Gluten-Free Blog

Gluten-Free is Not A Marketing Thing — Or Vons Gets It Wrong

My local Vons is great for gluten-free shoppers. They carry a wide range of gluten-free products such as Udi’s breads, Schar’s pasta, and even desserts. It’s clear there’s a corporate mandate to attract the gluten-free shopper, to the point where the store installed a special gluten-free section.

Sure, the bright green sign is often obscured by cardboard dumps filled with gluteny foods like cookies, but I have come to appreciate the gluten-free crackers and quinoa.

But something has happened to make me very nervous. A few weeks ago, I noted Annie Chun’s Ramen in the GF section. Needless to say I was thrilled. Ramen! Then I looked at label and discovered wheat is a prominent ingredient.
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Meatless Monday Pastas for Gluten-Free Cooks

I love the idea of Meatless Monday (info here), even though I’m abysmal about practicing it. I seem to do Meatless Wednesdays, which, you know, doesn’t have the same ring to it. Even if you’re an avowed carnivore, having a vegetarian (or even vegan!) meal once a week is a great way to shake up your cooking routine. And one easy way to achieve this goal is a pasta dinner.

Gluten-free pastas are readily available just about anywhere, and while the selection of shapes isn’t wide (think mostly spaghetti and penne shapes, with a few others tossed in every now and then), the taste is pretty darn good. The most common base ingredients are brown rice, corn, or quinoa. I tend to prefer the corn-based GF pastas as they are a bit more forgiving when I accidentally leave them cooking for too long.

Needless to say, pasta dishes generally come together very quickly, so you can have a great meal on the table in less than half an hour. Make the sauce while your water is boiling, cook the pasta, toss with sauce, serve! This thirty minute window holds true even if you’re making pesto from scratch.

In addition to aforementioned pesto — a great, flavorful sauce — there are other ways to dress up vegetarian pastas. A simple marinara sauce can be perfect if you’re looking for a light meal. Top the dish with a bit of shredded basil. If you’re a fan of Alfredo sauces, just combine heavy cream, butter, and grated parmesan for an elegant sauce.  Season to taste, add some finely chopped parsley for color, and serve.

One of my favorite additions to pasta is grilled or roasted vegetables, your classic pasta primavera with whatever’s in season. You can use an Alfredo sauce, a tomato-based sauce, or simple olive oil and garlic with a touch of lemon zest. In our house, we use zucchini ribbons as an elegant accompaniment to a lightly dressed pasta.

Legumes like chickpeas add hearty protein to a pasta dish. Pair them with feta cheese, spinach, and an olive oil and garlic sauce. Grilled or steamed asparagus and a balsamic vinegar-based sauce is always a good choice.

Another favorite for vegetarian pasta meals is a quick sesame sauce, using sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, and a little bit of (optional) sugar for an Asian twist on pasta night. Take it a step further with peanut butter for a peanut sauce. Use traditional Asian-style rice noodles or Italian-style noodles — your choice.

If you’re feeling ambitious, a vegetable lasagna makes for a great change. Chunks of eggplant or zucchini or any other vegetables fill in for the meat in your layers. Or roll a ratatouille-style combination of veggies in cooked lasagna noodles, cover with marinara sauce, and bake for 20 minutes (until heated all the way through).

Obviously, there is no end to the pasta-bilities (sorry, couldn’t resist!) when it comes to meat-free pasta dishes. What are your favorites? Tell me about them in the comments!

Tip of the Week

Reserve about a cup of pasta water in case you need a bit more liquid to help your sauce coat the pasta thoroughly. I usually scoop out a bit before draining my pasta, and I generally use a half cup at the most.

Menu of the Week

Pesto is one of my favorite additions to pasta, rice, potatoes, meats. You can go traditional with basil, olive oil, parmesan, and pine nuts. Or you can use kale and walnuts. Artichoke hearts. Here are some great suggestions at Love and Lemons http://www.loveandlemons.com/2012/08/03/pesto-ways/ — as you can see, it’s all about variations on the basic recipe.

  • Pasta with Pesto Sauce
  • Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Making Chicken Breasts Less Boring

I’m going to be perfectly honest: my least favorite part of a chicken (or turkey) is the breast. Especially when I’m cooking the whole bird. Even with brining, the breast tends to be overcooked. Boneless, skinless breasts aren’t much better.

(Much to my mother’s dismay, I prefer to cook my chicken on the bone. She sometimes wonders if I was switched at birth.)

But chicken breasts are quick and easy — perfect for weeknight meals — and I make them a lot. They’re quick on the grill, in the oven, even pan-roasted. And, with a little bit of effort, it’s easy to elevate the boneless, skinless chicken breast into something fun and tasty.

This is terrific for the gluten-free diner, especially since it sometimes seems we spend way too much time finding and preparing foods. Sometimes, we just want our meals to be easy.
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Broccoli and Goat Cheese Frittata

Frittatas are one of the most flexible foods you can have in your cooking repertoire. They’re perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and even late night dining. And while this recipe features broccoli, the truth about frittatas is this: you can make them with a variety of ingredients — substitute asparagus or spinach or whatever you have on hand for the broccoli.

And don’t think you have to confine yourself to goat cheese. Freshly grated Parmesan is a great substitute.

Another trick — one that makes preparing this recipe even faster — is to used already cooked veggies. If you do, reduce the saute time in Step 2. You can also use fewer eggs if you have fewer people. Adjust the other ingredients accordingly.

Salad Cravings

The first time I realized I had a problem with salads was when I found myself going to the same place for lunch every day for a month (okay, longer)…because I was addicted to their chopped salad. Co-workers stopped going to lunch with me. Apparently, they thought you could have too much of a good thing.

Sometimes, I just don’t understand people.

I’ve also been obsessed with Wedge Salads. It’s an incredibly simple salad, featuring the much-maligned Iceberg lettuce. Sometimes, however, Iceberg is the perfect lettuce…think of how satisfying it is on a hot summer day!

As a gluten-free diner, I know salads are often the safest food on the menu. I also know they’re often the most boring. Indifferent lettuce, tasteless dressings, chunks of vegetables. Oh, and do not forget the anemic, out-of-season tomatoes.

This is why, unless I’m at one of my favorite restaurants — for example, Tender Greens in Pasadena or Culver City — I tend to confine my salad cravings to my home. I can indulge in fresh avocado, crisp-tender blanched veggies, salty salami, freshly made dressings.

Of course, salads are more than lettuce. I turn my Roasted Sweet Potatoes into a great salad featuring a mustardy vinaigrette. I love creative potato salads. Since I’ve never been a huge mayo person, I gravitate toward vinaigrette dressings with my potatoes. Lentil salads. Broccoli salads. Fruit salads — good fruit salads, not the indifferent couple of chunks of melon and pineapple that so many restaurants serve.

Side salads, salads as meals. Salads. Three guesses what I’m craving as I write this?

Roasted Vegetables: A Few Tips

My mother hates to cook. This is not a secret. She doesn’t do it anymore, and she’s happy about it. My grandmother, however, was a great cook. My theory is sometimes the love of cooking skips a generation. Or, you know, desperate people do desperate things.

Despite her preference to have anyone but her do the cooking, my mother learned a few culinary tricks from her mother. Such as the ability to serve awful, overdone vegetables. Apparently, anything green (or orange or purple) was sentenced to death by boiling. For a very long time.
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Hamburgers Beyond The Bun

I have a friend who asks the same question whenever we go out to dinner: Is there anything I can eat? This friend has zero dietary restrictions. He can eat anything. Unfortunately, he refuses to try anything beyond a (very) limited list of foods.

(Yes, it amuses me that he is always focused on what he can eat, without considering the challenges faced by his GF friends…I’m not the only person he knows who must eat gluten-free.)

He’s a hamburger freak. So am I. The difference is he limits himself to a plain burger with just salt and pepper as seasoning. Nothing else. Not that there’s anything wrong with salt and pepper on a burger. But, really, nature gives us so much more to enjoy with our burgers!
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