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I made this recipe one day when I needed comfort food and then made it about 10 more times in the next month. Carrots and dill are just a great combination, and carrots lend themselves to sweetness. The maple is well-balanced by the garlic, and I find the combination rather addictive. I’ve tweaked the fine details of this recipe, but it’s really very forgiving, overall. It would make a good, crowd-pleasing side dish for Thanksgiving, and I have to think it might appeal to picky kids (but it has not been field tested on children, because generally people don’t offer their kids up for experimentation).
Maple Dill Carrots
Recipe makes ~3 servings if this is the only vegetable side dish.
1 lb. carrots, peeled and sliced (go organic here if you can — they are noticeable sweeter and more carrot-y, which makes a difference in this recipe)
1 teaspoon dill
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (adjust according to your audience)
1 Tablespoon Earth Balance (or butter or margarine of your choice)
1 Tablespoon real maple syrup
Place sliced carrots in a saucepan, with water enough to boil (should basically reach the bottom of the top layer of carrots, but not completely cover them). Add dill and garlic. Bring to a boil and then simmer until carrots are soft, 5-10 minutes.
Carrots and Spice
Drain the carrots — lots of the dill and garlic drain off, but the flavor is boiled in. Add the Earth Balance and maple syrup, and purée. I use a stick blender and do a bit of a half-assed job of it (Denise calls it “rustic”) so that there are some whole carrots and some chunks in the purée. That’s just how I like it. Feel free to purée more or less, as suits your tastes.
I love soup season. Not only is soup just really good food, but a pot of soup makes 4-12 servings, depending on the recipe, which usually gives me lunch for the week. In one recipe. I love that.
I’m not sure exactly what I was going for when I started working on this soup — cream of broccoli, broccoli potato, broccoli cheese, potato cheese? My notes are a little unclear. It sort of ended up being an intersection of all of them — a creamy, rich soup, with a tangy cheesiness, and lots of broccoli, which is by far one of my favorite vegetables ever. This soup is great for the cold nights we’re starting to have, and it makes about 6 servings.
Creamy Broccoli Soup
2 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 lb. broccoli crowns, split into florets
2 teaspoons salt, split
1 Tablespoon sherry (could substitute red wine vinegar, but sherry’s flavor is better here)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/3 cup + 1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 Tablespoon Earth Balance or other solid fat
3 Tablespoons tahini
3 Tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon mustard
6 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (IF NEEDED)
pepper to taste
shredded cheddar style cheese/cheese sub of your choice, to top, optional
Put roughly chopped potatoes in a saucepan, with water to cover, and about 1 teaspoon salt. Over high heat, boil until well done (test with a fork). Drain and mash roughly.
In a separate pot, put broccoli florets and about 1/2 to 1 inch of water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook broccoli until bright green and JUST done — this takes just a few minutes. The broccoli should still be crisp, but tender. Even if you like your broccoli more well-done, take it out now — it will cook more in the soup. Immediately when done, drain into a colander and let cool. When cool enough to handle, chop it.
Mix the potatoes, broccoli, 2 cups of vegetable stock, and sherry and set aside while you make the sauce.
In a small sauce pan, mix the 1/3c + 1/4 cup stock, and the rest of the ingredients (minus the cheese for topping) over low heat until well combined. You may want to taste this before adding the salt, as your stock may be salty enough. I generally buy low-sodium broth or stock, though, and need this little bit of additional salt.
Add to the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and heat over low, covered, 20-30 minutes. Add more stock if needed, and adjust the seasonings before serving, sprinkled with cheese if you like.
Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fries with Spicy Mayo Dipping Sauce
So my friend Mary, the kale whisper, managed to procure about 5 pounds of eggplants for me, or, in other words, a crap ton of eggplants, from her neighbor’s garden. Because she’s just that awesome and cool. So I made and canned 5 pints of Eggplant Caponata and 6 quarts of a version of Ratatouille, but I still had some eggplant and zucchini left. So I decided to try this recipe from the Gourmande in the Kitchen, but make it dairy, egg, and almond free too, since I’m allergic to all those things, and use up the zucchini.
Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fries with Spicy Mayo Dipping Sauce
1 small eggplant about 7 inches long, sliced into pieces about 3 inches long and about 1/3 of an inch thick
1 small zucchini about 7 inches long, sliced into pieces about 3 inches long and about 1/3 of an inch thick
First dry dredge:
1/2 cup of arrowroot starch (you could also use tapioca or corn starch, but corn is out for me, since I’m allergic to it)
Second wet dredge:
2 Tablespoons of safe Adobo seasoning (If you don’t have Adobo seasoning, 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).
2 teaspoons of salt
1/3 of a cup of arrowroot starch
1/3 of a cup of olive oil
2/3 of a cup of water
Third dry dredge:
2 cups of gluten free bread crumbs
Spicy Mayo Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup of Earth Balance Mindful Mayo (or other mayo that’s safe for you)
1 Tablespoon of Sriracha, or your other favorite hot sauce
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and use an oil mister to spray the parchment paper. You can skip the parchment paper, and just spray oil on the baking sheet, but it will be easier to clean up.
Wash, trim and slice your zucchini and eggplant into pieces about 3 inches long and about a 1/3 of an inch thick.
Sliced ZucchiniSliced Eggplants
Place the arrowroot starch for the first dry dredge in a flat bottomed container with enough room to move the pieces around to coat.
Arrowroot Starch – first dry dredge
Place the ingredients for the second wet dredge in a shallow bottomed bowl and whisk them together. Make sure the bowl has enough room to move the pieces around to coat them.
Wet mixture – second dredge
Place the bread crumbs for the third dry dredge in a container with enough room to move the pieces around to coat.
Dip each piece of zucchini or eggplant in the first dry dredge (arrowroot starch), then in the second wet dredge (arrowroot, water, oil and spices mix), then in the third dry dredge (the bread crumbs) and place them on the baking sheet.
First DredgeSecond DredgeThird Dredge
Once all the pieces are coated, place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until crispy.
Fries after baking
While your fries are baking, mix Earth Balance Mindful Mayo and your favorite hot sauce in a dipping bowl.
Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fries with Spicy Mayo Dipping Sauce
Squash and Sprout Rice Platter. Photo by J. Andrews
I started working on this particular dish about a year ago when I discovered this branch of Brussels sprouts at a Trader Joe’s and had to buy it. How do you not buy that?
Sprouts!
I made a lot of different Brussels sprouts recipes to use them all up, but most of them involved roasting the sprouts. There is no better way. Roasting is also really the only way to cook butternut squash, and I thought maybe these things would go together well, maybe with some rice and a sauce. I made a dressing using a magical mustard I’d brought back from Paris that was curried apricot mustard, and I’ve been trying to reproduce that flavor since. It took more than a few tries, but it was still cheaper than going back to Paris (where, I need to tell you, there is a whole store that just sells mustard. They have mustard on tap. That was absolutely a highlight of my trip.)
I wanted to call this a pilaf, but apparently a pilaf requires the rice to be cooked in a flavored broth. This dish calls for brown rice cooked in very exciting water, but the dressing you toss everything with at the end adds plenty of flavor, and the vegetables have their own flavors — plus carmelization (i.e. oxidization of the sugars) because of the roasting. Tasty.
Squash and Sprout Rice Platter
Preheat oven to 450F.
3/4 cup brown rice
1/4 cup wild rice
2 1/4 cups water
OR
1 cup brown rice
2 1/4 cups water
Cook rice however you normally cook rice. I throw it in my rice cooker. This takes about 40 minutes, and so will your vegetables, so start the rice first and then move on.
Butternut Squash
Brussels Sprouts
Walnuts
1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled* and cut into 1/2 inch cubes — about the size of playing dice
1/2 lb. Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed off and any weird outer leaves removed, halved or quartered depending on your preference — make them bite-sized
1 cup raw walnut halves or pieces (optional)
2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup oil of your choice (I use olive oil or safflower oil)
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I use a spicy seasoned salt, but you can use regular — whatever is your favorite)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Line three separate baking sheets with parchment paper (or don’t, but this makes clean up easier).
Toss the squash with 1-2 Tablespoons of oil, lay out in a single layer on a baking sheet, and sprinkle with either salt, seasoned salt, or spicy seasoned salt. I prefer the latter. Throw them in the oven and set the time for 25 minutes.
Toss the sprouts with another 1 Tablespoon of oil, lay out on the second sheet, and sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon salt. When the time goes off for the squash, throw the sprouts in (don’t remove the squash!) and reset the timer for 10 minutes.
Spread the walnuts out on the third sheet. When the time goes off again, add the walnut pan to the oven and check the sprouts — remove if necessary. Set the timer for 5 minutes.
A note for the nut allergic: The walnuts are optional in this dish! If you aren’t allergic but just don’t like whole walnuts, chop them up some, as they do add a great flavor to this dish.
Your total cooking time is 45 minutes. The squash gets the full amount, the sprouts about 15, and the walnuts 5. This works out perfectly in my oven, but keep an eye out, especially for the nuts.
For the sauce:
4 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon molasses
2 teaspoons apricot jam
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (again, if you like the spice, get the spicy one)
3 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard — grainy if you wish, but smooth works best here
1 1/2 Tablespoons high-quality olive oil
Whisk all ingredients together.
Plate the rice, add the veggies, drizzle on the sauce, and sprinkle walnuts over the top. Dig in and enjoy.
Squash and Sprout Rice Platter. Photo by J. Andrews
Yes, I know, it’s about a week late for the end of summer, but then, the zucchini is still around, isn’t it? The zucchini lasts through the end of summer, garbanzo beans always remind me of summer salads and hummus, and the adobo seasoning and fire-roasted tomatoes taste of grilling season. This quick hot meal has some of the great flavors of summer, but is warm and filling (and made indoors).
Adobo seasoning is one of my recent favorites, as there is a ton of flavor in it, but it’s not really spicy. There are varieties of adobo, but the one I’m referring to appears to be Puerto Rican in origin — a dry spice mix, often used to rub on meats, that consists of onion, garlic, Tellicherry black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin, and cayenne pepper. My version is from Penzey’s Spices, but I have seen it at the grocery store, so I’m assuming it’s not too hard to find in the US. It makes almost everything better.
End-of-Summer Garbanzo Chili
Makes 3-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are.
2 teaspoons oil
3 Tablespoons chopped onion
2 small zucchini, grated (“small” being about 6 inches long, 1 inch diameter — the most common size found in your average US grocery store. Honestly, a little more or less won’t hurt here.)
2 oz. (1/2 half a small can) of diced jalapeños OR one fresh, diced jalapeño pepper OR a small can of green chiles (or if you’re Denise, all of the above, possibly)
1 can (15 oz.) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, fire-roasted if you wish
1 Tablespoon adobo seasoning
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons millet
3 Tablespoons water
salt to taste
Zucchini and Beans
In a pan heated over medium-low heat, add your oil to the warmed pan. When it shimmers, add the onions. I always chop whole onions, even when I need only half for a recipe, and the rest goes into a bag in the freezer just for meals like this. Add it straight from the freezer to the hot oil, but be careful of the splatters.
Cook onion until translucent, then add the zucchini and stir until fully coated with oil and integrated with onions, a minute or two. Then add the beans, tomatoes, and adobo, stirring each into the dish. Bring to a low boil, then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes uncovered.
Add the millet and water, and cover, simmering another 20 minutes, covered. Check the millet to see if it’s done, and if needed, add a bit more water (go 1 Tablespoon at a time) and time (say, 5 minutes at a go). Millet should be firm, but not crunchy, when done.
This is also good with a sprinkle of shredded Daiya mozarella on top, if you have it, but you don’t need it.
Quick-ish Marinara with Meatballs and Gluten Free Penne
One of the things I really miss is a great meatball sub with gobs of cheese. Since I’m allergic to dairy, wheat, and eggs (in addition to what feels like 50 million other things) that’s a little hard. I haven’t totally figured it out yet, because there isn’t a vegan cheese that works for me because of my coconut, almond, and corn allergies. I’m also missing a sub roll, as I’m still trying to figure out gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free, and egg-free bread, but I’ve gotten two steps on the way. This week I’ll be posting a marinara sauce you can use for meatball subs, pasta, or for anything else that you need tomato sauce. In two weeks, I’ll be posting a recipe for meatballs. For those of you that have a safe bread and a safe cheese you can use, you’ll have everything you need for a meatball sub. I’m totally jealous of all of you, and while I’m working on it, I’m just going to eat the meatballs and sauce over pasta, which isn’t bad either.
The reason that this is a quick-ish marinara sauce is that I’m using crushed canned tomatoes and canned tomato paste (Cento brand – no citric acid in crushed, tomato puree or paste, but watch out as other Cento canned tomato varieties do have citric acid, which can be corn derived), rather than starting from tomatoes. It still takes some time to simmer, making it a weekend dish, but you can freeze the leftovers and use it for a meal or two during the week with little to no prep.
Quick-ish Marinara Sauce
1 large onion, diced very finely
3 stalks of celery, diced finely
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot (use a vegetable peeler or a micro planer to peel or zest until the carrot’s just a pile of peels or zest)
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 – 8 ounce can of tomato paste
2 – 28 cans of crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
1 cup of vegetable stock or water
1/2 cup of white or red wine (your preference, I used white becuse my tomatoes needed brightening) or use additional vegetable stock or water
1/4 teaspoon of oregano
1/4 teaspoon of marjoram
1/4 teaspoon of thyme
1/4 teaspoon of dried basil (if not using fresh basil below, double the amount)
1/4 teaspoon of rosemary
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
10 fresh leaves of basil, chopped
salt to taste (I used about a teaspoon this time to get it where I like it)
Dice your onions and celery, mince your garlic, and zest or peel your carrot.
Diced OnionsDiced Celery
In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add your onions, celery, garlic and carrots. Saute them until the onions and celery are somewhat translucent.
Onions, celery, garlic, and carrots being sauted
Add the contents of the can of tomato paste and stir it into the vegetables so it is equally distributed throughout. Then add your cans of crushed tomatoes, the vegetable stock, and the white wine. Stir thoroughly. Reduce the heat to medium low (about 3-4 on my burner dial).
Add your oregano, marjoram, thyme, dried basil, rosemary and black pepper to the sauce and stir to incorporate the spices into the sauce. Chop your basil if you have not already, and add it to the sauce, again stirring thoroughly.
Marinara simmering
Continue to simmer your sauce on medium low until the carrot has dissolved completely into the sauce and the sauce is the consistency you prefer (for me, this is about an hour or so). Once you have reached that point, taste your sauce to see if it needs any salt and add it at that time. I found that I needed about 1/2 of a teaspoon. If you find that your sauce is too acidic, sometimes I will add about a teaspoon of brown sugar and that helps.
Stay tuned for the meatball recipe to be posted in two weeks!
This summer hasn’t been brilliant for me and cooking. Let’s be honest — it was brutally hot and often humid, and I’ve been busy. But hey, since when is that just a summer thing? Here’s a second “idea” recipe of the summer — the “idea” part being that you can change up almost all of the ingredients and the concept will still work. Actually, that’s also the whole point of this recipe.
You know those weeks where you have a lot of random leftovers around? Or ingredients you didn’t use quite all of? Last week, that was me — a fridge full of random, and a planned long weekend vacation at the end of the week. So I shopped strategically and left my empty fridge alone over the weekend.
With half a bag of shredded carrots, most of a cucumber, some broccoli, leftover brown rice pasta, half an avocado, and a packet of tuna, I managed four meals by adding one key ingredient — ranch dressing (check out our cashew-based recipe, but you can also try the Earth Balance mayo version). I know that you likely come here for new and fresh recipes, and this isn’t exactly a recipe. But occasionally, I need a reminder that good, healthy, tasty food is not hard and does not need to take forever to make.
This kind of salad is one of my favorite things to eat for lunches, but I make a few, get a bit tired of them, and then seem to forget that they exist. Does anyone else do that?
Meal The First
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 cucumber, sliced in half and thinly sliced
1/2 bag of shredded carrots
2 cups of broccoli florets, broken into smaller florets
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Cashew ranch, to your level of dressing needs
Feeds two or makes two meals, with leftovers, so plate and then put the dressing on your servings
Salad, version 2
Meal the Second
To the leftover vegetables, and with the leftover ranch, add:
1 packet of tuna, drained
1/2 avocado, cubed
1 small tomato, sliced
1 cup of leftover pasta
Again, feeds two or makes two meals
Other Possible Additions
Leftover chicken/canned chicken
Canned beans
Any other vegetables you may have around
Leftover rice or other grains
Do you make salads like this? If so, what would you add? Any good ideas for exciting or unexpected ingredients?
Generally those of us with multiple food allergies can rely on very little in the way of packaged or convenience foods. Given that both Denise and I also work full-time, sometimes feeding oneself on a serious time budget becomes, well, problematic. When I still ate wheat, couscous was something I always had on hand because it cooked quickly and was a good neutral base for an easy saute of whatever was in the fridge at the time. I operated on the easy model of “beans, greens, and grain.”
This is a version of that — using a Lundberg brown rice couscous with roasted garlic flavor as the “grain” base for a nice stir fry of Swiss chard from my friend Mary’s garden. Add in a leftover sweet potato and a caramelized Vidalia onion and I had a good dinner with three lunch portions leftover. Add a can of white beans or some leftover meat for a protein boost, serve this as a side dish, or think up your own variation — this is more of a formula than a recipe, really, and one I honestly repeat over and over throughout the year for easy weeknight meals.
Gluten-free Veggie Couscous Bowl
Makes 4 servings
1 large Vidalia onion, halved and sliced thin
1 Tablespoon some form of fat
I box Lundberg brown rice couscous
1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed, rolled, sliced, and then chopped
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
1-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 sweet potato, cooked
salt and pepper to taste
Melt shortening/butter/margarine/bacon fat/olive oil in large skillet over medium low heat. When sizzling hot, add onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with oils, and cook low and slow until well-browned, about 45 minutes or so. Stir occasionally.
If you need to cook the sweet potato, throw it in the oven at 375F after washing it and poking vent holes in the skin. I’d personally suggest making more than one and use the leftovers in another dish later in the week.
In a separate stockpot, bring water to a boil as directed on the box of the couscous. When the water is boiling, add the seasonings (if you can have them) and the couscous. Cover, reduce heat, and set the timer — again, basically follow the directions on the box, omitting the seasoning if you cannot have them.
While these things cook, wash and drain the chard leaves. Chop off the stems. Slice these thinly like celery and set aside. Stack the leaves, and then roll them up tightly to slice thinly to create small ribbons of chard. Cut lengthwise along the leaves next, to make the ribbons shorter.
When the onions are finished cooking, remove them from the skillet. Add a tiny amount of olive oil to the fat left in the pan, if needed, and then add the garlic and chard in quick succession. Stir thoroughly, and cook until the chard is fully wilted (4-8 minutes).
In a large serving bowl, mix all ingredients — couscous, chard, sweet potato, and onion. Taste, and then season appropriately with salt and pepper.
