Spicy Squash Soup

Did you know that a small glass of freshly pressed zucchini juice can really get your bowels doing a little happy dance?  True story.  If you try this, do it at home because the results are pretty instantaneous.
But that’s not the point.  The point is that grated zucchini makes an excellent soup.
Let me back up a little (pun totally intended).
We bought some amazonian zucchini from the Farmer’s Market and have been living the zucchinous version of The Enormous Turnip all week: A to Z Cake, Zucchini bread, Zucchini Chili, Zucchini juice, et. al.  Last night, I was in the mood for something with a bit more zing so I (read: my husband) grated a bunch of zucchini for some soup.  This is how I learned of the effects of zucchini juice.  Curious as to how it might taste, I (read: my husband) squeezed the juice out of the grated zucchini and I (read: I) drank it - and then spent some time catching up on old periodicals in the “library”.
Enough of that.
This soup is spectacular.  It is the perfect juxtaposition of Fall and fiesta, warmth and whimsy.  You can quickly prepare it at home to thaw your chilled autumnal bones or garnish it with some warm tortillas, cilantro, and lime to serve at a dinner party.  Either way, it is sure to add some spice to your meal!
P.S.  It goes without saying that the soup is just as good, albeit no longer spicy, if you omit the chipotle chiles.
Spicy Squash Soup
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients:
1 T. grapeseed oil (or whatever oil you like to use for sautéing)
1 c. chopped yellow or white onions (about 1 large onion)
6 cloves chopped garlic
3 1/2-4 squares Edward & Sons Bouillon Cubes plus 4-6 c. water or 4-6 c. broth (I specified Edward & Sons because it is gluten-free and MSG-free and cheaper than boxed versions)
6 c. grated zuccini (You might wish to squeeze the juice out of it to put in a smoothie or drink straight or you can leave the juice in -- if you leave the juice in, reduce broth/water by about a cup to start and then you can add more broth/water to your desired consistency if necessary)
1 1/2 c. grated potato (about 2 small potatoes)
1 3/4 c. canned pumpkin (this is a small can)
3 c. chopped spinach
4 T. chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish if desired
juice of 2 limes
chopped chipotle peppers to taste (we get jarred chipotle peppers); start with 1 and then add more to taste
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. dried sage
1 T. ground cumin
Warm soup pot on medium.  Add oil and onions.  Saute until translucent.  Add garlic and saute 1-2 more minutes.  Add all ingredients except spinach, lime, and cilantro.  Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes.  Add spinach, lime and cilantro and stir in to warm.  Serve.  Garnish with more cilantro, a lime wedge and tortilla chips if desired.

Easy Peasy Muesli

Why have I never thought of this?  Banana Milk!  I saw it while cruising the web for recipes for raw snacks (a whole other post with that one -- like why are so many raw foods made with a dehydrator?).  Anyway, I stumbled uponThe Raw Food Solution, a raw blog that had some very sensible recipes.  A recipe for breakfast cereal features Banana Milk.   It's so simple and naturally sweet.  I tried it today on my muesli and it did not disappoint.   Here is my very simple breakfast recipe.
Muesli with Banana Milk
serves 1
1 c. uncooked certified gluten-free old fashioned oats
1/2 - 1 oz. chopped walnuts (approximately 1/8-1/4 c.)
1 t. cinnamon
1 banana
1 c. raspberries or blueberries or strawberries
1 c. cold water
Blend banana and water together in a blender until smooth.  Place the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  If you are not watching your calories, you might add dried fruit and/or some raw seeds.  Pour banana milk over cereal and enjoy.  The banana makes it plenty sweet so you needn't add any sweeteners.  So easy!

A to Z Cake

My friend Joan recently sent me a recipe for Warm Apple Cake.  It sounded decadent as written, but contained gluten, was high in sugar and oil and absent of that which is currently overflowing in our house: zucchini!  Do you know how cheap Farmer’s Market Zucchini is right now?  They are practically begging us to take it off their hands. I, in turn, am begging my kids to eat it in various forms, some quite yummy, others a bit cruel.
So I bastardized her recipe, slightly terrified that I might be treading on thin cake here.  Basically, I maintained the slightest essence of the original recipe and changed pretty much everything else.
The result was nothing short of miraculous.  It is moist and sweet and rich and pleased every member of my family, even she-who-shall-not-be-named-but-who-poo-poos-every-freekin’-attempt-at-gluten-free-cake-I-create-for-her-blessed-little-celiac-soul.  But I’m not bitter.  Nor is this cake.
You can even serve it to guests, who will wonder when you started eating gluten and sugar again.  Wink.  Wink.
Because of its main ingredients, I call it
A to Z Cake:
serves 8 (large pieces) or 12 (medium pieces)
2 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. potato starch/flour
1/2 t. salt
3/4 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
3/4 c. vegan buttermilk (vegan milk -- like nut milk -- combined with 2 T. apple cider vinegar*
2 fleggs (2 T. ground flaxseed whisked with 6 T. water)
1 c. apricot fruit spread (just fruit), divided into two 1/2 c. portions
2 c. macerated apples (I pulsed mine in the food processor)
2 c. grated and well-squeezed zucchini (you want to get the water out so squeeze it in your fists and save the juice for a very healthy smoothie)
Preheat the oven to 350 and oil a bundt pan (I used grapeseed oil).
Whisk all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl (or whatever size you like, really;  nobody’s looking), combine all wet ingredients EXCEPT 1/2 c. of the apricot spread.
Add wet to dry and combine well.  Pour into pan.  Bake for 65-75 minutes, turning once about half way through).  Make sure cake is cooked all the way through when you test it with a tester.
When cake is finished, let it cool about 5 minutes in the pan.  Invert onto a plate or cooling rack.  While still warm, heat the rest of the fruit spread in a saucepan.  Pour over the cake.  You might wish to spread it with a pastry brush.
It is best when served warm!
*The original recipe had 1/2 c. agave instead of this vegan buttermilk and was sweeter.  I am now trying to alter my recipes to eliminate agave.  If you prefer a sweeter cake, you can use the agave or maple syrup instead of the began buttermilk

Back in the Kitchen

I'll admit it.  The kitchen is the LAST place I want to be during the summer.  Our summer menus rely heavily upon fruit salads, green salads, brown rice pasta salads, cold quinoa salads, watermelon, what we like to call "hand-held" fruit, and whatever we can pack for the beach.  This summer we discovered Udi's Gluten Free products.  This changed our lives in a less than meaningful, but highly convenient, way.  Though they contain soy, leaving me out of the mix, we were able to pack sandwiches all summer for my youngest.
But we live in the Mid-west (yes, there are beaches in the Mid-west), where summer ends in early September, no matter how violently I depart from the beach kicking and screaming.  I now understand a great mystery of my California childhood: why clothing stores stock sweaters in August.  Because by the middle of September, we need them in the nether regions of this country (Did I just dub the Mid-west "America's vagina?).  Anyhoo-ha, my point is that I am back in the kitchen.
The challenge this year is that I have discovered another obstacle: MSG.  Now you might wonder what a relative health-nut is doing cooking with MSG in the first place.  Excellent question. I have diligently eschewed MSG since the early 90's when I had three unfortunate break-outs of full body hives after consuming fish at Chinese restaurants.  Or so I thought!  Apparently, simply checking ingredients for the words "monosodium glutamate" is not enough these days.  Food companies are hiding this poison in everything from soy lecethin to natural flavors.  It is nearly omnipresent in vegetarian processed foods.  It is for this reason that I have assumed I was allergic to soy.  Indeed, I am not allergic to soy as tofu or edamame.  I am allergic to soy as lecithin or hydrolyzed soy protein and the like -- all the manifestations containing MSG.  After an elimination diet and some exploration between my cardiologist (I have a cardiologist because I have been dealing with heart palpitations, dizziness, and 2 incidences of lone atrial-fibrilation), we concur that MSG has been causing the aforementioned, parenthetical symptoms.  Yup, MSG.  Do you know how much money in medical bills this hidden poison has cost me?  Not to mention a heap of anxiety.  Now that I have eliminated MSG, all symptoms are gone.
As are a lot of my food choices.  My favorite chips are made with corn oil.  Think for a moment.  Have you ever eaten an oily cob of corn (that you did not make oily yourself with gobs of butter or margarine)?  That's because there is no natural oil in corn.  It is created using MSG, among other things (like corn sludge, for example).  Bye-bye Totopos.  I loved you.  I loved you so much.  Forget about chocolate.  Even when I allow myself the occasional bit of sugar, it can't be most forms of chocolate (except "Enjoy Life" or homemade) as they all contain soy lecithin.
Pretty much any boxed cereal, packaged vegetarian food, and boxed treat contains some form of MSG.  And they don't have to put it on the package if the MSG is couched in something else: natural flavors, soy lecithin, corn oil, etc.  They can even write "No MSG added" if they want.
So I am not just back in the kitchen; I am back with a vengeance.  Without my beloved summer fresh foods, we will be doing a lot of sprouting this fall and winter,along with soups, green smoothies, and creative forms of beans and rice (which will all come from dry beans because guess what is in MOST canned foods?).  I am also using oils instead of Earth Balance, with avocado oil being my favorite replacement for butter added to food after cooking.
Stay tuned.  First stop: A to Z Cake!

Raw Salad

I know what you're thinking...aren't ALL salads raw?  Not so much.  Check out this (g)astronomical list from Men's Health.  Or this one from examiner.com.  Blech.
I am trying to eat 75-80% raw for the summer.  Today is day 5.  For this to work it needs to be fairly simple, relatively economical, not at all fanatical, and delicious.
I created this salad solely based upon what we already had in the house.  I have no intention of following difficult recipes with complicated ingredients to make raw versions of foods that were never meant to be raw in the first place.  This is more of a suggestion than a recipe.  You can take a few ideas from it and then go to town with your own salad.
Raw Salad
Suggested Ingredients
greens (I used spinach)
beets
carrots
cucumbers
raw cloves of garlic
coarse sea salt
pepper
fresh lemon juice
Pile greens on each plate.  Grate about 1/3 c. raw beets onto each salad.  Grate or chop about 1/3 c. carrots onto each salad. Chop about 1/2 cucumber and add to each salad.  Chop 2 cloves garlic per salad and put on top of salad.  Drizzle lemon juice, sprinkle salt and pepper.  Enjoy.
If you are not eating completely raw, you might add some green olives or high quality olive oil.

Chilean Rice with Peas

Inspired by an amazing five-course meal I was treated to last weekend at a local, swanky restaurant, I decided to try serving our dinner tonight in courses.  You see, I had noticed that the whole reasoning behind French Women Don't Get Fat becomes very apparent when dining as the French dine.  Our five courses took about 2 hours to consume.  Each course was a small serving of food, offered by itself, on its own plate, with space between courses.  I am not sure if it was the size of each serving, the explosion of flavors or the atmosphere of the restaurant, but something about it made me want to eat slowly and savor each and every bite.  I found myself willingly putting my fork down between bites and enjoying both the culinary experience and the incredible company.  I also found myself completely satisfied, full even, when the meal was over.
It was the polar opposite of our dinners at home.
Though I share at least two meals a day with my kids, and usually three, we are often rushed.  Sometimes, we don't have any reason to be rushed except that my kids eat fast!  The kids always request seconds, no matter how big their initial portion might have been.  Now I am not concerned about their weight.  They are all very active.  I am concerned about our grocery bill, though.  We rarely have left-overs and this is starting to hurt our bottom line.
So tonight, I made a very simple meal.  Before eating, I told the kids all about my great five-course meal and we talked about different ways to savor the food.  I suggested we all try putting our forks down between bites.  They thought this was a fun idea, mostly because I made it sound French.
First we had a garden salad while the rice and peas cooked.  I timed it so that there would be about ten minutes to wait for the rice and peas to finish cooking after the salad course.  I served the rice and peas (on the same plate as the salad by the way -- I don't intend to do more dishes than necessary) and removed the pot from the table.  We slowly ate and talked about our day, stories we had heard from friends who had recently returned from a vacation, memories of our own most recent vacation, and a few other odds and ends.
FInally, after everyone ate their rice and peas, my husband got up and made a fruit salad.  He served a small plate up for each of us, which we enjoyed while discussing how meals are shared in various other countries.
By the time the meal ended, nobody asked for seconds, an entire second meal of rice and peas existed, and my eldest (who is my biggest eater) exclaimed that she was stuffed.  Success.
It would be difficult to do this at every meal.  If we can do it just 3 times a week, though, we will have a lot more left-overs, some longer, more intimate conversations, and certainly a healthier digestive system.  And though we did have to wash the dessert plates, it did not require that much extra work.  In fact, the rice and peas, as you will see, was very simple to make and, due to the structure of our meal, completely satisfying.
Chilean Rice and Peas***
serves 5 -- TWICE!
2-3 T. Olive Oil
1-2 large yellow or white onions, chopped or sliced thin (your preference)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 c. brown rice, rinsed
7 c. vegetable broth, boiling (you CAN add it cold, but it will take longer to cook)
2-3 c. frozen peas
course sea salt to taste (optional)
Heat oil over medium in a large pot.  Add the onion and cook until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook another minute.  Add the raw rice and cook another 3 minutes, making sure to stir once or twice.  Add the broth, bring to a boil, and simmer until the rice is al dente.  Add the peas (frozen) and stir.  Cook about 5 minutes to warm peas.  Serve, top each serving with a little coarse sea salt, and savor.
***Lest you worry that serving this a main dish will not provide enough protein, note that peas, simple little peas, have more protein than lentils and beans.  They are fantastic little legumes!

Easter Truffles

Easter is coming.  In our house, during years past, that meant one thing (besides the obvious theological and spiritual implications): Cadbury Eggs.  You'll note that Cadbury Eggs are neither vegan nor sugar free.  They could be considered somewhat spiritual, however, depending upon how you define "spiritual".
In order to save myself from the savage beast that emerges from my gustatorily puritanical self this time each year, I decided to try and create a chocolate delight to rival the evil Cadbury Egg.
By George, I think I've done it!!
I just made a batch of 20 of these little lovelies to last me through the next two weeks, plus the several days after Easter when the pesky Eggs are not only still available, but on sale!  E-gads!
I encourage you, if you are equally seduced by the scandalous Egg, that which has obviously been designed to elicit erotic responses (or am I the only one?), to make a batch of these Chocolate Truffles and indulge in one daily until the Eggs have officially left the building.
Chocolate Truffles
8 oz. unsweetened chocolate (from bar form), chopped
1/2 c. agave
3/4 c. plus 1 T. unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk or regular coconut cream or low-fat coconut milk
1 T. Vegan Earth Balance
Enough cocoa powder (or other topping) for rolling
Combine all ingredients in a double boiler, trying not to have the bottom of the top pan touch the water.  Stir occasionally.  When all seems melted, stir vigorously until creamy and combined.  Pour into a pie plate and cool in fridge.  When it is cool, scoop with a cookie scooper, melon baller, or small ice cream scooper into balls.  If they get soft during this process (speaking of obvious sexual overtones), refrigerate a little longer.  Roll each ball in cocoa powder (or other interesting topping, like chopped nuts).  Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy whenever the urge for the Egg, or other Easter chocolate, strikes.

Simple Banana Bread

Nothing says yummy like a countertop full of old, black, mushy bananas.  Apparently, the same little people who convinced me to buy extra bananas this week, lest they perish of a potassium deficiency, lost interest in said bananas sooner than expected.
Alas, when one is faced with rotten bananas, one has no choice but to make banana bread.
Here's what I notice about gluten-free cooking: frequently it is just too complicated.  Perhaps those of us in the GF world are feeling bitter about having to eliminate an entire genre of food.  To overcompensate, we zealously shove as many grains as we can possibly fit into every little thing we make.  Amaranth!  Garfava (run FAR away from this one if you have particularly flatulent gourmands)!  Quinoa!  Sorghum (run further away from this one if you want your family's intestines to actually feel better from a GF diet)!  Teff!  etc. etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
Truthfully, unless you are looking for a complicated flavor or a drastically different set of nutrients, most recipes only require one or two flours.  Save your money and your sanity and stock your cupboard with brown rice flour and corn meal or corn flour (masa harina) for a good time with gluten-free cooking.
This recipe for banana bread attempts to be as simple as possible: two cheap flours and then the basics. It's a great recipe for a first-timer.  If you are not a vegan, you can replace the flax mixture with two eggs.  If your bananas are not ripe enough, place them in the freezer in their peels for a few hours and then take them out an hour or so before making the bread.  Pop them out of their peels, a rather gratifying experience, and let them sit (in a bowl) for an hour.
You might note the omission of salt.  I find it unnecessary in most baking.  And bad for the heart.  And it makes people swell.  If you like to swell, you can add 1/2 t. to the dry ingredients.
Banana Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. corn meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 t. xanthan gum
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup Earth Balance or other vegan spread
2 T. flax seeds blending in blender with 5-6 T water
1/2 cup Agave
1/2 cup nuts, raisins, or dried fruit of choice (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a loaf pan.  Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.   In another bowl, mash the bananas; add flax mixture and agave.  Blend together well (you can use a mixer for this if you like it smooth.
Slowly sprinkle in dry ingredients until well mixed.  Add nuts or dried fruit if desired.
Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Sweetener-free Peanut-butter Cookies

Sweetener-free Peanut Butter Cookies

Every January I convince myself that it is a good idea to give up all sweeteners for the month, including Agave.  This is typically a direct result of having eaten enough sugar between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve to stock a soda factory for a month.  It is probably not a good thing that I make a killer chocolate frosting from 3 simple ingredients, none of them being sugar.  The hard truth is that chocolate frosting, no matter if sweetened by sugar, maple syrup, or agave, is still addictive and should not be eaten as a main course...every day of the week for an entire holiday season.
After three weeks of no sweeteners, I am back to enjoying my morning steel cut oats with nothing but berries or raisins and nuts.  The fruit is plenty sweet (I am also down a quick 8 pounds).  Other foods are also tasting might sweet, like raw, unsalted cashews or hazelnuts.  Eating raw snap peas feels like a guilty pleasure.
This weekend, we made peanut butter cookies for a potluck.  In doling out the leftovers to the kids yesterday, I had a very strong craving to eat them.  How annoying is that?  Three weeks of abstinence and the craving hasn't subsided?  Ahhh.... but, upon further reflection, I realized that what I really wanted was the peanutty goodness.  I wasn't all that interested in the sugar.  That, combined with the fact that  I am in need of several containers of easy, bite-sized sweetener-free snacks with which to stock a cooler for an upcoming road trip, sent me spinning into action late yesterday afternoon.  A half an hour later, the kitchen was filled with the exact same olfactory pleasantries that had filled the house a few days before when we made the original potluck batch.
My kids, who had been eating the sugar-filled versions, even liked these.  This surprised me because I thought only those of us who were slowly forgetting how sugar tastes would enjoy them.   Either my kids are little freaks of nature (not altogether unlikely) or I was wrong.  They did comment that the cookies were more like scones in terms of level of sweetness.  To me, they tasted decadent.  Now, if I can just keep myself from making the aforementioned frosting and using it as a dip for these babies...
Sweetener-free Peanut-butter Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
5 oz. pitted dates
1 c. natural peanut butter, creamy or chunky
a scant 1/3 c. millet or corn flour (we grind millet in a coffee grinder to make the flour)
1 flax egg (1 T. flax seeds plus 3 T. water, blended to a gel in the blender)
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. raisins
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper, grease with vegan margarine, or use a silpat liner.  Combine all ingredients in a blender, adding baking soda and millet last.  Drop by tablespoon-fulls onto cookie sheet.  Press with a fork or your good old fashioned fingers.  Bake about 10-12 minutes.  Do not, I repeat -- DO NOT -- make chocolate frosting!
Enjoy.

Millet Minestrone

"Hey you there...there's some soup here for you."

-- Mother Courage and Her Children, Bertolt Brecht --

In a home with no gluten, bread is not the staff of life.  Soup is.  Instead of breaking bread together, we spoon soup.  Lots of soup.  Ladles and ladles of soup.  Besides being cheap to make and relatively easy to convert for our dietary needs, soup packs a hearty nutritional punch.  Plus --  one can hide a variety of left-overs, slightly old vegetables, and traditionally unpleasant vegetables in a good pot of soup.
For picky eaters, I recommend blending your favorite recipe of vegetable soups and adding something creamy to the blend, like almond milk, cashew cream, or coconut milk.  Once they develop a taste for the blended, creamy soups, you can make the same soup by chopping the ingredients really really small.  Eventually, they might like the taste of the soup as is.
My kids are not all that picky, but I can get my son to eat more vegetables if they are blended.  Still, when the wind-chills hit anywhere below the magic zero, as they have all week here in the mid-west, I want a soup into which I can really sink my chattering teeth.  In my book, that means Minestrone.
Of course, the hearty part of minestrone is played by the noodles.  Unfortunately, gluten free noodles don't hold up all that well in a soup.  It is necessary to cook the noodles separately and then ladle the soup over the noodles.  But when the weather is this cold, I get a bit perturbed at making such concessions.  I just want a huge pot of soup or stew that everyone in the family can dip into whenever hunger or hypothermia hit.
In this recipe, millet replaces the noodles, offering both a meaty texture and a grain that stands up to time in the pot or re-heating in the microwave.  It is also much healthier than its more emaciated cousin, corn.  I have replaced kidney and white beans with azuki beans for a bit of interest.  They are slightly sweet, which lends a nice flavor to this stew.  You will want to rinse and then soak them overnight to cut down on cooking time.  I like to rinse, soak, and boil a large amount and then freeze two-cup portions separately.
This recipe makes a thick soup-cum-stew.  If you like yours more soupy, add extra broth to your liking.
Millet Minestrone
makes 15 servings
Ingredients:
1 large onion
4 stalks celery
2 T. Olive Oil
2 large carrots, shredded
6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
2 c. cooked azuki beans, rinsed well (this helps prevent gas)
4 c. vegetable broth
8 c. water
2 c. crushed tomatoes
2 c. chopped green beans
8-10 mushrooms, sliced
1 2/3 c. dry millet
1 t. sage
1 1. thyme
1 t. parsley
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
2-4 T. black bean sauce (if you can do soy, use Tamari Sauce instead)
Saute the onions and celery over medium heat until the onions are translucent.  Add the garlic and saute one more minute.  Add all other ingredients, except the beans.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add the beans and simmer another 10 minutes.
This soup holds up well if you pour it into a rice cooker set to "warm" so people can serve themselves.  It also freezes well and is great for left-overs.
I'll post a picture when I eat my next bowl.