Mushroom & Leek Risotto

I am in love with this new recipe I made on Friday night by combining and adapting two different recipes. It's terrific! So filling, too.

Six things that surprised me about this risotto:

1) It tastes like it was made with chicken stock, even though it's totally vegetarian
2) It tastes like it's made with heavy cream, even though there's no milk in it at all (the only dairy is cheese, and that's optional). It really tastes like there's massive amounts of milk and cheese, but there's not.
3) It is really good cold! I ate it for breakfast this morning and it was wonderful.
4) I realized while cooking and eating it that it could easily be made without the cheese and would be almost as good, so with a few changes (noted in the ingredient list) it could be a great dish for vegans, dairy-allergic folks and anyone who needs a pareve dish.
5) It doesn't need to be a side dish - It makes a great main dish, too! We had it as the main part of our meal.
6) Making the rice itself was quick. It took no more than 20 or 25 minutes. I had imagined it would take forever, but it didn't.

Some tips: I call for you to saute the mushrooms and leeks in a separate pan but if you want you can saute them in the pot you'll be making the risotto in, and just remove them and set them aside in a bowl while you saute the onion and make the rice. This will save you a dirty pot, but it'll create a dirty bowl... Your choice!

Use the most flavorful vegetable stock you can get your hands on. I used Imagine Foods Vegetable Cooking Stock because it's richer than the regular boxed vegetable stock. You could also use homemade vegetable stock (if you don't have your own recipe, try my VictoriousVegetable Stock). For white wine, I used Kedem White Cooking Wine since it's so much cheaper than buying a bottle of real white wine. But skip that shaker of dried-up parmesan cheese! Stick to the real shredded stuff, or just do without.


MUSHROOM & LEEK RISOTTO

[Gluten-Free / Vegetarian / Vegan & Dairy-Free Option ]

4 Tbsp butter or dairy-free margarine
1 large or 2 small leeks, sliced (only white & light green sections)
1 lbs crimini ("baby bella") mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small yellow onion, diced finely
4 garlic cloves, minced
Salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups rich vegetable stock
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup water
Optional: 1/2 cup freshly shredded parmesan (plus additional to garnish)

In a saute pan, melt butter (or margarine if you want it to be dairy-free) over medium heat. Add leeks, and saute until they begin to become tender. Add mushrooms. Continue to sautee until both mushrooms and leeks are tender and leeks begin to brown just slightly. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small pot or saucepan, combine vegetable stock, water and white wine and cook until they simmer. Cover and keep over low heat so the mixture stays hot.

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft. Add salt and fresh ground black pepper. Stir in the arborio rice and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring to make sure the rice becomes coated in the oil. Stir in the rice and cook 1 minute, coating rice with the oil.

Add one cup of the hot stock-wine-water mixture and allow to simmer until the liquid is mostly absorbed (there will still be some visible but when you stir it you should see that it's very thick and most has been absorbed by the rice). Stir very frequently to avoid sticking.

Add the rest of the liquid, a cup at a time, waiting each time until the liquid is absorbed by the rice.

Taste regularly to gauge doneness, as the risotto should have a creamy consistency but each grain of rice should remain a bit chewy at the center. The rice grains should not themselves be mushy. If the last of the liquid's been absorbed and the rice is still undercooked you may add additional hot water, stock or wine. Stir in the cheese and the mushroom-leek mixture, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately, garnished with additional shredded cheese if desired.

Creamy Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup [Vegan & Pareve]

Here I am to apologize for yet another long absence from blogging, dear loyal readers. Being a full-time dietetics student is taking a lot out of me, combined with chronic health issues that have been wearing me down. I miss blogging regularly, I really do. I miss having a real back-and-forth with my readers and the excitement of trying and posting new recipes and photos all the time. Fortunately, I'm finally starting to feel way better. It's also autumn, which always makes me want to cook and bake. I made an amibitious and wonderful feast for Shabbos last week. I was recovering from a root canal (what fun) so I focused on soft, easy-to-chew foods. We had butter beans sauteed with fresh rosemary, white wine, red pepper flakes and onions (a perennial favorite of ours)... mashed potatoes... spinach sauteed with lemon zest and garlic... and though I rarely make dessert, I actually made two! We had baked apples... and a crumb cake made from Gluten-Free Pantry's Coffee Cake Mix, which was out of this world!

But the highlight of the meal wasn't the decadent dessert, it was the homeade Creamy Butternut Squash & Parsnip Soup. We are both big fans of Pacific Natural Foods' Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup and Imagine Foods' Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, which are both kosher (pareve), vegan and gluten-free. We always keep a few containers in the house and eat this otherwise dairy-free soup with a little low-fat sour cream (or my vegan cashew sour cream) and some spicy toasted pumpkin seeds on top - I find it's a healthy and easy way to make a salad or other light fare into a real meal. Soup is also great to fill up on when you're watching your caloric intake, as it's very filling. It is often low in calories, especially if you avoid cream-based or meat-based soups.

I decided to try making butternut squash from scratch for the first time ever, this time around. I wanted to do something a little different, and at the market the parsnips looked fat and wonderful so I decided to give them a shot. The soup turned out to be fantastic, with a perfect swirl of sweet and savory flavors, and I hope some of you will try it out and let me know if you agree. It's got a little kick to it, so reduce the cayenne if you're not into that. It would be perfect for Thanksgiving. It has a thick and creamy consistency but if you like yours a bit thinner, just add more broth, rice milk or water. I haven't frozen it yet but from my experience freezing soups, this one should freeze quite nicely.

Though homemade is always the best, there are times when we can't cook soup from scratch. For those occasions, there happens to be a promotion right now where if you order Imagine Foods' Creamy Butternut Squash Soup through the link I provided you can save 15% if you enter the code HAINGF25 at checkout. [Plus, save an additional 15% when you combine the instant rebate with your Subscribe & Save order--bringing your total savings to 30%. Offer valid through October 31, 2009].

Happy fall!



CREAMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH & PARSNIP SOUP
[Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Soy-Free / Vegan / Pareve ]

Yield: About 10 servings

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 lbs of cleaned, trimmed butternut squash (approx. 2 medium squash)
2 large parsnips, peeled
2 medium onions, peeled & roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
1-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cups vegetable broth (if I don't have homemade I use this kind)
2" piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
A pinch of ground cloves
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)
1/4 cup amber agave nectar (or other sweetener)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 1/2 cup rice milk

Cut cleaned, trimmed butternut squash into chunks or slices (about 1 1/2" in size, maximum). Slice peeled parsnips into 1/2" slices. Remove thyme leaves from woody stalks. Discard all but the leaves.

Heat large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. When the olive oil is hot, add onion and sautee until it begins to brown. Add garlic, squash, parsnip and thyme. Stir and sautee for 2-3 minutes. Add vegetable broth, ginger and all spices and herbs. Vegetables should be almost covered by vegetable broth, but it's fine if they're not completely covered. Bring to a boil, cover and cook on medium heat until the squash and parsnips are soft.

Once the vegetables are soft, turn off heat, mix in rice milk, and allow to cool a bit (I transfered the soup to a bowl to allow it to cool more quickly). Once it's cool enough to blend safely, either use an immersion blender to puree or carefully blend in a regular blender. If you use a regular blender and the soup is still warm or hot, do not fill more than half way - Blend in batches, and as you blend each batch return it to the pot on the stove. You can reheat the soup over low or medium-low heat before serving, if necessary. Add more rice milk or vegetable broth if you prefer a thinner consistency. This soup reheats well after freezing or refrigeration. Using a double-boiler or a heat diffuser, or adding a little extra liquid, will help avoid scorching when you reheat.

Serve plain or garnish with sour cream, vegan sour cream substitute and/or toasted pumpkin seeds.

Un-Cooking: Rochel's Purple & Orange Cabbage Salad

On this blog's Facebook fan page I mentioned that I was writing a blog post about a dish that's purple and orange, and I gave people a chance to guess. Mary Frances got it right on the first try, but I loved some of the other ideas - My mom picked "sweet potatoes and eggplant" and another fan picked "blueberry, orange and almond pie," both of which sound quite delicious.

But Mary Frances was right because she knew that since it's almost summer, I must be blogging a cabbage salad... yet again! Summer also means that it's time for more "un-cooking" - Recipes that can be made during hot weather without making your kitchen any hotter than it already is. I've posted before (a million times) about the cabbage salads that we live on all summer long, which are wonderful and crisp when freshly made but just get better and better the longer they sit in the refrigerator absorbing their dressing. The difference with this salad is how beautiful it is to look at - Bright orange and deep purple (my dad's favorite color combination). It brings a splash of color to an otherwise neutral-looking plate. In this case dinner was bean tacos and plantains. I hope the colors will appeal to some of my readers' vegetable-hesitant children.

But this is not my recipe, folks! Nope, I had no part in it. This is the foodblog debut of my wonderful partner Rochel's mad cooking (or in this case un-cooking) skillz. That's her picture over on the right hand side of this post. I made the tacos and fried the plantains, but Rochel insisted on making the cabbage salad herself so this recipe is 100% hers. The only change I made is to mention some optional alterations to the recipe. The spices don't have measurements because you'll need to spice this to suit your own tastes and your family's. Just be sure to make the cumin flavor strong... and don't skimp on the salt, either.

Rochel, you officially win the Prettiest Cabbage Salad Award for 2009. Your reward is flatulence my appreciation for how much of the cooking you've been taking on lately, plus some extra effort on my part to stop being such a kitchen dominatrix. Thanks for gently pushing me to learn how to let someone else into "my" kitchen.

For more easy "un-cooking" recipes for hot weather click here.



ROCHEL'S PURPLE & ORANGE
CABBAGE SALAD

[ Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan / Soy-Free ]

1/2 of a large head of purple cabbage
1 orange bell pepper
2 carrots, shredded
1/2 to 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 4 limes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Cumin
Optional: Canned mandarin orange segments or chopped pieces of fresh orange
Optional: Small amount of agave nectar, honey or other sweetener

With a sharp knife, cut 1/2 a purple cabbage into several wedges, then slice thinly across the wedges width-wise. Alternately, if you have a food processor, you can use its shredder function to shred the cabbage. Remove stem and seeds from the orange bell pepper and cut into long, thin slices. Combine cabbage, carrots, pepper and cilantro into a large bowl. Combine spices, lime juice and olive oil in a small bowl and then pour over the salad. Stir gently, making sure all of the vegetables are coated in the dressing.

Serve at room temperature. Stores well in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and increases in flavor over time. Can be refrigerated for up to a week.

This recipe has been posted as part of Weekend Herb Blogging, a weekly blog event hosted this week by Eat This.

Moroccan Cauliflower Recipe + A "Specific Carbohydrate Diet" Cookbook Review

[Photo: My New Year's Eve Dinner Table]

We decided to spend a relaxed New Year's Eve at home, with a movie, a bottle of wine, and a home-cooked Moroccan feast for two. What better opportunity to crack open some cookbooks I haven't yet used? Seeing as my partner has re-started the South Beach Diet and I'm doing my own low-glycemic food thang, the first book I went to was Eat Well Feel Well by Kendall Conrad. This is a book of recipes that comply with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

One of the perks of being a food blogger is having publishers send you new cookbooks to look at. Unfortunately I am way behind on cookbook reviews, so many months after receiving this book from Clarkson Potter Publishers, I'm finally getting around to using it, perusing it, and sharing my feedback here. I was won over by the beautiful color photographs in the center of the book. I must admit I have a serious aversion to cookbooks that don't have full-color photos, so the photo section of this book was a real plus. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is used to treat sensitive tummies as well as guts that have been damaged by Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulities, etc. Celiacs and gluten intolerant folks who eat a strictly gluten-free diet usually find that their guts eventually heal and are generally able to tolerate any non-gluten foods after the healing period is over. However, many of us have multiple food allergies or other digestive disorders. Others find that they continue to be sensitive to a variety of foods and have trouble with digestion long after they are gluten-free, due to damage to their digestive tract. A small number of people find that they simply cannot digest grains at all, and that non-gluten grains make them almost as ill as gluten-containing grains. This cookbook is based on the diet described in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Healing Through Diet by Elaine Gottschall, which is the bible of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The diet eliminates "virtually all starch and complex sugars" and features a balance of "smart carbohydrates, good proteins and fats, and essential vitamins and minerals." It is grain-free. No unfermented / un-aged dairy products are allowed so the diet is lighter on dairy than most. This way of eating has helped many people recover from life-threatening digestive disorders.

The difficulty of digesting grains has been explored in other books over the years, such as Against the Grain by Melissa Smith. I don't personally feel a need to eat this way, but many if not most of these recipes are also low-glycemic and low-carbohydrate and therefore fit well into my household's meal plans. Best of all they don't reflect deprivation, but rather an enjoyment of the plentiful healthy gut-friendly foods available at the farmer's market or grocery store. There are grain-free recipes for everything from grain-free Cashew Butter Tortillas to Peach Pocket Pies, and from Shepherd's Pie with Mashed Cauliflower to Tom Yum Kai with Coconut Milk & Lemongrass Infusion.

Tonight I tried my first recipe from the book, which was Moroccan Cauliflower. While it was the photo that first caught my eye, I was also intrigued by the unusual (or at least new to me) method used for cooking cauliflower. Although my favorite method for cooking cauliflower is roasting it, I think this will be my new cauliflower technique for when times is short or I'm trying to reduce the fat in a dish. By steaming the entire head of cauliflower without cutting it first, it avoids all the wasted little cauliflower bits that litter the cutting board when you try to cut a raw cauliflower into florets, because it's far easier and neater to slice a whole head of cauliflower when it's cooked. The presentation of this dish is lovely, and it might even convince one of those notorious cauliflower haters to reconsider.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe from Eat Well Feel Well. I hope you enjoy it, and have a fabulous, healthy and safe New Year!


MOROCCAN CAULIFLOWER
Adapted from Eat Well Feel Well by Kendall Conrad.

[ Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan / Soy-Free ]

1 medium head cauliflower
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed (use frozen garlic if raw garlic is too sharp for you)
1 tsp fine sea salt or table salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Trim the stalk of the cauliflower to the base, removing all leaves except the smaller green leaves closest to the head. Fill a pot with half an inch of water, place whole head of cauliflower in it (stem side down), and cover with a lid. Simmer on medium heat for 10-20 minutes (will vary depending on size of head, I had to simmer a medium head for about 15) until the desired tenderness. Remove from pot immediately, transferring to a cutting board or serving platter.

While cooking the cauliflower, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Lightly toast the ginger, paprika, cumin and cinnamon over medium-low heat in a small pan for 3-5 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and whisk into the liquid mixture, combining thoroughly.

Cut the cauliflower in 1/2-inch thick slices, transfer to a serving platter and drizzle all of the spiced oil over the slices. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve hot or warm.

OTHER CAULIFLOWER RECIPES:

• Lemon-Roasted Cauliflower with Dill

• Herbed Cauliflower & Green Bean Salad

• Aloo Gobi Matter (Indian Potato, Cauliflower & Pea Curry)

NOTE: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means if you click through the link and purchase something from the site I will receive a small commission that helps me pay for the costs incurred from running this website.

Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger: Karina's Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

Seamaiden of the vegetarian gluten-free blog Book of Yum is hosting another round of Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger, a blogging event in which we adopt another GF blogger and prepare one of their recipes. Last time I participated in this event, I baked gluten-free pita bread. This time it's the "Thanksgiving Edition" so we were all asked to prepare a dish from another blog that was thematically appropriate. I chose to prepare the vegan, gluten-free Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries from the blog Karina's Kitchen (a/k/a The Gluten-Free Goddess). Karina has long been one of my favorite bloggers. She has supported and inspired me ever since I entered the blogging world several years back. When she got diagnosed with a huge list of food allergies in addition to celiac disease, the gluten-free blogging showed their support for her in the Cooking for Karina event I hosted. They made it clear with their numerous submissions that she is one of the best-loved residents of the gluten-free (and food allergy) blogosphere. But I have to make an embarrassing confession: Though I've used Karina's recipes often to inspire my own cooking, I don't think I've ever truly and thoroughly followed one of her recipes! Until today, that is. I chose this recipe in order to use up the cranberries left over from canning cranberry applesauce a few weeks ago and to stretch myself by actually following a recipe for a change.

I was a little worried about what the texture would be like, because the recipe is eggless and I haven't done a whole lot of vegan baking since being gluten-free. Thanks to egg replacer and xanthan gum it actually holds together pretty well. It is beautiful when it comes out of the oven - It is golden in hue and the cranberries look like gems! I enjoyed it, and look forward to toasting a slice or two for breakfast in the morning. Do I lose points if I smear a little butter on your vegan recipe, Karina? Hehe.

The down-low on how I customized the recipe: I chose to use chopped hazelnuts as a mix-in in addition to cranberries, as they were on sale at the store (I initially wanted pecans, but they were twice as expensive). That was a good choice, because the ones I sprinkled on the top of the loaf before baking became lightly toasted which brought out their flavor and crunch. I used raw agave nectar instead of sugar (per Karina's suggested measurements). I would probably use a good bit more sweetener next time. I don't have a major sweet tooth but I think a little more sweetness would round out the flavor. I'd also cut down on the liquid a little bit more than I did, to compensate for the moisture from the agave. I baked it for 60+ minutes and it was still a bit too moist inside. The flours I used were 3/4 cup of millet flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, and 1/4 cup tapioca flour.

This bread has a really nice texture with little bursts of tart cranberry flavor. It is lightly sweet which is great for those of us who don't have huge sweet tooths or are trying to cut back on sugar. It has a subtle chai flavor and the pumpkin is present but not overly assertive so this might be a way to get some more veggies into your kids' tummies! It's easy to make successfully using mostly whole grains, which was a plus.

If you haven't checked out Karina's Kitchen, you've been missing out. It's worth subscribing to Karina's blog for the photographs alone! Stop by and congratulate her for just publishing Aftertaste in Exile, her book of paintings, poetry and photography.

Cabbage Salad with Lime and Fresh Oregano, and a side of Big News!

Our new apartment is coming together slowly but surely. Merging two people and all their respective stuff into one apartment and a shared life is quite a project. I am loving living in a spacious apartment with hardwood floors and walls painted lovely colors. I am also really digging the endless cabinet and counter space in our new kitchen (still unpainted and far from ready for a photo op!) New Jersey life is treating me pretty well, considering how ill-suited I am to suburbia.

I have a piece of news that I am sharing with some butterflies in my stomach:

I got accepted to the school I applied to, to become a Nutrition & Food Science major with a concentration in Dietetics! It's an ADA-approved program to set me on track to becoming, G-d willing, a Registered Dietitian. I am pretty darn scared but also very excited. Gonna be a full-time student for the first time in many years. It'll be an intense few years 'til I finish my degree, let me tell you. Anatomy & physiology, organic chemistry and microbiology, oh my.

It was 96 degrees today and our air conditioner is/was broken. It's been repaired but is taking a long time to get our second-floor-and-right-above-a-pizza-place apartment back to a bearable temperature. So I decided to do minimal cooking.

It's hot, my back hurts, and my partner is on the South Beach Diet. So this is tonight's menu for a laid-back shabbos (sabbath) for just the two of us:

• Ground turkey tacos on corn tortillas, with black beans, homemade salsa fresca, fresh guacamole and dairy-free/pareve sour cream (Tofutti, since there's no time to make it from scratch).
• A delicious looking Rioja wine from the fantastic kosher wine section at the ShopRite liquor store in Englewood.
• Cabbage salad made from the hugest cabbage I've ever seen.
• Sugar-free ice pops.
  

Nothing fancy. For tomorrow's lunch we'll have salad with quinoa topped with roasted beets and carrots, and some feta cheese.

Here's a recipe for the cabbage salad I made. It's a quick, light, no-cooking recipe with lots of flavor. A great crunchy topping for tacos or a side dish for any meal, especially a spicy summer meal. It's not so different from the curtido de repollo I posted as a topping for homemade pupusas, but I made some alterations that give it its own crunchy identity. Like most cabbage salads, it should get tastier by the day so I made enough that my partner will be able to take some with her to work on Monday for lunch.



The picture above is of the cabbage I used, which is the biggest cabbage I've ever seen. I picked up for $1.50 at the Englewood Farmer's Market today from a local farmer. Good grief, this thing is huge! I don't know if the picture really conveys its hugeness, but I took this pic to show how half the cabbage filled up the biggest, gigantic-est tupperware we have. It was about twice the size of my head, and will easily feed us for two weeks. To be realistic, I've called for one medium cabbage in this recipe, even though in my case it was really 1/2 a mutant cabbage.



Enjoy! Gut shabbos.

CABBAGE SALAD WITH LIME AND FRESH OREGANO

[Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan / Soy-Free ]

1 medium cabbage, shredded or chopped into small pieces
3-4 carrots, shredded
2-3 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 limes, juiced
2 tsp agave nectar or honey

Mix all liquid ingredients and spices (except fresh oregano) in a small container. In a large bowl, combine cabbage, carrots, and oregano. Drizzle the liquid/spice combination on top of the vegetables, mixing frequently. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours before serving cold or at room temperature.

First harvest.

My first harvest from our garden was a huge bag of baby dinosaur (lacinato) kale, which I turned into a big pan of this:



It's tofu, kale and tomatoes with parsley pesto and pine nuts. I will post the recipe at some point, but not at this moment because I'm a bit overwhelmed. I am in the middle of moving... to New Jersey. I am shacking up with my love. More on this later. I will have my own kitchen again - And some free time this summer. A good recipe for more food blogging, perhaps?

What are you cooking with harvest from your own gardens, or from farmers' market bounty?

Gluten-Free Kosher Product Reviews

It's been a while since I did any product reviews and since I now have more of a readership of people who are both kosher and gluten-free I thought I'd start doing product reviews more regularly of products that have a hechsher (a kosher certification) and are also gluten-free. Everyone accepts different hechshers, so use your own judgment or consult your local halachic authority if you have questions. In addition, I'm hoping these product reviews will be just as useful for readers who are halal or vegetarian/vegan, or who are just plain ol' gluten-free and looking for some new GF products to try!

NANA'S NO-GLUTEN COOKIES



Kosher Certification: Kof K Pas Yisroel - Pareve

Info for Special Diets: All gluten-free products are vegan and contain no dairy, no refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, cane or beet sugars, cholesterol or trans fats.

Review: I wanted so much to like these cookies or at least find them edible. After all, there aren't that many products on the market that are reliably gluten-free, vegan, have no refined sugar and are reliably kosher. So I was terribly disappointed the second I bit into the No Gluten Cookie Bars - Berry Vanilla. They were incredibly grainy, had weird crunchy unidentifiable hard bits in them, and had a weird berry flavor but no actual pieces of berry. They were impossibly dry and I couldn't really taste any vanilla - But ultimately, I don't think there's any flavoring that could have countered the horrible, inedible grainy, crumbly texture. I couldn't bring myself to take more than two small bites, and when I had a friend take a bite they spit it out.

The Nana's No Gluten Chocolate Cookie was more edible. It was very, very mealy - It tastes like they use a coarse grain rice flour instead of a finely ground one. But it at least tasted pretty chocolatey. I can definitely a child enjoying this cookie. I didn't enjoy it and could only bring my chocoholic self to eat half of it, but it is a healthier option for parents with food-allergic kids they prefer not to feed sugar to.

I hate giving bad reviews, but my conclusion about Nana's products is this: If these taste good to someone, I would guess it's because they have gotten use to substandard gluten-free products. Folks, you don't have to settle for low-quality products that don't taste like real cookies! If can make good gluten-free vegan cookies at home, why can't a professional baking company make an edible product?

You can purchase Nana's No-Gluten Cookies here or at your local health food store or Whole Foods.

PEREG QUINOA MIXES














Kosher Certification: Badatz Ateret Shalom, Badatz Yoreh De'ah, CRC of the US and Canada, and the Orthodox Union (OU) - Pareve

Info for Special Diets: All products marked gluten-free. Vegan, pareve, no sugar. No visible nut or soy ingredients but I haven't been able to verify that their spice mixture is free of these allergens.

Review: Who needs boring old rice pilaf when you can have all the flavor and texture of a pilaf combined with the unbeatable nutritional profile of quinoa, that legendary "supergrain" that's not really a grain at all? I took this photo at Kosherfest back in the fall. I discovered and tasted and photographed so many new kosher gluten-free foods, and then promptly neglected to ever do a comprehensive post about my discoveries. Oops. Then a few months ago I went to Rockland Kosher, a huge kosher grocery store in Monsey, NY. Among a bunch of gluten-free goodies I found there, they carried Pereg Quinoa Mixes, which I'd tasted at Kosherfest and loved but didn't think I'd find in any stores near me. I bought two different flavors - Quinoa Mix with Vegetables and Italian Style Quinoa Mix. They also make one with mushrooms.

These quinoa mixes come in convenient plastic jars so they can be easily poured for measuring. They contain all natural ingredients, and of course are gluten-free. The ingredients include spices, raisins and dried vegetables - No MSG or preservatives. No rinsing is necessary, unlike with quinoa bought in bulk. Just follow the simple directions on the package and you end up with a fluffy and attractive quinoa pilaf that has a good amount of flavor to it. I love these mixes - Though I make my own quinoa pilafs from scratch, sometimes I just do not have the time to cook. I'm not a fan of plain steamed quinoa, so having a mix like this means I can have a flavorful side dish in a short amount of time without resorting to nutritionally-empty packaged white rice pilaf.

I really enjoy these pilafs and am excited to see them on the American market. My only suggestion for improvement is that instead of following the directions on the package I recommend using vegetable or chicken stock in place of water, to add more flavor to the quinoa. I also recommend sauteing the quinoa in the oil for more than 20 seconds before adding the water.

You can purchase Pereg Quinoa Mixes here or at your local kosher grocery.

Herbed Cauliflower & Green Bean Salad A/K/A German Potato Salad Without the Potatoes

I've been having quite a hankering for German potato salad - Specifically, my "famous" Herbed New Potato Salad with Green Beans. Unfortunately, potatoes are super high-glycemic and are not considered "good" carbohydrates, and thus are verboten on the South Beach Diet, any low-carbohydrate diet, and the Glycemic Index / low-gylcemic approach to eating. What's a serious potato lover to do? Cauliflower!

I love cauliflower. I always have. Since eating a lower-glycemic diet I've been cooking my Lemon-Roasted Cauliflower with Dill and other roasted cauliflower recipes quite a bit. Another favorite cauliflower dish is my Aloo Gobi Mattar (Indian Potato, Cauliflower & Pea Curry) which I will also try making without potatoes one of these days.

Simply by replacing new potatoes with small florets of cauliflower boiled until tender, I was able to re-make this recipe into something healthier, more nutrient-dense and dramatically lower carbohydrate, without compromising the taste. I loved this salad, and it was even better a day and two days later when the cauliflower and beans had absorbed more of the marinade overnight.

I make a lot of salads and vegetable dishes that can be eaten cold on Shabbos since I don't cook on the sabbath. So I made this Friday to eat with my dinner, but also ate it for part of my lunch on Saturday. Heck, I even ate it for breakfast!

HERBED CAULIFLOWER & GREEN BEAN SALAD

[ Vegan / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Soy-Free / Gluten-Free ]

2 large heads of cauliflower
2 1/2 cups green beans, cut in thirds
2 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
3 Tbsp minced fresh dill
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 tsp agave nectar, sugar or equivalent non-sugar sweetener
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Optional: Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley to taste

Combine all ingredients except cauliflower and beans in a large bowl. Wash cauliflower well and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water by several inches in a large pot, and add 2 Tbsp salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the cauliflower are tender without being mushy. Do not turn heat off, but transfer cauliflower into a colander immediately, and rinse with cold water several times. Allow to cool just until they are warm but can be comfortably handled.

Turn the heat up under the pot of water and add green beans. Cook uncovered for just a few minutes, until green beans are tender but still crisp and bright. Remove from water and drain. If you want to retain the brightness of their color, submerge them immediately in ice-water until cooled.

Add beans and cauliflower to the large bowl that contains dressing. Toss very gently to combine, stirring from the bottom to coat cauliflower and beans with the dressing. Allow to sit for 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with additional chopped herbs if desired. Serve while still warm, or at room temperature.

This recipe is part of the Weekend Herb Blogging event, hosted this week by Swirling Notions.

Sesame Edamame Salad

I have been eating a lot of edamame. I don't normally eat a lot of soy, but edmame (steamed or boiled soy beans) are a favorite snack on the South Beach Diet (especially during Phase 1) because they contains fiber and protein and are easy to travel with. I was a little tired of eating edamame plain so I decided to turn these humble little beans into a simple side dish with more complex flavors. What I ended up with was a dish that would be a wonderful compliment to a chicken or tofu stirfry, miso-ginger grilled fish, or sashimi and brown rice, as well as other dishes that reflect the use of Chinese or Japanese seasonings. It can also be used as a condiment of sorts, to sprinkle over the top of fish or meat. This flavorful vegan salad is high in protein and fiber, and contains no added sugars. It is suitable as an appetizer as well as a side dish. I'm a big fan of the flavors and textures of this dish and I guess my mother is, too, because I had to keep swatting her hand away from the bowl. I can tell I will be making it again and again. I thought it would last me at least two meals, but I wolfed the whole bowl down. This recipe is easy to double if you're cooking for more than one or two people.

Notes on ingredients: By the by, my partner discovered pre-shelled frozen edamame at her grocery store. It's made by Dr Praeger's, of all companies! (They are a favorite for kosher gluten-free goodies such as fish sticks and potato pancakes) I have been unable to find them anywhere else, and they're not yet listed on their website, but check your health food store or kosher grocery for them. Next time I'll use these, as they'll spare me 10 minutes of squishing the beans out of their pods. As far as rice vinegar is concerned, the brand I prefer for this dish is Eden Foods Organic Brown Rice Vinegar.


SESAME EDAMAME SALAD

[ Vegan / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Gluten-Free ]

1/2 cup shelled edamame
2 tsp gluten-free soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp unsweetened brown rice vinegar or white rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame seeds

If the edamame you use are frozen, defrost them. Mix in a small bowl with soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Adjust sesame oil to taste. For stronger flavor, marinate overnight. In a pan over low heat, toast the sesame seeds just until they start to turn golden. Immediately turn off heat, and remove directly from pan to the top of the edamame. Stir slightly and serve.

Spicy Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens: A Gluten-Free Vegan South Beach Recipe

Changes are afoot around these parts. As anti-diet as I am on principle, I have chosen to embark on a new project - Kicking my major addiction to sugar and high-glycemic carbs. I've chosen to use the South Beach Diet as the framework for doing this. The general idea is that you start with a two week period (Phase 1) without grains, fruit, potatoes, sugar and other high-glycemic and high-carbohydrate foods in order to rebalance the blood sugar and get the body stopping craving high-sugar foods. This phase includes eating 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, with lots of vegetables and beans and lean protein and nuts and good fats. This is followed by Phases 2 and 3 which more or less involve gradually reintroducing whole grains and fruit (and, optionally, occasional small amounts of sugar) into the diet a little at a time until you reach an equilibrium that works for your body - In other words, until you find a way of eating where you're incorporating good carbohydrates into your diet while losing weight and fending off the sugar/bad carb cravings. It's neither low-fat nor low-carbohydrate, yet somehow it has worked for nearly everyone I know who's tried it. So when I made a commitment to losing weight and eating healthier for 2008 (a renewal of my Rosh Hashanah resolution - a second start is the advantage to having two New Years!) I realized this was worth exploring. I want to lose weight, but more than that I want my blood sugar levels to be stable, I want to keep myself from becoming insulin resistant since it runs in my family, and I want to stop craving foods that are addictive to my mind and body and bad for my health.

I have always struggled with inability to eat certain foods in moderation - Foods with refined sugar, potatoes, or "white" flours. As a gluten-free eater, "white flour" has taken on a new meaning - I now use that term to mean all the flours that are high-glycemic and/or not made of whole grains, such as tapioca flour, corn starch / flour, white rice flour, and potato starch. I will hopefully be able to find some kind of moderation with these types of ingredients in the future, but I have to start out by eliminating them.

I haven't been blogging much because in the past months I have been eating more healthfully and, frankly, I haven't thought that anyone would be interested in reading recipes that aren't gluten-free revisions of traditional gluten-y baked goods and other starchy favorites. The recipes people view on my blog most frequently are my breads and my cakes. The majority of the gluten-free cooks who e-mail me aren't interested in learning how to eat healthier now that they're gluten-free - They want to eat the same way they always did (what is called the "Standard American Diet" [SAD]). They want gluten-free versions of processed, refined, starchy, sugary comfort foods. So for a while I considered calling it a day. But I know that even if my posts on delicious and healthy recipes such as my Quinoa-Cannelini Burgers don't generate the comments or excitement from readers that my old recipes did, there is an audience for healthier gluten-free cooking. I know this from the fact that when I started blogging, most gluten-free bloggers were posting recipes for brownies, breads, and deep fried vittles - Whereas recently I've noticed several other gluten-free bloggers writing about transitioning to healthier ways of eating. I know that I do get e-mails thanking me for posting healthy alternatives. And I also know this blog is not just for my readers, it is for me - A document of the changes and growth in my own eating and cooking. So this is the next chapter in the life of Gluten-Free Bay, and I hope you will join me as I find new ways to approach food.

To kick off here is a recipe I whipped up last night when I needed a healthy and filling pareve dish that I could eat with both dairy and meat meals. It's great for Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. It's vegan, it's nutritious and it's full of spice. The beans and greens are fabulously smoky thanks to the smoked sweet paprika. Best of all, it used up my very last collard green harvest - I dug the last collards out of a pile of snow the other day. There is nothing like harvesting fresh vegetables in the dead of a northeast winter!




SPICY BLACK EYED PEAS AND COLLARD GREENS

[Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan / Soy-Free]


5 cups collard greens, rinsed and chopped or shredded
2 15-oz. cans of black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 bay leaves
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 large poblano or anaheim chili pepper, seeds removed, minced
1/3 cup wine (red or white)
2/3 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup water or vegetable broth

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot or deep frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sautee until translucent. Add the garlic and pepper and all of the herbs and spices except the salt. Stirring frequently, cook the spices in the oil for several minutes. Add the collard greens and saute, coating the greens thoroughly in the spices and oil. Sautee for 5 minutes or until the greens begin to wilt. Add all of the remaining ingredients and cover. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes or until the greens are tender. Stir regularly to make sure ingredients don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Serve hot, as a main dish or a side dish. Can be topped with sour cream, Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, or vegan cashew sour cream.

Ginger & Cardamom Poached Pears

My dear vegan and milk-allergic readers, I have not forgotten you.

This has to be one of the most popular desserts I've made, when it comes to the reactions of the people who eat the food I cook. I didn't expect that. I think I'm a pretty good cake baker, but when I tried this recipe for the first time at Rosh Hashanah dinner, I got more mmmmms and wows and ohmyg0ds with this deceptively simple fruit dessert than with the honey cakes I served it with. I made it again for Shabbat dinner on Friday and it was every bit as lovely as before. It would be a wonderful gluten-free vegan dessert option for Thanksgiving.

Easy but sophisticated is what I was going for. Peeling fruit does not equal "easy" in my book, so I didn't bother. If you'd like to try peeling the pears before halving them, go for it! This recipe works best with pears that are just ripe enough to have some softness while being firm enough to be handled without their skin getting easily damaged. How long you cook the pears will depend on how ripe they were to begin with - Five minutes on each side is plenty for a ripe piece of fruit. As for sugar, any kind should work. I have used raw sugar both times I've prepared this.

I sure wish these photos were better. The bits of stuff on top of the pears is ginger pieces, which I like to serve with the pear though they can be removed if you prefer. These pictures were taken before the sauce finished reducing into the dark, thick syrup that is drizzled on top of the pears - So the thin sauce you see on the pears is just the pre-reduction version of it, which I spooned on top of them before taking pictures. Imagine a thicker, darker and more syrupy sauce that can be truly drizzled across each pear. This recipe inevitably makes extra of the reduced ginger-cardamom syrup. The leftover syrup is divine, with its rich and slightly spicy flavor and sweet pieces of nearly candied ginger floating in it. It would be wonderful on pancakes or vanilla ice cream, so I like to save it in a little tupperware container for later enjoyment.




GINGER & CARDAMOM POACHED PEARS

[ Vegan / Pareve / Soy-Free / Dairy-Free / Gluten-Free ]

2" piece of ginger root, peeled
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp cloves (powdered)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2" piece of lemon zest
5 semi-ripe Bartlett or Anjou pears, washed and dried

Slice ginger root into very thin slices. Cut slices into narrow matchsticks. Bring water, sugar, spices, lemon zest, lemon juice and fresh ginger to a boil in a wide, heavy saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.

While the liquid is simmering, slice pears in half lengthwise and use a teaspoon to scoop the seeds out of each half. Place the pears cut-side down in the sauce pan and simmer for 5 minutes, then flip over and simmer for another 5 minutes. Baste occasionally with a spoon while cooking. Using a slotted spatula, carefully lift each piece of pear out of the liquid and place on a serving platter or individual plates.

Remove the lemon zest and cinnamon sticks from the liquid (you can remove the ginger pieces, too, if you like, but I think they're wonderful left in). Bring the liquid back up to a rolling boil, and boil until it thickens into a syrup. Drizzle 1 Tbsp of the syrup across each half of pear just before serving.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Gluten-Free Apple-Quince Pie

I got some e-mails asking me about the pie pictured in the post on my Pecan-Quinoa Streusel Crumble Topping. That's an apple-quince pie! I would have posted the recipe sooner if I hadn't been gallavanting around New York City with a bunch of gay Jews this weekend. Have you ever cooked with quince? It's a hard autumn fruit that looks like a hard and somewhat lumpy cross between an apple and a pear. It tastes unpleasantly astringent when raw but is delicious when cooked down with plenty of sweetener (agave nectar, in my case), and has a flavor that is fragrant, mild and apple-y. The texture is firmer and more grainy than an apple, which makes it stand up well to a long cooking time. Apples and quinces are lovely together. Quinces take much longer to cook than apples, so cooking them together results in an apple-quince "sauce" with a wonderful consistency - The apples will nearly dissolve into sauce while the quince retains just enough of its firmness to give the filling a good bite and appearance. I discovered later that I used unripe quinces, so keep an eye out for yellow quinces rather than the green ones I used, and they will take less time to cook.


The pie was fantastic, if not entirely photogenic. I used the Natural Feast Gluten-Free Frozen Pie Shells again. As I mentioned in this post they are gluten-free, vegan, kosher (pareve) and free of refined sweeteners. They are also free of soy and nuts. They're no replacement for a homemade crust, but they work well in a pinch. Since they come in packages of two, I had one left after making that delicious apple-raspberry pie, so I used the remaining one for this pie. This recipe calls for a pre-baked crust - If you use the Natural Feast crust, follow the directions on the package for baking it without a filling, but cut the baking time in half, then remove the crust from the oven and fill it with the fruit filling. Once you fill it, put a piece of tin foil underneath and fold the edges up so it creates a loose partial tent around the pie, with the top open. This will keep the edges from burning.


You will likely have some leftover filling, but that's intentional on my part. I think the filling is just too good to only be inside one little pie. Eat the leftovers cold, like applesauce - Or mix with yogurt. Better yet, put them in ramekins, sprinkle with leftover crumble topping, and bake in the oven or toaster oven until the topping has browned slightly. An easy breakfast or dessert. Who needs a crust, really?



APPLE-QUINCE PIE

[Gluten-Free / Pareve / Soy-Free / Vegan ]

5 quinces
8 granny smith apples
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice mix*
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup apple cider
1 cup agave nectar, sugar or honey
2 Tbsp sweet rice flour**
1 Tbsp margarine (or butter) cut into small pieces
1 recipe Pecan-Quinoa Streusel Crumble Topping

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Peel apples and quinces, core them and cut them in thin slices - You can use an apple slicer for the apples, but make sure the quince is cut as thin as possible. Add all ingredients to a large pot, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the fruit is tender (about 20-30 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Pour the fruit mixture from the pot into a mixing bowl, and slowly sift in the sweet rice flour, making sure to mix it in evenly so there are no lumps.

Pour fruit mixture into a partially pre-baked pie crust. Use your fingers to crumble the streusel topping across the entire top of the pie. Arrange small pieces of margarine across the top, and bake for 20-20 minutes, or until the topping is golden-brown and the filling is bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.

*You can buy pumpkin pie spice mix from any spice company, or make your own.

**Sweet rice flour is not the same as white rice or brown rice flour, which are not good thickeners. You can find it at most Asian markets as well as some health food stores. It is sometimes called sticky rice flour, glutinous rice flour (yes, it's gluten-free!) or oriental rice flour. You can buy it online here.

Flourless Streusel Crumble Topping with No Refined Sugar

It took me a while to find a gluten-free crumble topping that doesn't use oats and has a texture and appearance that I like. I guess I'm picky about my crumbles. When I finally got this recipe right, I was pleased as punch. Now I can actually convince myself that pie is health food! This crumble topping is especially for those of us who choose to avoid refined sugar, which is the backbone of the crumble toppings usually used on top of fruit crisps, pies and some bar cookies. I created this crumble topping as a healthier, whole grain alternative, free of cane sugar and full of crumbly texture and sweet, nutty flavor. I hope it will help somebody out there transform some plain old fruit or a topless pie (ha!) into something truly worthy of oohs and aahs.

Though certified gluten-free oats are now available, they are hard to find in local stores and are very expensive. There are also celiacs who cannot digest even these certified oats. So some of us still have the need for a gluten-free crumble topping that is made with alternative ingredients. This recipe relies on the versatility of pecans and the oat-like texture and outstanding nutritional profile of Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes for its texture. I buy quinoa flakes locally for around $3 per package. I hear there are other companies besides Ancient Harvest that make quinoa flakes, but this is the only brand I've found in stores here and I'm quite happy with it as a baking ingredient and a hot cereal for chilly mornings.

I have tried this recipe with both honey and agave nectar, and honey creates a much better crumb and holds the sweetness better when the crumble is baked. However, if you need to make this strictly vegan, agave nectar will certainly do the job.

Feel free to use butter (as if you needed my permission!) I've called for non-hydrogenated margarine only because I often like to make my pies pareve so that I can eat them at both meat and dairy meals. I would definitely choose butter if I didn't need this versatility, because butter makes everything better. My good buddy L of A Question Mark taught me that. Using butter would also make this recipe soy-free.

I have a tupperware of leftover crumble in my refrigerator after using it to top a pie I made the other day. I can't wait to go to the farmer's market to buy whatever's in season to transform into a delicious fruit crisp.

PECAN-QUINOA STREUSEL CRUMBLE TOPPING

[ Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan ]

1 cup pecans
3 Tbsp non-hydrogenated vegetable margarine (such as Earth Balance), softened slightly
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
3 to 4 Tbsp honey or agave nectar
Pinch of salt

In a food processor with blade attachment, process pecans until they are in nearly uniform small chunks (see picture below). If you have a plastic blade or mixer attachment, attach it and add the rest of the ingredients. If you only have a metal blade, pulse ingredients as slowly and minimally as possible. Process only until ingredients are well combined and form a uniform, crumbly mixture. Use your fingers to crumble it into small pieces over the top of a pie, fruit crisp, muffins, or other baked good. Place dish into a preheated oven at 400 F. Bake until the crumble topping is browned but not burnt (watch carefully to make sure the top doesn't char), approximately 20 minutes.

Here's what the pecans should look like before you add the other ingredients:

Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Apple Raspberry Pie.

I love pie. I've never met a pie I didn't love, though sadly some pies just don't love me back.

This is a vegan gluten-free apple-raspberry pie with a crumble topping, made with no refined sugar and all local fruit. It was improvisational, and I didn't write the recipe down - I mixed up apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh raspberries, a little Earth Balance margarine, agave nectar and some lemon juice and a little cornstarch (or was it arrowroot starch or sweet rice flour?) for the filling. I will post the delicious whole-grain crumb topping recipe one of these days, I promise. It turned out deliciously. I have another frozen gluten-free pie crust in my freezer just waiting to be turned into another pie, so a recipe should be forthcoming in the next week or so.

The pie crust is this one, which I bought at my local Hannaford:

If you don't have a Hannaford near you, you can buy it from Gluten-Free Mall. They come in packages of two, and are vegan, kosher, gluten-free and free of refined sugar. Though my homemade pie crusts are better, these frozen guys are pretty darn decent and so very, very convenient.

Yum.

My Famous Herbed New Potato Salad with Green Beans

We all have recipes that have become legendary in our families or our communities. The cake you made 5 years ago that your mother still raves about to all your relatives. The quinoa salad people ask you how to make on a regular basis. The grilled flank steak that your entire circle of friends ask you to cook every time there's a BBQ. The kugel you brought to the synagogue seder one year that people now expect you to make each and every year.

My own "famous" recipes (here in the off-line world, that is) are my Passover nut loaf, which I haven't yet posted here because it is still classified as Top Secret; my potato latkes; and my "German" potato salad which I've made for numerous BBQ's and potlucks over the years. Being that it's not really so German at all, I've decided this is as good an opportunity as ever to re-christen it with a more accurate and gourmet-sounding name. So allow me to introduce you to my Herbed New Potato Salad with Green Beans. It is inspired by the potato salad my dad made for us when I was growing up. It is best served slightly warm or at room temperature, but tastes fabulous cold as well. The leftovers are fantastic. It is mayonnaise-free... vegans, mayo-haters and cholesterol-watchers rejoice! I like it a whole lot, and I hope you do, too.

Tell me: What is your "famous recipe"?



HERBED NEW POTATO SALAD WITH GREEN BEANS

[ Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Nut-Free / Soy-Free /
Pareve / Vegan ]

2 1/2 lbs small red new potatoes
2 Tbsp salt
2 1/2 cups green beans, cut in thirds
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
3 Tbsp minced fresh dill
Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley to taste
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 tsp agave nectar or sugar
1 tsp ground black pepper

In a large pot, place well-scrubbed whole potatoes. Cover with water by several inches, and add 2 Tbsp salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender without being mushy. Do not turn heat off, but transfer potatoes into a colander immediately, and rinse with cold water. Allow to cool just until they are warm but can be comfortably handled. While the potatoes are cooling, turn the heat up under the pot of water and add green beans. Cook uncovered for just a few minutes, until green beans are tender but still crisp and bright. Remove from water and drain. If you want to retain the brightness of their color, submerge them immediately in ice-water until cooled. Add beans to the large bowl that contains dressing.

Cut warm potatoes into 1 1/2-inch pieces (quarters or eighths depending on size of potatoes). Add them to the rest of the ingredients, sprinkle with the fresh herbs, and toss very gently to combine, stirring from the bottom to coat potatoes and beans with the dressing. Allow to sit for 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with additional chopped herbs if desired. Serve while still warm, or at room temperature.

Un-Cooking: Garlic Scape & Toasted Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Dear readers, please forgive my seasonal inappropriateness.

I tend to eat, and blog, both seasonally and locally as much as possible. My recipes reflect that. This pesto is something I made back in early July. I wrote the recipe down and photographed it, but never did anything with it. Today I was daydreaming about this pesto's delightfully complex balance between the sharpness and sweetness of garlic scapes and the nutty comfort of toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas), and I realized that though garlic scapes are now out of season (June is the prime month for them in most places), I should blog about this recipe before I lose the envelope it's scrawled on. So I hope you'll pardon me for blogging about a delicacy you can't obtain. See this as a reminder that as summer starts to wind down it is a perfect time to start thinking about what we look forward to cooking next spring and summer, or use it as an impetus for some of you gardeners to consider adding garlic to your garden plans for next year!

Since most of us don't follow recipes without tweaking them a bit, it occurred to me that this recipe could be a great jumping-off point for some experimentation. Maybe this recipe would be fabulous with lightly sauteed scallions and/or roasted garlic instead of scapes. Or with lightly steamed green beans pureed into the pesto with raw garlic. I can imagine that roasted leeks would also be a wonderful replacement for scapes. As far as I'm concerned, finding replacements for seasonal ingredients is always an enjoyable challenge.

"What is a garlic scape?" ask the uninitiated, whose ranks I was a member of until this year. Why, I couldn't explain it any better than this Washington Post blogger, who writes:

The "scape" in question is hardly a typo or a secret code word; it's shorthand for garlic scape, a part of the garlic plant that is a garlic lover's nirvana.

Here's the anatomy lesson: Garlic and its relatives in the allium family, (leeks, chives, onions) grows underground, where the bulb begins its journey, soft and onion-like. As the bulb gets harder (and more like the garlic we know), a shoot pokes its way through the ground. Chlorophyll-green like a scallion (maybe even greener), the shoot is long and thin and pliable enough to curl into gorgeous tendrils.

This stage of growth is the garlic scape, folks. If left unattended, the scape will harden and transform from green to the familiar opaque white/beige color of garlic peel. Keeping the shoot attached will also curtail further growth of the bulb. So, in an effort to allow the garlic to keep growing, the farmer is getting a two-fer with this edible delectable that cooks are just beginning to discover.

The pesto I created is vegan, and truly has no need for the usual parmesan cheese. It is sharp with garlicky flavor from the scapes, which mellows over time. The nutty flavor of the toasted pumpkin seeds is just wonderful. This pesto can last for quite a while in the refrigerator. Try it tossed with steam vegetables, or mixed with steamed rice or quinoa. Spread it on fish before or after grilling or broiling. Mix it with hot Tinkyada brown rice pasta. Thin it with some additional olive oil and/or water to create a more saucy pesto that can be poured over salad, meat, fish, vegetables or grain dishes. Use it as a sandwich spread, or eat it alone on a crusty piece of bread. This is a versatile alternative to classic basil pesto or my fresh and clean tasting summery Cilantro-Lemon Pesto. I hope that next spring/summer when you see garlic scapes at your local farmers' market you'll remember this recipe and look it up... Or create an even more exciting use for these beautiful green spirals curlicues, and share it with us!


GARLIC SCAPE & TOASTED PUMPKIN SEED PESTO

[ Gluten-Free / Soy-Free / Dairy-Free / Vegan / Pareve ]


3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, untoasted and unsalted*
Approximately 15 garlic scapes, raw or lightly sauteed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp nutritional yeast
Optional: ground black pepper to taste

Place pumpkin seeds in a dry, preheated skillet over medium flame. Stirring frequently, allow pumpkin seeds to toast until they brown slightly. They will puff up and start popping. Remove immediately from heat and pour into a bowl. Allow them to come to room temperature.

Cut scapes into 2 inch pieces. Add all ingredients to food processor and blend until smooth. Add warm water or additional olive oil to thin, if desired.

*Note: If you use pumpkin seeds that you removed from a pumpkin yourself (as opposed to pre-packaged, dry pumpkin seeds), you may want to try this method for preparing them.

This recipe is part of the Weekend Herb Blogging event, hosted this coming week by Real Epicurean.

Cooking for Karina: The Recipe Roundup

When fellow food-blogger Karina of Gluten-Free Goddess was diagnosed with a litany of food allergies in addition to celiac disease, she felt overwhelmed. To give Karina a hand in figuring out what she can eat now that she has all these food limitations, I sent a call out for participants in a Cooking for Karina food blogging event. The goal of this event was to create recipes that Karina can eat. This meant avoiding the following ingredients: Cow's milk, cheese, whey, casein, goat's milk, eggs, chicken, turkey, gluten (that includes wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut - and oats, to play on the safe side), peanuts, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, soybeans, lemon, avocado, pineapple, papaya, green beans and kidney beans. A great variety of mouth-watering submissions poured in from all over the blogosphere (and all over the globe). I hope this is helpful for those of you who are struggling with multiple food sensitivities and allergies, and maybe even those of you who aren't. Dig in!

Ever the ally to those with dietary limitations, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen crafted a wonderful raw recipe for Zucchini Salad with Tomato and Basil. (Photo above is courtesy of Kalyn.)

Meatballs a la Husband is a meaty contribution from Gluten Freedom.

Gluten-a-Go-Go isn't afraid to turn on the oven in the middle of summer, and baked up a wonderful gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free Olive Bread.

Lucy at the United Kingdom's Free From Blog cooked Karina some BlackEyed Bean Cakes with Ginger Onion Marmalade.

My own hot-weather contribution is Arugula Salad with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds & Grapefruit-Miso Dressing, made with fresh arugula picked from my garden. Use soy-free chickpea miso if you are allergic to soy.

Book of Yum is always out-yumming itself, this time with a two-course meal, Grilled Sesame Vegetables and Organic Farmer’s Market Fruit and Cashew Vanilla Cream

Peach Crisp for Karina is Sure Foods Living's offering to the Gluten-Free Goddess.

We'd go back to school in a minute for Gluten-Free Cooking School's easy vegetarian Vegetable Gumbo.

Wheat-Free, Meat-Free created a beautiful and vibrant Green Goddess Saute.

Sugar Delirium sent in a recipe for a fresh and colorful Quinoa with Tomatoes and Zucchini.

Coconut Rice with Mango would make a great breakfast in addition to being a delicious dessert. Thanks Mrs. GF!

TriniGourmet's inspired creation is a Carrot, Ginger and Cumin Salad.

The Chocolate Lady of In Mol Araan created a truly delicious looking non-traditional twist on a Jewish classic: Zucchini Hemp Seed Latkes.

If anyone knows about living with food allergies, it's AllergicGirl, who whipped up an Allergic Girl Variation on Burger Salad.

Italy's Lucullian Delights wins the prize for innovation in food presentation for her Zucchini Embraced Eggplant, Zucchini and Grilled Pepper Dice with Capers.

Smart & Tasty Kefir Power Smoothie is made with dairy-free coconut kefir to give you a shot of those much-needed probiotics. Thanks to CeliacChicks for this beverage creation.

Instead of creating a new recipe, A Veggie Venture dug through their archives to find not one but dozens of Karina-friendly recipes!

Freshtopia served up a beautiful raw Vegan Alfredo with Marinated Spagini. They also posted this companion instructional video:



Edited to add: Missy of Food-Fan.net lovingly prepared a Provencale Prawn Soup for Karina (apologies to Missy for initially forgetting to include this!)

Karina, you are appreciated and supported by your food blogging community. I hope this roundup serves as a reference you can use when you get that "I can't eat anything!" feeling. This roundup has given its participants an opportunity to focus on the positive - Emphasizing what you/we can eat instead of what is off limits - which has been a useful experience for many of us. Thank you for all of the inspiration you continue to give your food-blogging compatriots and all of your readers!