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.

Sweet Potato & Leek Latkes

Everyone in my family's been trying to eat a lower-glycemic, more nutritionally sound diet for a plethora of health reasons, so I thought we could do with a little change of pace this Chanukah. Breaking with tradition is always hard, but it can also be a good opportunity to try new recipes and create new relationships with ingredients. Tonight's experiment was one of those times when pushing the boundaries of "Jewish food" was well worth it. You may have noticed I am a big fan of the fried leek. In these latkes, the warm, mellow onion flavor of leeks compliment the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.

In addition to being healthier than traditional potato latkes, these sweet potato pancakes have a few other differences. They are less messy and easier to make. Because they don't have the potato starch that is so plentiful in white potatoes, they need a lot more help binding - Additional eggs and potato starch will do the trick (if you don't have potato starch, try tapioca or sweet rice flour - But stay away from grainier gluten-free flours such as regular white rice flour). Even with extra binder added, they have a looser and less sticky consistency so they need to be formed and placed in the oil and flipped with extra TLC. They take a bit longer to cook than regular white potato pancakes, so make sure to keep the oil turned down just a little below the heat you'd use for white potato latkes which will give them longer for the insides to cook before they become crispy around brown around the outer edges.

I recommend serving these tasty vegetable pancakes with sour cream or non-dairy cashew sour cream, but applesauce also works as a condiment. Chag sameach!



SWEET POTATO & LEEK LATKES

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

3 extra large sweet potatoes
3 large leeks
5 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Refined vegetable oil (preferably canola or corn oil)

Preheat oven to 200F (if you will need to keep the latkes warm).

Cut sweet potatoes lengthwise so that they are narrow enough to fit through the shoot of a food processor. Using the grater attachment of a food processor, shred the sweet potatoes. Alternately, use the largest holes on a box grater to grate the potatoes by hand.

Rinse the leeks well. Cut the dark green tops off of the leeks, as well as removing the roots from the very bottom. Cut in half lengthwise, and then slice widthwise in very thin slices. Combine the leeks with the grated potato in a large mixing bowl. Add salt, egg, and a generous amount of black pepper. Gently sprinkle potato starch across the top, then stir to combine thoroughly.

Heat 1/3 inch of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat, until just below the smoking point.

Use your hands to pat a small handful of batter into a small, thin (no more than 1/3" thick) pancake. Gently lower each pancake into the hot oil. Press each latke with the back of a slotted spatula so that it becomes flatter and thinner. Fry until completely golden-brown on the bottom and crispy around the outside corners. Flip and brown on the second side. If the outside is getting browned and crispy before the inside has a chance to cook sufficiently, turn the burner down just slightly.

Transfer latkes to a plate lined with paper towels or several layers of brown paper (I use grocery bags). Allow paper to absorb excess oil, then transfer latkes to a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet in the preheated oven, where they will stay warm until ready to serve. Serve hot.

Extra latkes can be frozen on a baking sheet in the refrigerator, with parchment paper or freezer paper between the layers. When frozen, transfer to ziploc bags. Reheat in oven on 400 degrees F.

Serves 4.

A Gluten-Free Chanukah

Photo: First night of Chanukah at my parents' house

How did Chanukah creep up on us so fast? It's only the first week of December! Oh that whacky Jewish calendar (or a whacky Gregorian calendar, really). I didn't really have time in between Thanksgiving and now to cook up some new Chanukah recipes, so I'm going to have to regurgitate (metaphorically) some oldies but goodies. To save folks the trouble of digging through the archives, here's a roundup of my Chanukah recipes from last year, as well as a few recipes that aren't Chanukah specific but would be appropriate for this week's festive meals. It is a custom for this holiday to eat foods that are fried in oil, in honor of the miracle of one night's worth of oil lasting for eight nights in the Chanukah story. The oil burned for eight nights, we light eight candles, we gain at least eight pounds and spell the holiday's name at least eight ways.

Happy Chanukah / Hanukkah / Hanukah everyone!

GLUTEN-FREE CHANUKAH RECIPES

Parsnip & Carrot Confetti Latkes


Traditional Gluten-Free Latkes (Potato Pancakes)


Celery Root & Potato Latkes


Homemade Cranberry Applesauce & Traditional Applesauce


Vegan Cashew Sour Cream


Gluten-Free Sufganiyot (Jelly Donuts)


Chocolate-Dipped Apricot Gelt


OTHER FRIED GOODIES


Leek Fritters (Prassokeftedes)


Gluten-Free Fried Mozzarella Sticks


Fried Leeks with Tarragon Vinegar

Sample Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menus

Since I know there are always folks who are looking for recipes or meal ideas at the last minute, here are a few possible gluten-free thanksgiving menus along with links to recipes.

MENU ONE:
THE GLUTEN-FREE TRADITIONALIST

Roast Turkey
Classic Stuffing
Cranberry and Pear Chutney
Gluten-Free Gravy
Kim's Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Buttermilk Biscuits
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Apple Pie with Crumble Topping
Persimmon-Pecan Cake

MENU TWO:
THE GLUTEN-FREE VEGETARIAN

Tofu Turkey Roast (Vegan)
Fresh Orange-Cranberry Sauce (Vegan)
Walnut-Sage Potatoes Au Gratin
Easy Vegetarian Collard Greens (Vegan)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Parmesan & Pine Nuts
Butternut Squash Timbales with Apple Chestnut Sauce
Scooped Biscuits
Cranberry Crumble (Vegan)
Pumpkin Cheesecake Creme Caramel
Apples Doused in Cardamom Wine

MENU THREE:
THE GLUTEN-FREE KOSHER OR DAIRY-FREE (GFCF) EATER

Maple-Cider Turkey
Gluten-Free Stuffing with Dried Fruit
Pumpkin with Cranberries
Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Parsnip & Carrot Pancakes
Cranberry Applesauce
Multigrain Miracle Bread
Apple-Quince Pie
Pumpkin Pie (Also see Part II and Part III)
Ginger & Cardamom Poached Pears

Have a safe and joyous Thanksgiving, everyone!

Looking for Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes?

If you are one of the thousands of people who've found my site this week by doing web searches for gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes, thanks for stopping by! To make things easier for you here are some links to recipes and guides for having a healthy and happy gluten-free Thanksgiving:

• You can find all of my Thanksgiving recipes right here.

• My 2006 Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup is a useful resource (it may be a year old, but those recipes are just as mouthwatering for 2007!)


• Hide & Seek: Hidden Gluten at the Holiday Table is an article I wrote about what foods to be careful about during the holidays. I mention various ways that gluten can lurk unnoticed in a variety of foods, and how to avoid it.


• The number one food related question that people with celiac disease seem to be asking this time of year is "What about stuffing?" Here is my easy and delicious Gluten-Free Stuffing recipe. It actually works best with the nasty, dry storebought gluten-free bread that most of us can find at a local health food or grocery store... the bread we curse at the rest of year ;-P
  


• Natalie of Gluten-Free Mommy created a recipe for Gluten-Free French Fried Onions, the perennial favorite topper for green bean casseroles, and then shows us how to make a completely gluten-free green bean casserole here.
  
  
• Here is my favorite gluten-free pie crust.
  


• Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl offers up A Few Ideas for a Gluten-Free Thanksgiving and How to Cook for Someone Gluten-Free (useful for relatives and friends who will be cooking for us for the holidays).
  
  
• Catherine of Gluten-Free Food Guide has her own wonderful post called Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes and Tips that is full of recipes and great suggestions.
  

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.

The Thanksgiving Kugel: Gluten-Free Noodle Kugel with Cranberries

I haven't been inspired by Thanksgiving yet this year, which explains the lack of Thanksgiving mania on this blog. But tonight I think the bug finally bit me, if only mildly.

This past spring I posted my recipe for Savory Gluten-Free Noodle Kugel, a hearty mushroom-flecked kugel made with Manischewitz brand gluten-free Passover egg noodles. I made a point of stocking up last Pesach so I'd have some of these fabulous noodles to last me through the year, and I used up another bag tonight making a sweet lokshen kugel (noodle and egg casserole). I still have two or three left, just enough to get me through to this spring when they are back on the shelves at kosher grocery stores. Though I generally prefer Tinkyada noodles for just about everything, there are a few things that a wide, flat egg noodle is better for - Kugel is one of them. The fact that the Pesach noodles are made from potato starch means that they are all the more absorbent, which is perfect for a kugel.

Our family has two different kugel traditions - My dad's side of the family makes savory noodle kugels. On my mom's side, it's sweet kugel all the way. Since I made savory kugel last time (and boy was it good) this time I tried to sweeten it up without overdoing it on the sugar. What I ended up with was the Thanksgiving Kugel. There are thousands of bubbes rolling over in their graves at the very mention of the words "Thanksgiving" and "kugel" next to each other. I'm usually a little bit of a purist when it comes to ethnic foods. But I think if any of those bubbes would taste this kugel, they would forgive me. The dried cranberries (or "craisins" as marketing gurus seem to have renamed them) really plump up like little sweet-tart gems and make a tasty replacement for the usual raisins.

I lightened the kugel up a little - Trying to make this kind of traditional food low fat is just not something I have the heart to do. But I did trim some fat from where the texture or flavor wouldn't suffer. If you like your sweet kugels really sweet, you'll want to add an additional 1/2 to 3/4 cups of sugar, since I made this to be a side dish more than a dessert. This easy kugel would be a really nice side dish for Thanksgiving, it works well by itself for breakfast, and it should heat up well in a toaster oven or conventional oven.

Eat it in good health!




THANKSGIVING KUGEL
(GLUTEN-FREE CRANBERRY NOODLE KUGEL)

[ Gluten-Free / Soy-Free / Vegetarian / Dairy ]

16 oz wide gluten-free egg noodles*
6 eggs
7 to 8 oz farmers' cheese
2 cups low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar or raw sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Butter or margarine for greasing the pan
Optional: Additional pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar for top

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook noodles until tender but not overly soft, remove from heat and drain immediately, rinsing with cold water. Set aside. Grease lasagna pan.

In a blender, combine spices, salt, sugar, milk, eggs, sour cream and farmers' cheese. Pulse until smooth. In a large bowl, pour liquid over the noodles. Add cranberries. Stir until well-combined. Pour entire mixture (including all "extra" liquid) into the greased pan. Dust the top with additional sugar and pumpkin pie spice.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the top is golden-brown and the egg mixture has become slightly firm (will still be somewhat soft - do not overcook!) Allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving warm.

* If you don't have access to gluten-free Passover egg noodles, gluten-free tagliatelle or lasagna noodles (cut in strips after cooking) will work, though the texture won't be quite the same.