Raspberry Chipotle Taco Meat

Here is an absolutely delectable spin on taco meat for the next time you're the mood to try something new.  The flavor in this is amazing - it is sweet and spicy, and the smokiness of the ground chipotle peppers adds a startling depth.  It is fabulous.  

I made it with some of my black raspberry mango jam, but really, any dark berry jam would work (especially some variation of raspberry, cranberry, blueberry or blackberry).  I didn't have any taco shells or corn tortillas, so I whipped up some garlic potato fritters and ate mine over one of those (as pictured), but I think this would be wonderful as a filling for a cheesy quesadilla or over rice.

I can't wait to eat the leftovers.  Seriously - if it sounds good to you, chances are you'll love this. 

Raspberry Chipotle Taco Meat

1 tsp. oil
1/2 white onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno, diced (optional)
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 lb. ground turkey
3 tbsp. gluten-free reduced sodium soy sauce
4 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. minced onion
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. ground chipotle pepper (or add 2 - 3 dried chipotle peppers, sliced open)
2 tbsp. dark berry jam
1/2 - 3/4 cup water


Combine all of the spices and brown sugar in a bowl and mix well.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and jalapeno peppers (if you are using them).  Cook for 4 minutes or so, then add the minced garlic and continue to cook until the onions are tender.  Add the ground turkey and cook until it is done, stirring well and breaking it up into small pieces.  If desired, drain the excess fat and return to the heat.

Add the spice mixture, soy soy sauce, jam, and water and bring to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes, or until it is thick (it may be a bit sticky because of the jam).  Serve immediately in tacos or quesadillas.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Creamy and Chunky Potato Chive Soup

This is a soup that is simple to throw together, and is bursting with flavor.  The nutritional yeast adds a slightly cheesy flavor to the soup, and the soy milk helps give it a creamier texture.  It was hearty enough to be a meal on its own and was perfect to have on a chilly autumn night.

Creamy and Chunky Potato Chive Soup

1 tbsp. olive oil

One small onion, chopped
3 – 4 tsp. minced garlic
2 large potatoes, chopped
Vegetable or chicken broth to cover
¼ tsp. oregano
¼ tsp. parsley
¼ - ½ cup chives, chopped
3 tbsp. nutritional yeast
½ cup soy creamer
Salt and Pepper to taste



Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat and add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onion has turned translucent and then add the potatoes.  Add just enough broth (I used a vegan chicken-flavored one) to cover the potatoes, and add the oregano and parsley.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 - 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are very tender and the broth is at least reduced by half.  Using a potato masher, mash about half of the potatoes, leaving some to create a more chunky texture if desired.  Add the nutritional yeast, soy creamer, and chives, and add salt and pepper to your own taste. 
Serve with a crusty bread or as a first course.

Potato Frittata

This is an excellent way to use leftover roasted potatoes, and to get away from what I usually do, which is just to reheat them and scramble a few eggs to make it a meal. This is much more elegant-looking, and much more delicious.  I will warn you that this might take a long time to cook, so don't make this if you're already hungry!
 
Roasted Potato Frittata

Leftover potatoes of any kind (I used leftover potatoes I had roasted with garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and black pepper)

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup soy milk

1 tomato, cut into thin slices

Mixed herbs (dried thyme, oregano, basil, and sage) Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Arrange the leftover potatoes into the bottom of a small casserole dish. Beat the eggs with the soy milk and mixed herbs, and then pour over the potatoes. Press down on the potatoes with a small spatula to make sure that the eggs have been disbursed evenly throughout. Place the tomato slices on top and sprinkle some mixed herbs, salt, and pepper over the top. Bake the fritatta in the preheated oven for 35 – 55 minutes, until it is set and the crust has slightly browned. Cool slightly before serving.

Thanksgiving Feast

This was my first Thanksgiving/major holiday as a gluten-free girl, and I am not going to lie - I was pretty nervous about it. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to eat anything at our traditional dinner besides turkey, and even there was room for doubt with cross-contamination issues. I think people with food allergies don't understand the anxiety that comes with large gatherings of people consuming food together, and especially on holidays that focus almost exclusively on that particular activity. There is food everywhere that smells delicious and which is off-limits for us, and people are touching all the food, eating, grabbing, and then touching everything else. Which is why, if someone reaches into my stash of food and grabs something with their bare hands, I get super nervous about gluten-contamination. For the most part, my family is understanding of the gluten-intolerance, but I usually feel like it is something that some people are a bit bemused by, and sometimes I end up feeling like they think it is just me being high-maintenance. My mom (who also went gluten-free) and I both tried to have a nice variety for ourselves, and I kept it all stashed away until it was time to eat. The menu, aside from turkey and another batch of the delicious sweet potato cornbread I made from the Gluten-free Goddess' website last week, included the following side dishes, which I found to be absolutely heavenly. I truly feel sometimes like I'm getting to eat the better food when I'm at gatherings of people, and while I missed getting to eat the 8 different kinds of pies that were at my grandma's house, I did make this pie from (guess who??) Karina's website: Vegan Pumpkin Pie, which was creamy, smooth, and very light in texture. It didn't go over too well with my family, but that's because almost no one would even give it a chance. But my other friends LOVED it (as they did the sweet potato cornbread), as did I! My mom made the recipe for sweet potato casserole pictured below, and it was delicious - sweet, with beautiful caramelized pecans on top, and slightly crunchy. The mashed sweet potatoes were silky smooth, thanks to the hemp milk I added. (I think I've been won over to hemp milk, by the way - at least for baking and cooking, it is fabulous!) And the stuffing, I have to say, rivaled my mom's normal stuffing, and in her words, it was "excellent." Altogether, Thanksgiving was great, and even with the food anxiety that always comes at big family gatherings, I had a great time, and best of all, didn't get sick!

Sweet Potato Casserole

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
4 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread (or butter, if you can tolerate it)
1/2 cup coconut milk if desired
1 1/2 cups sugar - but sugar is added to taste
2 tsp. vanilla
optional: 2 mashed bananas (usually made without it)
Dashes of nutmeg, salt, cinnamon, and ginger

Sprinkle half of the nuts into the bottom of a 2 1/2 quart greased baking dish. Mix everything else together except the sugar. Add the sugar to taste. Pour mixture on top of nuts and sprinkle the top with the rest of the nuts. Bake uncovered for about 1/2 hour or until a knife comes out clean.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped coarsely
2 small white potatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
salt to taste
thyme to taste
2 tsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
2 - 5 tbsp. hemp milk, to desired consistency

Place potatoes in a pot of cold water with a dash of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft and break apart when pierced. Drain and mash potatoes together. Beat with a fork until creamy, then add Earth Balance Buttery Spread, salt to taste, and hemp milk, and beat it all together until the desired consistency is reached. Add a generous sprinkling of thyme, to taste.

Thanksgiving Stuffing

1 loaf gluten-free bread (I used Food For Life White Rice bread, and it turned out to be slightly gummy)
1/2 - 1 liter gluten-free chicken broth (I used Swanson)
3/4 cup raisins/cranberries, or a combination of both
4 -5 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 giant onion, finely chopped
2 granny smith apples, peeled and finely chopped
2-4 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
A generous amount of black pepper and basil
Smaller amounts of thyme and parsley

Place the bread slices on foil-covered oven racks and bake at 250 - 300 F until the bread slices have been dried out. Remove from oven, cool, and break into small pieces in a large bowl.

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a small saucepan, place 1 cup broth with the cranberries/raisins and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes to soften the dried fruit. In a separate saute pan, place the Earth Balance Buttery Spread, celery, onion, and apple, then add the spices (very heavy on the black pepper and basil), and saute until the onion is translucent (but not mushy). Add the onion mixture to the broth mixture, and then add that whole mixture to the dried bread pieces. Toss to mix it all together, adding more broth as needed to moisten the bread slices.

If using as turkey stuffing, add a lot more broth and stuff it into the turkey. If you are just making it on its own (which is what I did), place the whole thing in a baking dish and pour more broth over the whole thing, then cover tightly with foil and place in the oven for at least 30 - 50 minutes. Check on it after about 25 minutes and, if necessary, pour some more broth over it to make sure there is enough moisture (otherwise, the bread will be pretty gummy and chewy). I added roughly 3/4 liter of broth in total, and mine came out to be pretty soft and easily chewed.

Grundhauser Hungarian Chicken Goulash with Cornbread

The recipe for this Hungarian goulash has, I'm sure, been tweaked over the last few generations of my family, so that it may not really resemble the original recipe as closely anymore. For one thing, in my family, the traditional beef is usually replaced with chicken. But regardless of that, this recipe has a special place in our family. This recipe sits in a frame that my mom keeps sitting on our mantlepiece, "Grundhauser Hungarian Goulash" displayed in slightly faded letters with the measurements . This recipe is a piece of my family's history. And even though this recipe is not an exact science and is never quite the same as the last time you made it, it is unfailingly comforting and delicious and hearty. And it's so easy to throw together, and as long as you have a few hours to let it simmer, you will have a delicious stew with plenty for leftovers. We served this with "Yankee Cornbread" from the Gluten-free Pantry. I made it with my Little Sister (with Big Brothers Big Sisters) last night, and in her words, "This is the BOMB!"

Grundhauser Hungarian Chicken Goulash

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
4 medium potatoes, chopped
1 small bag baby carrots OR 4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
4- 7 tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika (to taste)
2 - 5 tbsp. spicy Hungarian paprika (to taste)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. cayenne Pepper (if desired)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper (to taste)
1/2 tsp. salt (more to taste)
4 cups chicken broth (I used Pacific Low Sodium), or water
Tapioca or Potato starch to thicken, if desired

Chop onion and saute in 1 tbsp. olive oil until tender or translucent. Add the chicken pieces and cook over medium heat for 4 - 5 minutes, then stir in 4 heaping tablespoons of sweet paprika, 1 heaping tablespoon of spicy paprika, and 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, and stir into the chicken. Continue to saute for another 4 -5 minutes until the chicken is browned. Pour in enough of the chicken broth to cover the chicken, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat.

Simmer for at least 1 - 1 1/2 hours until the chicken is very tender, then add the carrots and enough broth to cover it all again. Adjust the seasonings as desired (I added more of both kinds of paprika and ground pepper several times during the cooking time). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for another 20 minutes, then add the chopped potatoes and, once again, enough broth to cover. Simmer until the potatoes are tender (roughly 20 more minutes).

Mix about 1 tbsp. potato or tapioca starch in a bowl with 1 tbsp. water and combine to remove the clumps. Add the starch mixture to the goulash and stir in until it has reached the desired thickness. Serve with cornbread or on its own!

Spinach Potato Spanish-style Omelet

I say Spanish-style because I don't think I've *quite* mastered the art of the Spanish Omelet, but I will say that the flavor in this didn't suffer for the lack of true form. I ate half of this while it was still hot for dinner last night, and the second half this morning straight from the fridge, and I actually think I preferred it cold! The flavors seem to have mingled overnight and become more intense, which made for a delicious breakfast this morning!


Spinach Potato Spanish-Style Omelet

2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into thin slices
1/2 medium onion, chopped coarsely into slivers
1 1/2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
3 eggs
1/4 cup rice milk (or your favorite milk substitute)
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them into coarse thin slices. Chop the onions. Place the onions and potatoes in a small pan with 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat, cover, and cook for about 6 - 10 min. until the potatoes are soft. Meanwhile, take the fresh spinach, chop it coarsely, and wilt it in a pan for just 1 - 2 minutes so that it is still bright green. (I used spray oil to coat the pan for this so I wouldn't have to add more olive oil calories to this.) In a mixing bowl, place the 3 eggs and milk, and whip until well-blended. When the potato/onion mixture and spinach are ready, pour them into the bowl with the eggs and mix together.

In the frying pan (you want one that's at least a little deep), heat the remaining olive oil and pour the egg mixture in and put over medium-low heat. Heat slowly until the bottom is well-set, then take a large plate and invert the omelet onto it, then slide it back into the pan and finish cooking until the entire thing is cooked through and both sides are well set. Serve hot, warm, or cold! This would be delicious with a garlic sauce over it, such as a garlic mayonnaise.