Posted on: 08-05-2010 | By: Gluten Free Foods
Before I had a child, I never would have believed someone if they told me that I would give up eating all of my favorite things in order to breastfeed my child. But, lo and behold, once Baby Yum joined us, I found out that there was no choice about the matter at all. My heart told me that restricting my diet even more than a typical gluten-free diet was the right thing to do, if it meant that I could nurture my child. Strangely enough, it wasn’t the dairy or the eggs I found myself missing the most- but the most basic staple of my pre-baby life- rice. Going rice-free has been the hardest thing I ever did. And no, an elimination diet this extreme isn’t necessary for most allergy-baby moms, but it seemed to help us, and I’m happy to say that I feel every day this bond with Baby Yum was worth the sacrifice. As you can see from a very recent picture the DH took of me with Baby Yum, I’m loving being a (relatively) new Mommy. And, on the food front, I’m also happy to say that I’ve found quinoa to be a wonderful substitute for rice, whether I’ve used it for satisfying wild sushi cravings or, most recently, in a wonderfully simple and tasty Chinese-style fried rice. This is a recipe the DH and I enjoyed recently, and I hope all you gluten-free Moms (and daughters, and sons!) enjoy it as well on this holiday.
All my best,
Sea
(Sorry I’ve been so busy lately, but those pesky PhD qualifying exams have kept me offline and with my nose pressed in a book… And when I’m not studying, my baby needs snuggles! I know you’ll understand, and you can count on more regular posts again after this hurdle is (hopefully) passed.)
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Quinoa Fried Rice
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Ingredients
3 cups Cooked Quinoa, chilled
2-3 tbsp. neutral oil (canola or peanut if you can have it)
1/4 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup green peas
Small bundle of broccoli florets, cut into small bite sized pieces
1 inch knob of ginger, peeled. Grate 1/4 of it and slice the rest thinly, dicing 1/2 of those slices
White part of one scallion, halved
Sauce:
2 tbsp. Coconut Aminos or other soy-free sauce
2 tbsp. vegetable broth
1 to 2 tbsp. dry sherry
1 tbsp. agave nectar
1/4 knob of ginger, grated (from above)
2 scallions- mince the white part and discard the leftover
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. chili garlic sauce
pinch szechuan salt (if you have it)
pinch white pepper
pinch black pepper
Directions
Whisk together sauce ingredients and prep your veggies.
Heat wok on high. Add 2 tbsp of oil and heat until you see white smoke. Add slices of ginger and halved scallion. Let them turn brown and then remove from pan since they’ve flavored the oil. Toss in diced ginger (reserving a little) and quickly add your onion, carrots, and peas and stir fry until they soften slightly. Then add your broccoli. Toss a few times until broccoli has lost its bite… then pour on most of the sauce, reserving a little. Let sauce and veggies simmer for a minute or so and then remove from heat. Put veggies in a dish and reserve.
Heat wok again and add a little oil. If you like you can do half of the quinoa at a time… you’ll have better flavor. Add your little bit of reserved diced ginger and then toss half of your quinoa into the wok. Spread it around the wok and let it brown, and then stir it up. Brown a little more and then add half of your sauteed veggies and sauce, mixing in. Add a little leftover sauce and heat thoroughly.
Remove to a pretty serving dish and repeat.
Enjoy!
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Posted In: Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Rice Free, Soy Free, chinese, corn free, soy-free challenges, tapioca starch free, vegan, vegetarian
Posted on: 06-02-2010 | By: Gluten Free Foods
I can’t lie to you. Dealing with a gluten-free and top 8 allergen free diet plus some can be really tough. Gluten-free doesn’t even make me blink, but you start talking soy-free, egg-free, and even rice-free (my latest effort for Baby Yum), and some key dishes start getting to be a real challenge. Take sushi. There is nothing I love more than an avocado sushi roll, dipped in gluten-free soy sauce. But now both the sushi rice and the soy sauce are (temporarily) off the menu, what is a Japanese-food-loving girl to do? Get serious about thinking outside the box! I’ve been playing with the idea of a quinoa based sushi “rice” for a while now, but the soy sauce had me stumped. Usually I would sprinkle the sushi with sesame seeds and salt for a good soy sauce substitute for my soy-free friends… but right now I’m avoiding sesame seeds! Luckily I was in my local Cupertino Whole Foods the other day and found a miracle staring me right in the face- a bottle of gluten-free and soy-free soy sauce! This miracle potion is called Coconut Secret Raw Amino Acids and is compatible with a gluten-free as well as a raw foods diet. The price tag, unfortunately, is steep. In fact, I think I bought it in a delirious haze of joy and didn’t notice the price until later, at which point I gulped and felt (some) buyers remorse. 
But this stuff is so awesome and works perfectly in Japanese and Chinese recipes as a straight substitute for soy sauce that I didn’t feel bad for long. And it was the perfect partner to my quinoa sushi rolls! The week I made this, my father was visiting, and it passed the glutenoid test with flying colors. It’s not quite vegetarian sushi without rice, but this quinoa sushi satisfied my sushi craving nicely, and is a fun and new way to use a very healthful “grain.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
*If you don’t have nori you can make a chirashi “zushi” by sprinkling the filling over a nice bowl of the seasoned quinoa. Quick and easy, especially for leftover quinoa!
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Gluten free Rice Free Quinoa Vegetarian Sushi Recipe
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Ingredients
2 cups quinoa 4 cups water
sushi vinegar:
1/4 cup of neutral vinegar (i used a filtered apple vinegar)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 green onions, quartered horizontally
2 carrots, peeled,sliced into long pieces and blanched
1/2 avocado, sliced
Unseasoned nori sheets
*A large recipe- you will have enough leftover quinoa for several servings of quinoa “chirashi” with vegetables sprinkled on top, unless you are cooking for a large group very hungry for “sushi” rolls.
Directions
Toast quinoa in a skillet on medium low, stirring to prevent burning. When quinoa is nicely toasted, move to a fine wire strainer and rinse. Pour into pan with water and bring to boil. Cover and lower heat and leave for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pan on low and let the sugar and salt dissolve into the liquid.
Put your quinoa in a large, glass bowl and drizzle your sushi vinegar mixture over the quinoa. Fold it in for even distribution. Once quinoa has cooled, you can begin to make your sushi.
To prepare your sushi, get your nori sheet and place on a bamboo rolling mat. Cover the entire sheet with quinoa “sushi-rice” except for a horizontal strip at the bottom. Choose a line about 1 or two inches above the bare strip of nori and create a strip on top of the quinoa of filling ingredients. Make sure a small strip or two of green onions,blanched, thin carrot and a slice of avocado will be in every bite. Gently roll your nori together to form a cylinder and moisten the bare nori strip with water. Seal together and let rest while you make your desired number of sushi rolls.
When ready to serve, gently slice cylinders into bite size rolls. You may want to cut a wider roll at the ends where the quinoa mixture is the loosest.
Serve on a plate. If allergies don’t prohibit it, you can sprinkle the rolls with sesame seeds, but it is not necessary.
Enjoy with your favorite wheat-free soy sauce or one of the new soy-free sauces on the market like Coconut Secret’s Raw Coconut Aminos. (Yummy!)
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Posted on: 29-06-2009 | By: Gluten Free Foods
This weekend I hosted our local Celiac Bay Area potluck at a local Sunnyvale, California park just in time for a heat wave. Whoops! Luckily our park was well shaded and somehow managed to have a slight breeze that kept us and the delicious feast everyone had brought relatively cool. I always like to make spring rolls for picnics, but this time I was inspired by a recent sighting of Pineapple spring rolls at Whole Foods to make a fruit spring roll as well as a savory mint roll. The DH has always been a fan of apple in spring rolls, and my pineapple experiment was met with enthusiasm. He liked the peanut sauce so much he suggested putting a layer in the roll itself- which I did later in rolls I made for us at home. (I try to keep allergens separate for our group members with multiple allergies). For anyone that was allergic to nuts, I made a homemade sweet chili sauce.
Yes, premade ones exist, but I always get nervous when reading Trader Joe’s allergen statement about wheat on the lines, especially when cooking for other Celiacs. Besides, homemade sweet chili sauce is just so satisfying! I’ve been making variations of the sweet chili recipe from Real Vegetarian Thai cookbook for years- it is a classic! (And for under $6 the book is a real steal with many recipes that can easily be adapted to be gluten-free.) Despite the fact that I had a friend and her significant other over to help with spring roll assembly and we made a veritable mountain of them, I ended up with very few leftovers, alas. Luckily I had lots of filling ingredients left over that I was able to use in spring rolls that became our dinner the next day. Fruit rolls are natural alternatives to the usual savory tofu rolls i make- but you can also make an absolutely delicious savory roll without any soy by leaving out the tofu and including a mint leaf, rice noodles, carrot, jicama, and cucumber. Mmm, tasty and gluten-free picnic fare.
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Pineapple Fruit Spring Roll Recipe
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Ingredients
Rice spring roll wrapper (dried, must be soaked in warm water to soften)
Filling:
thick sticks of fresh pineapple
medium thick sticks of peeled cucumber
thin slices of peeled apple
thin sticks of carrot
fresh lettuce leaves
Directions
soak dried rice wrapper in warm water until it softens and then lay on a flat cutting board. Layer pineapple, jicama, apple, and carrot in a small pile in the center of the wrapper. Cover loosely with a small piece of lettuce and fold the wrapper around the filling as if you were making a burrito.
Serve with a sweet peanut sauce or other sauce that you like…
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Soy free peanut sauce
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Ingredients
1 sliced medium onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup NATURAL peanut butter or 1 cup dry roasted salted peanuts
1 tbsp. fresh peeled ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
2 tablespoons lime juice
Water (to taste, start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)
Directions
Saute onion in oil til tender. Cool. Place in blender, add everything else, and blend carefully. Slowly and carefully add enough water to form a creamy paste.
If you will be keeping sauce in refrigerator until serving, you may need to add more water later for the same texture as it thickens over time.
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Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce
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Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown rice or other favorite vinegar
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. chili garlic sauce (or less, to taste)
Directions
Combine ingredients through the salt in a saucepan and bring to boil, whisking occasionally. When sugar has dissolved, turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce forms a syrup after 20 minutes or so. Whisk in chili garlic sauce, let cool and serve.
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