Raised from Scratch

growing up outside the box: alternatives to processed food and television

Fall Vegetable Linguine November 20, 2012

Filed under: Gluten Free,Lunch/Dinner,Pasta — annalope @ 10:15 am
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 Fall Vegetable Linguine

1 pkg (16 oz) gluten-free brown rice pasta (or whole wheat if you prefer)

*reserve 1/4 cup pasta water after cooking

2 cups butternut squash, peeled, cubed

1 T. olive oil

1/2 t. salt

4 T. butter, divided

3 cups brussel sprouts, washed, trimmed and halved

1/2 t. dried thyme

1/4 t. dried rosemary

¼ t. garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)

1 cup shredded asiago or parmesan cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 375°. Peel and cube butternut squash and toss with 1 T. olive oil and ½ t. coarse salt. Roast cubed butternut squash at 375°F for 25 minutes or until tender, stirring once after 15 minutes.

Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Reserve ¼ cup pasta water when draining.

Wash the brussel sprouts, trim the stem and halve sprouts lengthwise. Heat 2 T. butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sprouts and herbs and a generous sprinkle of coarse salt; sauté for 5 minutes. Add reserved pasta water, cover pan and cook additional 2-3 minutes until sprouts are tender. Remove from heat.

Combine cooked pasta, squash and brussel sprouts. Drizzle with lemon juice, season with salt and pepper to taste; plate and top with toasted walnuts and shredded asiago.

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Quinoa Waldorf Salad October 12, 2012

Filed under: Gluten Free,Lunch/Dinner,Salads,Vegan — annalope @ 12:27 am
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A perfect fall dish – great for potlucks and picnics as it tastes best at room temperature. I’ve brought this to multiple get-togethers and the recipe is always requested. With all the fruit and fresh greens, this salad is refreshing and a great way to celebrate the season. If you haven’t tried quinoa before (pronounced keen-wah), I highly recommend it. Quinoa is the only grain (okay, technically a seed, but cooked and eaten like a grain) in the world that is a complete protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids, so it’s wonderful for vegetarian diets. The tiny quinoa pearls have a ring around them, which will unfurl as it cooks and the seeds will become translucent. Many brands sell pre-rinsed quinoa, but rinsing in cold water at home prior to cooking ensures any bitterness from the seeds’ natural protective resin is washed away.

This recipe is easily modified. The most recent version I made, and the one pictured, I used regular raisins instead of golden, omitted the dried cranberries and celery, and used extra apples because I was bringing it to a potluck celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day. I hope you’ll try it next time you’re in the mood for a fall salad!

Quinoa Waldorf Salad

2 cups water

½ t. sea salt

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well and drained

1 large apple or 2 small apples (pink lady, gala or fuji are great), unpeeled, cut into ½” cubes

1 celery stalk, thinly sliced (optional)

2 scallions, thinly sliced

½ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup golden raisins

2 T. walnuts, chopped (optional)

2 T. seasoned rice vinegar

4 T. fresh orange juice

¼ t. ground ginger

2 cups fresh baby arugula, washed and dried

½ t. fresh black pepper + additional salt to taste

Using a sieve, rinse quinoa under cold water for about 30 seconds, briefly allow to drain. In a saucepan bring water and salt to a boil, add quinoa, cover and reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes until water is adsorbed and quinoa fluffs easily with a fork.

Meanwhile, chop apple, celery and scallions and place in a large serving bowl along with cranberries, raisins and walnuts. In a small measuring glass whisk together rice vinegar, orange juice and ground ginger. Once quinoa has cooked and the water has all been absorbed, add it to the apple mixture and toss to combine. Pour orange vinegar dressing over salad, stirring. Gently fold in arugula to coat the greens but not tear them.

Serve with additional walnuts if desired.

 

Purple Cabbage Pasta with Swiss Chard August 31, 2012

Filed under: Gluten Free,Lunch/Dinner — annalope @ 4:57 am
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Even toddlers like eating soft purple cabbage! It’s super sweet when caramelized with red onion, and slippery fun for playful fingers that make their way into the bowl. Read all about cabbage’s amazing health benefits and cancer fighting compounds here.

Purple Cabbage Pasta with Swiss Chard

2 T. olive oil

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

6 large garlic cloves, minced

1 medium head cabbage, thinly sliced (4-6 cups)

16 oz pasta (Tinkyada brand recommended for gluten-free pasta)

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1 bunch swiss chard, stems removed, leaves washed and roughly chopped

1 t. apple cider vinegar (optional)

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil. Add the sliced onions, cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until tender and glistening, about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic, cook 3 minutes longer, uncovered, stirring periodically. Add the cabbage, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a large pot, cook pasta in salted water according to package directions (when cooking the gluten-free pasta I notice it never takes as long as the package instructions indicate…check frequently to prevent mushy noodles). Drain pasta, reserving 2 cups cooking liquid. Allow pasta to sit in colander covered with a lid or plate while returning reserved cooking liquid to empty pot in which to cook the greens. Over medium-high heat boil swiss chard 3-4 minutes until greens are tender and tasty (too short and they will taste bitter, too long and they loose their flavor). Drain swiss chard, add 1 t. apple cider vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Return drained pasta to cooking pot.

Add the cabbage-onion mixture to the pasta in the pot and season with salt and pepper. Mix in swiss chard or serve on top of pasta after plating. Serve sprinkled with toasted walnuts.

Recipe adapted from Color Me Vegan cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which I adore and am so happy no one else has requested from the library, enabling me to renew it over and over again until I can buy it.

 

Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Muffins October 15, 2011

Filed under: Breakfast,Muffins — annalope @ 4:45 am
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Why does the world need yet another recipe for banana muffins? It’s true, there are plenty of them out there, and I know there are a lot of bakers who find a decent recipe and never deviate from it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. My mother-in-law makes the same banana bread every time there are extra ripe bananas around, using a family recipe that has withstood the test of time, and I do absolutely love it. But when it comes to making banana bread or muffins in my own kitchen I find it impossible to not tinker with whatever recipe I might start out with (if there is one). These came about when I had set out to make Banana Mocha Muffins – a recipe I’d recently come up with and really loved, but by the time I’d blended the first few ingredients I started mentally drafting something drastically different. I’m not sure if this suggests creativity or just a lack of focus, but either way the results make me happy and appreciative of my restless mind.

One reason you should try this recipe is because the taste of molasses, coffee, and bananas together is pretty unbeatable. Or you could try my Banana Mocha Muffin recipe which also uses these ingredients. This recipe also has less sugar and less butter than your typical muffin, and uses only whole grains.

Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Muffins

¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

½ cup natural cane sugar

1 T. molasses + brown rice syrup to equal ¼ cup

1 t. vanilla

½ cup milk or milk substitute

½ cup coffee, room temperature or cold

1 egg

1 egg white

2 extra ripe bananas, mashed

1 T. flax meal

4 t. baking powder

½ t. salt

1 ½ cup white whole wheat flour

½ cup + 2 T. whole wheat pastry flour

¾ cup ground walnuts, reserving 2 T. to garnish muffins

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine butter, applesauce, sugar and molasses/rice syrup in medium bowl; blend well. Add eggs and bananas, mix well. In measuring glass combine vanilla, milk and coffee. In separate bowl combine all dry ingredients, including the walnuts. Add flour and milk mixtures to butter mix alternately; gently mix to fully incorporate.

Butter and flour 12 large muffin tins (or 18 small cups). Pour a heaping ¼ cup of batter into each (or fill small cups ¾ full); top with ground walnuts for garnish. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Muffins freeze well once completely cool. I suggest eating half a batch and freezing the other half, which means less time before you get to try/create yet another muffin recipe!

 

The Pancake Stands Alone September 29, 2011

Filed under: Breakfast,Pancakes — annalope @ 5:07 am
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As a kid my mom whipped up a batch of crepes for dinner once a month for me and my three siblings.  We each filled our own thin pancake with jam or jelly, rolled it like a burrito, doused it in powdered sugar and inhaled our creation as quickly as possible without choking on powdered sugar dust. No one seemed concerned with the amount of sugar inside or outside the pancake and, not surprisingly, this was a favorite meal for us kids. The recipe for the thin crepes was always made with Bisquick, just like all the other pancakes we made at home. It was the way Grandma had made them, and Mom followed suit teaching me the recipe by the time I was ten. What I’ve come to realize though is that Bisquick pancakes, like most super-refined products, taste unremarkable and require large amounts of jam, butter, or syrup to make them edible.

So my original love of pancakes must have come from the sugar my parents permitted me to load on top of them, but today my appreciation for the simple pancake is something different entirely. Over the years I have refined my love of the humble pancake and the cravings come now more than ever. The reason they never grow old? – No Bisquick, no standard recipe, no rules. Total creative freedom every time I grab the mixing bowl. And because they’re so easy to make healthy, there’s no guilt when eating to my heart’s content, no heavy belly dragging me down, no sugar crash. When quality ingredients are used, the pancake stands alone, no sugar coating necessary.

The pancake possibilities are endless, the results available to taste test in mere minutes, flavor and consistency alterable as you fry and sample. Think outside the circle; pancakes taste better (at least to kids) when shaped like turtles, balloons, snakes, trees and letters. It’s easy to incorporate a variety of whole grains, protein and fruit into your batter, giving you a secretly nutritious breakfast that doesn’t leave you reaching for the syrup bottle and won’t leave you eyeing the couch after eating.

Cinnamon Walnut Pancakes with Crystallized Ginger

1 cup white whole wheat flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

¼ cup quick cooking oats

3 T. flax meal (ground flax seeds)

½  – ¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (depending on preferred consistency)

¼ t. salt

1 T. baking powder

1  ½ t. ground cinnamon

1 cup milk or milk alternative

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 ½ t. pure vanilla extract

2 T. maple syrup

2 large eggs

1 T. melted Earth Balance vegan spread or butter + extra to fry

½ cup chopped walnuts

3 T. chopped crystallized ginger

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl (wheat flour – cinnamon). Combine liquid ingredients (milk – butter) in a quart sized measuring glass, or just make a well in your dry ingredients where you can whisk them together. Gently mix together. Add walnuts and ginger and mix gently once more.

Preheat your frying pan over medium heat, adding just enough butter or Earth Balance spread to coat your pan. Once it’s hot…you know what to do. Stay close to the pan and remember to coat with butter between batches.