dairy free

Gluten Free Peasant Bread and Quiche

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If you are following a gluten-free diet, then you know how hard it is to find a good peasant bread, or really any bread that feels special enough for holiday events or gifting. This peasant bread recipe is that something special. It is easy enough for novice bakers and can be made into an herb bread if desired. The texture is perfect for accompanying soups and salad, or just cutting off a piece and adding any sort of spread on it. I’ve  never had to toast this bread and I seriously cannot say that about any other gluten-free bread I’ve had, even the loaves of fresh bread from a nearby gluten-free bakery. Since spring brings with it Easter, Passover, Equinox celebrations, and Mother’s Day, I thought this would be a good time to share the recipe here although I have it on my previous blog so it might sound familiar to some of you. It’s the most visited post on that site by far.

The actual how-to will take you to another blog where I found a regular bread recipe that sounded like it’d be a good fit for gluten-free flours. This is because it is a no-knead bread, and that works well for gluten-free breads since kneading is done to activate gluten’s stickiness, but other flours do not react the same way. Gluten-free breads are always made with several different flours and starches in an effort to mimic that ‘glue’ that gluten naturally gives to wheat, rye, and barley. I use a lot of oat flour in my breads but you can substitute other gf flours or even just go with a gf bread mix such as one from Jovial, Pamela’s, or Manini’s. I find the bread turns out best with the flour combination below, but the pre-made mixes are great in a pinch, though if you do use one, adjust the salt according to how much the mix already has in it. (You’ll have to do a bit of educated guesswork.) Those three websites all have great recipes by the way, so if you are looking for more gluten-free ideas, check them out.

For the Peasant Bread, follow this link to the how-to, but replace the flour with: 1.5 C of gluten-free oat flour, 1 C millet flour, 1/2 C tapioca starch, 1/2 C brown rice flour, and 1/2 C sorghum flour. You can add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder for a more even texture if you wish, and I replaced greasing the bowls with butter with olive oil to make the bread dairy free. When greasing the pyrex bowls, really layer it on because I’ve ruined several crusts with not enough oil on the bowls. I think it works even better to spray the bowls with either coconut oil or olive oil instead of just using the liquid version so you can really layer it on. Whatever you use, use a lot. If you aren’t gluten free, try it in the original form and let me know if it’s good that way too. I bet it is and it’s so easy!

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Make this bread with the quiche recipe below for a special holiday meal or just to make a regular weekday feel special.

This quiche recipe from Delicious Living sounds perfect for Easter Morning brunch, but the way Amy Palanjian has written it makes it actually a great weekday option as well because you can make it ahead of time and just grab on busy mornings. Either way, it’s naturally gluten-free without substitutions. Here’s the full recipe courtesy of Delicious Living.

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Picture is Palanjian’s

Thyme’s vibrant flavor enhances mild goat cheese and eggs and aromatically complements parsley’s steady flavor. Make these easy, egg-based bites up to three days in advance, and store in the fridge for a quick power breakfast on busy days.

Ingredients:

  • 1 shallot
  • 1 cup packed and shredded baby spinach or kale
  • ½ cup lightly packed, minced fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
  • 8 eggs
  • ½ cup crumbled goat cheese
  • ½ cup low-fat (1 percent) cottage cheese
  • ⅓ cup cornmeal
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375°, and grease a standard muffin tin with cooking spray.
  2. Chop shallot, greens, parsley and thyme in a food processor. Stir together with remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Divide evenly into prepared pan, filling each cup about two-thirds full.
  3. Bake for 20–22 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool for 2 minutes in pan, and run a paring knife around edges to loosen. Serve warm.

PER SERVING: 87 cal, 4g fat (2g mono, 1g poly, 2g sat), 127mg chol, 201mg sodium, 5 carb (0g fiber, 0g sugars), 7g protein

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Gluten Free Snacks

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These are new snacks that arrived in my New Hope Blogger Box that would be great additions to a holiday gift basket or as party food. These are all gluten and dairy free, with clean ingredient lists that you can feel good about sharing.

My favorite of these products is the Thrive Tribe Paleo Bites. These aren’t the kind of product I normally buy so they surprised me with how delicious and snack-able they are, uh, actually were. My oldest son and I finished them off quite quickly. The vanilla in these is the predominant taste and we’ll be buying these again for sure.

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My son also loved these gimMe Seaweed snacks. He likes to snack on the regular seaweed so I gave him these which have extra crunch with the added ingredients, and he really enjoyed them. I’ll be getting more of these too and with only 100 calories per package, that’s quite a healthy lunch box addition.

Jackson’s Honest  chips are as clean as you can get, and the colors are incredibly vibrant which speaks to the quality of the foods and their minimal processing. The sweet potato chips are just sweet potatoes, coconut oil, and salt. The purple potato chips are just potatoes, coconut oil, and salt. That’s it! Their company is on a mission to bring more healthy oils to the table because they have helped the owner’s oldest son who has a rare autoimmune condition. This is a company you can feel especially good about supporting, and about eating and sharing.

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The R.W. Garcia Co. chips are a nice change from a regular tortilla chip. They are flavorful on their own with the hummus coming through much more than the red pepper. Both my sons gave their thumbs up and my youngest is an extremely tough customer to please so these are sure to be crowd favorites.

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Happy snacking and merry-making! Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos Gluten-Free and Vegan

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This is a post from around this time of year three years ago from my first blog. I’m hoping to get all the relevant recipes over here now. We actually are not hosting Thanksgiving this year but I still need to bring a few dishes…tacos instead of turkey? Maybe….

Just when I thought I never wanted another corn tortilla again, I got a craving for a taco with some sort of orange veggie in it. Whenever we go out to dinner we often go to one of two places where I order a butternut squash quesadilla. I love them, but I hate dealing with squash and its hard shell that eats knives for lunch so I have never attempted to make them myself. It got me thinking though that wouldn’t a sweet potato taste just as good in that kind of meal? And if I could eliminate the cheese it’d be even better for our family, so onto the web I went and sure enough there are plenty of recipes for sweet potatoes and black beans together in all sorts of fashions~ tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc. I went the taco route and used several different recipes to cobble together what is written below to work with what I had in my refrigerator. My husband and oldest son loved these by the way, as did I, and my youngest who only gathered enough courage to try one black bean and one piece of sweet potato admitted the black bean wasn’t bad. That says more to me than the fact that my husband is generally not a huge sweet potato fan, nor a big black bean fan, and really he prefers flour tortillas and definitely cheese and preferably meat. This recipe outshined all that. It is a keeper. (Unfortunately, the pics I took are not very good. Next time I make this, I’ll take better ones.)

Vegan, Gluten-free Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

1.5 T vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil and olive oil)

1/2 t salt

1 yellow or red onion (I used red b/c that is what I had and the purple hue was so pretty)

1 pepper (I used 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper, but orange or green would work)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium-large sweet potato

1 can black beans (or 1.5 c if using dried beans)

1 t cumin

freshly ground pepper to taste

corn tortillas

guacamole (or avocados)

Preheat oven to 400. Using a large cast iron pan or some other oven-friendly pan* sauté the onions, peppers, and garlic until the onions are translucent in 1 T of vegetable oil. (I used sunflower oil). In a bowl coat the sweet potato which has been skinned and diced into bite size pieces with 1/2 T of oil (I used olive) and 1/2 t of sea salt. Add this into the sauté pan and cook for 1 minute before transferring into the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm up the rinsed and drained beans on medium with 1 t cumin in a small sauce pan. Also warm up some corn tortillas** until they are soft. Take the pan out of the oven and if the sweet potatoes are cooked through add the beans and stir to get everything mixed together. Load the tortillas and top with guacamole or fresh avocados. It’s a symphony of flavors played just right. If it were up to me this is what I’d make for Thanksgiving, along with kale chips and pica de gallo salsa. It’s enough to make a pilgrim say, “Ole!” but alas, we are hosting this year and I’m going to have to stick to the more traditional items I’ve already planned.

 

 

* If you don’t have an oven proof pan, use one that you can top with a lid or plate and add 2 T of water to the mixture to steam it for approximately 5-10 min.

** I use Trader Joe’s corn tortillas b/c they are thick and sturdy, plus they are remarkably clean. Their ingredient list is all of: ground white corn masa flour, water, trace of lime. That’s it. Exactly how it should be. And they taste incredibly good, much better than any other corn tortilla on the market.

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