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Gluten-free, Dairy-free, and Egg-free Amaranth Scone Recipe

yum — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:54:05 +0000

I think we might have to rename the Book of Yum to “the Book of Amaranth” if I keep this up. I can’t help it. I’m eating amaranth every four days, thanks to this crazy allergen-free, gluten-free diet that I’m on. I’ve gone through phases. There was the amaranth banana muffin phase, the “amaranth gruel baked into a cracker phase, the amaranth soda bread phase, the amaranth pizza phase… but lately I’ve been bored with all of these. My food fantasies turned towards the sweet, and I started having visions of raisins and cinnamon sugar. Sorghum recipes go with cinnamon and sugar like jam goes on toast, so that has been easy. But the other day it occurred to me that perhaps the earthy flavor of amaranth might be coaxed into submission by the assertive flavors of cinnamon and raisin. In fact, amaranth might start to function like teff in my favorite gluten-free graham cracker recipe by Rebecca Reilly, adding depth and an almost graham flour flavor. So, I decided to try. I used my amaranth soda bread recipe as the jumping off point to create a healthy, low in fat and low in sugar scone that you can have for an everyday breakfast without an obscene sugar rush. And you know what? I liked it. I liked it a lot. Oh, and if you don’t want to bother with forming individual scones, you can also just make a cinnamon raisin soda bread round and cut it to serve. It isn’t quite as cute, but it tastes every bit as good. Tell me what you think, and about your experiments with amaranth. Let’s dish amaranth!

Gluten-free Vegan Amaranth Raisin Scone Recipe

Breakfast Dessert Alternative Grains American

Ingredients

1 cup raisins (i used jumbo assorted) soaked in warm water
2 tablespoons boiling water
3/4 teaspoon unbuffered vitamin C crystals
4 tablespoons coconut oil or other oil (grapeseed, canola, etc)
3/4 cup warm hemp milk (or other dairy-free milk)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cup cups amaranth flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Penzey’s Baking Spice (or pumpkin pie blend, or cinnamon sugar)
2 teaspoons baking soda

Extra warm hemp milk (or other dairy-free milk) for basting
cinnamon sugar
Raw sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut a circle of parchment paper to cover the bottom of a round cake tin. Also cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put your raisins in a small bowl and pour warm or boiling water over them. Let sit.

Put your vitamin c in the boiling water. If it doesn�t dissolve, whisk it in.

Combine amaranth flour, sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and baking spice in a large bowl. Drain your raisins and add them to the dry mix. Next, add your water with vitamin C, hemp or other dairy-free milk, vanilla, and oil, and stir with a big wooden spoon. Begin to fold it all together. You can mistreat this dough a bit. Beat it up, fold it up until it seems thoroughly mixed and your arm feels tired. Plop the dough onto your cake pan and shape it into a circle about 1 inch high that doesn’t quite touch the edges. You can dampen your hands to shape it or use a cake frosting knife to smooth out the edges.

Remove dough round (along with parchment circle) from the cake pan and put on a cutting board. Use a damp or oiled bread knife to cut the round in half, then quarters, and finally into eighths as if you were cutting a pie. Use a thin spatula or pie server to remove the triangles of dough one by one and place them onto the cookie sheet’s parchment paper. Do not let their edges touch. Brush with warm hemp milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and raw sugar. Pop in the oven. Lower oven temperature to 325 and bake for 45 minutes or until scone has a nice texture. (Depends on your preference; I like my amaranth a little over-baked so it is not gummy.)

Remove from oven and serve! Would be good with soy-free margarine, coconut ice cream, or cashew cream if you do nuts.

Rating:  8

Original Source:  Inspired by an earlier recipe for irish soda bread, but my original creation. Do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Thanks!

Recipe ID:  1513

Added: August 20, 2010

Last Modified: August 20, 2010

Gluten-free Indian Quinoa Masala Recipe

yum — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:48:59 +0000

Ever since I embarked on a special allergen-free diet for Baby Yum, I have been experimenting with some of the more exotic gluten-free “grains” or pseudo grains. Some of these have been a trial (amaranth, anyone?) and others have been a true pleasure to work with (quinoa, sorghum, millet). Quinoa is a grain that I long thought bothered my tummy, but it turns out other grains may have actually been the culprit. I’ve been enjoying tons of this cute little seed ever since I started my crazy-grain rotation diet, and am regularly amazed at its versatility. It makes a mean, if somewhat delicate, allergen-free muffin. But in its whole seed form, quinoa can also stand in for rice with amazing success. I’ve used it to make sushi, chirashi, fried rice, and lately, I’ve even been experimenting with it in Indian dishes. The last two weeks I’ve been obsessed with Indian recipes. My taste buds rebelled against plain-Jane allergen fare and begged for spices, spices, and more spices. And of course, Indian recipes are very good at presenting a rich array of flavors for the palate through the generous use of spices. I’ve been using coriander by the tablespoon, and cumin like it is going out of style. Good thing my local Costco caters to the Indian community here and sells it in quantity! Of course I could also buy spices from Indian markets, but I do have some concerns that the ground spices may be cross contaminated by flour milling and packaging. I’ve made scrumptious toor dal made by the Indian culinary goddess Manjula and an assortment of recipes from my favorite Indian cookbooks. Pictured above is a modified version of “Supreme Okra” from The Best of Lord Krishna’s Cuisine recipes. The original had enough salt to qualify as a cow-lick, but with some modification made plain old okra plate-lickingly delicious. For now, though, I’d like to share the recipe for the accompanying Masala Quinoa, a dish that was inspired by a recipe for rice but modified for pre-cooked quinoa with amazing results. I can safely say this is hands-down the tastiest quinoa I’ve ever had. I liked it so much that I made this recipe twice in one week; the second time I made it, it was for a long plane ride and it traveled beautifully. This is only the beginning. I’ve been experimenting with quinoa as a stand-in for rice in many Chinese and Japanese dishes, but now I see how well it works in Indian rice dishes, I have a feeling I’ll be trying quite a few more recipes in the future. I hope you enjoy this one!

Indian Masala Quinoa Recipe

Main Course Alternative Grains Indian

Ingredients

2 or 2 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
3 tbsp mustard or canola oil
1 tsp black mustard seed
3 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1/2 piece ginger (peeled, julienned)
2 small tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet (nonstick ok) with a lid on medium or medium high. Add your mustard seed and bay leaf to the oil and let it sizzle. Add your cumin seeds and wait a few seconds before adding the onion. Saute onions until they start to soften and turn brown. Add ginger, tomatoes, and turmeric. Let soften and then add your quinoa, stirring it in gently and sprinkling with salt. Reduce heat and cover, cooking for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir once, sprinkle with cilantro, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff and serve.

Notes

*To prepare quinoa, rinse 1 1/2 cups quinoa and cook in rice cooker with 3 cups water, or bring same amounts to boil in pot, turn to low and simmer for 15 minutes. fluff and let sit, covered until you use. You can also freeze quinoa, defrost in microwave and use in recipes*

The most delicious quinoa I’ve ever had.

Rating:  9

Original Source:  Inspired by rice recipe from Bombay Cafe cookbook

Recipe ID:  1511

Added: August 6, 2010

Last Modified: August 10, 2010

Menu of the Week: Vegan Tahini Basil Pasta Salad Recipe

yum — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:33:05 +0000

As always, many thanks to Cheryl for temporarily housing the Gluten Free Menu Swap at her blog. This week I believe that Cheryl is also hosting the swap. You can find more great menus with Org Junkie.

Sunday: Continental Vegetarian
Nicoise Potato Salad
Tom Tom Tofu
Broccoli Salad

Monday: Indian
Masala Dosa with coconut and green chutney

Wednesday: Mexican
Vegetarian Spinach Enchiladas

Friday: Indian
Red Beans and Rice/ Vegetarian Indian Rajma Red Bean “Chili” and Rice

Salad of the Week
This week I thought I’d share a very easy Vegan Tahini Pasta salad I made for a quick lunch. Recently I’ve been obsessed with the Trader Joe’s Tahini sauce. It’s got very simple ingredients- tahini, olive oil, lemon, garlic and salt, I think.. and doesn’t have one of those dread “produced cuddling wheat” info statements. Some of their stuff doesn’t agree with me, but the tahini sauce hasn’t bothered me in the slightest, so I think it is pretty safe. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, you can do a search for a simple tahini sauce and go from there.

Vegan Tomato Basil Tahini Corn Pasta Salad

Main Course Salad Corn Vegetables American

Ingredients

1 serving Mrs. leepers GF corn rotelli pasta, freshly prepared and rinsed lightly.
1 tbsp. or more Trader Joe’s Tahini Sauce
1 tsp. or more olive oil
1/2 tsp. lemon, lime juice OR apple cider vinegar
handful grape tomatoes, halved and salted lightly if you like
1/4 fresh red or yellow sweet pepper or 2 mini ones, diced
handful fresh basil, julienned
1/8 avocado, cubed
1 tsp. pine nuts, toasted or not, to taste(optional)
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Directions

Whisk together tahini sauce, olive oil and citrus juice or apple cider vinegar. Increase proportions to taste.

Toss pasta with fresh veggies (up to pine nuts if using). drizzle with sauce and combine until evenly distributed. season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Notes

Add any of your favorite fresh veggies as you like!

Rating:  9

Original Source:  Contents of my brain, do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Thanks!

Recipe ID:  1372

Added: March 8, 2009

Last Modified: March 8, 2009

Menu of the Week

yum — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:29:58 +0000

Hereâ€™s a glimpse of what is in store for you this week!

Monday Mexican
Red Enchiladas
Braised Greens with Black Olives and Capers

Tuesday The boy cooks Italian
Brined Shrimp
Polenta
Sauteed Green Beans

Wednesday German
Potato Noodles (Badische Schupfnedeln)
German Red Cabbage
Roasted Cauliflower Brown Butter (or BytheBay’s cauliflower)

Friday Mexican
Mexican Tomato-Bean Soup with Corn Dumplings
Brown Rice pilaf

Dessert Fresh fruit salad

Menu of the Week

yum — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 18:07:35 +0000

Here’s a glimpse of what is in store for you this week!

Monday Vegetarian Gourmet
Southern Fried Tofu
Mashed Potatoes
Greens

Wednesday Italian
Homemade Ravioli (Bette Hagman’s ravioli & filling from Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking)

Thursday Continental
Noisettes of salmon (What’s cooking- Fish Seafood)
roasted broccoli (Rachel Ray)
New Potatoes

Friday Indian
Pakora with sweet tomato chutney and/or mint chutney
Fresh spinach with browned garlic (Bombay Cafe)
Basmati rice