Lentil Meatballs

It’s been awhile since we had a non-dessert item on the blog.  Time to remedy that.

Much to Rabi’s chagrin, I’ve been trying to eat less (no) meat.  Therefore, the meals I prepare depend on plant proteins (I’m also trying to eat less soy).

I used the Lentil Meatball recipe found here, with a few modifications.  Instead of ricotta, I substituted almond yogurt, and just omitted the Parmesan.  I also didn’t use any breadcrumbs and the meatballs stuck together just fine.  The only note I’ll make is that the meatballs turned out a bit dry.  Maybe I left them in the oven a bit too long?  Or maybe they needed more yogurt.

To make a tomato sauce, I just heated canned tomatoes with about a 1 Tbsp of sugar (to cut the acidity), salt, pepper, basil, and oregano.  You can experiment with the herbs you like the best.

Rabi’s note is that the meal was much improved by adding shredded daiya cheese on top of the meatballs and sauce, and I have to agree.

Enjoy!

Jovial Blueberry Apple Pie

Alas, no natural light was available when this one was ready to pop out of the oven. However, the taste was fantastic. I am looking forward to adding fresh thyme later this season!

Methods:

I used The Food Network’s Simple Blueberry Apple Pie Recipe with the Gluten Free Mountain Man Pie Crust, which is using Carol’s Sorghum Blend with Brown Rice flour instead of sweet rice flour.

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Mmmmm. Beer and cake. So good together. Visit Gluten Free Goddess’ blog to get the tips and methods on this delightful cake. The background features an award winning gluten free beer, Celia Saison, brewed by The Alchemist brewery in Waterbury, VT. Happy Saturday!

White Wine Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Well, it’s been awhile since I posted anything on here–I have a rare break from my graduate courses, so what better to do than bake?

Ever bought a bottle of wine and been thoroughly disappointed?  Well, that happened not so long ago with a bottle of white.  It was organic, though, so we didn’t want it to go to waste, but it’s been sitting in our fridge for a couple weeks now.  Hence, a white wine cake!

I actually used a normal recipe for this cake and just used our flour blend instead, but I forgot to add xanthan gum, so we were a bit worried it wasn’t going to turn out.  We were pleasantly surprised!  The recipe I used suggested a fruit topping, but I decided to make a chocolate frosting.  The recipe for the cake came from here and the recipe for the frosting came from here.  Enjoy!

White Wine Cake:

4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white wine
2/3 cup oil
2 cups flour, sifted
1 T baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a long loaf pan (16″ x 5″).  Beat together the egg yolks with half of the sugar* and the vanilla, until light. Beat in the wine and the oil. Fold in the flour and the baking powder.  Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to the soft peak stage. Sprinkle on the remaining sugar and beat until stiff.*  Fold the egg whites into the wine mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes.  Cool on rack in pan for about 10 minutes.  Turn out on wire rack to cool.

* I actually forgot about splitting the sugar and put the whole amount in with the yolks, rather than adding half to the whites.  It seemed to work out just fine anyway.

Chocolate Frosting (about 2 cups):

2 cups organic powdered sugar
1/4 cup Earth Balance butter, softened
1/4 cup plain rice milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

In a mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream the powdered sugar with the margarine. Add the milk, cocoa powder, and vanilla, and continue to mix until smooth.  Spread on cake once it has cooled.

Hummus

The simplicity, exquisite taste and cost savings of homemade hummus are through the roof. I discovered a solid base recipe on About.com. I hope to try some additions in the near future such as spinach and/or Kalamata olives. Try serving with chips or on a sandwich with sprouts and veggies (such as shredded carrots).

Buckwheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Having recently given Gluten Free Goddess’ Pumpkin Bread a try, I had some leftover canned pumpkin sitting in the fridge. What to do with this unspecified amount of yummy pumpkin? Slather it with syrup and soy yogurt of course! To capture the syrup in action, we had some fun figuring out the photo sequence option on the camera.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buckwheat flour (Don’t be fooled by the wheat in this flour’s name. It has no gluten.)
• 2 T Sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• ~1 cup water or milk (rice, soy, almond, etc.)
• 1 egg beaten (or egg substitute)
• 1 t vanilla extract
• Leftover pumpkin filling

Process:

• Preheat a cast iron fry pan on medium heat
• Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl
• Beat egg in a medium mixing bowl
• Mix wet ingredients and pumpkin with the egg (be careful not to add too much water)
• Pour into dry ingredients
• Mixture should be runny enough to create a smooth surface when poured on a fry pan
• Pour ~1/2 cup into fry pan and flip when browned and bubbles start to rise in the middle of the cake
• Stack on a plate while cooking

Enjoy!

Fish Curry with Tomatoes and Coconut Milk

This meal was easy to prepare and had the right kind of warmth for a cool fall evening. We bought the tilapia from Costco, which is not the best place to buy, but is the cheapest. Tilapia is listed as a sustainable seafood if farmed in the US. Try your local health food store or coop for best results. We bought the tomatoes from our local farmer’s market, and they are some of the last of the season as frost is hitting areas of Vermont pretty hard. This recipe is from Charmaine Solomon’s The Complete Asian Cookbook, which is a great compilation of recipe’s from Asia, organized by country. This is in the Sri Lanka section.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of fish steaks (e.g. US farmed tilapia)
• 1 t. ground turmeric
• 1 t salt
• oil to fry fish
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 t. freshly chopped ginger
• 1 medium tomato chopped roughly
• 2 T oil
• 1 T curry powder
• 1 t chili powder (I fried chili flakes in oil and then removed the flakes to prevent over spicing)
• salt to taste
• 1 can coconut milk
• Green onions for garnish

Process

If serving with rice, be sure to start before preparing this dish. We served it with brown rice. Wash and dry fish with paper towels. Rub turmeric and salt over steaks and cut into bite sized pieces. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry fish until golden brown on both sides. Drain.

Put onion, garlic, ginger and tomato in electric blender and blend to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a saucepan and fry the blended mixture for a few minutes (if using chili flakes, fry these and remove flakes before adding mixture). Add the curry and chilli powders and about a teaspoon of salt, the coconut milk, and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer for a few minutes, add the fish and simmer a little longer, taking care not to overcook the fish. Serve with rice and other desired dishes (we chose salad). I added green onions for garnish just before serving.