gluten free cooking

Green Pea Soup: Spring in a Spoonful!

Spring is a great time for a light flavorful soup.  One that celebrates healthy eating: this is food code for fresh vegetables.  Fresh pea soup sounded good but I couldn’t find a recipe for a creamy pea soup, looked at a few veggie soups and combined them into this easy recipe.  I used frozen peas; fresh ones are hard to find and pricy.

Tips: You need to blend this up – blender or food processor.  You might want to put a kitchen towel over the blender in case of flying hot soup! Don’t boil it once you add the half and half; if you do it will surely curdle.  I used homemade chicken broth – use a good quality broth if you can’t make your own.

The flavor is not just of the peas; you have the other veggies and the broth not to mention the butter and half/half.  It is not too thick or too rich.  As Goldilocks said “just right.”  It is a lovely springy shade of bright green and would make a perfect first course for a dinner party or just for your family.  My mom loves a bowl of soup for supper and she adored this one. Healthy, quick to make and packed with flavor: that’s what I want these days in a soup.  Did I mention how delicious it is?  Did now!

I didn’t take many pictures; so hard to take a shot of a hot pot of soup; steamy heat equals fuzzy pictures.  Plus I wasn’t really thinking blog post.  I was just making soup for my mom….

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Spring Pea Soup

Ingredients

1 medium onion

1 celery stalk

2 cups frozen peas: ½ cup peas and rest (see below)

1.5 tbsp. butter

3 cups chicken broth

1 ½ cups peas (rest of 2 cups)

½ cup half and half

1.5 tbsp. butter

4 tsp. gluten free flour blend; I used my favorite brown rice/potato starch/tapioca mix (See my pie crust recipe for the blend or use King Arthur’s blend; same thing.)

Directions

Cut the onion into small dice, same for celery.  Heat a medium saucepan: 1/5-2 qt size, add 1.5 tbsp. butter. Add onion, celery and cook 3 minutes.  Add first measure of peas.  Stir and cook 1 minute.  Add broth.  Cook 15 minutes.  Add rest of peas.  Cook 3 minutes.  Let cool slightly, puree in blender in 2 batches, keep lid on tight, can cover with kitchen towel in case of liquid escapage.  Return to sauce pan while you make the rue.

Heat second amount of butter in a small sauce pan and add flour when it is melted.  Stir and cook a minute, add ½ tsp salt and a sprinkle of white pepper.  Add the half and half, stir well until lumps are gone.  Add a ladle of soup to it and stir until fully blended.  Add back to the rest of the soup. Heat stirring constantly until hot but not bubbling. Do NOT boil! You can thin it with more broth or water if it is too thick. Serve hot and enjoy the flavor of spring in your soup spoon.

Spring Into Eating Safely…Let Me Rant a Little First!

Okay, call this my spring bitch rant.  Need to freak safely and this blog is my vent place! First, let me say that I am great being gluten free.  But, I am tired of justifying to people I barely know as to why I can’t eat gluten.  I am very tired of friends and even family saying words that clearly imply that I might sometimes choose to eat things that contain gluten, say a slice of birthday cake or a tasty looking donut.  That just makes me nearly crazy.  Because that idea is nuts to someone with celiac; that you can just eat a slice of regular cake because you want it.  That is nuts.  If you have celiac it is a serious, life threatening allergy, not some diet choice.  Eating gluten can give any combination of up to 200 symptoms. None of them are fun or worth having just for a few bites of dessert.

My reactions include burning pain in the area of my small intestine.  I get extremely tired, to the point of being unable to function. My head aches and I can do nothing but lie down for a long time, generally several hours. It is sort of like a stomach flu and generally is unmistakably from accidental consumption of gluten. Other people with celiac may have different symptoms than me, some terrible and some rather mild.  There is a wide range of how severe the symptoms are of someone with celiac.  But even without any noticeable symptoms anyone with celiac who eats gluten (wheat, rye or barley) is damaging their small intestine in a serious and lasting way.  That exposure to gluten can lead to malnutrition, leaky gut, cancer and a few other diseases.  Celiac is serious business, not to be ignored or made light of.  It totally pisses me off when someone makes light of my disease.

It used to annoy me when I went to a function and couldn’t eat anything.  Two years ago I was at a church gathering with a 40 foot long table of desserts and not one single one that I could eat safely.  I had a glass of water.  That was all that was okay for me.  These days there is often something safe I can eat.  Sometimes people serve a vegetable tray or some cubed cheese.  I always hope they will keep the crackers on a separate plate and get a dip that is marked gluten free.  I was at a pastoral installation last week and there were two kinds of gluten free cake and gluten free rolls for sandwiches as well as a ton of fresh fruit and trays of raw veggies that I could enjoy.  What a difference! I asked and discovered that someone in the congregation was celiac so they knew to serve some safe foods for those of us who cannot consume gluten.

It should be known that I really am glad to be eating safe for me.  I feel so much better.  I was amazed at how great my tummy felt about two weeks after I was totally gluten free in my diet.  And that continues to this day.  It’s wonderful to feel healthy.  It was very difficult to be happy with a constantly painful gut.  Now, 2 ¼ years later I have found many good recipes, many tasty ways to eat safely.  There is not huge sacrifice in always eating gluten free.  Getting that gf baking thing down these days feels fantastic. My brownies are crazy good.  I bake muffins far better than my old gluten filled ones.  The fennel and golden raisin bread I recently made was amazing, my sister is still raving about the flavor and aroma.  She eats wheat but she loves my Christmas cookies, said so the other day; that they were the best this past holiday season. fennel italian bread 012turkey meatballs, cranberry blue muffins 004shortbread cookie 001xmas cookies 006

So please, do not pity me. I don’t want or need it.  Quite the opposite: you can envy my perfect brownies or my lovely lemon almond cake or my best ever chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Or all the entrees and sides I now make safely with a variety of starches or flours that don’t include gluten.  I am totally fine.  I don’t have to take any medicines to make me well.  I just need to keep all the gluten away from my body, not in my food, my medicine, my shampoo or my moisturizer.  Not even a pinch of it- anything from 20 parts per million is contamination. 

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Please don’t be offended if I don’t eat food I am not sure is totally gluten free.  I have lost friends that way; they were actually offended that I got sick at their house. If you bake, don’t make me a cake in your pan that baked wheat flour cakes, use a disposable aluminum pan.  And read the freaking labels if you cook for someone with celiac.  It is appalling how many foods have wheat contamination issues due to the equipment a lot of food is processed in/on or by. Don’t trust promises by caterers. I wrote a post on that once.

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I am good these days.  I really am. No pity…maybe you can have some dessert envy as I’m still a great baker! Gluten free is no death sentence. For those of us with celiac it is more a release from pain, undiagnosed suffering and a way to live healthier and happier. I blog so you can eat safely too, or cook safely for someone you love. Be happy, enjoy good food and live with joy.  I know I do!

Simply Smashing Slow Cooker Citrus Chicken

I really love my new slow cooker with a timer and that great oval shape.  I have made some really yummy suppers in it.  As I have said before, I am not a fan of overcooked vegetables so I am rather choosy in what I make if it has to cook for 4 hours.  This citrus chicken is a variant on a recipe in that gf slow cooker cookbook by Carrie Forbes that I bought last fall.

I changed boneless chicken breast into thighs with bones; more flavor as far as I am concerned.  I didn’t have orange marmalade so I used some of my homemade lemon marmalade.  I added some slices of lemon.  All to the good of the flavor parade.  It was addictively fantastic served over brown rice with a side of asparagus.  I made the rice the night before so all I had to do was heat my serving of rice and top with the hot chicken.

Another lovely easy meal is created in my magical time machine slow cooker!.  Not that pretty to look at, maybe slightly more handsome than the Peruvian chicken.  But oh the flavor!  Serves 4 if you can restrain yourself from eating more than one thigh.  I used 4 in my recipe; I think you could put in up to 6, less sauce per serving which I frankly object to as this sauce is the bomb! I ate it four days in a row and each night I couldn’t wait for dinner because of this sauce and this dish.  One of those recipes where the results seem more than the sum of the ingredients.

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Citrus Chicken Thighs

4-5 chicken thighs

1 medium onion diced

½ cup orange juice; I made mine from concentrate

3 tbsp. orange or lemon marmalade

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (GF of course)

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

½ a lemon sliced in ¼ inch thick rounds

1 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp. hot water

Grated rind of one naval orange

Directions

Spray the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray.  Lay the chicken thighs in the bottom.  I left the skins on but I am sure you could remove them if that is your preference.  Top with the onions.  Mix the oj, marmalade, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard in a small bowl.  Pour over the chicken. Top with the lemon slices.  Cook 4 hours on high.  Add the cornstarch water mix, cook ten more minutes. Add the grated rind and stir. It’s that simple!  I serve it over rice.  I sided it with asparagus once and with a lovely salad of greens, european cucumber, chickpeas and avocado with my own vinaigrette another evening. Enjoy!

Cherry Sunrise Pie for Easter

Next Sunday is Easter, the day of baked ham, chocolate candy eggs which I can’t eat and brightly colored eggs to hide for the three year old to find. I want our lunch dessert to be special yet not too heavy or fattening.  I want an attractive pie, with fruit in it and was hoping to make something easy.  I plan to have my cherry sunrise pie again; it was a big hit last Easter.

It has to have a gluten free crust for me but if you are making it for the wheat eating public there are ready made crusts out there that will make this so simple.  Frey’s Better Foods and Wegmans both have gf. graham cracker crust all ready to fill; so convenient.

I like this in the spring when there isn’t much fresh fruit available to make a decent pie.  You could make it the night before or early in the morning. I will post a picture of an individual slice this Easter when we enjoy it for lunch dessert; we gobbled it all down last year before I thought of taking a picture of just one slice.

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Cherry Sunrise Pie

One pie crust: bought ready-made or DIY.  I make mine from an 8 oz box of gluten free graham crackers crushed and mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter and pressed gently into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 or 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before filling.  You can make it a day ahead of time to shorten the work of putting together the actual pie.

Ingredients for filling

18 or 19 oz can of crushed pineapple in own juice

1 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

1 8 oz pkg light cream cheese, room temp.

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

Directions

Drain the pineapple for 20 min; save the juice!  I used my microwave to gently warm the cream cheese. I unwrapped it and placed the cold slab on a small plate and warmed it on a very low heat until supple and smooth.  Dump in a mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp pineapple juice, the vanilla, 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, ½ cup cherry pie filling.  If you are smart you will mostly use the goopy stuff and not too many cherries.  Save them for on top! Next, stir this all together really well.

Then whip the chilled heavy cream in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and mix well with the mixer; be careful not to over beat it.  If it gets clumpy you went too far.  Fold this into the cream cheese mix until it isn’t streaky with white areas.

Gently spoon the filling into the pie shell, spread it out to fill the entire bottom.  I used a spoonula (blend of spoon and spatula) and smooth the top with a flat cake spatula.  I like to leave a sort of tiny ridge on the outer edge to keep the pineapple from spilling out onto the crust.  Then carefully pour the rest of the cherry pie filling in the center spreading it to cover ¾ of the top from the center out.  Finally, use a spoon to put clumps of pineapple around the outer rim of the cherry filling.  Chill at least 2 hours, preferably 4.  Cut and slice. No adornments are needed.

It has a light fluffy consistency and it isn’t that sweet.  Great to top off a big meal; not too filling and the fresh fruity taste is a spring treat.  Try it soon and you will be giving the recipe out afterwards!

Pasta e Fagioli meaning Pasta and Bean Soup, Fantastico!

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.

My version has lots of veggies; if you don’t want them all; leave some out! My secret weapon: I use small cubes of turnip as they hold their shape well and add a subtle tasty flavor to the soup.  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. I always add a cheese rind 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!

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Pasta Fagioli Soup

1 lb 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)

1 tbsp tomato paste

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

1 to 1 ½ tsp sea salt

1 cup elbow macaroni, gf

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.

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, tomato paste, carrots, celery, turnip, hot pepper and stir well.  Add a tsp. of salt.  Cook uncovered about 12-14 minutes.

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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. Stir well, reheat and cook 5 minutes, add rest of beans, stir, 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.  You can add more parsley if you like. Turn off and let stand 10-20 minutes before serving.  Don’t serve it boiling hot from the pot! In summer time I serve it closer to room temperature which is lovely too.  I sometimes drizzle some best quality EVOL on the top of each bowl before digging in.

We gobbled up all the soup and I totally forgot to take a picture of it in a soup bowl.  It was that good! Picture taken and posted after the next batch!