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1/4 cup of Denise’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix (I used the Gluten Free Girl’s post on gluten-free holiday baking and modified it a bit – to make 500 grams of the mix, you’ll have a bit extra to use for other recipes, whisk together thoroughly 50 grams of oat flour, 50 grams of teff flour, 75 grams of sorghum flour, 25 grams of potato flour, 125 grams of sweet or glutinous rice flour, 75 grams of potato starch, 50 grams of arrowroot, and 50 grams of tapioca starch) or use a safe for you commercial gluten free all purpose flour.
1/4 cup of brown rice flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground chia seed
1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning mix or (or a bit of oregano, basil, marjoram, sage, rosemary, and thyme to add up to 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons of olive oil or a safe oil for you
4 Tablespoons of water.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Dry ingredients in bowl
Then add the oil and water and mix with a silicone spatula until the dough holds together in a ball.
Dough after adding wet ingredients and mixing
Flatten the ball to a frisbee-like shape, and then place it on a sheet of parchment paper.
Dough in Frisbee shape on parchment paper
Place another sheet of parchment paper over the dough and roll out the dough between the two sheets to about an eighth of an inch.
Dough being rolled between two sheets of parchment paper
Peel off top layer of parchment, and use a knife to cut lines in the dough (don’t cut through parchment). The picture shows that I used a ravioli cutter to get the squiggly lines, but at the end it started getting clogged and stopped doing the squiggly lines because it all gummed up in the wheel, which was a pain to clean. Which is why I suggest a knife.
Dough after rolling and cut up into cracker size pieces
Transfer the parchment with the dough on it to a sheet pan.
Dough and parchment paper on sheet pan
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave the crackers on the pan to cool. Once completely cool, transfer to an airtight container to store, or just eat them all. That’s a viable option too. Enjoy!
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.
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.
If I’m completely honest, I have some mixed feelings about butternut squash. In some preparations, its earthy and fruity and warming. In others, I don’t know, but I don’t like it. For our holiday potluck, though, one of my coworkers made an apple and squash soup that was quite lovely and tasty. She share the recipe, but I ended up not really following it, tweaking the flavors to my own liking. This is a pureed soup, so a stick blender is really helpful. Though it has other uses, the stick blender shines when pureeing hot soups — and it is way easier to clean than the regular blender.
The apples bring out the fruity quality of the squash, and I really like the flavor of butternut with some spice, so the cayenne provides a bit of heat. The use of celery leaves adds flavor and uses a typically wasted part of the vegetable. If you want to make this easy, buy peeled and cubed squash.
Happy Squash
Butternut Squash Soup
1 Tablespoon oil (I’ve been using safflower)
1 sweet white onion, quartered and sliced
1 teaspoon salt
20 oz butternut squash, cubed (about one medium squash, but I frequently buy it chopped)
2 tart apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 3/4 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup celery leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/8-1/2 teaspoon cayenne
In a large hot sauce pan, add oil and then onion and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to brown.
Add the squash and then the apples, and cover, without stirring, cooking about 10 minutes with the lid on (steaming the squash and apples).
Add stock and stir well. Cover, bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until squash is soft and tender, 15-30 minutes, depending on the size of the squash cubes.
Add celery leaves, cardamom, and cayenne (adjust to suit your tastes), stir, and cover again. Remove from heat and let the soup cool a bit. Using a stick blender, puree the soup — or do it in a blender or food processor, in smaller batches, being careful with the steam build-up.
Reheat to serving temperature, or cool completely and reheat to serve the next day. The latter really allows the flavors to meld, so I’d recommend making it ahead if possible.
So the holiday season has brought with it the groaning tables of baked goods and candies, both homemade and not, and none suitable for the food allergic. So it’s time to make your own! I’ve made a few recipes of gluten-free vegan cookies, with mixed results (all edible, none outstanding, none of the recipes my own), but cookies are time-consuming and kitchen-consuming. So are cakes and pies.
Needing a last minute treat for the holidays, to satisfy my own sweet tooth, which spends a lot of time being teased these days, I wanted to try making truffles out of coconut milk and chocolate, with some added flavors to deepen the chocolate’s flavors. I had a great idea, but like so many great ideas, it didn’t pan out quite as planned — these didn’t set up the way I wanted them to, so I froze them. The result was a homemade version of those single bite ice cream treats that came out a few years ago.
They are super quick to make, with most of the time involved being cooling and freezing the chocolate. The dishes involved are minimal. These should keep for a few weeks in the freezer, and some of them are going to work with me for the mid-afternoon chocolate cravings.
Quick Chocolate Bites
Quick Chocolate Bites
10 oz of chocolate, chopped (or use chocolate chips)
13.5 oz of full-fat coconut milk (1 can)
3 Tablespoons good berry jam (strawberry, raspberry, black cherry), seedless recommended (and by “good,” I mean that I generally choose jam — and many food products — by looking for the one with the fewest number of ingredients. For jam, I prefer sugar be used rather than any other sweetener, and few or no preservatives)
1 teaspoon of basil, chopped finely, optional (the frozen cubes of herbs are great for recipes like this)
Put the chocolate in a heat-safe bowl, and set aside.
In a sauce pan, combine the coconut milk, jam, and basil, if using. Whisk together, and bring to a boil.
Pour the boiling coconut milk mix over the chopped chocolate, and stir until chocolate is fully melted. Let the mixture cool until it’s not steaming anymore, then cover and refrigerate until fully chilled (overnight is good).
Using a spoon or small cookie scoop, portion out approximately 1 Tablespoon dollops of the pudding consistency mixture onto a foil or parchment paper-covered cookie sheet, and freeze until solid, about an hour. Store in sealed containers or plastic bags. Use to satisfy chocolate or sugar cravings as they arise.
It’s fall (I’m not discussing the “winter” word yet, although it snowed here yesterday) with all those yummy, carbohydrate-filled veggies available. This dish is pretty easy but seems complicated to those who aren’t in the know. Also, although this may seem like a lot, it’s great as leftovers. I even love it cold over a tossed salad a day or two later. Try it as a new side dish for Thanksgiving, or for other potlucks this winter.
Roasted Autumn Vegetables with a Balsamic Glaze
Serves at least 4 in generous portions.
Balsamic Glaze:
I cup of balsamic vinegar (be careful, get one without caramel color, which could be dairy, wheat or corn.)
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Italian Seasoning (or a bit of oregano, basil, marjoram, sage, rosemary, and thyme to add up to 1 1/2 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
Vegetables:
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
2 small onions, peeled, cut in half and then each half cut into quarters
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
1 small turnip (about the size of a large tomato), peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
1/2 of a butternut squash (or 1 20 oz bag of fresh peeled butternut squash), peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
2-3 cups of brussel sprouts, outer leaves removed if necessary and stems trimmed, and cut in half
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Using an oil mister, or a bit of oil and a paper towel, grease a sheet pan.
Prepare all your vegetables as discussed above and put them in a large heat safe bowl. You’re going to be tossing them with the glaze, so make sure you have room to stir and work. Put the bowl aside.
Veggies in Bowl
Using a small non-reactive saucepan, add your balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning or spices, and the brown sugar. Over medium high heat, simmer the glaze at a low boil until the vinegar has reduced down to a slightly thicker syrupy consistency, as shown:
Balsamic Glaze after reducing
Once the glaze has reduced down, remove it from the heat and add the olive oil. Stir thoroughly.
Pour the glaze over the vegetables, scraping down the sauce pan so that all the glaze ends up in the bowl. Mix the vegetables and glaze thoroughly so that all the vegetables are coated.
Mixing Veggies and Glaze to coat
Pour the coated vegetables on the sheet pan and distribute them evenly.
Veggies spread evenly on pan
Place them in the oven and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how large your pieces are. You might want to test them with a fork.
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.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce – starting from upper left going clockwise, whole, jelled, orange, and apple
So, as some of you may remember from last year’s Turkey, Turkey Stock, and Turkey Rice Soup with Kale – Denise’s Annual Insanity, or if you know me in real life, I tend to be a lunatic about Thanksgiving. I make food in quantities and amounts that bear no rational relation to the number of people coming, and I go overboard about everything. One of those things is cranberry sauce. When I was growing up, my grandmother owned (still owns, actually) a farm which had a small lake and there were some cranberries growing in one end of it. She always made several kinds of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. Now the cranberry bog has been taken over by brush, but I still make multiple cranberry sauces every year. Also, it’s one of those things that looks really hard, but is a piece o’cake (if you’re not a crazed lunatic who is making 40 million other side dishes as well). I usually do the cranberry sauce a couple of days ahead, because you can, and because it needs to cool. If you want some cranberries on hand year round, buy a few bags and throw them in the freezer as is, and just use them frozen, i.e. don’t thaw them out first.
Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 – 12 ounce bag of cranberries
Wash the cranberries and pick out the soft, crushed and/or bad ones. Put the water and sugar in an nonreactive sauce pan and bring it to a boil over high heat.
Cranberries in Sugar and Water
Once the water and sugar is boiling, add the cranberries and let it come back to a boil. Reduce to the heat to medium and boil gently for 10 minutes. Pour into a heat safe bowl and let cool in the fridge.
Jelled Cranberry Sauce
Jelled Cranberry Sauce
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 – 12 ounce bag of cranberries
Do everything for the Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce above, except when you’ve finished boiling it gently for the 10 minutes, place a wire mesh strainer over a bowl, pour the sauce into the strainer, and use a spatula to press the sauce through it into the bowl, leaving the seeds and skin behind in the strainer.
Using Strainer to remove seeds and skin
Make sure you get as much of the sauce as you can through the strainer until there’s nothing left but seeds and skin. Frankly, I almost never make this because I don’t care, and not eating the skins and seeds seems like a colossal waste, but to each their own.
Apple Cranberry Sauce
Apple Cranberry Sauce
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 – 12 ounce bag of cranberries
1 peeled, cored and chopped apple
Follow the directions for the Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce above, but just adding the apple at the same time as the cranberries.
Orange Cranberry Sauce
Orange Cranberry Sauce
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 – 12 ounce bag of cranberries
1 orange, zested, and then peeled and sectioned
Wash and scrub your orange. Zest your orange, either with a micro-planer or use a vegetable peeler to take off very, very thin strips. Make sure there is NO white pith at all, as it will cause the sauce to be bitter. Peel your orange and then remove the outer skin from each of the sections.
Zest and Sectioned Orange Pieces
Follow the directions for the Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce above, but just adding the orange at the same time as the cranberries.
