gluten free cooking

Blizzard Lentil Stew

Here’s a yummy stick to your ribs kinda soup recipe for this cold stormy winter day.  Make a big pot so  you have leftovers for tomorrow… Lentils are good for you and hearty in stew for chilly days. I took a basic Italian lentil soup and kicked it up a bit with some changes and additions.  My daughter loves the Italian sausage in it and I love the kale added to the mix.  Kale is very trendy these days but I have been using it for years; this is one of my favorite recipes to make with kale.  It increases the nutritional value and the flavor of a soup.  I also like how easily it goes together.  If you hate kale leave it out; spinach is really tasty too in it.  I prefer fresh kale, don’t forget to cut off any tough stems.  In this batch I used a mixture of sweet Italian sausage and hot spicy sausage.  Lots of extra flavor that way!

This stew could be made vegetarian; use vegetable broth and leave out the sausage.  I don’t always have the parm cheese on it but it is very tasty with it.

 

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Lentil and Sausage Soup

Ingredients

¼ cup EVOL

1 cup diced yellow onion

1 can diced tomatoes

2 tbsp. tomato paste dissolved in ½ cup water

2 cups dried brown lentils, washed after measuring

2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1-2 quarts chicken broth, I prefer Kitchen Basics.  If you don’t have that much broth just use water for part of it.

1 lb Italian sausage (sometimes I use a mix package of mild and spicy links)

1 lb fresh or frozen kale.  Fresh is best; chop it up but frozen will do

½ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese, optional (for topping)

2 tbsp chopped parsley; can leave out if adding kale.

Directions:

Sauté the onion in the olive oil in a big heavy bottomed soup pot.  I use a heavy bottom as your soup will be less likely to burn.  Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the sausage; push the onions to the pan’s walls so they don’t burn.  Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Add tomatoes and stir up well, add the tomato paste in water and cook 10 minutes.  Add broth and season with salt and pepper; remove sausage to a plate to cool. Bring the soup back to a boil and then add lentils.  Cook about 45 minutes to 50 until lentils are done to your taste, add the potatoes 20 minutes into the cooking time.  Stir pot occasionally so it doesn’t stick.  Add the kale and cook 5-7 minutes.  While the lentils are cooking you should cut up the sausage into rounds and add back to the lentil stew when they are done.    Let the soup stand at least 15-20 minutes once it is done.  Serve in a wide soup bowl with a good sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese on top.  Perfect on a cold winter night to warm you up from  your tummy to your toes!

Clarifications…FYI…

Just a few brief comments about my blog posts to clear up some issues.  Sometimes people ask if I have even made the recipe I just posted.  For the record: I never ever post recipes unless I have made them myself.  Also, I don’t post stuff that doesn’t taste good.  I do not post recipes I myself would never make again.  I don’t say it is yummy unless it is.  cranberry tartlets 001

Secondly: The pictures I post are almost always shots I have taken myself; they are pretty amateur so I doubt anyone will believe I got them anywhere but from my own camera! I do use pictures of food products or boxed gf products I find on line; better than pictures I could take of the stuff.

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Next, I do cook/bake the vast majority of the recipes I post over and over again.  I just made a batch of my granola the end of last week and I made homemade instant oatmeal this weekend.  The pie crust recipes I post are the two I use constantly in my own kitchen. Those muffins I post about often, I make muffins on a regular basis; about every three weeks.  I made my chickpea pasta soup this weekend; a post from last winter. To be honest I often cook right off my own blogged recipes; quick and easy to find them and my blog has all my changes to the dishes so I can best replicate tasty foods.

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Finally, I never post stuff I don’t enjoy eating or that is crazy complicated.  I don’t post stuff made of bizarre ingredients, yes some things may be a bit unusual but I avoid ingredients I can’t find easily in my small town; either in the grocery store or the health food store. I want my food to be accessible: tasty, affordable and easy to replicate. Foods you would be happy to serve to company or just eat yourself when you crave homemade soup. I live to post yummy food for you to make.  I really do!

Pasta Fagioli Soup Will Warm You

The soup I love to serve in the dead of winter is pasta fagioli meaning pasta and bean soup, Neapolitan style.  It is full of veggies and flavor.  Not to mention beans and pasta.  Yes, I make it now with gluten free pasta, same recipe as always.  I use elbow pasta by Barilla; great flavor and held its shape well.  elbowsTry not to overcook it though as gf pasta goes from done to mush easily if you are not paying attention!  This rib sticking soup will be a meal if you add a salad and a slice of gf bread.  I made it for my family the other week with a lovely new bread recipe which I will have to share sometime soon.  It was a big hit.  Warm, flavorful, satisfying and sure fills the tummy.  I made it with dried beans I soaked overnight and cooked until pretty soft.  White beans work too, navy beans come to mind as suitable. You can even use a couple of cans of beans; I did it recently with cannelloni beans and a can of fava beans; very Italian…

My version has lots of veggies; if you don’t want them all; leave some out! My secret vegetable: I often use small cubes of turnip as they hold their shape well and add a subtle tasty flavor to the soup. turnips No one ever guesses they are in there; looks like cubes of potato.   Or add more veggies, what is in your fridge?  I have used green beans, summer squash cubes or peas.

Secret weapon: I always add a cheese rind or two saved from a chunk of Parmesan cheese. It really ups the flavor of the soup.  And if you get a bit of it in your soup bowl the oozy cheesy goodness will be your prize!

Pasta Fagioli Soup

2 cups of dried cranberry, navy or kidney beans, soaked overnight in lots of filtered water.  Be sure to pick over them for foreign objects.

1 bay leaf

1 quarter inch thick slice of prosciutto (leave out for vegetarian version)

¼ cup EVOL (extra virgin olive oil)

1 cup chopped yellow onions

1 cup chopped carrots

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped turnip

3 minced garlic cloves

2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

1 can plum tomatoes chopped (or 1 lb fresh ones chopped in the summer when they have decent tomatoes available)

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

1 to 1 ½ tsp sea salt

1 cup elbow macaroni, gf

Directions: Drain the soaked beans, rinse well, return to cleaned pot and cover with fresh filtered water, add bay leaf and cook 1-2 hours until soft. Add water if it gets low.  Turn off and let rest while you make soup.  Skip step if you use canned beans; do drain them and rinse. Just add them where you would add the beans you soaked and cooked yourself.

Heat EVOL in big sturdy soup pan, I like a thick bottom to keep the soup from burning easily. Add onion and cook 5-6 minutes, add garlic, stir and cook a minute, add prosciutto which you have diced up into small squares and the parsley. Cook for a couple minutes, add the tomatoes, carrots, celery, turnip, hot pepper and stir well.  Add a tsp. of salt.  Cook uncovered about 12-14 minutes.  Add any bean water in the pan. I often end up adding 1-4 cups of water during this point if there is no bean liquid. Mush up half the beans in a food processor or with a potato masher. Add to soup. Reheat and cook 5 minutes, add rest of beans, reheat and then add the pasta.  Cook just the length of time the box says, stirring it every 2-3 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed and some fresh black pepper.  Turn off and let stand 10 minutes before serving.  I sometimes drizzle some best quality EVOL on the top of each bowl before digging in. A big bowl of that will warm you up for sure!

Originally posted by me in January 2015.

 

Stuffed Squash for Winter Supper

Chilly days and nights demand hearty suppers. But your main dish does not have to be expensive or fattening. It can be gluten free and still tasty. This recipe is naturally gluten free.

I had some leftover hot Italian sausage. I had a sweet dumpling winter squash and a big red bell pepper. Some quinoa and an onion and I was in business to throw together a homey flavorful main dish. Add a salad on the side and it is a well balanced supper that can be baked and then seconds enjoyed for lunch. This makes 3 servings, can double the recipe easily, just bake it in a bigger pan.

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sweet dumpling winter squash

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I had the sweet dumpling on hand but I have made this same recipe with an acorn squash and with a delicata squash. A delicate is a small oblong squash with orange and green stripes on yellow skin.delicatasde

All three are great vessels for this riff on stuffed peppers. I happened to have a big red pepper and stuffed it as well.

Stuffed Quinoa Squash or Pepper

Ingredients:

1 sweet dumpling or acorn winter squash
1 large red pepper or another squash
2/3 cup plain quinoa, rinsed well
1 medium onion, diced
2 hot Italian sausage links
1 tbsp EVOL (extra virgin olive oil)
1 garlic clove, minced

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash from the tip to the blossom end. You probably should cut off that stem bit first; makes the cut easier. Scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Spray a small rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray and place the cut squash halves cut side down. Roast 30-45 minutes; check by piercing with a fork; remove when tender enough to stick the fork in but don’t cook it so far that it collapses. After the squash has been in 15 minutes add the red pepper squash which you have cut the lid off, emptied the seeds out and cut up the top third into small dice. Reserve the dice for later. The lower two thirds is a tasty vessel to hold more quinoa sausage filling.

Meanwhile, as the squash and pepper bake…. Heat 1 and a 1/3 cup of water, ½ tsp. salt and then add the quinoa, cover and cook 14-15 minutes.

While that cooks, put the EVOL in a frying pan, add the links which you have liberated from their skins. Cook 4-5 minutes, chopping them up as they cook. An alternative is loose sausage meat; 1/3 to a half pound should do it. Stir them up, flip to cook all sides. Should be browned but not burnt. After you flip them over add the chopped onion, cook about 3-5 minutes stirring often. Add the minced garlic and the top 1/3 of that red pepper cut into small cubes. Keep stirring and when the onions and red pepper bits are softening add the quinoa. Leave any liquid in the pan.

Stir the quinoa/sausage/veggie mixture. Heap it into the squash halves and the pepper half. Mound half the extra filling into a small 1.5 quart round baking dish. Place the three stuffed veggies on top and pour over the rest of the filling as well as any quinoa liquid in the pot. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. The veggie filling should be bubbling when it is done and the squash is tender to a fork.

Enjoy with a side salad. I reheated some of the leftovers for lunch the next day. It gives you something much better than something cold for your mid day meal.

If you don’t like red pepper; make it with 2 small winter squash and just leave the chopped pepper totally out. You could sub in half a chipped carrot for the red pepper bits. Use a mild Italian sausage if you prefer it less spicy or leave the sausage out to make the dish vegetarian. I am guessing you could try to bake it in your crock pot; maybe like 2 hours on high. If you try that let me know how it turns out. It is a versatile recipe for sure!

Republished from last winter in my blog (early 2015).

New Orleans Dirty Rice…Quick Version

 

I confess to a love of Cajun food, not too spicy though, for my tummy’s sake! I love gumbo and jambalaya and try to make them each at least once or twice a year. But sometimes, you get too busy for the time and effort of a big scratch meal production. Like during the holidays. For a quick change up in the meal routine I made some New Orleans style dirty rice using a Zatarain’s mix.

Before you freak out about salt or gf issues in processed foods, I did use their reduced sodium version and it is clearly labeled gluten free. It still has quite a bit of sodium so I wouldn’t make this every week but in a pinch; darn sure I will use it again. The box says it is 6 servings but I think it is more like 4-5 as a main course. dirty rice

Do like I did: jazz it up. I used a package of ¾ Italian sausage and ¼ hot sausage instead of the ground beef the recipe calls for. I added green pepper and onion too. Mission accomplished! Easy, tasty and gluten free. The meal trifecta at my house! But this recipe came with one added request: not too spicy. To tone down the hot I added an extra ¼ cup of brown rice and more water. Don’t get me wrong, it was a bit spicy but not really hot. You can leave out the extra rice and water if you want to breath a little fire. It is purely a matter of personal taste.

This is not one of those showstopper looking entrees but it has lots of flavor considering it is based on a box mix. Great weeknight supper choice; quick, easy and very tasty.

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Angie’s Dirty Rice

1 box Zatarain’s Dirty Rice Mix, reduced sodium
1 pound mixed sausage; mostly Italian links and a couple hot ones, casing removed (could use loose sausage)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup quick cooking brown rice; Uncle Ben’s has some that cooks in 20 minutes

Directions: Heat half the oil in a ten inch deep fry pan, I used a cast iron one and add the sausage. I used a wooden spatula and chopped the meat up as it cooked. Once it is getting browned on both sides add the pepper and onion. Keep stirring so nothing burns and all cooks. Add the other tbsp. of oil, the rice and the rice packet from the box. Stir, add 3 cups hot water, cover. Heat to a boil, turn down to simmer and let cook on low for 25 minutes. Turn off and let stand 5 minutes before eating.

Notes: I think a red pepper might be nice variation in this recipe. I bet you could add another ¼ cup brown rice and another 1/3 cup water if you want it even milder and you will have more of the dish to enjoy. If you dislike brown rice, just use white rice but not instant rice; cooks too fast for this recipe.