Could Be Gluten Free Archives

Mango and Lime Cheesecake with a Chewy Chocolate Almond Crust

on July 12, 2015

YOU NEED

For the crust:

¼ cup of almonds
3 fresh, pitted dates
1 tablespoon of raw cacao

For the filling:
1 cup of cashews
¼ cup fresh mango flesh
¼ cup coconut cream
4 tablespoons melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
The zest from 2 limes
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 pinches salt

For the garnish:
¼ cup blended mango flesh
½ cup thinly sliced mango flesh

YOU DO

Line a spring form tin (10 cm diameter and 7 cm depth) with baking paper.

Blend the crust ingredients in a high powered blender until they are well combined and form dough like consistency. If the mixture is a little too dry, add a teaspoon of water to bring it together.

Press the crust into the base of the spring form pan. It can be quite sticky so just wet the tips of your fingers a little if you need to.

Place all the filling ingredients into a high powered blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.

Spoon the mixture onto the crust.

Place the cheesecake into the freezer for 1 hour.

Once it has set, remove it from the freezer. Top with the sliced mango, pour the blended mango over the top and serve.

Yields: 4 serves

Time: 20 minutes preparation. 1 hour freezing time.

Notes: Shake the can of coconut cream well before you measure out the ¼ cup you need.

A light spray with oil on the tin will help the baking paper stick to it.

You can pre soak your cashews for a few hours, if you wish to (and discard the soaking water). But a good quality high powered blender or food processor should give you a smooth, velvety consistency for this recipe.

You can double the base ingredients if your processor is going to struggle with such a small amount. Use half of the mixture for the base and with the remainder, roll the mixture into balls to eat as snack

Pumpkin Seed Pesto

on August 31, 2014

YOU NEED

2 cups of firmly packed fresh basil leaves, washed

1 cup of pumpkin seeds

1 large clove of fresh garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

¾ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of olive oil

YOU DO

Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until everything is well combined. I like to leave it a little chunky in texture.

Check the seasoning and serve.

Yields : Approximately 1.5 cups of pesto.

Time: 10 minutes.

Freeze: Is suitable to freeze.

Note: Don’t over blend the ingredients as the pesto can take on a gluggy texture.

If you cook the garlic in a little water for a few minutes, it takes away that astringent taste raw garlic has.

Coconut Mango Ice Treats

on August 27, 2014

Ingredients

1 cup of mango

1 cup of coconut yoghurt

½ cup of orange juice

Method

Blend all ingredients until they are smooth.

Pour into icy pole moulds.

Freeze until firm.

Yields: 6 ice creams. This will vary with the size of your moulds.

Time: 10 minutes

Notes: When foods are frozen, it can “dull” their sweetness. You can combat this by using really ripe sweet fruits when making ice treats, or by adding a tablespoon of pure maple syrup to your mixture before you blend it.

I love these with a little minced ginger to taste too.

Maple, Ginger Rhubarb w/ Coconut Ice Cream

on May 23, 2014

Rhubarb reminds me of my late Grandmother. She and Pappy grew it in their vegetable patch in the back garden of the house they lived in together for almost 70 years.

Every visit from them would involve containers of Gran’s stewed rhubarb. I love how like music and scent that food has the power to evoke such precious memories of people we have loved and have lost and of the stories they have left with us.

I was living in England when I received a call from home that she had taken ill. I left immediately but was too late to say goodbye. At her funeral I stood before all those whom attended and read out a letter I had written to Grandma on the flight home, when I knew she was dying and it included many memories of her and the food she made.

My rhubarb is much sweeter then Grandma’s was and she didn’t use ginger. I have also used maple syrup instead of cane sugar, but you can adjust the recipe to suit your tastes.

You need

500 grams of rhubarb, ends trimmed, cut into 1 inch pieces & washed

1/2 cup of pure maple syrup

fresh grated ginger, to taste

You do

Place all the ingredients into a pot and bring to a gentle simmer & cook for 10- 15 minutes, until the rhubarb is tender.

Serve with your favourite coconut, soy or cashew ice cream.

Yields: 4 small serves.

Time: 20 minutes

Freeze: Fine to freeze.

Rainbow Rice Paper Rolls

on March 25, 2014

Ingredients

½ cup of fresh coriander

8 round rice paper rounds

½ cup of finely sliced red cabbage

½ cup of finely sliced savoy cabbage

½ cup of very finely sliced red capsicum

½ cup of peeled carrot, cut into fine match sticks

Method

Trim the roots from the coriander, wash it well, pat dry with a clean tea towel and set aside.

Lay all your prepared ingredients out on a plate.

Place 1 rice paper round in a shallow bowl of lukewarm water for about 10 seconds. When you pull it out of the water, it will still feel firm. It will soften as you work with it though and it is much easier to work with this way. Place it down flat onto your bench top.

Put equal amounts of each of the ingredients down the centre of the rice paper round. Make sure there is space at the ends and don’t be tempted to over fill it, or you will have trouble rolling it. Fold the ends of the rice paper in and roll up firmly, to enclose the fillings. Repeat with the remaining rice paper rounds and fillings.

Serve with fresh lime and/or organic tamari or sweet chilli sauce.

Yields: 8 rolls

Time: 20 minutes

Notes: You can purchase rice paper rolls at Asian supermarkets and in the Asian section of most supermarkets.

If you want the fillings to show, you can place the ingredients all to one side of the rice paper round and only fold one side of the round, before you roll it. This is great for parties and gatherings, but for lunches its best to enclose all the ingredients.

For a more filling snack or lunch, add a small amount of vermicelli rice noodles to each roll.

Smokey Zucchini & Lentil Soup

on February 9, 2014

Think “smokey”, “spicy”>>>>vegetable packed, nourishing, simple… tasty.

YOU NEED

1 large brown onion, peeled and finely sliced

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

¼ cup of water

1 cup of green brown lentils, washed and drained

1.5 litres of water

6 teaspoons of Massel “beef” stock powder

4 generous cups of grated zucchini

3 cups of grated sweet potato

2 tablespoons of Old El Paso Fajita Seasoning

liquid smoke to taste

hot chilli sauce to taste

salt/pepper

YOU DO

Place the onion, garlic and the ¼ cup of water in a large pot. Cook them gently on a medium heat, till the onion softens and the water has mostly evaporated.

Add the lentils, 1.5 litres of water, “beef” stock, zucchini, sweet potato and fajita seasoning to the pot. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook until the lentils are tender (approx 45 minutes).

Once the lentils are tender add liquid smoke and hot chilli sauce to taste. Check the seasoning and add a little salt and pepper if needed and serve.

Yields: 4 serves

Time: 15 minutes of preparation. 35-45 minutes of cooking time.

Notes: You can get liquid smoke from well stocked delis and American Food Stores.

Papaya, Pineapple and Basil Granita

on January 15, 2014

YOU NEED

500ml of fresh pineapple juice

300ml of fresh papaya juice

4 tablespoons of pure maple syrup

1 cup of fresh basil leaves

YOU DO

Gently wash the basil leaves and remove any hard stalks.

Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until the basil leaves have roughly broken up. Be sure not to over blend the mixture or the basil will break up too much and your mixture will become green.

Pour the mixture into two flat trays and place them into the freezer onto flat surfaces.

After an hour or so, check the trays and as the mixture begins to freeze, use a fork to carefully scrape any of the mixture that has started icing up. Continue doing this every 20-30 minutes until all the mixture is completely flaked. If you are not serving straight away, just place it into an air tight container in your freezer until you want to use it.

When you are ready to serve the granita, serve it in chilled glasses and eat it before it melts.

Yields: Serves 4

Time: 10 minutes for preparation. Then simply allow for the freezing process.

Notes: I used fresh pineapple and papaya and juiced them in my juicer until I had the desired amount of juice, for each fruit.

If your pineapple is super sweet you can get away with using no maple syrup.

Cashew Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers with a Smoked Paprika Sauce

on January 10, 2014

YOU NEED

For the cashew cheese

1 cup of raw cashews

3 teaspoons of nutritional yeast

½ teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of onion powder

3/4 teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of turmeric

4 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

12 fresh jalapeños

For the crumbing

¼ cup of gluten free bread crumbs

3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

¼ cup of almond milk (or a plant based milk of your choice)

For the dipping sauce

1/3 cup of raw cashews

½ teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

5 tablespoons of water

YOU DO

Soak the 1 cup of cashews and the ¼ cup of cashews over night, in separate containers with enough water to cover them. Once soaked, drain the water from the 1 cup of cashews and discard the water.

Preheat your oven to 200c and make the cashew cheese by placing all the popper ingredients (except the jalapeños), into a blender and blending for 5 minutes. Make sure you scrape any lumps from the side of the blender and add them to your mixture so that they blend nicely too. Once the cashew cheese is smooth, set it aside.

Slice each jalapeño in half. Remove and discard the seeds. Put a generous teaspoon of the cashew cheese mixture into each jalapeño half and set aside.

To make the crumbing mixture, combine the bread crumbs and nutritional yeast and place them onto a plate. Pour the milk into a small shallow bowl. Carefully dip the stuffed poppers into the almond milk. Place them onto the breadcrumb plate and cover them generously with crumbs. Shake off any excess crumbs. Repeat until each popper is well covered. The bottom half will only have a thin layer of breadcrumbs, but the cheese stuffed top will have a nice thick layer. Place the poppers onto a dry baking tray and into the oven. Cook for 15 minutes until the jalapeños have softened and the bread crumbs have browned.

While the poppers are cooking, make the sauce. Drain the remaining 1/3 cup of cashews and discard the water. Blend the cashews with the rest of the sauce ingredients, for 5 minutes until smooth. Place the sauce into a serving dish.

Once the poppers are cooked, place them onto a platter, with the sauce and serve immediately.

Yields: Makes 24 poppers.

Time: 30 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook. Plus the soaking time for the cashews.

Citrus Scented Date Rolls

on August 9, 2013

I keep seeing these at my grocers & the supermarket, so I decided to give them a go and they are SO easy.

They would be perfect in school lunch boxes or for a quick easy mid morning snack at work or home. They would even be a lovely sweet finish at a dinner party, served along with coffee.

I used medjool dates so they blended beautifully and they blended in seconds. I never pass up a chance to add a bit of citrus zing to a dish though too so added some orange zest. This is completely optional.

YOU NEED

1 large organic orange

1 cup of pitted medjool dates

¼ cup of desiccated coconut

YOU DO

Grate the peel of the orange with a citrus zester. Put the rest of the orange aside for another use.

Blend the dates & zest together until you get your desired texture. I blended mine until it was smooth.

Get a tablespoon of mixture and roll it into a ball and then into a log shape. Repeat until all the mixture has been shaped.

Once all the date mixture is shaped into logs, roll the logs in the coconut.

Serve straight away or refrigerate in an air tight container in the fridge.

Yields: 16 small date rolls

Time: 10 minutes.

Notes: My medjool dates were organic and so soft and caramel like. If you use dates that are not quite as pliable and soft you may need to add a small amount of water to get them to blend.

Lemon zest instead of orange zest would be a gorgeous addition too. You could also roll them in sesame seeds, pistachios or any other nut instead of coconut. Just make sure any rolled in nuts don’t go into lunch boxes as schools tend to be nut free zones these days:)

Sun in a Glass

on June 19, 2013

This was breakfast today and it was gorgeous. Winter has hit and it’s freezing out side but this was like drinking the sun in a glass <3

YOU NEED

2 large oranges

1 over flowing cup of fresh pineapple chunks

¼ cup of coconut yoghurt

YOU DO

Juice the oranges and pineapple. Blend the coconut into the juice.

DRINK & LOVE IT!

Serves: 1

Time: 5 minutes

Freeze: N/A

Notes: If you are allergic to coconut just use alternative dairy free yoghurt. It will change the flavour but you will still get the stunning natural sweetness of the fruits and a satin creamy finish to your juice.