Book of Yum

Pictured are two very different Gluten-Free Sandwiches. Top photo: Bette Hagman French bread with arugula, eggplant baba ghanoush, tahini sauce, and roasted red pepper. Lower photo: Authentic Foods mix oven-baked falafel with organic purple greens sauteed and combined with a tahini sauce in a Chebe flatbread and baba ghanoush.

This week Angela’s Kitchen is hosting the Gluten-Free Menu of the Week with an avocado theme. I love avocados so couldn’t be happier about this theme. I use avocados all the time in veggie sandwiches, as a substitute for cheese on pizza (added after pizza is baked), in a tofu breakfast scramble, and in sushi and onigiri (Japanese rice balls.)

From searching online, I found the following interesting ways to use avocado:
A vegan fudge using avocado for the fat in the recipe
Recipes from California Growers of Avocado
Recipes from the Haas Avocado Board

Here’s my menu for this week. You can find more great menus with Org Junkie.

Monday: Italian
Gluten-free Vegetarian Green Veggie Ricotta Lasagna with Homemade pasta

Tuesday: Indian
Dosa with Homemade Indian Soup

Wednesday: South American
Corn-Zucchini Sopes

Thursday: Japanese
Avocado-cream cheese sushi rolls

This week I posted
a whole-grain montina cornbread recipe and a vegan eggplant-tahini-lentil soup recipe

an Apple Pie Crepe Recipe

and the April Adopt-a-gluten-free Blogger Roundup with recipe links

You can still Adopt a gluten-free Blogger, so sign up today!

Cheryl of GF Goodness is also hosting a virtual baby shower with recipes for baby Yum and you are all invited to attend!

Here’s a healthy recipe for baked beans that uses no refined sugar and is naturally sweetened with pineapple, perfect for a summer picnic or healthy side dish at home. Enjoy!

Caribbean Pineapple Black Bean Bake Recipe Side Dish  Vegetables

Ingredients 1 can organic black beans, rinsed and drained 2 tsp. olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 whole cloves garlic 1/4 fresh pineapple, minced 3/4 fresh red pepper, chopped smoked paprika for mild or chipotle powder for spicy salt to taste 1 fresh lime, juiced 1 tbsp. agave nectar (or honey for non-vegan) 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro salt a drizzle of lemon olive oil (or normal EV olive oil) Directions Heat oven to 375F. Heat olive oil in a fry pan and add chopped onion and whole garlic. Sautee until onion begins to turn translucent. Add black beans and half of minced pineapple and sautee for a few minutes. Press remaining pineapple in a lemon press and season with smoked paprika or chipotle and salt. Squeeze lime juice into pan, distribute evenly through ingredients and add tablespoon of agave. Mix and heat for a few more minutes. Then put into a medium baking dish and bake on 375 for 25 minutes. Combine cilantro, salt and olive oil in a tiny bowl, mixing so elements are evenly distributed. Take baked beans from oven and sprinkle with cilantro seasoning. Enjoy!

Rating:  7 Original Source:  Contents of my brain, please do not replicate without my permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1414 Added:  May 18, 2009 Last Modified:  May 23, 2009

I’ve been a fan of Susan over at Fat-Free Vegan for quite some time. While I am not personally vegan, but rather vegetarian, I love experimenting with vegan recipes. Not only are they often the most delicious and innovative vegetarian recipes around, but vegan recipes also work beautifully and adapt nicely when cooking for those with multiple intolerances. If you can’t have dairy and/or eggs, experimenting with vegan recipes should be one of your first stops in the cookbook aisle, whether you are gluten-free or not. It is true that being gluten-free can complicate some vegan or vegetarian staples (seitan, oats, the whole wheat flours etc.), but there should be plenty of recipes that you can adapt to a gluten-free diet. And don’t worry if you aren’t even vegetarian (although it helps)- vegan recipes make wonderful side dishes, desserts, and should give you lots of creative ideas for dairy and egg substitutes. Anyway, back to Susan. I’d come across her blog multiple times but hadn’t made one of her recipes until I came across an absolutely irresistible recipe for dairy-free pumpkin cheesecake. Granted, it wasn’t gluten-free as written, but I came up with a Gluten-free version of the recipe and liked it so much I asked Susan for permission to publish my version as a complimentary, gluten-free variation on her recipe. She kindly agreed. The cheesecake was extremely popular with friends and family, and probably ended up being one of my favorite dairy-free cheesecakes ever.

While that recipe was not gluten-free as written, Susan does sometimes experiment with gluten-free recipes. She qualifies as an excellent candidate for “Adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger” because she has an easy to navigate section of just gluten-free recipes. The only thing is that when you go there, you get a huuuuuge long page of gluten-free recipes, which is fantastic, but a little hard to navigate. After the first 1/5 of the page, I had found plenty of inspiration and so didn’t keep reading… But the point is, there is a wealth of gluten-free options, all on the healthy, low-fat vegetarian spectrum (and of course also vegan). Perfect!

I was inspired to adopt Susan by her gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free pumpkin waffle recipe. It would be great for those with multiple intolerances and could easily also be soy-free and potato-free as well (JM THIS IS FOR YOU!!!). I mixed up a batch and had some for a delicious breakfast one morning. I found that it was really important to spray the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray or it did run the risk of sticking to the iron. (You could baste the waffle iron with oil if the soy lecithin in cooking spray is a problem.) I loved the pumpkin flavor combined with all the spices, and was very pleased with the texture. Many waffle recipes are high in fat, so it was refreshing to find one that was low-fat and healthy.

Interested in Susan’s wonderful recipes? These gluten-free vegan recipes caught my eye…
Herbed Polenta in a pressure cooker with beans and bok choy
Colcannon potato kale puffs
Mushroom Lentil and Wild Rice Timbales
Tofu, Tempeh and Butternut Squash in slow cooked peanut mole
Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt Tahini

Hope you enjoy exploring the gluten-free recipes at the Fat Free Vegan blog as much as I did!

I am also entering this in the Tried and Tasted Blog Event since Susan has been selected as the blogger of the Month! (Congrats, Susan!)