While on a rare trip to a supermarket a few days ago I happened to spot some bulbs of fennel on offer so I picked them up. I like fennel, it has an interesting aniseed taste, I had originally thought to juice it to get a maximum taste hit but due to a mix up on my grocery order I didn't have a meal planned for last night so I made a spur of the moment decision to make fennel bake.
Who can eat it?
As usual this is a vegetarian gluten free recipe, you could also leave out the cheese and it would be vegan (this was one of my favourite dishes when I was vegan but my family REALLY like their cheese!) It's egg free (check your g-f bread carefully if using it), nut free, wheat free, yeast free and Coeliac friendly (leave out the cheese).
Who can't eat it?
It is possible that this may be too high in fibre for those with Crohns or colitis. Those with IBS may also want to watch out however fennel is supposed to have a calming effect on the stomach and bowel so actually this may work really well!
I'm going to give you a few different versions of this (why do one recipe when you can do 3?!). WITH gluten free pasta, it's big and bulky with plenty of calories and should serve 4, without the pasta it's nicely low in carbs and calories and might just feed 2 and finally there's a version at the end without pasta, onion or tomato that goes nicely with a salad or 'Sunday veg'.
Ingredients
2 small bulbs of fennel
1 shallot - optional
1 tablespoon of olive oil
300g of dried gluten-free penne pasta
400g of pasata (Suma do a nice organic one in jars that is sulphate free)
a large pinch of dried oregano
2 tablespoons of black olives (drained from the brine!) cut in half. -optional
Topping
Either 1 cup of gluten free bread crumbs OR half a cup of cooked quinoa and 2 tablespoons of buckwheat groats.
and if dairy is OK, some cheese, blue cheese tastes fab but so does a hard cheese like Parmesan or even Cheddar.
Cook your pasta to a point where is it slightly under cooked. (You can read how to do that here http://the-inclusive-cook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pasta-food-of-champions.html )
Finely slice the fennel, (retain any leaves for garnishing the finished dish if you like that sort of thing) and the shallot and fry with the oil on a high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Keep it moving and do NOT let it start to brown. Turn off the heat and add the cooked pasta (if your are using it), the pasata, the oregano and the olives if you are using them. (I had to leave them out and serve them as a garnish as my husband hates olives with a passion!) and gently stir then pop into your oven dish. Or you could just crumble some cheese on the top and serve it as is if time is short (4 dishes ;) )
Now choose your topping. Let me explain my thinking here - I chose quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) and buckwheat for a few simple reasons 1) they are both complete proteins, 2) they are more fun than gluten-free bread 3) I have them in my cupboard. I do try not to put anything too unusual on this blog, I want you to feel it's stuff you can easily cook for people, I short I want to show that with a little thought most cooks can cater for any and every kind of allergy, intolerance or ethical eating plan. The turning point on including buckwheat and quinoa was that 2 of my local supermarkets and the village shop now stock them so I figure they shouldn't be too hard for you to find.
Back to the topping, the easy choice is bread-crumbs. Choose your gluten-free bread with care and make sure it doesn't have egg or other allergens in it. Lightly toast it and crumble into breadcrumbs scattering it over the top.
On to the quinoa, a common mistake is not to wash the seeds before you use them. Measure your seeds, stick them in a sieve and give them a jolly good wash under the tap, if you don't do this they can taste rather bitter. Now pop the wet seeds in a pan and add twice the quantity of fresh water. Pop a lid on the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a low boil for 15minutes when just like easy cook rice all the water should be absorbed and you should have nice fluffy quinoa. Mix with the buckwheat (this will add a nice crunch) and scatter over your fennel and pasta mix.
Dot over the blue cheese or grate your harder cheese if that's what you are using. I've not given a quantity of cheese because frankly you know how much cheese your family like, what might be normal for us might be tonnes for you and for vegans I can reassure you it tastes just fine without though a little drizzle of olive oil over the top might just improve the crunchiness of the topping later on.
Now pop the whole thing into an oven at gas mark 6/ 200 C/ 400F for about 40 minutes.
Serve with your retained fennel leaves for a garnish or with a green salad or just as it is.
Yum. Scoff the lot then face-palm because you didn't take a picture....
Crunchy fennel slices. (Tomato free version)
Trim the root and leaves from your fennel. Sit the bulb up right on the chopping board. Imagine it is an orange and you are going to cut it into segments (from tip to root), For a small bulb make 4 segments for a larger one make 8. Pop the segments into pan of boiling water for 8 minutes then fish them out and rinse in cold water.
Pop in an oven-safe dish you will serve them in. Coat them in a generous table spoon of olive oil then scatter the topping mixture over them and pop them in the oven at gas mark 5 for 30 minutes or until tender then serve.
(Sorry no pictures of this as I haven't done it in a LONG time.)
Final note, while fennel is very calming on the digestion it is quite 'cleansing', which is another word for saying 'it makes you pee a lot'. Just in case you needed to know that!!
My freezer had a defrost this week. It wasn't intentional, the door got left open over night. Fortunately the stuff I keep in my freezer isn't hugely expensive stuff, lets face it vegetables are heck of a lot cheaper than steak and meat isn't something I keep in there what with being veggie and all. What was defrosting was a lot of Quorn mince, so in the name of food safety I went into bulk cook mode and made 6 portions of spaghetti bolognese. (Except that I don't serve it with spaghetti, just twists and no one from Bologna would ever recognise it as their regional dish as it is meat free and has a tonne of vegetables in besides the tomato).
A quick word about Quorn and who can eat it. First off it contains egg so vegans or anyone with an egg allergy can't eat it. Secondly the mince does contain barley extract so coeliacs, this dish is not for you. Many with wheat intolerance will also find the barley extract an issue, luckily my husband is OK with it so long as we only have it once or twice a week. Finally it is a low fat food, great for those on a diet but not really suitable for the under-twos who need plenty of fat for brain development, this may also make it unsuitable for those with Crohns, ulcerative colitis and in some cases those with IBS as the fibre content is a bit high. This dish also contains onion, garlic and tomato which may be unsuitable for some. (You could just leave out the garlic).
It is perfectly possible to cook this with out the Quorn, it still tastes lovely but remember it wont make as many portions, it wont have the look and feel of a 'meaty' dish (which may be important to some diners who wouldn't normally eat veggie) and it will still be high fibre and low fat but now it will be low protein as well and you will need to catch that dietary requirement up later.
Who can eat it?
ME! The kids, hubby and most vegetarians.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 very large (or 2 regular sized) red onion, very finely chopped
about 1 finely chopped pepper, what ever colours are available, get a range if you can
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
6 finely chopped mushrooms
about 800g of Quorn mince
3 tins of chopped tomatoes (if you have to deal with a sulphate allergy try Suma's own brand which is very nice and sulphate free)
1 small carrot, finely grated
1 cup of vegetarian, gluten free stock (I use Knorr)
2 tablespoons of sun dried tomato puree
1 teaspoon of oregano
a dash of vegetarian, gluten free 'worcestershire' sauce (like this one by Life)
a dash of Angostura Bitters if you have them.
You are going to need a very big wok or skillet. Gently fry the onion in the oil. Keeping the heat at medium rather than high will let the sweet flavours of the red onion out. When it goes soft and translucent (about 3 to 4 minutes) add the mushrooms and peppers. Keep the heat at medium, keep stirring and when these get soft (another 4 minutes or so) add the quorn. After stirring for one minute add the tins of chopped tomatoes and the grated carrot. (The carrot is here for two reasons, the first is to add sweetness and the second is to sneak more veg into the kids!) Now stir in all the other ingredients and leave to bubble gently for 20 minutes for the flavours to develop.
Serve with your gluten free pasta of choice or layer with lasagna sheets and and gluten free cheese sauce. OR do what I did and divide it into 6 family sized portions, allow to cool and then refreeze, while resolving to check the freezer door more often!!
This week I have mostly been eating pumpkin. It's all Aunty C's fault, she gave me a large edible pumpkin grown by her own fair hands in her organic garden. I forgot to weigh it before chopping it all up but given that it was bigger that my darling husband's head (and he needs a pretty big head for that clever brain of his!) I'd estimate that it was about 4.5kg.
I know it's an often used phrase but pumpkins really are one of natures wonder-foods. They are an excellent source of vitamin E (good for healthy skin and hair), thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6 and folic acid (all part of the vitamin B group, great for feeling energised) as well as iron, magnesium and phosphorus. They are also
a very good source of dietary fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C, riboflavin, potassium, copper and manganese. In addition they are low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol and sodium. After taking off the top and scooping out the seeds my hands had absorbed lots of those lovely nutrients and were feeling very soft - shame my fingers were so orange it looked like I had a 60 a-day habit!
I decided straight off that I'd roast it first and decide what to do with the roasted chunks later. I could have steamed or boiled it but I love the flavour of it roasted so that was the way I was going. By the way, while pumpkins can very easily keep for 6 months from harvest before you eat them, once you pierce that skin the clock is ticking and even in the fridge you have only a couple of days before it goes off. You can keep the seeds, take all the skin off and roast them as well but I have a large bag of seeds already in the cupboard so I didn't bother.
So having taken off the top and de-seeded it (and taking a few moments out to admire my lovely soft hands!) I cut it into large sections, skinned it and chopped it again into bite size pieces. Again this was choice, you can easily roast the pumpkin whole (just stick it with a knife in a few places to let the steam out) or in large sections with the skin on (and then have the fun of eating it like melon!) My chopped pumpkin filled my two largest oven trays (9x13inches if you are interested), I gave them a little oil (about 1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil per tray) and stuck them in the oven at gas mark 5. I then promptly went out and forgot about them - well, there was a craft fair to go to! Don't worry, darling husband was left looking after them with the instruction to turn the pieces over (and swap the tray around on the shelves) in thirty minutes and turn the oven off after an hour.
When I came home the smell was delicious. To be honest I think they could have done with a little bit longer as the edges were only just starting to brown up but by then it was too late. So I popped the pumpkin into several plastic tubs with lids and stuck them in the fridge. I've done several things with them since, here come my best 3 recipes!
Hot Pumpkin Salad
I'm not kidding, this was absolutely delicious and so simple. You will need a couple of hand fulls of rocket or spinach or (preferably) a mix of both. Don't take them straight out of the fridge or if you do give them chance to warm to room temperature. Pop this in an ovenproof bowl, on top of this add a few very finely cut slices of red onion (raw) and one cup of re-heated (or fresh) roasted pumpkin, on top of this crumble a large slice of Stilton cheese. Pop it under a low grill while quickly making croutons - toast your bread (gluten-free if necessary), rub one side with the cut surface of a clove of garlic, butter or brush with oil, toast again and chop into squares. Remove the salad from the grill just as the leaves start to wilt, dress with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and garnish with the croutons. It was utterly delicious and I will be doing this one again. If you fancy changing it a bit try putting the salad in a warm pitta bread and leaving out the grilling and the croutons or swap the Stilton for Cheddar or a vegan cheese (follow this link to a great page on vegan cheese). Maybe a few chili flakes on top wouldn't go amiss either.
Roast Pumpkin Soup
The quick way is to take one portion of Simple Lentil Soup, add a cup of the roast pumpkin and blend. The less quick, lentil and tomato-free way is to gently fry in olive oil half a red onion, one clove of chopped garlic and a couple of slices of fresh ginger (finely chopped) until the onion goes very soft and glossy (3 or 4 minutes). Add 350ml of vegetable stock, 1 cup of the roasted pumpkin and a twist of pepper. Simmer for 5minutes then blend. Garnish with some finely chopped parsley, or chili flakes or sour cream, or like I did all 3!
Pumpkin and Pasta Bake.
I finely chopped one red onion and fried that in olive oil until it went soft and translucent. To this I added some finely chopped yellow and red peppers, 3 very finely chopped mushrooms (if the girls see mushroom they wont eat it so I tend to cut it so small they can't tell what it is!) and a good glug of sherry. Keep frying until all the pepper is soft. Then I added one family sized portion of slightly under-cooked gluten-free pasta (300g before cooking) 4 chopped Quorn frankfurters (watch out, while my gluten sensitive husband can tolerate them I'm not sure a true coelic could and these also contain egg, if it's a problem leave it out) and 2 cups of the roasted pumpkin and turned off the heat.
Next I grated 250g of Cheshire cheese. I chose this over Cheddar for two very simple reasons, it's more lemony and I thought that would help the flavour and secondly because I couldn't see when else I was going to use it! You could use a strong Cheddar or vegan cheese instead. I added half of the cheese to the mix and after a gentle stir transferred the lot into an oven proof dish before covering with the rest of the cheese and what remained of the cream cheese from the fridge and then putting in a preheated oven at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. I suggest serving it with a nice cold west country cider (though that is a glass of squash in the back-ground).
This is the only one
of the three that's been family tested (you'll just have to take my word
for it that the other two taste wonderful) and it passed with flying
colours. Pretty astounding really because when I told my husband I was
going to do this he pulled his "do we have to" worried face (where upon
he was forced to practice his "a new dish? how exciting!" face to show
the girls). He didn't just go back for seconds, he had thirds as well!
Both daughters proclaimed it delicious and big girl said she 'really
liked that orange stuff', 'but pumpkin is yucky so please could I leave
that out next time?' Which just goes to prove that like many kids her
age it's the thought of eating something new (rather than the taste)
that is the sticking point for her. And
just in case you were wondering there was plenty left over, I could
have fed another 2 adults from that lot so husband and I had it for
lunch the next day too!
So there you have it. 4
recipes in one post - Roasted Pumpkin, Hot Pumpkin Salad, Pumpkin soup
and Pasta and Pumpkin Bake. All vegetarian (and potentially vegan), all
gluten free and all delicious. Now if you don't mind I'm off to admire
the soft glowing skin all that vitamin E has given me!
Here's a family favourite to go on top of our gluten free pasta.
Who can eat it?
Vegetarians and gluten intolerant. It also comes in an egg free version.
Who can't eat it?
Vegans, coeliacs, the dairy intolerant (it might just work with a creamy milk substitute but I suspect it would separate) and those sensitive to the onion family. As there is no specific diet for those with colitis and Crohns or intolerance of yeasts you are going to have to ask these people if it's OK with them, for some it will be, for others it wont and it may depend on how well they are managing at the time.
Ingredients
1 red onion finely sliced
2 tablespoons of oil
either 500g of brown mushrooms or 250g of brown mushrooms and 300g of Quorn pieces
2 table spoons of brandy
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
1 clove of very finely chopped garlic
1 cup of stock
3 heaped table spoons of creme fraiche
Lots of finely chopped parsley
Chop the mushrooms into sixth or quarters.
Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and gently fry the onion until it starts to loose it's colour (about 2minutes).
Add the mushrooms and continue frying for one minute then add the brandy. I've tried this without brandy or with other spirits, it kind of works with sherry but trust me that it needs brandy or if you can spare it, cognac. Continue to saute the mushrooms and onion for another 6 to 8 minutes.
If you are using Quorn add it now, stir and then add the smoked paprika. Stir the mixture until evenly coated with the paprika then add the garlic and the stock.
Keep the mixture simmering until the fluid has reduced by half (about 10 minutes) then quickly add the creme fraiche (I use half-fat creme in a vain attempt to keep the calories down, but be careful some half fat stuff is thicken with 'cornflour' which may in fact come not from corn but from wheat!)
Bring the whole lot back up to a simmer then serve over your perfectly prepared gluten-free pasta. Give each dish a good sized garnish of parsley.
Quorn contains egg which isn't suitable for all, that why I've given you two versions, just in case. I've said at the beginning that we have it with pasta but I'm sure it would work well with rice, potatoes, millet or quinoa.
My youngest daughter swears she hates mushrooms and thinks that this dish is full of meat, I realise that it's a little deceitful but the rest of us love this dish so we haven't put her right yet, I think plenty of other meat eaters might also make the same mistake!
Anyway, now I've put back on any calories I might have shaken off with that walk earlier it's time to settle down with my other passion, crochet. Night night. xx
I have always been a big pasta fan so when we discovered that my darling husband couldn't eat wheat anymore I was worried how we'd do with out it.
I've tried vegetable substitutes, the uncurled skins of leeks make a really nice lasagna and courgette cut into fine ribbons tastes fine to me and is great for you if you are on a diet but to be honest my family didn't really take to it. (Actually that's an understatement, I think DH called courgette 'devils food' and the kids called it green worms).
Enter 'gluten-free pasta'. It looks like pasta and it tastes like pasta and as long as all you want out of pasta is sheets for lasagna or piped shapes to pour sauce on it is brilliant. Generally regular dried pasta is made just from Durum Wheat Semolina - do not be confused, that is just one ingredient however it is worth noting that the three parts to the name can be used on their own and some manufacturers of processed foods will use the durum or the semolina part to disguise the fact that their product is full of wheat.
Gluten-free pasta is usually made from rice flour and/or maize flour possibly with the addition of an emulsifier.
You can get gluten free pasta in a variety of shapes but the ones on supermarket shelves are usually either large sheets for lasagna or cannelloni, pene (quills) or fusilli (twists), you can even get tri-coloured, however 'fresh' gluten free pasta, egg g-f pasta and stuffed g-f pasta are a very rare find indeed. If you are desperate for fresh, or stuffed you might want to try making your own, search Google if you like or head straight to http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-fresh-pasta/ and scroll down a long way to find her recipe and technique.
Who is it suitable for?
Most people! It's vegetarian and vegan, has no egg (usually) and the ingredients of corn and rice are usually thought of as low allergy foods so it is tollerated by most people. Gluten
free pasta is slightly less calorific than 'regular' (white) dried
pasta but more calorific than wholewheat pasta and generally has less
sugar and fat than either regular or wholewheat pasta. I wouldn't
recommend changing to gluten-free pasta just to lose weight, lets face
it 355kcal per 100g is still pretty calorific, if you have to keep the calories down head straight for the ribboned vegetables. If the g-f pasta has
extra ingredients that might boost the fibre content (for example
psyllium husk) then you should check this is OK before serving anyone
with Crohn's or colitus to check it's not too much for them.
Gluten-free pasta is much more expensive than regular pasta, basically as well as making a tidy profit the companies are trying to claw back the investment they made in research to develop the product (trust me, only a few years back not only was it hard to find this product but it also had a tendency to either fall completely apart or go like leather). It is a great 'inclusive food' as almost everyone can eat it (even if some might have to keep the portion size small) and when it's cooked well most people can't tell the difference anyway. However it doesn't cook quite the same as your regular pasta...
Top tips for cooking gluten free pasta.
- Get a very BIG pan at least one size bigger than you might have used for the same amount of 'regular' pasta.
- Boil as much water in it as you safely can.
- Add your dried gluten-free pasta. Start your stop watch! (Each type of pasta has it's own cooking time, use it as a guide setting your stop-watch to 1minute less).
- Quickly add a little oil and watch it like a hawk.
Do NOT add any salt, salt latches on to the outside of the g-f pasta forming an almost in penetrable barrier to the water stopping the inside going soft and instead turning your pasta into edible leather.
- The moment it starts to boil turn the heat down to maintain a very gentle boil. If you're not cooking on gas you may need to lift the pan off the heat for a moment. Failure to prevent boiling over will result in a glue-like substance spreading quickly across you cooker top and setting like, well like glue really.
- A quarter of the way through your cooking time give it a gentle but thorough stir to stop it sticking together.
- Keep watching it, keep it boiling gently but never let it boil over...
- As soon as your timer goes off test a piece by biting it. It should be slightly 'al dente', do not let your pasta go soft or over cook, g-f pasta is very unforgiving and will just fall to pieces. If it's not ready keep the boil going and check every 30 seconds.
- If you just HAVE to have salty pasta add your salt now and gently stir.
- Drain. As I said g-f pasta is rather unforgiving and does not have the structural integrity of it glutenous brother so if you can drain it in the pan (our pans have deep lids with holes in the sides to allow for this) without tipping it into a colander then so much the better. (Don't bother with rinsing, unless you just want to gently pour freshly boiled water through the colander or sieve.)
- Serve!
Would you like a sauce to go with it?
Believe it or not I've already given you one simple sauce - Simple Lentil Soup! Just reduce the amount of stock from 450ml down to about 75ml and hey presto, Simple Lentil Pasta Sauce! If tomatoes will cause a problem one solution is to grate a few carrots and add some carrot juice or other (tomato free) vegetable juice and use these instead of tinned tomatoes.
Want another one?
Really, really simple pasta sauce.
1 finely chopped onion
A small splodge of oil
1 can of chopped tomatoes
A pinch of dried oregano (cilantro)
Gently fry your onion in the oil (I've said this before but do buy fresh onion and cut your own to reduce the amounts of sulphates you might be sensitive to.)
Add your can of chopped tomatoes and dried oregano and continue to gently simmer for about 10 minutes. (Again to reduce other contaminants as well as stomach irritating sulphates try an organic sulphate free brand like Suma.)
It's really easy to add veg and other flavourings to this sauce, add them to the onions and continue frying until they start to turn soft then add your tomatoes and oregano. A splash of sherry before the toms will make a nice sweet sauce, a splash of red wine will add to the richness (but do keep an eye out for those pesky sulphates and if serving vegans or vegetarians check it is suitable for them too). If you want to add garlic chop it really fine and add it with the tomatoes to preserve the health benefits which frying will remove.
So why is pasta the food of champions? Because my good friend and 'oh-my-god!'-parent to my girls eats it when carb-loading before a big cycle race and to quote my eldest daughter,
"Aunty Ca-waul always wins doesn't she Mummy?!"
Yes she does (nearly). Aunty C hasn't yet developed a gluten intolerance but if she did she wouldn't be out of place, lots of athletes are finding that by cutting gluten out of their diet they actually perform better. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are both now reported to be following gluten free diets, the Garmin-Transitions pro-cycling team apparently did the Tour de France on a gluten free diet and a number of gold medal winning Olympians including American swimmer Dana Vollmer were also gluten free. Maybe my girls will be medal winning gymnasts or swimmers too one day? And if they are then I know a gluten free diet wont be a change or a challenge for them.
Off now for a healthy 'championship' walk around the block! xx
