Gluten-Free Recipes

There are certain things that you hear a lot about in the blogosphere and living a gluten-free lifestyle is one of those widely talked about topics. For many people who suffer from intolerance to gluten, Celiac disease and a host of other food sensitivities, the web is a gold mine for gluten-free recipes. Besides recipes, finding a community of others out there who suffer from similar allergies and intolerances, can be a lifesaver. While many embrace the gluten-free lifestyle out of necessity, cooking this way is a great alternative for anyone interested in trying out a nutrition plan that leaves out the wheat. Here’s a few of my favorites:

Breakfast

Flourless Peanut Butter Protein Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe banana
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla protein powder (organic whey)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or paste
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray your mini muffin pan with baking spray with flour. Set aside.
• Into your stand mixer, paddle attached, cream the banana until super smooth. T
• hen add the egg. Repeat.
• Add peanut butter and blend.
• Finally add the syrup, vanilla, protein powder, vanilla and salt. Blend until creamy.
• Spoon 3/4 of the way filled into each muffin well.  Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Let cool and serve. Store in an airtight container.

Breakfast Quinoa Bowl

Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

Ingredients:

• Makes 10-12 large cookies
• 1/4cup canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie mix in a can)
• 1/2cup almond butter (or any nut butter you prefer)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1tsp vanilla
• 1cup almond meal/flour
• 1tsp pumpkin pie spice or 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4tsp baking soda
• 1/2cup dark chocolate chips, or any dried fruit would be wonderful
• 1/2cup walnuts, or pecans, or whatever you’d like

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Combine all wet ingredients together then add the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly. Scoop batter to whatever size you’d like and flatten out to the desired thickness since these do not spread on their own. Bake approximately 10-15 minutes, according to thickness.
• Remove from baking sheet 2 minutes after cooling and transfer to cooling wrack. These are wonderful chilled; so I store mine in an airtight bag in the refrigerator and grab a snack when I need one. These can also be frozen on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Once frozen, transfer to freezer bag and thaw before eating.

Lunch/Dinner

Brussel Sprout Salad with Apples

Ingredients:

For Salad

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound brussels sprouts, quartered
• 1 big tart apple, sliced
• salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat.
• Add brussels sprouts and apples; season with salt and pepper.
• Add rosemary and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, or until tender.
• Prepare walnuts by melting butter in saucepan.
• Add sugars and stir until incorporated; add walnuts and continue to stir around for about 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and set aside.
• Remove brussels sprouts and apples from heat and let cool for 2 minutes.
• Spoon salad onto plate and garnish with candied walnuts.
• Serve.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties

Ingredients:

• 2 cups baked sweet potato, skins removed & mashed (approximately 2 medium sweet potatoes)
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme (more to garnish)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt
• fresh cracked pepper
• earth balance vegan butter or coconut oil for cooking

Directions:

• Prepare quinoa according to package instructions (I cook 1 heaping cup with a scant 2 cups of water in my rice cooker).
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees, pierce sweet potatoes with fork and bake for 45 minutes or until soft. Remove skins, mash with a fork to remove all chunks and place in large mixing bowl.
• In a sauté pan combine onions, olive oil, a hearty pinch of sea salt and cook over medium-low heat until onions are translucent.  Add garlic and cook an additional minute, stirring continually to prevent the garlic from burning.  Add thyme at the very end and mix well.
• Add onions, quinoa, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (more to taste), a bit of fresh cracked pepper to large mixing bowl with sweet potatoes and stir until well combined.
• Form mixture into golf ball size ball, flatten into a patty, and cook in earth balance vegan butter on a non stick pan for approximately 2 minutes on each side (you want them to brown up and crisp!).  Repeat to make as many as you’d like.  Enjoy with a generous sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves and some finishing salt!  Save any leftovers in the refridgerator to make later. (makes approximately 12)

Lemon Basil Chicken Drumsticks

Ingredients:

• 12 chicken drumsticks
• For marinade:
• 3 TBS butter, ghee, or coconut oil, melted
• 4cloves fresh garlic
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp celtic sea salt (like this)

Directions:

• For marinade:  Combine all marinade ingredients in a blender and process until smooth, like salad dressing.
• Pat chicken drumstick dry with paper towel and place into shallow baking dish.  Pour marinade on top, toss to evenly coat, cover,  and place in fridge to marinate.  (I let mine marinate for 24 hours usually but overnight is fine)
• Pre-heat barbeque. Clean the grill well before cooking drumsticks and oil if necessary.
• Arrange marinaded drumsticks on BBQ, turn heat down to medium, and close cover.
• Flip drumsticks every 8-10 minutes until thoroughly cooked.  (Mine usually take around 30-35 minutes, depending on how hot my grill is.  Always be sure that the chicken reaches AT LEAST 165?F.  I usually cook mine a bit hotter as my family like their chicken WELL done.)
• Remove from heat.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving OR cool completely before packing away for your outdoor adventure.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 2 pounds carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Dash of ground ginger
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream, divided

Directions

• Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and carrots to pan; cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in salt, pepper, and ginger.
• Add 2 cups water and broth to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until carrots are tender. Remove from heat; cool.
• Place half of carrot mixture and 1 tablespoon cream in a food processor or blender; process 20 seconds or until smooth. Pour pureed mixture into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining carrot mixture and 1 tablespoon cream. Return mixture to pan; cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated.

Sweet Treats

Banana Coconut Loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free flour {I used Cup4Cup}
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, room temperature
• 1/2 cup maple syrup {Grade A}
• 1 tsp almond extract {you can also use vanilla or coconut extracts}
• 1/2 cup buttermilk {you can also use almond milk}
• 3 medium bananas, ripened + mashed
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Special Equipment: One 9X5 inch loaf pan

Directions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350F + grease your loaf pan {I used coconut oil or coconut oil spray, but you can use butter, naturally}. In a medium bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients {flours, baking soda, salt, flaxseed} until just combined. Set aside.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk the coconut oil and eggs on medium-high until the mixture has combined. Reduce the speed to medium-low, and add in the maple syrup and almond extract. The mixture will appear like it’s curdling, don’t worry, all will be resolved when you mix in the dry ingredients.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the buttermilk, bananas and coconut flakes. Pour the mixture into your pan and level with an offset spatula. Bake for 50 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Allow the loaf to rest on a rack in the pan for 15 minutes. Carefully turn the loaf out onto a wire rack + cool completely.

Raw Lemon Bar Bites

Snacks

Nacho Kale Chips

Cauliflower Crust “Bread” Sticks

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a large fresh head of cauliflower (about 5 1/2 oz/160 g)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese, freshly grated and divided (low-fat cheese is fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning, divided
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• Cooking spray
• Marinara sauce, for serving (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper so that the excess paper hangs over the sides; lightly spray the parchment paper with cooking spray.
• To “rice” the cauliflower, grate it on a cheese grater; you should have about 1 1/2 cups (lightly packed) of riced cauliflower.  Put the riced cauliflower into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave (uncovered) until softened, about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally (don’t add water or anything else); cool slightly.  While the cauliflower cooks, heat the oil in a small skillet over low heat; add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring constantly; cool slightly.
• To the bowl with the softened cauliflower, add the garlic, egg, 3/4 of the cheese (reserving 1/4 for topping later), 1/4 teaspoon of the dried Italian herb seasoning (reserving 1/4 teaspoon for topping later), and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir to combine and then spread in the prepared loaf pan.
• Bake until the loaf is set and starting to turn golden, about 30 minutes.  Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper; use the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the loaf pan and carefully flip it over onto the lined baking sheet (so the bottom is on top).  Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.
• Preheat the broiler.  Cut the loaf cross-wise into 8 pieces.  Slightly separate the pieces and sprinkle the cheese on top along with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning.  Broil a couple minutes until the cheese is melted and golden in spots.  Serve hot or warm.  (If you let it cool for about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven, the crust will harden a bit so it’s easy to hold like a thin-crust pizza.) Serves 2 to 4

Do you suffer from a gluten allergy or know anyone who has to limit their gluten intake? Got any great recipes? I would love to hear your faves!