Maple Almond Cookies

Nuts... my pantry is full of nuts.  Almonds mostly, that I was saving up for some cooking project that I now can't recall.  My roommate and I cleaned our pantry out and found jars of nuts, along with jars and jars of lentils and rice (which I will make into some soup; stay tuned!)  I knew I wanted to make some nutty cookie and maple was the first flavor that came to mind.  I love maple syrup, it reminds me of New England, where I grew up.  As a child I was allergic to chocolate and my mom was always trying to find other desserts I could eat, and maple sugar candy was one of them.  If you don't know, maple sugar candies are maple sugar molded into little shapes like a maple leaf or a little Pilgrim.  They have a pure sweetness to them.  So, I decided to make some maple sweetened almond cookies and they turned out to be deliciously comforting!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour (I used rice and chick pea flour)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 Earth Balance
• 3/4 cup of maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsps of almond extract
• 1/4 cup of ground flax seed (or one large egg)
• 1/4 cup of sliced almonds
• Whole almonds to decorate the top

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients (except the almonds)
3. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients slowly until blended.
4. Mix in the sliced almonds.
5. Form small balls of dough and flatten onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Press a whole almond into the top of each cookie.
7. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes (careful not to over cook or it will become too dry!)
8. Remove from the oven and enjoy a cookie with a cold glass of rice milk or almond milk!

Red Beet Quinoa

Firstly, I must apologize to all my devoted followers for not blogging recently. The truth is, I simply cannot sit inside and type on a computer when the sun is out.  The unusually good weather has been leading me to bike rides to the beach, outdoor dance parties, picnics in the park, and late night walks in the warm evening air.  I've been on the go, filling up every moment with fun and busyness.  But change is in the air now, literally.  The sun is gone, the rain is pouring and the wind is blowing, finally bringing a halt to my solar-energized schedule.  The time has come for some slow cooking and introspection.  The other night, I spent a quiet evening with myself, cooking up a warm and comforting quinoa dish colored pink with beets and beet greens.  Take your time making this, and keep this lovely quote in mind that my friend Eric shared with me:


If you want to be whole, let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked.
If you want to be full, let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn, let yourself die.
If you want to to be given everything, give up everything.

Red Beet Quinoa

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of quinoa
• 1 bunch of beets
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
• salt, pepper, and olive oil

Directions

1. Soak quinoa in a bowl of water for 15 minutes.  Then rinse it in a sieve several times to remove the saponin that coats the quinoa.
2. Cut the beet greens off from the beets.  Wash beet greens and then cut them into bite size pieces.
3. Boil beets with the skins on in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes.
4. While beets cook, chop up the onion and peel and crush the garlic.
5. Sauté the onions in a med/large pot until they are sweating.  Add the garlic. 
6. Add the beet greens and saute until they begin to soften.  
7. Add the washed quinoa into the pot and cover with water.  Add salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
8. Bring heat down to medium heat and cover pot and let simmer for about 20 minutes.
9. When beets are beginning to soften, place them in a colander and rinse with very cold water.  Then you can easily remove the skins. 
10. Chop up the beets and add them to the quinoa. Cook the beet quinoa for another 10 minutes.  
11. When quinoa is cooked (soft to bite and the little "tails" pop out) add the balsamic vinegar, and some more salt and pepper.  Enjoy! 

Debbie's Almond Truffles

Yesterday was my roommate's birthday/moving to Australia party.  We are going to miss Debbie so much!  Not only is she a great friend and roommate, but she also is a fantastic cook and lover of healthy treats.  For her party, she made the most delicious almond butter truffles.  As you might know by now, I love almond butter with a passion.  These truffles are the more sophisticated version of my late night spoonfuls of almond butter interspersed with a handful of granola or chocolate chips.  Debbie's truffles have the perfect consistency and texture, not too sticky, but not dry or crumbly.  And being the artist that she is, she decorated her truffles with adorable chocolate designs!  You have to try these delicious, healthy, and very easy to make truffles!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 cup processed gluten free oats (or oat flour)

For chocolate topping:

• 1/2 cup of chocolate unsweetened (melted)
• 1 tsp oil

Directions:

1. In a food processor, blend almond butter, honey and oats together.
2. Form dough into round balls.
3. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, and add the oil.
4. Dip truffles into chocolate or "paint" on designs using a chopstick, like Debbie did!
5. Enjoy these truffles any time of the day, or night!

Colette's Ovaletts

My friend Colette and I love to cook together, eat out, and talk about food, as she also has food allergies.  She has now three times cooked for me the most delicious wheat/sugar/dairy free dish.  It's a Shanghai dish that she remembers from her childhood.  For this dish, she combines preserved mustard greens, soy beans, chicken and rice ovaletts.  These little ovaletts are made from rice flour and have a satisfying chewiness to them.  You can find them in any Korean or Asian market.  They come fresh or frozen, but we prefer the fresh kind.  This dish is salty, flavorful, comforting and very simple to make!

Colette's Ovaletts
Ingredients

• 1 lb of chicken
• 1 package of fresh rice ovalettes
• About 1 cup of soy beans (defrosted if frozen)
• 1 package of preserved mustard greens
• 1 tbs of cornstarch
• Sesame oil and canola oil
• Wheat free tamari

Directions

1. Cut chicken into bite size cubes
2. In a bowl mix together the cornstarch and the chicken cubes.  Dress with a little tamari.
3. Sautee chicken in a pan of oil (both the canola and sesame) on medium heat until cooked through, about 7 minutes.
4. Add the ovalettes and cook until soft and chewy, about 15 minutes or so.
5. Add the mustard greens and soybeans and sautee for another 5 minutes or so until the soybeans are cooked.
6. Enjoy!  

Bhal Puri

I went to the greatest wedding ever of my friends Anita and Bob.  They threw a fabulously intimate and personalized wedding.  From the beautiful Hindu ceremony, to the bright colored parasols, to the local artisan crafted metal flower "bouquets," to the Hora and Bhangra dancing, to the home brewed beers (with handmade labels...), and of course lot's of love.  The food was eclectically delicious especially the freshly made bhal puri.  The line was so long to get some because each cup was mixed on the spot by San Francisco chef, Roger Feely of Soul Cocina.  But the wait was worth it, to watch the process alone was entertaining.  And he made mine gluten free!

He mixed together crisped rice (cooked in some kind sand he said.....?)  

and onions, purple and gold potatoes, mangoes...

 

Then some fried lentils

Peanuts and tomatoes....

Homemade mint chutney....

lime juice.....

 

cilantro, tamarind sauce, plantain chips, and crispy sprinkles made from lentil flour...

......and voila!  It was so flavorful, my mouth couldn't believe it! 

I wonder if I could recreate it?!

Zucchini Apple Bread

  

September has always felt more like the beginning of a new year for me than January 1st.  I have palpable memories of the first day of school, of the sudden change from humid hot air to crisp cool breezes, to bright blue skies scattered with yellow and red leaves.  Last week I attended two new year's celebrations.  One was Enkutatash, the Ethiopian new year and the second was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.  Though I am not Ethiopian or Jewish, I took both celebrations as an opportunity for self reflection and new beginnings.  And of course for some good eating!  At the Enkutatash festival I was hoping to have some split peas, collards and injera (which is traditionally made from gluten-free teff flour), but the line was so long that I ended up getting some delicious Caribbean chicken, plantains and spinach instead.  For Rosh Hashana my friend Genessa made a feast of Iraqi stuffed cabbage and roasted vegetables.  I wanted to bring a wheat/sugar/dairy free dessert that included the symbolic apples and honey.  So I decided to adapt a zucchini bread recipe I saw on the Gluten Free Goddess blog that used coconut milk! My version is full of honey and apples for Rosh Hashana and is also totally egg and soy free!  Enjoy it for the new year!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour (I used mostly rice flour and some buckwheat flour)
• 1/3 cup of potato or tapioca starch
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/3 cup of grape seed oil
• 1 cup of honey
• 1/4 coconut milk
• 1 cup of grated zucchini
• 1 cup of grated apple

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.
2. Add the oil, honey, and coconut milk.
3. Stir in the apples and zucchini.
4. Pour into a greased 9 inch loaf pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 45-50 minutes.

Fig Almond Cookies

I am the kind of person who needs to intensely study a map before daring to venture out into a new neighborhood or city.  But when it comes to cooking, I barely glance at recipe before tossing it aside and completely ignoring what I just read.  I will get some vision for a new dish in my head (or really in my gut) and without any plan of how to execute it, I start chopping things up and throwing things into a bowl and wait to discover what will happen.  Sometimes my adventurous cooking spirit gets me into trouble.  Like the time I decided to make a persimmon ice cream pie from scratch on Thanksgiving day and ended up with a soupy mess of a dessert.  I've learned there are some benefits of researching and testing out an idea before serving it to a crowd on a major holiday.  But I do believe in the importance of trusting the creative process and trusting your own instincts.

I noticed that I doubted both of these recently when making some fig cookies.  I bought a basket of fresh figs at the farmer's market with my friend Karen and immediately was filled with memories of eating bowls of figs with my friends.  I began envisioning some kind of comforting fig cookie.  But then my inner critic spoke up and got me worried about making these cookies "the right way," as if there were a wrong and right way to make a cookie.  I asked my friends what they thought I should do, trying to get some baking guidance.  But then when it came time to make the cookies, I came back to my original vision and just went with what felt right.  And I ended up with a lovely batch of cookies.  The chopped almonds brought such depth of flavor, while the honey brought a purity of sweetness, and the figs transformed these cookies into a succulent and decadent treat.  I hope you enjoy them, too!


Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour (I used rice and chickpea flours)
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/3 cup of chopped almonds
• 6 fresh figs chopped
• extra rice flour for dusting your hands

Directions

1. In a bowl mix together the Earth Balance and honey.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Using your flour-dusted hands, combine the ingredients from the 2 bowls together until you have a soft dough.  (If it's too dry add some water or rice milk, if too sticky add some flour.)
4. Wash your hands and then use a rubber spatula to mix in the almonds and about 2/3 of the fig pieces.
5. Form small balls of dough and press into cookie shapes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  
6. Press 1 or 2 pieces of fig onto the top of each cookie.
7. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes.