Book of Yum

Many of you must be familiar with my favorite spinach pie recipe. It all began as a non-vegan recipe, and then as I got increasingly interested in making allergen-friendly recipes, I started playing with it in various vegan permutations. This weekend I hosted a CeliacSF Bay potluck, and we had a “holiday favorites” theme. Well, one of my holiday favorites is that spinach pie recipe. But, the original recipe is not vegan, and we have several members that avoid both eggs and dairy. I wanted to make a non-vegan version, which involved making a pie crust- rather labor intensive, and so I was trying to think of an easy way to make an allergen friendly version of this recipe. Luckily Whole Foods had the perfect solution. I was wandering dreamily around the produce section, one of my favorite places in the store, when I passed by these beautiful, ridiculously huge Russet Potatoes. I have a weakness for monster-truck-sized Russets, since they’re often the only thing I can have (or want) at certain American-style restaurants. Salt, pepper, and margarine can be the seasonings of the gods if the baked potato is baked just right- and luckily, I discovered the perfect baking technique for potatoes from a James McCairn book long ago. Bake them on a bed of kosher salt and it creates a flavor seal that makes the potato soft and fluffy on the inside and nicely textured on the outside. But when I looked at these babies, I didn’t see just a simple baked potato. No. I saw a monster-sized vegan twice-baked potato, with a spinach garlic white sauce complimented by soft, fluffy mashed potato- topped with savory portobello mushrooms to add the perfect “meaty” compliment. The potatoes came home with me- and I used them to make a vegan version of my beloved garlic spinach pie recipe. And- I do believe the recipe was a success! I tested it out on DH first, who can be skeptical of some vegan recipes. He pronounced it “good” and ate the whole thing, so I was encouraged. And, at our group, it went over quite well. In fact, I do believe people actually ate more of the twice baked potato version than the regular spinach pie. Yeah! Potatoes really are the best, and if you’ve been missing a twice baked potato due to complex allergies or the difficulty of making it vegan, why not try my recipe? And please, tell me what you think, or if you have your own vegan twice-baked recipe to share.

Here are some of my other riffs on spinach-garlic goodness:
Dairy Free Spinach Pie - can be vegan with the right pie crust or the shepard’s pie topping
Spinach Pie or Shepard’s Spinach Pie Non-vegan
Spinach Tartlets using Chebe Non-vegan

This is my second entry for Tasty Palettes ‘one-off’ Vegan Challenge in honor of November, national vegan month.

Twice Baked Spinach Garlic Stuffed Potatoes Main Course  Vegan  Potatoes  American

Ingredients 4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and cleaned kosher salt canola or other vegan margarine, or favorite high quality flavorful oil like olive oil or coconut oil 1 medium onion, diced 3 garlic cloves, pressed 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp vegan margarine (or more olive oil) 1-2 tbsp fine brown rice flour 2 cups (more or less, to taste) rice milk, plain 2 tbsp nutritional yeast 1+ package fresh spinach, cooked and drained, chopped Garlic powder to taste 1 portobello mushroom, stemmed, thinly sliced salt, pepper Directions Take baking dish and sprinkle with a layer of kosher salt (large grain). Cover the entire surface of the dish entire bottom of the dish. Prepare your potatoes, making sure to remove any eyes but keep the cuts shallow and leave as much of the skin intact as possible. Place your washed, dried potatoes on the salt covered baking sheet and bake them at 375 or 425 (your preferred temperature) for 1-2 hours, or until the potato squishes slightly when you press it. Rotate your potatoes a few times during that cooking process to make sure it bakes evenly. When potatoes are done, slice them in half horizontally and gently remove most of the baked potato flesh, leaving a nice potato skin boat. Rice the baked potatoes if possible and then fold into them some canola margarine or olive oil (or other favorite oil, coconut might be nice if you have it) and rice milk. Salt and pepper to taste. Make sure your mashed potatoes are not soupy- you want them to be fluffy and fairly dry. If you like, you can enjoy half or more of these mashed potatoes for a snack or side dish right away. You only need about half or a quarter of the recipe for the stuffed potatoes. This step can be done the night before. Just keep your potato skins and mashed potatoes refrigerated. —————————- Preheat oven to 375. Heat your oil and margarine (if using) in the pan until margarine has melted but not browned. Throw in your diced onions and let them start to get translucent. Add your pressed garlic. When the pan begins to release the fragrance of garlic, mix in your fine brown rice flour and let it begin to toast slightly. Add a little garlic powder and mix into the roux. Gradually add your rice milk (I used organic, brown rice milk) and create a light white sauce. Whisk often to avoid lumps. When you’ve created a nice white sauce, add your nutritional yeast (this adds both color and flavor) and your chopped, drained spinach. When dish has heated through, add a quarter of your mashed potato to the filling and combine. If desired, add more mashed potatoes to taste. Taste and add additional garlic powder as you like. Heat cast iron pan with olive oil and a little margarine if desired. Add your thin portobello mushroom slices and add salt and pepper to taste. When they have softened, turn them over. To prepare: Fill your potato boats with the spinach white sauce potato filling and top with portobello mushroom strips. Place in oven and bake until they are heated through and take on a golden brown tinge. Plate and enjoy! Notes When cooking for our celiac group, I try to avoid allergens as much as possible. Earth Balance is a Vegan, Gluten-Free margarine, but I don’t believe it is soy free, which is a must for some of our members. To make this recipe strictly vegan, you could use Earth Balance or a high quality olive oil or coconut oil. The margarine I used had minor amounts of whey flavoring (the very last ingredient, under flavorings, a sub-component of “flavoring”), making it not strictly Vegan, but it was 100% lactose free. Lactose is often a problem for (newly diagnosed) Celiacs.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Contents of my brain, do not replicate without permission Recipe ID:  1159 Added:  November 18, 2007 Last Modified:  November 18, 2007

Last night we had another meeting of our local Celiac SF Bay Area Support Group. Our kind host and hostess provided an amazing array of delicious dishes for our “Gluten Free Pizza and Beer Night”. This was no simple pizza and beer night, though.
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The menu included:
4 vegetarian pizzas, including a deep dish bean and sorghum crust vegetarian pizza with cheese and tomato sauce, as well as Annalise Robert’s rice and millet thin crust pizza crusts.

2 pasta dishes, one with corn quinoa rotini pasta and one spaghetti dish

Amazing Torta de ceci with basil pesto

A delicious marinated artichoke salad

A greens salad

Steamed broccoli
A roman feast of grapes

Artichoke spinach dip with corn chips (YUM!)

2 kinds of bread sticks, one from an adapted Risotteria breadstick recipe and another recipe made with onion garlic chebe decorated with fresh parsley (my contributions)

Wine, soda, water, and beer

And for dessert? Yummy sweet sugared pecans, Delicious crispy cookies and a heavenly cranberry one-bowl pie and pumpkin bread.
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You can tell we’re something of a food oriented group- there was enough food for a gluten free army! We had a huge turnout and it was a really fun event, thanks to our gracious host and hostess. Next month I may host our gathering, and in December one of our intrepid members will arrange a restaurant outing for us. I know it will be fabulous. I just may have to diet between now and then, because all this gluten free camaraderie comes with lots of calories! The food is wonderful, but getting the chance to chat with other gluten-free people is the best part. If you haven’t already, I would really urge you to seek out a gluten-free support group in your area. Even if you feel comfortable with the diet and don’t feel you need support per say, it’s a great way to meet some really nice local people and compare notes on food, restaurants, and life.

But what about THE FOOD, I hear you asking. Although I intended to bring my favorite Carol Fenster pizza dish, Thursday is a bit busy for me, so I ended up only making two things- two recipes for gluten free bread sticks. You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever had proper bread sticks before yesterday. I decided to try Jane Oswack’s version of the Risotteria bread sticks recipe that was posted in the New York times, and I also made Chebe’s onion garlic bread sticks for the first time.

Here are the risotteria style gluten-free bread sticks that I made. The only changes I made to the recipe were substituting Trader Joe’s Pasta Seasoning for the dried herbes de Provence and leaving out the gelatin to make it a vegetarian recipe. Also, rather than using a pastry bag, I used a large ziploc bag with a corner cut out to pipe the dough out into sticks. The result? A somewhat dense, chewy bread stick. Justin said they looked like traditional bread sticks, which may explain why they disappeared like hot cakes at our meeting, but I was a little disappointed with how heavy they were. I’m not sure I would make the recipe again. I would give it a 6. It was a fairly easy and foolproof recipe, though.

My favorite bread sticks ended up being those I made with the Chebe Onion-Garlic Bread Stick Mix. I bought it at our local Country Sun Health Food Store, but you can also buy it online. I followed the instructions on the back, adding milk, eggs, and olive oil to the package. (I tend not to add cheese to their mixes, although you can.) This mix is dairy, bean, yeast, and soy free- it’s basically tapioca starch! Then I rolled out the dough in a large ziploc bag to a 1/4 inch thickness or so (twice as thick as I’d roll out a thin pastry dough or knish dough). I cut some into inch wide strips and others into skinny sticks like most of those in the large picture above. Then I brushed them all with either an egg white wash or olive oil and carefully added some fresh, organic parsley leaves from my balcony, and baked them for about 20 minutes. The result? Light, fluffy bread sticks with a delightfully delicate flavor. DH suggested I add sea salt next time, and I probably will, but they were good as is. The thing about Chebe is it is best fresh out of the oven, and is still good for another 4 or 5 hours, but after that you’ll want to pop it in the oven for 5 or 10 minutes to add crunch and avoid gumminess. I’d give these lovely bread sticks a 9/10. DH enjoyed them as well. I’ll definitely be making them again.

I think I’ve just become a convert to bread sticks. They are perfect self contained individual bread servings, and they’re also fairly easy to make. So, now it’s your turn to share. What are your favorite recipes for gluten free bread sticks? Feel free to post recipes or recommendations in comments!

Also, check out Rachel’s review of this recipe over at Wheat-Free Meat-Free.