Welcome to my crazy world of real food cooking ...

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. -- Michael Pollan

I wish I could take credit for that because I think it sums up how we should eat. Simply -- eat stuff that really is food, instead of stuff that is food like substance. The supermarket is almost entirely food-like-substances, and, my friends, you should probably never ever eat them.

Fortunately, there is a world of deliciousness out there, and it can all be had in a way that not only doesn't harm your health, but in a way that benefits you hugely.

I think it's important to eat stuff that satisfies you, that keeps your blood sugar stable, and that gives you stuff your body really needs to run optimally.

But baby, it's gotta taste good.

I really like getting experimental in the kitchen. I love cooking, I love layering flavours, and I love coming up with really super yummy food. I have very strong opinions about what constitutes food, and there are a lot of things I won't touch in the kitchen. Bottom line? Pretty much everything I make is ridiculously good for you even if it tastes decadent. Although there are occasional big fat cheats ... but even those stick to real food, my friends.

For food that is usual gluten free, usually free of cane sugar, usually super low on the glycemic index, full of protein, fiber, flavour, and excellent energy, join me and Alice down the rabbit hole.

Every recipe on this blog is my own original effort and idea, so please pass 'em on, giving credit where credit is due.

Many thanks, and come back often. I'm really glad you are here!

:)

Thursday 27 January 2011

Green Soup Noodles -- Good For What Ails You part Deux



Well, I've already taunted you with tales of our delicious cold-fighting soup, so it's only fair that I now taunt you with these very easy to make noodles. These are our all-purpose noodles. Great as noodles with sauce. Great dough for making ravioli. Great in soup. Great tossed with a little coconut oil and sea salt and eaten with your fingers if you are a toddler. 

They are made with spinach, almond flour, and kamut flour, and are high in protein, no refined carbs, high in fiber, and taste really good. Unless you hate the colour green, in which case you might think they taste terrible. Really, though, they taste like noodles.

The process for making these noodles is very easy, however I have to say that the many step procedure for cutting the dough might make the whole undertaking seem like more work than it really is. Seriously, the hardest part was stopping to take pictures. And the most time consuming part was unrolling the spirals. Note to self: bully someone else into doing that next time.

This recipe is easiest using a food processor, however if you have a blender to puree the spinach, you can certainly do the mixing of the rest by hand. And you don't need a pasta roller to roll out these noodles. I like a noodle with bit of tooth, so I don't roll it out to transparent thinness anyway. A rolling pin works great and you're done in a jiffy. That's the theme of my cooking, you've probably noticed. It's gotta be fast ...


ingredients:

150 g frozen organic spinach, defrosted
1 organic egg (xl or l)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups (up to 2 cups) kamut flour (add the last 1/2 cup a bit at a time)


directions:

1. in a food processor, puree the defrosted spinach. If you are using fresh spinach, let me know how it turns out.
2. add the egg and combine
3. add the sea salt and almond meal, and combine
4. add 1 1/2 cups kamut flour, and pulse to combine. if more flour is needed to make a dough, add it a bit at a time. however, 1 1/2 cups might be enough to make a dough that is not too sticky.
5. gather the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap, and set aside to 'rest'.
6. divide the dough into 4 parts
7. roll each part on a mat sprinkled with kamut flour, using a rolling pin sprinkled with kamut flour.
8. if the dough is too sticky, add more kamut flour
9. roll the dough out until it is nice and thin
10. make sure the surface is well sprinkled with kamut flour, and roll it up 
11. set the roll aside and repeat with the other portions of dough
12. once all the portions of dough have been rolled up, cut them into spirals using a sharp chef's knife or bread knife (I prefer a bread knife because the serrated blade makes this task easier)
13. uncoil the spirals and lay them out
14. put the noodles in boiling water spiked with oil, and cook for 2 minutes
15. remove the noodles, put them into bowls, and ladle hot soup over them
16. store extra uncooked noodles in an airtight container

variation: Just for fun (and extra substance since my son refuses sauce with his noodles), I decided to increase the almond meal to 1 cup instead of 1/2. Because I added the kamut flour last, this didn't affect things, and only very slightly reduced the flour content. Also, I ran out of kamut, and had to add in a little whole wheat pastry. Which worked fine. They always seem to taste the same. And texture wise, they were brilliant. As always.




Ready to roll


Nice and thin

Rolling up the rolled out dough

A spiral

Three rolled up portions of dough

Cutting them efficiently with a serrated blade

Spirals before they are unrolled

After the unrolling, and ready to boil

The noodles close up

Ready to put away for tomorrow, uncooked

Cooked, and ready to eat, or to put soup on!




5 comments:

glorious sandwiches said...

Hey, this is neat! I've been trying to get my dad to put spinach in the pasta he makes. Could you really taste the spinach?

stacey said...

You can't taste the spinach at all. You can't taste the almond flour either. It just tastes like really really yummy pasta ...

11:59 said...

Hi Stacey,

What kind of GF flour would you suggest to substitute for the kamut flour? I would love to try it out, and dairy free version of the stuffed pasta.

stacey said...

Hi there 11:59
I haven't made these gluten free yet. I will definitely have to experiment with that, unfortunately, before I can give you an answer. The only gluten free flours I have experience with are almond flour and coconut flour. Because the pasta already contains some almond flour, and would need something that would give it the right texture, I have a feeling a few tablespoons of finely ground chia seeds and some coconut flour might be the ticket. If you have a GF flour blend you favour, you could certainly try that, however I don't know what the results would be like. I'll probably have time on the weekend to try something and see ... :)

stacey said...

Well, I attempted a version of these delightful green noodles using finely ground chia seed and coconut flour, and let me tell you what they weren't: delightful. To put it plainly, coconut flour doesn't work well in boiled noodles. So, I have to confess I'm not a terribly experience gluten-free cook, and I'm just not sure what would be the ideal substitution for the kamut flour in these noodles. I know there are commercial gluten-free blends. Anyone have any experience with these?