Book of Yum

Gluten-free Sesame Bean Bread with a fried egg and yogurt sauce served with homemade hash browns

You can find more great menus this week hosted by 5 Dollar Dinners on Org Junkie’s behalf. As always, many thanks to Cheryl for temporarily housing the Gluten Free Menu Swap at her blog. This week I am hosting the swap with “nuts” as the theme.

I chose nuts because they are a source of protein that is often overlooked on the gluten-free, vegetarian diet. They are an easy way to add extra protein to your meal. The possibilities are endless. Here are some ideas:
Add a few walnuts to your morning cereal
Top pasta with pine nuts, margarine and nutritional yeast for an easy dairy-free meal
Serve pasta with a dairy-free almond Parmesan
Enjoy Japanese ground sesame seeds on spinach
Use peanuts (or any other nut!) in a nut sauce for spring rolls or pasta
Add ground pecans or almonds to a fruit crumble topping
Use pecans, almonds, or walnuts as a base for flourless baked goods (chocolate or otherwise)
(I’m intrigued by Elana’s Almond Chocolate Chip Brownies)
Enjoy nuts in a raw foods dried fruit and nut dessert!

Speaking of nuts, walnuts are a special favorite of mine for their omega-3 fatty acids, but they also contain some zinc, magnesium, and b vitamins, making them an excellent dietary choice. Pine nuts are one of my absolute favorite meal add ons, though. They taste delicious whole on pasta, on veggies, on rice and even on a potato. They also add interest to prepared soups like Imagine’s Cream of Broccoli soup, paired with a dash of wheat-free tamari. Nuts enrich any gluten-free vegetarian diet. What’s your favorite way to enjoy nuts? Tell me in the comments!

Here’s some cute pictures I took this week of the DH cuddling with Neko:

Sunday: Continental
Vegetarian Quiche

Monday: Indian
Masala Dosa and Cheese Dosa with cashew chutney recipe below

Wednesday: Italian
Vegetarian Pasta

Friday: Thai
Vegetarian Spring Rolls with almond butter sauce

Roundup of other Gluten-Free Menus featuring Nuts this Week:
Fresh Ginger had a lovely and international menu this week with lots of Saint Patrick’s cheer.

Wendy at Celiacs in the House has a full menu planned with a delicious Thai salad recipe featuring peanuts.

Cheryl at GF Goodness commented that most of her baked goods contain nuts (from Brazil nut butter brownies to Macadamia nut cookies) and she snacks on nuts daily. She has a luscious soup planned, topped with cashew creme, as well as a lovely hazelnut based chocolate sweet potato cake.

Manda at Asparagus Thin always plans menus that make my mouth water. This week she’ll be having a Fruit-Nut Breakfast Rice that sounds intriguing and I’d love to try her Hyderabadi Matar Mushroom Soup, Chili Blanc with herbed Pesto, or Cuban Hash.

Elizabeth of Weird and Surprisingly Good got into the “nutty” spirit of things by planning to make Sweet Potatoes in Coconut rice and pecans as well as an Asian-inspired Cashew protein dish. Sounds great!

Scrumptious at In my Box planned a full and delicious vegetarian menu, including a raw foods kelp noodle salad with bok choy, carrots, daikon and kelp noodles with an almond butter-coconut water-cider vinegar dressing. Sounds good to me!

Kim of Gluten Free is Life has a homey menu planned for the week and is looking forward to a Spring Break trip to Atlanta next weekend!

Angela’s Kitchen has a full week planned including some intriguing cashew un-cheese pizza. At their house, there are lots of allergies, but happily nuts are not one of them, and nuts as a “milk” finds its way into her morning chai, cashews are used in her “cheese” sauce, and she makes presoaked/sprouted crispy nuts for snacking.

More entries to follow…

A Sauce of the week, with nuts:
Ever since I first tried the below recipe, I’ve made it regularly every time I make dosa, South Indian dal and rice crepes. You can substitute any nut for the cashews, including peanuts, almonds, or even pine nuts. You can modify spiciness by the type of chili you use, and adjust seasonings to taste. It would be wonderful as a dip for fresh veggies or as a sauce for a summer roll, but of course it is especially tasty served with dosa.

Cashew Nut Chutney (fresh) Side Dish  Sauces & Condiments  Vegetables  Indian

Ingredients 1 cup raw cashews bits or halves 1/4 tsp. lemon juice 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger root,sliced 1-2 hot green chilies, seeded and chopped up to 1/3 cups water 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (a.k.a. cilantro) Directions Method: Combine the cashews,lemon juice,salt ginger and chilies 1/4 of cup water in a food processor fitted with the metal blade, or a blender, and process until smooth, adding more water as necessary to produce a loose puree. Transfer to a bowl, add the fresh coriander, and serve or cover well and keep refrigerated for up to 3 days. Note: This chutney thickens as it sits. Thin it with water to the desired consistency. Notes I just tried the best cashew chutney with our masala dosas! I didn’t have any fresh coriander. A real keeper! I’ll be making this again many times. i like that it doesn’t call for coconut, which is an ingredient I don’t use very often. I found it at this site: http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Recipes/chutney_images/chutneys.htm They have quite a few interesting chutney recipes.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  webpg Recipe ID:  1005 Added:  January 14, 2007 Last Modified:  March 15, 2009

Thin gluten-free crust with pine nut “cheese”, roasted sweet potatoes, fresh basil, roasted mushrooms and roasted red pepper, prior to baking.

One big challenge to the dairy-free, soy-free lifestyle is that of a cheesy pizza. Sure, you can make a tomato sauce and just skip the cheese, but it doesn’t have that rich mouth feel or decadence. I’ve played with a variety of solutions to this problem. There are a number of lactose free or dairy free cheeses on the market, including almond, rice, and soy cheeses that are also gluten-free. However, finding a commercial w”cheese” that is truly 100% dairy-free as well as soy-free can be another story. Besides, if you’ve ever tried these cheese “substitutes” you know that they taste almost nothing like real cheese, and often don’t seem to add anything good to a recipe besides the idea of cheese. Luckily vegan cookbooks such as The Uncheese Cookbook have more creative alternatives using a variety of “real” foods as the base for their un-cheese recipes. Some of these recipes use soy (frequently) or gluten (less frequently), but there are many options that do work for a gluten,dairy, and soy-free diet.

However, interestingly one of the most successful soy and dairy-free cheese substitutes I found was not in a vegan cookbook, exactly, but on a related raw foods cookbook. Raw foodists might find it sacrilege, but I used it in a baked lasagna to wonderful effect. This recipe for soy and dairy-free lasagna has been one of the most popular recipes at the Book of Yum because it answers a real need in the food-sensitive community for TASTY cheese substitutes. This recipe came to mind when Mother was visiting us this week. She can eat gluten, but is allergic to soy and dairy, so she doesn’t often have the chance to have “cheesy” dishes. She is also allergic to garlic and avoids tomatoes due to RA. When I decided to make a dairy-free pizza, I thought immediately that I should try using the yummy pine nut sauce on it as the “cheese” base. I was also inspired by the season to roast sweet potato cubes and mushrooms for toppings. I decided to simplify the pine nut recipe a bit and found it was just as good, if not better than the original. It was a big hit with my allergy-sensitive Mom, and the DH and I enjoyed it as well. The combination of pine nut sauce, fresh basil, and roasted vegetables was absolutely addicting. Because I had extra pizza crusts I decided to also make a dairy-free walnut pesto and top it with roasted vegetables as well. Yum! And nobody missed the cheese (or soy) at all.

Looking for a gluten-free pizza crust recipe?
Here’s a fun thin-crust recipe- it doesn’t rise much but makes enough for 6 pizzas that you can enjoy over a week’s time.
And, here’s my personal favorite crust- Carol Fenster’s classic gluten-free Pizza recipe with allergen-free pizza topping recipes

Dairy-Free Soy-Free Pine Nut Cheesy Pizza Main Course  Vegetables  Italian

Ingredients 1 gluten-free pizza crust Pine Nut “Cheese” (new version) 1/2 cup pine nuts 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. brown rice vinegar 1/4 tsp or less salt 1/8 cup water or more 1 sweet potato, peeled, cubed handful fresh basil leaves, julienned 4 baby portabella mushrooms (between crimini and portabella) 1 red pepper for roasting olive oil salt, pepper Directions Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Soak 1/2 cup pine nuts in enough water to cover for an hour. Then drain, rinse, and blend in food processor with dash of salt, vinegar and water until you have a creamy consistency. Put in small container and reserve, refrigerating. Prepare toppings: Toss sweet potato cubes with dash of olive oil, salt and pepper if you like. Place on baking sheet. Remove stems from mushrooms and rub with a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper if you like. Place whole red pepper on baking sheet or on oven rack along with rest of your veggies. Roast for 15 minutes and check your mushrooms. If they seem done, remove mushrooms from oven, dribbling juices over them and letting rest. If not, check mushrooms again in another 5 minutes. After they have rested, you can slice them. Roast sweet potatoes until they are fork tender but not mushy. Roast red pepper (turning occasionally) until sides are all slightly charred. When you take red pepper out of oven, place in freezer safe ziploc bag, seal, and let steam for 10 minutes on counter before removing. Rub off skin with paper or cloth towel, cut in half and de-seed. Slice and/or cut into bite sized pieces and reserve. To assemble your pizza, top with even coating of your pine nut “cheese”. If you have some, you could rub the crust first with a bit of blended sundried tomato and olive oil to give the crust a more attractive golden color that will stand out from the pine nut “cheese”. (I didn’t do that this time, Mom is also sensitive to tomatoes). Sprinkle with julienned basil, roasted sweet potato, mushroom slices and red pepper pieces. Bake following pizza crust instructions. The thin-crust pizza recipe I used requires a short bake time (12 min or less) and so is ideal. For a long baking recipe, you might bake the crust halfway before topping the pizza. Notes My dairy-free, soy-free Mom loved this pizza, and loved the pine nut sauce.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Contents of my brain. Pine nut recipe inspired by (but different from) raw foods recipe. Do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1335 Added:  December 18, 2008 Last Modified:  December 21, 2008

Walnut Dairy Free Pesto Recipe Sauces & Condiments  Vegetables  Italian

Ingredients 1/2 cup walnuts 2 cups fresh basil leaves sprinkle salt 1/8 cup roasted fresh onions 1/4 cup olive oil Directions Combine ingredients in blender or food processor, drizzling in olive oil as you blend it. Taste and season with more salt or other spices if desired. Enjoy! Notes I used this pesto on a gluten-free pizza crust topped with roasted sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, roasted red pepper, roasted onion, and even half roasted chard. Yum yum yum!

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Contents of my brain, do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1334 Added:  December 15, 2008 Last Modified:  December 18, 2008