Creamy Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup & Zucchini Ribbon Pasta with Veggies and Cream Sauce

This year, Passover falls out very early in the calendar year. Most years, I am pretty put together with my Passover plans, but this year, I have put off a lot of my menu planning. The opportunity to write some recipes featuring Temp Tee cream cheese for JoyofKosher essentially got me to wake me up.  Passover is right around the corner.

My seder menus are pretty easy to plan. The menu has been pretty much the same since my childhood. It’s those days in between that really get you. I usually work during the intermediate days of Passover, so just like any other day, I need to come up with a fast and easy dinner. Because it’s still March and we are still feeling bits of winter, we are still eating nice and warm foods right now.  My Creamy Roasted Garlic & Potato Soup and my Zucchini Ribbons with Veggies and Cream Sauce are the perfect dairy dishes for weeknight dinners or lunch.

souptemptee

The Creamy Roasted Garlic & Potato Soup comes together easily and pretty fast. The toughest part is having to wait for the garlic to roast, which takes about a half hour. Once you have that done, it’s smooth sailing. I always have vegetable broth on hand to make soups like this. The combination of the use of the immersion blender while adding the cream cheese, gives this soup an amazing creamy texture and flavor. Check out the recipe over at JoyofKosher.com.

Zucchini-Strips

The Zucchini Ribbons with Veggies and Cream Sauce is my answer to lack of good pasta on Passover. Nobody in my house will eat the packaged Passover potato pasta, so we improvise. Instead of making a noodle out of eggs, we look to our veggies for that texture. By using a peeler or cheese slicer, you can easily get a thin ribbon of zucchini. If you have a julienne peeler, you can achieve more of a spaghetti look and feel. I paired this dish up with whatever veggies I had on hand. The dish is easily adapted. In the past, I’ve simply sautéed the squash in olive oil and herbs. I wanted something richer this time around, and the Temp Tee cream cheese was the perfect addition. The cream sauce really turned this vegetable from a side dish to a dinner meal. You can check out the recipe here.

Creamy Roasted Garlic & Potato Soup               Zucchini Ribbons with Veggies & Cream Sauce

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Quiche with an Almond Crustlut

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Just the other day, I participated in this fantastic Hamentaschen contest. I spent the early evening hours rolling out dough and shaping hamentaschen – over and over and over. So you could understand that I will not be hanging out with any rolling pins for the next long while. It was a fun day though, and the Hamentaschen were fantastic. I went the untraditional route with a caramelized onion, mushroom, garlic, thyme and gruyere filling. It just so happens that I over prepared. I made about twice the filling than was necessary. Oops. After brainstorming a bit, I decided to make a quiche with some of the leftover filling. Easy enough. But there’s that pesky rolling pin involved with quiche. I don’t like buying prepared crusts. I decided to put together an easy almond crust. It’s gluten free and also kosher for Passover. Perfect timing. This came together very quickly and I will definitely be making this again for Pesach.

Gluten Free Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Quiche (Kosher for Passover)
Ingredients:

Filling:
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. fresh thyme
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. ground pepper
5 cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 tbsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. ground pepper
1/3 cup shredded swiss or gruyere cheese
4 Eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground pepper
Crust:
1.5 cups almond meal
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. ground pepper
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F.

For the filling, heat up the butter and olive oil in a pan.  Add in the onions, garlic and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes and let the liquid from the mushrooms evaporate. Add in the spices and turn heat down to medium low. Cook for around 20 minutes and let everything caramelize.  Once done, set the pan aside.

Start preparing the crust. Mix all of the crust ingredients together in a small bowl. Spread the almond meal mixture in to a pie plate.

Crust Stuff

Bake the crust for 10-13 minutes.  Remove from the oven.

Beat the eggs and the milk with a whisk in a small bowl. Mix in the salt and pepper.
Sprinkle the cheese on the bottom of the crust.
Top with the onion mixture.  Pour the egg mixture over the onions.
Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Quiche2

Serve quiche with a nice and hearty salad or a warm bowl of soup. Enjoy!

Quiche1

VeganMofo: Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

A while back, I went with my parents to a fabulous Italian restaurant. We were starving, and as we waited for our food, we stuffed our faces with these fabulous rosemary and olive oil flat bread crackers. They were super thin and super yummy.

Since then, I have been wanting to recreate these great crackers at home – both with and without the gluten.  Today, I am sharing with you a gluten free rosemary cracker, that while not as thin as the cracker from the restaurant, the rosemary flavor in these crackers, combined with the sea salt and olive oil, give me the flavor and crunch that I’m looking for.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers


Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers / Flatbread
Ingredients:

1 cup cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean flour (plus more for rolling)
1 tsp. sea salt (plus more for sprinkling over)
2 tbsp. chopped rosemary (plus a bit extra for sprinkling)
1/4 cup olive oil (plus more for brushing)
1/4 cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

In the bowl of a food processor, process the brown rice. It should be mushy. Slowly add in the rest of the ingredients while pulsing. Process until it forms a ball and moves away from the sides of the bowl.

Dust a flat surface with some more garbanzo flour. Knead a bit for a minute. The dough will be a bit sticky.

Place half of the dough on a piece of parchment paper that is sized to a baking sheet.

Roll out the dough as thin as possible on to the parchment paper. It’s important that you roll it thin so it can achieve ideal crispiness. Try for around 1/8 inch.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle on some sea salt and more rosemary sprigs.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

Cut dough with a pizza cutter to preferred crackers shapes/sizes.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Bake in oven for around 25 minutes. Check periodically for browning. The crackers should be browner around the edges and browned a little on the bottom of the crackers. They will harden more once you let them cool down a bit.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

veganmofo

Gluten Free Raspberry Chocolate Jam Bars

In my constant need to use things up, I came across a lovely bottle of raspberry jam in the fridge. It sat open and largely unused. I remember purchasing it with good intentions. Probably at someone’s request. When I asked why it wasn’t used, I was informed that strawberry was the preferred jam flavor. Ah well, I tried. I like raspberries. Why not bake with it.

I decided to test out a gluten free raspberry bar recipe that I had been playing with. I sprinkled on some chocolate chips, since dark chocolate and raspberry always go well together.

Gluten Free Raspberry Jam Bars
Ingredients

1 cup almond meal
1 cup gluten free flour blend
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1.5 sticks of butter, cut up
1 1/2 cups gluten free oats
zest of two lemons
1 1/2 cups raspberry jam

Chocolate Chips (about a handful)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor, pulse the almond meal, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, baking soda and butter.

Pulse a few times. Add in the oats and lemon zest and pulse some more. Mixture should be crumbly but stick together a bit.

Butter a 9×13 baking pan.

Press 3/4 of the mixture in to the baking pan to form a crust.

Spread a light layer of the jam over the crust.

Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top. Not too many.

Sprinkle the rest of the dough mixture on top of that.

Bake for around 25-30 minutes or until the top has browned a bit.

Let cool for an hour before cutting.

Gluten Free Raspberry Jam Bars

Enjoy!

Holy Macaron!

This post is long overdue. I have had it sitting in the queue for a while now, and I’ve had the photos sitting on my desktop even longer.

I started to cut out the gluten in mine and my younger daughter’s world several months ago. In doing so, I needed to come up with some sweet and tasty treats for when the craving struck. While I like some of those gluten free flour blend alternatives, I prefer to make things that are intentionally gluten free. I seem to have better luck with those.

I have long wanted to conquer the French macaron challenge. Those little almond treats that can come in a rainbow of colors. When done right, they are so good. When done wrong, it can be a sticky mess.

Like any baking recipe, if you follow the recipe properly, they will come out properly and everyone will be happy. Have no fear. It’s really not too complicated.

Before you get to work, make sure you have everything ready:

  • 2 baking sheets (good, heavy kind)
  • parchment paper
  • a piping bag
  • nothing larger than a 1/2 inch round tip

Basic Macarons
Ingredients:
3/4 cup almond meal
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 large egg whites (some people suggest using older eggs). Let the eggs sit out for a few hours before using in this recipe.
1/4 cup superfine sugar

Filling:
Nutella or your favorite chocolate spread, jam, ganache.  The list is endless. This is your place to get creative.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor, process the confectioners’ sugar and the almond meal together. You shouldn’t have too many specks left. Some people recommend sifting the mixture, but I skipped this step and my macarons came out fine.

In a bowl, beat the eggs whites until foamy. You should see soft peaks.

Slowly beat in the superfine sugar. You will see that the eggs whites start to become shiny. If you wanted to add flavoring to the cookie base, this is the point that you would fold it in.

Slowly fold in the almond meal mixture in to the egg white mixture. Don’t over mix.

Spoon the batter in to your pastry bag. Alternatively, you can use a large ziploc bag and cut the corner instead of the piping tip.

Pipe out 1-inch rounds on the parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Tap the bottom of the baking sheet against the surface to let out the air.

Let the baking sheets sit for 30 minutes to rest. You will see the the tops of the batter rounds will look a little dull.

Once rested, reduce the oven temperarture to 325.

Bake only one sheet of macarons at a time. 

Place cookie sheet in oven for 10 minutes. When done, the cookies will look solid and crisp, but do not let them brown.

Let macarons cool a few minutes, then transfer to wire cooling racks.

Repeat with the second tray of cookies.

Sandwich a couple teaspoons of filling between the two cookies.

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Enjoy!

Gluten Free Crackers (Mary’s Gone Crackers Copycat Recipe)

I’ve become a gluten free guinea pig. Scouring the web, bookstores, and brainstorming new ideas for gluten free meals and snacks. The main meals aren’t too complicated. Dinners have only needed minor tweaking to adapt to gluten free. The hardest area has been snack food. We aren’t a big cake/cookie family – but the kids likes her crunchy stuff. Pretzel sticks have always been a mainstay in her feeding therapies. There’s only so much popcorn one can handle.

Store-bought snacks are not cheap. Coupons are hard to come by for the kinds of foods we are looking for. So I am trying to make my own. When we first began our gluten free adventure, I asked a friend for pretzel ideas. She mentioned the Sticks & Twigs by Mary’s Gone Crackers.

I’ve quickly become addicted to these gluten free pretzels. They aren’t like ordinary pretzels. They are full of seeds and stuff. They have a great crunch. They have a nice, nutty flavor. More involved than a standard Snyder’s pretzel. Unfortunately, at $4.50 a bag – they don’t fit my budget too well.

Looking at the ingredient label, I pondered trying to make my own. The ingredients aren’t too complicated; brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and tamari. I have these ingredients in my pantry. While googling for ideas, I came upon the crackers of Mary’s Gone Crackers fame. They are basically the same pretzel taste in a cracker. I figured that I would tackle that first – and then I could move on to pretzels.

The first time I made the crackers – my results were uneven. Some pans came out ok, and some pans came out – well, not so ok. By the second time – I finally got it down pat. Similar to the pretzels, the crackers cost around $4.50 for way too few crackers. Happy to get about 3 times as many crackers at a significant savings by making my own. I do plan on playing with the recipe more to add flavors – like garlic and rosemary.

I am still determined to figure out how to make the pretzels – in the meantime, enjoy these yummy crackers!

Gluten Free Crackers (Mary's Gone Crackers Copycat Recipe)

 

 

Gluten Free Crackers (Mary's Gone Crackers Copycat Recipe)
 
This recipe was slightly adapted from here.
Author:
Recipe type: Crackers, Snacks
Cuisine: Gluten Free
Ingredients
  • 1 cup quinoa (dry)
  • 1 cup brown rice (dry)
  • 2-3 tsp. water
  • 
2-3 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce
  • ⅓ cup whole, toasted flax seeds
  • ¼ cup chia seeds
  • 
1/4 cup black sesame seeds (could also use gomasio)
  • 2 tsp. salt
Instructions
  1. Prepare rice and quinoa as per your regular methods.
  2. Add cooked brown rice to Cuisinart and process with a small amount of water.
  3. You should process brown rice to a mush.
  4. Add quinoa to the mix and process a bit more to incorporate.
  5. Add the tamari or soy sauce and mix a bit more.
  6. Take the dough out and place in bowl. Mix in other seeds and seasonings with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be very sticky.
  7. Spray baking pan with oil spray or rub olive oil on baking sheet. Do not use parchment paper.
  8. Drop teaspoon size bits of dough on to cookie sheet. On a half sheet pan, I got around 16 balls.
  9. Take a small piece of parchment paper, spray lightly with oil and place on top of each ball and flatten. I pressed down on to the paper with a stainless steel measuring cup. It seemed to work best.  The cracker should be very thin and flat.
  10. Bake at 350 degrees. Keep an eye on the crackers. Remove them when they have browned and are comepletly dry. Don't let them burn. I took them out at around 17 minutes. Keep an eye out. Different pans conduct heat differently.
  11. Cool crackers on rack.
  12. Enjoy!

 

 

 
P.S. As a follow-up, I did succeed in making the pretzels. 

Teriyaki Tofu and Veggie Rice Bowl

So the other night around dinner time, J suggested we go out and get Chinese take-out. Of course he said this after dinner was already prepared. He also knows that the kosher Chinese place in the neighborhood pretty much sucks and I always get food poisoning when I eat there. Of course I looked at him like he had two heads when he suggested it.

Don’t get me wrong – I like take-out as much as the next gal; but a: it’s not in our budget and b: I refuse to pay for crappy food.

I do still try to consider what J wants when making the meal plan. He mentioned being in the mood for a greasy bowl of teriyaki chicken or beef – similar to what you could hypothetically get from a crappy Chinese take-out joint.

I hemmed and hawed about this. I even considered  being a nice wifey and getting him some $5 dollar special. Gasp!

We do have all the ingredients though and I had a package of tofu sitting in the fridge. I decided to make some teriyaki tofu. I figured that I could make it better, cheaper, and definitely healthier than any neighborhood joint. And none of us will get sick after eating it! Yay!

Teriyaki Tofu & Veggie Rice Bowl
Ingredients:

1 package of extra firm tofu
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. ginger, minced
2 shallots
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small zuchini, chopped
1 cup of mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
3/4 cup green peas
scallions, chopped (garnish at the end)
red pepper flakes

Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients:
4 tbsp. tamari (you can also use soy sauce or Braggs Amino Acids)
2.5 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. mirin
2.5 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. ginger, minced
1/2 tbsp. sriracha (or more)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. corn starch
2 tbsp. warm water

Cube up the tofu and press it down to remove all the water.

In a wok, stir fry the tofu in a small amount of vegetable oil mixed wth a small amount of sesame oil. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in the ginger, garlic, and the shallots. Cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Add in the other veggies. Cook for a few minutes. Let the zuchini soften a little.

Mix up the teriyaki sauce ingredients.

Add to the stir fry. Cook for a couple more minutes. Add in the scallions and some red pepper flakes.

Serve over some white or brown rice. Enjoy!

Quinoa Veggie Burgers – Gluten Free

I recently moved my younger daughter over to a gluten free diet. For dinnertime, this means that for the most part, all of us are eating gluten free.  I definitely don’t mind, but it’s sometimes hard to convince the rest of the gang that gluten free could be good. I am also new to the gluten free thing for the most part, and having a hard time coming up with fun and tasty things that the whole family will enjoy. Emphasis on the easy part. 

When discussing gluten free stuff with a friend, she mentioned that there is a lot that can be done with quinoa. I had never really gone past pilafs and salads with the grain. It has also been a Pesach-only food for us. I have always loved quinoa, but the rest of the family haven’t been huge fans. I love that it’s a grain and a protein at the same time.

When I bought the quinoa the other day, I had no intention of turning it in to burgers. The idea came to me when I decided I wanted something french fry like and needed a main dish to go along with. I haven’t had a burger in a long time – veggie or otherwise. I have read about various quinoa and lentil loaves, and decided that this could probably work as a burger. I was right. Tonight’s burgers were a hit. They made everyone happy. Even the little one scarfed down two!

Quinoa Burgers
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1 onion
2 carrots
1 small zuchinni
6 mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
Handful of shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/3 cup rice flour or corn flake crumbs
salt
pepper

In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, chop up the onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Switch in the shredding disk and shred the rest of the veggies. Put the veggie mixture in to a mixing bowl and press down on the mixture with your hands and drain the liquid.

Mix the quinoa in to the vegetables. Add the cheese and seasonings.

Mix in the egg and flour.

Form in to patties and fry them on the stove for a few minutes per side.

Move them to a 350 degree oven to finish baking.

Serve them on a bun with all the fixings or in a wrap or however you tend to eat your burgers.

Enjoy!

Pamela’s Gluten Free Pizza Crust

This is dedicated to my wonderful curly-haired family. Love you all!

A weekend in May found me back in my Midwest hometown. It was the first weekend in a few years that my sisters and I were all together. We tried to make the best of a stressful weekend.

A preface to this is that we all come from a bad gut family. Making a meal that works with every gut can be a challenge. On the menu for a home cooked Saturday night meal was wheat-free/gluten-free pizza. The one sticking point is it had to taste good. You may ask how this is possible. Thank the bad-gut lords that smile on us, that there are now numerous companies and aisles of grocery stores devoted to bad-gut, allergy crazed families.

Pamela’s baking mixes and finished products are a great asset to the hypoallergenic food network. We used Pamela’s wheat free bread mix to make the pizza dough. The recipe for chewy pizza crust, found on the side of the package is as follows:

 

Chewy Pizza Crust

1 bag Pamela’s Wheat-Free Bread Mix
1 yeast packet (enclosed in mix)
1/4 cup oil
1-1/2 cups warm water

Optional: Add 2 tsp Italian herbs and/or 1/2 cup grated cheese to dough

Dough makes two – 12 to 14-inch crusts.

Combine Pamela’s Wheat-Free Bread Mix, yeast packet, oil and water (no eggs are used).

With a Heavy Duty Stand Mixer mix on medium for 2 minutes. Our mixer decided not to perform for us. We were able to mix it by hand easily.

We also chose to add Trader Joes Pasta Seasoning Blend.

Pour 1/2 dough onto greased cookie sheet or pizza pan (for added texture sprinkle corn meal on pan). Use oil or non-stick spray on dough and fingers to keep fingers from sticking when spreading dough into pizza shape. This mixture is pretty gloopy and sticky. It will never get to be pizza hut style dough. Check out N’s beautifully manicured nails!

Let sit for 1 hour. It just barely rises.

Add your sauce and other toppings. We made up a sauce of canned chopped tomatoes, spices, sautéed shallots and garlic, and some jarred sauce. We used a combination of fresh mozzarella, goat milk gouda, and some “parmesan like cheese” found in the depths of my parents generously stocked fridge.

Bake in a preheated 375º oven for 25 to 30 minutes on a lower rack. Dough will puff when baking. For a crispier crust bake at 400º.

We finished off the finished pizza with some drizzled on truffle oil. Yum!
In the future, I would pre-bake the crusts for 15-20 minutes and then add the toppings. Our crusts were a bit under done. The crust did taste good, a little sweet though. We were impressed with the results and I would consider playing around with it further.

 

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