Nut Free Charoset
As promised last week in my Allergy Free Roasted Asparagus Soup post, I’m continuing the theme of Passover and Easter recipes. Today’s post is Nut-Free Charoset, that’s gluten-free and Kosher for Passover.
A fruit and nut dish traditionally eaten at Passover, charoset represents the mortar which the enslaved Hebrews used when constructing storehouses and buildings in ancient Egypt. (I love food history!) Ashkenazi recipes usually contain apples, raisins, cinnamon, and honey, while Sephardic often include dates, oranges, and apricots. Since I’m both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, this hybrid charoset combines elements of both traditions — but without the usual nuts, since both my son Lennon and I are allergic to them! Apple pieces add crunchiness and pomegranate juice ties together this super-healthy dish. Try it with roasted meat or enjoy it as a spread on gluten-free matzo.
Allergy Free Roasted Asparagus Soup
Today’s recipe for Allergy-Free Roasted Asparagus Soup marks the beginning of a series of recipes I’ll be posting over the next several weeks, to help make it easier to celebrate an allergy-free Easter and Passover.
Springtime to me means merging the best of my varying culinary background. With a mother of Roman Catholic and Protestant decent and a Jewish father, I grew up celebrating both Christian and Jewish holidays. To complicate matters further, my father is half Ashkenazi (Jews of Central, Northwestern and/or Eastern European descent) and half Sephardic (Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent). This hybridized childhood strongly influences my cooking today. You will find that the following series of recipes are suitable for either Easter or Passover dinner. Plus, they take advantage of seasonal farm-fresh ingredients to guarantee a healthy, wholesome allergy-free spin on your favorite old-fashioned standards.
Gluten Free (Allergy Free) Chicken Fried Rice and Soy Free Soy Sauce Recipe
Gluten-Free (Allergy-Free) Chicken Fried Rice. This recipe is one of the most fun I’ve ever developed. As I’ve mentioned, I like a good challenge, and this was certainly that. How to make fried rice without the following allergens: soy, gluten (in soy sauce), peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, or sesame? Also no fish or shellfish. What a conundrum.
Additionally, I opted to make it with no legumes, for the many with legume allergies. Okay, I could work around green peas, omit the eggs, wouldn’t include shrimp, use canola oil instead of peanut oil and sesame oil, but what about the soy sauce?
Allergy Free Sopa de Lima (Mexican Lime Soup)
Allergy-Free Sopa de Lima (Mexican Lime Soup)
Sometimes the challenge of eating allergy-friendly and gluten-free is all about making smart choices. You begin to look at certain types of cuisine with a fresh eye because they just might be naturally free of certain allergens. For example, Mexican food relies heavily on the gluten-free grain corn. So it’s a pretty safe bet that you can find traditional recipes that are already gluten-free. This lovely Mexican chicken soup derives from the Yucatan, and is naturally allergy-friendly. If you choose your chicken stock wisely, it’s also easily gluten-free.
If you are allergic to corn, but can eat gluten, instead of corn tortillas, swap out regular flour tortillas. And if you can’t eat either, well then, try my recipe for gluten-free (corn-free) tortillas, here.
Rice Milk Ranch Dressing
Rice Milk Ranch Dressing (Allergy-Free and Vegan too!)
First order of business, to see the winner of the Free For All Cooking cookbook giveaway, please see the video drawing here: Free For All Cooking Giveaway. Thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm! Congrats to the winner!
Now, on to the food! Is your kid a dunker or a dipper? Do veggies need to be disguised as the vehicle by which the dip or dressing is transported to the mouth? Then this Allergy-Free Gluten-Free Ranch Dressing is the perfect ruse for you!
Gluten Free Vegan Cherry Oat Scones
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared this video, but it’s one of my favorites, so I’m sharing it again for all my new subscribers (hi!) who didn’t get a chance to see it when I first posted it over a year ago! This simple gluten-free vegan scone recipe is easy to whip up, but will really impress your friends and family, and wow your taste buds. It’s a perfect breakfast or tea time treat for these cold winter days. Enjoy, and let me know what type of breakfast you like best, so I can start brainstorming recipes for you! And coming next post…. a review and giveaway of Jules E. Dowler Shepard’s new book “Free For All Cooking“! Stay tuned….
Allergy Friendly Chicken Tenders
Dear Friends:
Here’s the latest installment in the Eat Freely with Cybele video series I shot with Enjoy Life. This is my favorite of all my new recipes. It’s a delicious, crunchy, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free , and nut-free chicken tenders recipe that rivals the best traditional fried chicken recipes out there. My family and friends are CRAZY for this one. Enjoy. And scroll down for the link to the recipe for printout or reference.
For the RECIPE and more videos, check out The Eat Freely with Cybele site. And let me know what you think of this recipe!!!!
Allergy Free Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Allergy-Free Broccoli “Cheddar” Soup
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free)
It’s cold out, even by Los Angeles standards. So I’ve been thinking a lot about soup. This week, I was drawn by the lure of “mock” cheddar. That’s right  Mock Cheddar.  If you haven’t already heard, there’s a new kid in town, by the name of Daiya, and it’s changing the face of dairy-free living.
Daiya is a new dairy-free, vegan, soy-free cheese product that has revolutionized the way I think about pizza, pasta, and in this case, cheese soup. Daiya’s greatest strength is that it melts, just like normal cheese, which up till now has been virtually impossible with vegan cheeses. I chose to whip up an Allergen-Free Broccoli Cheddar Soup, to see how this new product would perform when it was required to not only melt, but to disappear into the soup completely. Suffice it to say, it rose to the challenge, and then some.
Gluten Free Coffee Cake
Blueberry Boy Bait
Makes 8 servings (gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, peanut, tree nut, and sesame free)
This moist, buttery coffee cake with its crisp, cinnamon-sugar topping is based on an old-fashioned recipe from the 1950s, called Blueberry Boy Bait, a coffee cake named for the effect it had on teenage boys. My boys aren’t teens yet, but this bait works for them. They’ll gobble it up in one daywith not a crumb left over.
- 2 cups my Basic Gluten-Free Flour Mix or Authentic Foods GF Classical Blend
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup dairy-free, soy-free vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 6 tablespoons rice milk
- 3/4 cup rice milk
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries tossed with 1 tablespoon Basic Gluten-Free Flour Mix
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 by 9-inch baking pan and sprinkle with a little gluten-free lour mix, tapping out any extra.
- Whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, or until fluffy.
- Add the egg replacer and mix for about 20 seconds.
- Reduce the speed to medium and beat in one-third of the flour, mixing for 15 seconds.
- Add half of the rice milk, mixing for 20 seconds.
- Beat in half of the remaining flour, then the remaining rice milk, and finally the remaining flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add half of the batter to the pan, using a frosting spatula to spread the batter evenly across the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with half of the blueberries. Top with the remaining batter, spreading it as evenly as possible across the blueberries. Top with the remaining blueberries, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour, until the cinnamon-sugar mixture has begun to caramelize and the top is golden. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning out onto a serving platter (or just cut into pieces and serve out of the pan). Serve warm or at room temperature. This cake is even better on day two!
Tip: If using frozen blueberries, keep frozen until the last minute, or they’ll turn your batter blue-green.
Reprinted with permission from The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook: How to Bake Without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, and Sesame. Copyright © 2009 by Cybele Pascal, Celestial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Photo credit: Chugrad McAndrews.
Thanksgiving Leftovers: Allergy Friendly Gluten Free Turkey Pot Pie
Thanksgiving Leftovers: How to recycle your holiday feast into an allergen-free, gluten-free one pot meal!
The term, waste not, want not has never held more weight than it does in these tough times. So after that huge Thanksgiving meal, rework those holiday leftovers into day-after-delicacies. The following dish is simple to make (who really feels like cooking after all that holiday prep?), uses up leftover ingredients, and calls for staples that most of us have on hand (because who feels like shopping, either?).
Allergy-Friendly Turkey Pot Pie with Mashed Potatoes
(Allergy-Friendly, Gluten-Free)
Makes 6 servings
Comfort food at its best: part potpie, part shepherd’s pie, and chock-full of leftovers. This one pot meal uses up turkey, gravy, and the thanksgiving sides; pearl onions, peas, corn, cooked carrots, and mashed potatoes. It also keeps well for several days, and can be reheated on demand. This can be made dairy-free, gluten-free, and allergen-free, by following the optional tips below. Additionally, if you don’t have an oven safe-casserole, you may bake this in a deep-dish pie dish or baking dish.
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup pearl onions (or 1/2 cup onion, diced)
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots, sliced or chopped (cooked or raw)
- 1/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup turkey gravy (Imagine makes dairy-free, gluten-free turkey gravy) or my Allergy-friendly (Gluten-free) “Creamy” Gravy
- 1 cup rice milk
- salt and pepper
- 1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 cups roast turkey, diced into bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 cup corn (cooked, frozen, canned, or fresh)
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 3 cups mashed potatoes
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2, Heat 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, and carrots, and cook, stirring often, until just tender, 3-4 minutes. (If you are using cooked carrots, add them in the last minute of cooking time). Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a medium oven-safe casserole, (3Â 1/2-5 quarts) heat the remaining 3 Tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add brown rice flour, and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes until lightly golden. Add gravy and rice milk, and cook stirring, until it thickens up into a nice smooth cream sauce, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon juice.
4. Add turkey, onion/celery/carrot mixture, corn, and peas to the “cream” sauce. Stir to coat. Add remaining Tablespoon of lemon juice, a little more salt and pepper, and parsley. Stir well to combine.
5. Spread mashed potatoes evenly over filling.
6. Bake in center of oven 30-40 minutes until potatoes are browned a bit on top, and filling is bubbling up around the edges.
Allergy-Friendly Turkey Pot Pie with Mashed Potatoes
© 2009 by Cybele Pascal
(Please note that all my recipes are completely free of all top allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, and gluten), so as many people as possible can enjoy them. Additionally, all the ingredients are available atWhole Foods, and online atAmazon.com. If you have trouble finding something, let me know and I’ll help you find it.)
SAFETY NOTE: Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions. If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns before consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.