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Grain-free Spicy Cauliflower Fritters {Keto, Paleo, Whole30}
These Grain-free Spicy Cauliflower Fritters are an amazing way to embrace the cauliflower love, taking the cauli-rice trend to a whole new level. These versatile patties can be adapted to whatever flavor and spice blend you’d like and served with your favorite sauce, we like Chipotle Lime Aioli.
Veg based fritters have always been a favorite of mine, either as a quick bite appetizer or snack, or atop a large bed of greens as a main dish, I find them to be quick, simple, cheap and versatile. Since I have removed both grains and beans from my diet, due to my autoimmune conditions and my digestive issues, I haven’t really messed with too many veggie-based fritters, cakes and patties in recent years. But, after a recent exploration with cauliflower, which is one of my favorite, versatile, low carb, starch-like veggies – these fritters were born and they have quickly become a new fav.
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Miso Roasted Brussels Sprouts
As we head into the holidays, the focus obviously shifts to any and all dishes for entertaining. Side dishes and treats, mains and snacks. ‘Tis the season of all the eating! The Miso Roasted Brussels Sprouts are begging to be the star at your Thanksgiving or Christmas meal! Trust me, this is a veggie that can steal the show!
I enjoy creating the sweets and treats recipes, because let’s be real, the joy that healthy treats can bring is palpable. I’d like to wrap that feeling up with a pretty bow and give it as a gift. That said, when it comes to the holidays, my heart will forever remain with sides and veggies. I love a good, plant-based side dish. So much room for creativity in the vegetables. The mains are usually pretty traditional, those are generally on lock down. I just truly enjoy the challenge of creating exciting enough veggie dishes that will please the masses and especially those that won’t be the forgotten soldier at a table full of meaty mains and their carb-loaded friends. I literally have made it my mission when I feed people to make the vegetable(s) the first thing to disappear from the plate, rather than the last. This dish 100% is successful at doing exactly that.
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Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream
Is there anyone out there that doesn’t like Mexican food? I mean really! I feel like there’s a reason that every Taco Tuesday is celebrated with such enthusiasm and why Cinco de Mayo has turned into a way bigger deal here in the US than it is even in Mexico.
But, I digress, I think it’s just a given that everyone loves the food. Though oftentimes most Mexican food is naturally gluten-free, if you prefer to avoid grains, if you like to limit your corn and dairy, if you tend to avoid beans, or if you are mindful of where your meat comes from and how it is raised – it can leave very few options when dining out at traditional Mexican joints. A lettuce wrapped taco is good, but it’s just not the same. I pack my own plantain chips if we are going out for Mexican, but ya know – they are no tortilla chips. So, of course, I am always looking for other ways to enjoy delicious, healthy Mexican food, grain-free and dairy-free, at home.
I was craving enchiladas recently and I thought it was time I created some, with my spin on it. You may remember I created and shared a tutorial on How-to Make Plantain Tortillas a while back and while I absolutely love them, I just wasn’t sure they would hold up in this recipe. So instead I turned to the Urban Poser’s amazing Cassava Flour Tortillas. These tortillas (made with cassava flour), they are serious business, chewy and flexy, they hold up incredible well and they aren’t too much work to make – once you get into the rhythm. They held up fantastically well in this recipe. No breaks and no splits. Clearly you can opt for any tortillas you’d like here, I just love that these allow for grain-free enchiladas. Read the rest of this entry »
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Grilled Summer Veggie Gazpacho
I am super excited to share with you guys this amazing summery, chilled soup recipe, aka one of my most favorite ways, currently, to enjoy the flavors of the season. The whole idea for this Grilled Summer Veggie Gazpacho was inspired by one of my new favorite kitchen staples, vegan stocks and broths from Massel.
Earlier this year while at the Expo West Natural Products Convention, I had the pleasure of not only meeting the amazing Blender Girl, Tess Masters, who has quickly become one of my favorite people, but in meeting her I was also introduced to Massel, an amazing brand, new to America, hailing from her home country of Australia. Massel makes high-quality easy-to-use bouillons, stock cubes, seasoning granules and Concentrated Liquid Stock. All of their incredible all-natural products are gluten-free and vegan, so they can essentially be enjoyed by all, regardless of dietary restrictions. Massel never adds MSG and all of their ingredients are non-GMO. Besides all of that, the best part about their bouillons are how they taste just like homemade stocks.
Though I am not strictly vegan or vegetarian myself, I do try to limit the amount of meat I consume. If I cannot get high-quality meat from our local farmer or at the farmers market, I much prefer to eat vegetarian. When it comes to homemade stocks and soups, I generally tend to use leftover bones from our grass-fed meat and/or whatever veggies I have on hand, to make a stock every other week or so. But this just isn’t always a possibility, sometimes I need quick and easy, but I still want healthy and real.
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Forbidden Rice Spring Veggie Bowls with Tahini Lemon Dressing
To know me, is to know that I get weirdly obsessed with things. Currently I am obsessed with two things, first is my new spiralizer (yes you will see lots of recipes made with it very soon) and secondly, any and all meals that can be served in bowls! As you can imagine the cross-over on these two obsessions is quite high so one is perpetuating the other right now.
Today we are just talking about my love of any and all meals served in a bowl. I am not talking about your traditional soup or salads, though I still love both of those, I am talking more about creative, complete and hearty meals with everything you might possibly need or want, all served in one big bowl.
To me, there is something just so comforting and so appealing about a meal in a bowl. Whether it be a Sprouted Quinoa with a Kale Almond Pesto Bowl, a 30-Minute Sweet Potato and Kale Coconut Curry over rice, a Buddha Bowl with Garlic Turmeric Cashew Cream or just a big ‘ol salad with loads of gorgeous bits and bops from your pantry and fridge. Mostly I find these bowl meals to be an opportunity to cram as much seasonal goodness as I can into one dish and to arrange it in a beautiful color coordinated way that turns it into a work of art.
The other bonus of a bowl meal, is the organized and seemingly planned out way to eat up what you have on hand and to make it appear that it was done with great purpose. I have been known to do that a time or two around here.
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Roasted Veggie Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Topping – Vegan + Gluten-free
I am so excited that it’s comfort-food season!! As much as I adore the fresh local produce and cool and light dishes of the summer, there is something about the hearty, hot and comforting foods of the winter that are so enticing. A good comfort food meal will leave you feeling like you just got the biggest, warmest hug from your favorite loved one! Even better when it can be healthy comfort food! What’s your favorite comfort food?
Although this isn’t technically a one-pot meal, since it requires some prep, it is in theory and in it’s final state. I love a meal where it’s all inclusive. One big scoop and you are all set. Plus, a meal like this is perfect for leftovers. For some reason, I find meals like this even better as leftovers, I am not sure if it’s because I didn’t spend all the time prepping just before, or if it just really allows the flavors to come together to their fullest.
Please keep in mind, I used what vegetables I had on hand and what I would like best for the filling, but feel free to have some fun and add in whatever you’d like. Other wonderful add-ins for the filling would be squash, cauliflower, corn, green beans, asparagus, peas, lentils, beets, turnips, meat or tofu, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless. You could make this many times, each a totally different way. Another thing to note, you don’t have to roast your vegetables if you don’t want to. You could simply sautee them in a large pan on the stove top, I just personally love the flavor of roasted vegetables. I didn’t exactly accurately measure, so use my measurements below as a guide, but don’t get too hung up on the specifics, there really is no wrong way.
[print_this]Roasted Veggie Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Topping – Vegan + Gluten-free
Serves 4-6Filling:
(please keep in mind you can really use whatever veggies you would like and prefer, this is just what I had on hand.)- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small head broccoli, cut into small florets
- 1-2 cups pearl onions, peeled and halved, if need be (I used fresh, not frozen)
- 1 small bulb of kohlrabi, peeled and sliced
- 2 cups brussels sprouts, halved
- 1 leeks, rinsed very well, slice thinly white and light green parts only
- 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, thinly slices
- 1 15 ounce can of organic white beans
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Fresh or dried herbs, to your liking – I used both fresh rosemary and fresh thyme
- salt and pepper, to taste
Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock (or other stock like chicken or mushroom, etc)
- 2 tablespoons tapioca starch (potato or corn starch would also work)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
Sweet Potato Topping:
- 4 medium organic sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons oil or butter (olive oil, coconut oil, butter, vegan butter, ghee, etc)
- splash of non-dairy milk (I used a bit of coconut milk)
- salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
Toss all of your vegetables, leaving out the white beans, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes, together with olive oil, fresh herbs, salt and pepper in a roasting pan. Place in the oven and roast for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the veggies are slightly tender and beginning to brown. While the veggies are roasting, quickly sautee the mushrooms with a small drizzle of olive oil over a medium high heat. Take the roasted vegetables out when they are ready and toss in the white beans, sauteed mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes.
Lower the oven temperature to 375ºF.
In a small saucepan heat the stock for your broth plus your herbs, over a medium-high heat, once simmering, carefully whisk in your starch to thicken. To avoid lumps, sprinkle it in lightly a little at a time or add some stock to a small bowl with the starch in and whisk quickly to fully incorporate. Once the veggies are done and all together, pour the sauce over, don’t add it all at once, you may not want it all, depending on how many veggies you have.
Pour the filling evenly into a very lightly greased glass baking pan and set aside. Meanwhile boil the sweet potatoes with the garlic in a medium saucepan full of water over a high heat. Once boiling, continue simmering for about 10-12 minutes until the sweet potatoes are nice and tender. Quickly drain the potatoes and then add back to the pot, add your oil or butter (or vegan butter) and mash with a potato masher, a hand mixer, etc. until smooth and creamy. Add a splash a non-dairy milk if you need a bit more liquid or to give just a hint of creaminess. Salt and pepper to taste.
Smooth the mashed sweet potatoes over the filling, using a spatula to spread evenly. Place in the 375ºF oven and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the filling is bubbling. If you wish to get a bit of crispy brown goodness on top, place your shepherd’s pie under the broiler for a few minutes.
Let cool for a few minutes then serve while hot.
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Gluten-Free Lentil Burgers
I absolutely love veggie burgers, but finding good ones that aren’t overly processed and loaded with chemicals, fillers, preservatives and other junk, is really hard on its own, but then add in the additional challenge of finding them gluten-free, it’s damn near impossible. Since I have cut processed foods out of my diet, whenever I want a veggie burger, I have been enjoying organic garden herb burgers from Sunshine Burgers that are not only gluten-free, but they only have 5 ingredients, sunflower seeds, brown rice, carrots, herbs and salt, that’s it. I am quite impressed with how delicious they are, but as with everything, I get bored and I want to figure out how to make my own, since, I really hate buying packaged foods.
I decided I wanted to experiment with making homemade lentil burgers. I had seen quite a few recipes in different cookbooks and online, and I was excited to see if using lentils as opposed to brown rice or other grain-based fillers, would hold up better and not fall apart. In my experience, that seems to be the biggest challenge with homemade veggie burgers. I was also excited to finally have a good reason to use the delicious toasted gluten-free breadcrumbs that I picked up when I was in Colorado earlier this year. The company that makes them is called, Outside the Breadbox and I found them by visiting Granny’s Gluten Free Zone in Loveland. I need to email them about having them shipped to me, they are THAT good. Finally I decided this is the recipe where I would use the beautiful dried Greek green lentils that I picked up a few weekends ago at the Greek Festival here in Buffalo. By the way, a little side note about me, most people buy souvenirs like t-shirts or key chains to remember certain events or trips, not me, I buy food, ingredients, cooking tools, etc. What better way to remember a place or a day then by remembering and recreating the food or cuisine. If a taste or a smell can’t take you back somewhere, I don’t know what can. I have actually been stopped at security in an airport before trying to take olive oil in my carry-on. (oops) Obviously you can make your own homemade breadcrumbs and use those, too.
Now that I have played around with this recipe, I am excited to make it again and again, there are so many variations you could take on the recipe. You could play around with different lentils, change-up the fresh herbs, add in some crumbled feta or other cheeses. Maybe try adding in some sunflower seeds or gluten-free rolled oats or shredded vegetables like zucchini or carrots. I think as long as you adjust your moisture content and breadcrumb content to account for the different ingredients, the sky is the limit with this recipe. Obviously if you aren’t gluten-free you can use your favorite gluten-containing, toasted breadcrumbs.
I served mine on a Rudi’s gluten-free whole grain hamburger bun. This is definitely the best packaged gluten-free roll I have found, yet. I am sure I can make a better gluten-free hamburger roll at home, but I have yet to experiment with a recipe. That is on my to-do list for this summer. If you have a recipe to share, send me a link.
** Vegans – if you don’t want to mess with packaged egg replacers, do some looking around online, there are ways to use even more ground flax-seeds mixed with water to create a paste that acts as an egg replacer. I have done something similar with a pizza crust recipe, so I know it works. The general ratio is 1 tablespoon of ground flax-seed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water = 1 egg, but do some looking around for recipes and do some experimenting. It’s pretty incredible.
Enjoy.
Gluten-Free Lentil Burgers
Makes 8 burgers3 1/4 cups cooked green lentils (follow package directions to cook)
4 large local farm fresh brown eggs (**to make vegan, use your favorite egg replacer or make a flax-seed egg substitute, see above)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 medium onion, grated with box grater or diced very small
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground flax-seed (you can skip this if you don’t have any on hand, it isn’t necessary to the recipe, just a nice way to add in some Omega-3 essential fatty acids and even more fiber)
1 cup toasted gluten-free bread crumbs
1-2 tablespoons olive oilCook your dried lentils according to package directions and allow to cool slightly. Combine 3 cups of the cooked lentils, eggs and salt in a food processor or sturdy blender. Puree until well blended and mostly smooth. Put the mixture in a large mixing bowl and add remaining whole lentils, onion, garlic, fresh herbs and black pepper. Stir to combine. Add in the ground flax-seed and then begin adding in the breadcrumbs slowly, a little at a time and stir to combine. You may not need all the breadcrumbs and you may need more, so go slowly so you can get the consistency right.
You should have a moist mixture that you can easily form into patties. If you need more moisture, you can add more egg or a bit of water. If it needs to be drier you can add more breadcrumbs. Form eight – 3-1/2 to 4-inch patties and set on a plate.
Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add two patties at a time and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until the face down side begins to brown and get a crispy crust on the outside. Flip the burgers and allow to cook on the second side for another 8 to 10 minutes until browned and crisp, add more oil as you cook the additional burgers, if you need to. Remove the finished burgers from the skillet and serve, or if cooking the remaining patties allow the cooked patties to cool on a wire rack while you finish. You can store the uncooked patties in the refrigerator for up to a week, so pull them out whenever you are ready for a quick bite.
Place the cooked lentil burger on your favorite gluten-free roll and top with your favorite toppings. We kept it simple and just went with lettuce from our garden, tomato slices and a slice of organic swiss cheese. These burgers are so good, you could also just skip the roll and serve on their own, topped with your favorite things or served over a bed of baby greens.
