and I used a Thermopop thermometer to keep track of the temperature of the oil. Also, I used a cast iron wok to fry in, because I like it and it uses less oil, but you can use a regular skillet or stock pot if you use enough oil.

Chili Flavored Russet and Sweet Potato Chips:

Serves 1 (let’s be realistic about this…I ate them all in 10 minutes).
- 1 Russet Potato, sliced extremely thin
- 1 Sweet Potato, sliced extremely thin
- a pinch of DIY Chili Powder
- a pinch of salt
- safe oil for frying enough to fill the pot about 3 to 4 inches deep
For the frying:
- A pot deep enough to accommodate about 3 inches of oil and the frying thermometer, a thick stainless steel stock pot or an enameled dutch oven would be best, although I used a cast iron wok and just fried less chips at a time. You also want a pot that’s tall enough that the edge is 4 or more inches above the oil level. It’s safer and there’s less splatter all around. We do not recommend using anything with Teflon or nonstick coatings. Of course, if you have an actual deep fryer appliance, use that.
- frying thermometer (but you can’t use this one with a wok, in case you planned use a wok instead, I used this one and just stuck it in the oil periodically to check.)
- tongs and/or slotted frying spoon/spider (we used a silicone one rather than the traditional wire and bamboo, but I can’t find a picture of ours)
- plate or cookie sheet, lined with paper towels
Set up your frying pot, add your safe oil, and set up your thermometer. Start heating your oil over medium heat, as it will take some time to reach the right temperature. You are aiming for about 380ºF.

I used a mandoline, shown below, to slice my potatoes, but you can slice them with a knife if your knife skills are that good.

Mandoline

The slices of your Russet potato will be wet and starchy. Place them in a bowl and water and agitate them a bit to rinse the starch off.

Rinsing off the starch from the Russet potato slices

Place the rinsed slices in between the folds of a clean kitchen towel to dry them off.

Rinsed slices on clean kitchen towel

Fold towel over slices to dry both sides

The sweet potato slices should be dry enough after slicing as there is less water content than a Russet potato.

Sweet Potato Slices

When the oil temperature is 380°F, carefully add some of the potato slices to the pot. You don’t want to overcrowd them.

Russet Potato frying

Sweet Potato frying

Fry the potatoes, turning them occasionally with tongs until they are golden brown. They should be fried a bit darker in color than normal potato chips so that they are crispy. The mandoline does not quite cut the potatoes as thinly as a commercial potato chip, and in order to get some crisp, you need to cook them a little longer. The potatoes will start to wave and distort when they are close. if the potato chip seems pretty flat still, keep frying a bit. When the potato slices are fried, place them on the plate or cookie sheet lined with paper towels to drain.

Sweet Potato Chips

Russet Potato Chips

Once the chips have cooled a little, place them in a bowl and sprinkle the salt and chili powder on them to taste and toss them a bit to coat them and distribute the seasoning.

Chili Flavored Sweet Potato Chips

Chili Flavored Russet Potato Chips

Enjoy!
July 27, 2015
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