Gluten-free Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Eat Simply, Eat Well

Rosemary Hasselback Potatoes

September 24, 2015 by aplough

If you want to impress your dinner guests (or just yourself) without slaving all afternoon in the kitchen, consider adding these handsome potatoes to your dinner menu.

Hasselback potatoes aren’t a new concept, but they are a good one. Basically, you take any good baking potato, slice it thinly across the top, stopping just before you cut through the potato, about 1/4″ / 2 cm from the bottom. You sprinkle on a little salt, a little pepper, a few herbs, and drizzle olive oil, and let the oven do the rest of the work for you. As the potatoes bake, the spaces between the slices expands and the the potato begins to fan out just a little. Bake for the length of time you would a standard baked potato, and then finish under the broiler so the top gets nice and crispy and golden. These could actually be the star of your dinner, if you wish – serving them with traditional baked potato toppings, with a smoked salmon dip; a little kicked-up ketchup, or, of course, alongside a roast chicken…or less traditionally, next to a roasted celeriac. They are really good.

They also reheat really well, so although this recipe makes four, you can easily increase that quantity and then reheat them in the oven the next day to maintain the crispness, or make them a day ahead and reheat them to serve.

Potatoes often get a bad rap in nutrition world, but they are actually a great option, particularly if they are served with the skin on, as they are in this recipe. Too often, they are slathered with butter in cream or deep fried within an inch of their life making them something that’s a far cry from healthy food.

Cooked properly, however, potatoes are a delicious, healthy whole food. They have:

low-calorie: roughly 160 calories per potato (approximately 1 cup)
a very good source of vitamin B6 (for building cells; cardiovascular protection; brain cell and nervous system activity; and for breaking down glycogen – aiding in athletic performance)
a good source of dietary fiber, potassium, copper, vitamin C, manganese, phosphorus, niacin and pantothenic acid
phytonutrients with antioxident capacity, e.g. carotenoids and flavonoids
potential to help lower blood pressure (because of presence of kukoamines)

Source: whfoods.com

Eat up! Potatoes are good for your health.

Notes:

most of the potato’s fiber is in the skin, so make sure you consume the entire potato
it’s worth repeating: french fries and potatoes chips are not real food: they are in fact really bad for your health. If you want to enjoy the health benefits of potatoes, eat them baked, roasted, boiled, lightly pan fried, or steamed, but avoid the processed foods that will only make you sick.
Any good baking potato can be used for this recipe, including sweet potatoes!

Rosemary Hasselback Potatoes

4 large baking potatoes
1 large sprig rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon sea salt
olive oil

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.

Wash and scrub your potatoes to remove all dirt from the skin. Lay a potato on its side, and make thin cuts from one end to the other, cutting down into the potato almost to the bottom, but being careful not to cut all the way through. Place the potato on the baking tray and repeat with remaining potatoes.

Combine the rosemary and sea salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle a half teaspoon of the mixture over each potato, using your fingers to push it into the cuts a little. Drizzle a thin layer of olive oil over each potato. Place the potatoes into a hot oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from oven, and using a basting brush, dip into the oil in the bottom of the pan and brush it over the tops of the potatoes. Return the pan to the oven, increase the heat to 215°C/425°F and continue to bake another 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown, tender in the center and crispy on top.

Serves 4.

Make it Yourself: Almond Milk

September 23, 2015 by aplough

If you are trying to avoid dairy, or if you are on a plant-based diet, one of the main ingredients in a lot of the recipes you’ll find is nut milk – in particular, almond milk.

Nut milk has the creamy white color we associate with dairy milk: cow or goat products, and much of the same creaminess. It is mild in flavor and works well in nearly any recipe that calls for dairy milk. For savory baked dishes such as quiches, tarts, pies and casseroles that call for some kind of milk, I prefer to use oat milk. I like the way it thickens a little when heated and the texture resembles that of cow’s milk – particularly in the béchamel I use in my lasagna. However, if you prefer, nut milk works here, too.

But when it comes to sweet baked goods, smoothies, or warm drinks made with milk like cocoa or chai tea, I prefer to use nut milk, and it’s nearly always almond milk.

You can purchase your own almond milk in the non-dairy refrigerated section of your grocery store next to soy and rice milks. The only challenge here is avoiding the thickeners and fillers these milks often contain in order to make them shelf stable (more on this here).

Almond milk is fairly expensive to buy: at my local store it runs around €3.90 per liter and isn’t organic, so making it yourself is a good way to get a great product. Organic almonds is around €25 per kilogram (around €11.50 per pound) in Finland (prices may be better elsewhere), so this means you can make my own organic almond milk for roughly the same price as you can buy the preservative-loaded commercial almond milk, and even less if you don’t buy organic almonds. Many people prefer organic almonds, but the choice is up to you.

All you really need in order to make almond milk are almonds and clean, pure water. I sometimes add a pinch of sea salt to add minerals into the milk, but this is optional. For those of you who are used to the sweetness of cow’s milk or commercial almond milk, you can achieve the same flavor by adding a date or two.

Almond milk is a healthy alternative for those avoiding dairy and soy.

One cup unsweetened almond milk contains:

30-40 calories
1 g fiber
1 g protein
2.5 g fat

good source of manganese (for strong teeth and bones), selenium (supports immune system) and vitamin E (helps fight free radicals), vitamin B2 (helps produce red blood cells)
free of cholesterol and saturated fats

Sources: fitday.com and livescience.com.

While I highlight almonds in this recipe, nearly any nut or seed can be made into milk using the same method. You can always add salt and sweetener to your taste (I prefer dates, but pure maple syrup is also good). The flavor is milk and sweet with a nice, light almond flavor – delicious!

Almond milk

1 cup / 2.5 dl / 130g raw almonds + 2 cups cold, pure water
1 quart / 4 cups / 1 liter pure, cold water
pinch of sea salt, optional
1-2 fresh dates, optional

Soak the almonds in 2 cups of water for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Drain and rinse the almonds and pour them into a blender. Add the fresh water, and salt and dates if using. Process on high speed for one minute. Strain through a nut milk bag (preferred for the smoothest texture), an old, clean t-shirt (seriously a very good option), or a fine mesh strainer (what I usually do).

If using a milk bag or t-shirt, you’ll need to squeeze it really well, almost like you are milking it, in order to extract all of the almond milk.

If you are using a fine-mesh strainer, you can press on the solids with the back of a spoon or rubber spatula. If you do this, you will get some almond meat particles in your milk. My suggestion is to rinse the strainer, then strain the milk one more time.

Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Almond milk should be used in 2-3 days as it is a very fresh product.

Makes 1 quart/4 cups/1 liter.

Have you made your own almond milk or other non-dairy milks? What is your experience? We’d love to hear more from you in the comments below.

Buckwheat Kefir Pancakes with Lingonberry Maple Syrup & Pears

September 18, 2015 by aplough

Here is something we know to be true: rainy weekend mornings and a big pile of pancakes go very well together. You wake up a bit past your normal weekday hour, roll out of bed, check out the window and see endless, dripping gray skies, feeling thankful that it’s Saturday (or Sunday) and maybe, just maybe, you don’t actually need to go anywhere…

The pancakes of my childhood were made with either a pancake mix or white flour mixture, cooked up on a long hot griddle set over the stove top, and served with whatever kind of maple syrup we had on hand: occasionally genuine maple syrup and more often Aunt Jemima’s imitation maple syrup or it’s equivalent. Sometimes there would be fried eggs along side, and bacon…a classic American breakfast that will be familiar to many of you who grew up there, and those of you who have visited.

These pancakes offer up a healthier option to the great American breakfast. First, no bacon (sorry! but you won’t miss it.) No fried eggs either – those are in the pancakes rather than alongside them, so you’ll still get the protein and Omega 3s. What makes these pancakes special are the buckwheat flour and kefir used to make them. (Note: if you don’t have kefir, use a plain yogurt instead; see notes below for more details). The combination makes for a sweet, but tangy, slightly nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with the Lingonberry Maple Syrup in the recipe below, but I also used the leftover pancakes a couple of days later, reheated them in the oven, and went the savory route by topping them with hummus (this or that)and serving sautéed zucchini and kale on the side, and that was delicious too. Let your imagination go crazy here!

The amazing buckwheat is a must-try. It is:

gluten-free! Despite the wheat in it’s name, buckwheat is actually a seed and contains no gluten at all.
rich in flavonoids, a phytonutrient that protects against disease
increases blood sugar control and lowers risk of diabetes
good for your cardiovascular health, particularly in preventing heart disease in post-menopausal women
high in fiber (4.5 g per cup of buckwheat), which helps prevent gallstones and protects against breast cancer
very good source of manganese
good source of copper, dietary fiber, magnesium and phosphorus
full of high quality protein containing all eight of the essential amino acids including lysine

Source: whfoods.com

The best part about these pancakes is that they are actually really quick to make. So much so, that even though they are perfect for the weekend, why not make a big pile on a weekday morning as well? Get your bowl, pan and whisk out, and make these beauties first chance you get, no matter what day of the week it is. You’ll be smiling until noon.

Notes:

No lingonberries? No problem. Sub in cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries – any of these would make a find substitute.
If you don’t have kefir, use either plain yogurt or buttermilk – it’ll work like a charm
If you don’t have buckwheat flour and gluten isn’t a concern, you could use whole wheat flour or whole spelt flour instead. If you’d prefer to keep these gluten free, oat flour would work as a substitute also. You’ll still be getting whole grains, so many of the health benefits listed above still apply.
These reheat really well in the toaster (for a few) or the oven (for a lot) – so you can always make them in advance if you want to serve a crowd. Same goes for the syrup.

Buckwheat Kefir Pancakes with Lingonberry Maple Syrup & Pears

2 eggs
3/4 cup / 2 dl kefir
1 cup/ 2.5 dl /140 g buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons pure Maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda + 2 teaspoons lukewarm water combined in a small bowl
2- 3 tablespoons butter, ghee or coconut oil for frying

Preheat the oven to 50°C/125°F and place a tray or large plate inside.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the kefir, buckwheat flour, maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Add the baking soda – water mixture all at once, and whisk quickly to mix it into the batter. Allow the batter to bubble and rise for 5 minutes.

Set a large frying pan (I prefer cast iron) or griddle over medium heat. Let it sit for a few minutes to get hot, and then lightly brush the surface of the pan with butter, ghee or coconut oil. Pour the batter, 2 tablespoons at a time, onto the pan. Cook until the edges are slightly firm and small bubbles form then pop on the top of the pancake. Flip; fry briefly to brown the bottoms, and then transfer to the warm oven. Repeat until all the batter is used up.

Makes roughly 25 small pancakes.

Lingonberry Maple Syrup

1 cup/2.5 dl/250g fresh or frozen lingonberries (or other berries; see notes, above)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Combine the lingonberries and maple syrup in a small pot over medium-heat. Bring the mixture to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

To serve:

Buckwheat Pancakes
Lingonberry Maple Syrup
Plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
2 Pears, cored & diced

Serves 4-6.