Gluten Free Pizza Roll-up -- vegan, grain free, gluten free, dairy free, delicious!!! Fancy!

Our friends are coming for dinner!! One of our friends cannot eat any gluten at all. Nor can she eat cheese. So, while the others enjoy a more traditional pizza, some of us will enjoy this vegan, gluten free, grain free, pizza-esque roll up.

This dish is wildly successful, and super delicious. It was devoured by everyone. My 5 year old prefers it to regular pizza, and every guest that ate some came back for more. Need I say more?

ingredients:

dough:

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce puree

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp oregano

black pepper 

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

2 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp coconut flour

filling:

cashew vegan ricotta and spinach dip

1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours, drained.
300 g package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp nutmeg
black pepper
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

directions:
puree in the food processor until homogeneous and creamy

sauteed onion:

2 onions sauteed in coconut oil with a pinch of sea salt


directions:
1. roll the dough flat
2. spread with spinach dip
3. sprinkle with well sauteed onion
4. roll up
5. bake for 60 minutes at 345 degrees
6. let cool for a few minutes then cut and serve


and it's fabulous the next day.


A few things:
1. The spinach ricotta mixture can be made a day or two ahead then stored in an airtight container
2. The dough can be made a day or two ahead, then wrapped in parchment and sealed in a ziplock bag.
3. When you roll the dough out, cover it with parchment to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. I roll it out on a silicone baking mat. Do your best to roll it out to the whole dimension of the mat.
4. The trickiest part was rolling up the layers together. Use the mat to help you, because it will move everything in one go and keep it smooth and even. So, use the mat to turn over that first edge and then to keep on easing the roll.
5. Do your best to coax the whole rollup into the middle of a mat for baking, and slide a baking sheet under it before putting it in the oven.
6. The whole thing can be made ahead, then frozen. I froze mine unwrapped on a parchment lined baking sheet, then wrapped it very well once frozen. I then baked it for frozen at 345 for 2 hours. Let cool and set for a while before serving.

Green Noodles

ingredients:

150 g fresh organic spinach

1 organic egg

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 chia seeds finely ground

1 1/2 cups  kamut flour

directions:

1. in a food processor, puree the spinach.

2. add the egg and puree

3. add the sea salt, chia seeds, and almond meal, and combine

4. add 1 1/2 cups kamut flour, and pulse to combine.

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 a little oil, and cook for 2 minutes.

15. drain the noodles, and toss with coconut oil and a couple of table spoons of toasted sesame seeds

Ready to roll

Green noodle dough with chia seeds. What country does this look like?

A spiral

Three rolled up portions of dough

Cutting them efficiently with a serrated blade

Spirals before they are unrolled

the noodle spirals, after cutting, before unravelling

unravelling the noodle spirals

Gluten Free, Vegan, Pizza Roll -- Warrior Food!!

This dish is wildly successful, and super delicious. It was devoured by everyone. My 5 year old prefers it to regular pizza, and every guest that ate some came back for more. Need I say more?

ingredients:

dough:

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce puree

3/4 tsp sea salt

black pepper 

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

2 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp coconut flour

filling:

cashew vegan ricotta and spinach dip

1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours, drained.
300 g package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp nutmeg
black pepper
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

directions:
puree in the food processor until homogeneous and creamy

sauteed onion:

2 onions sauteed in coconut oil with a pinch of sea salt


directions:
1. roll the dough flat
2. spread with spinach dip
3. sprinkle with well sauteed onion
4. roll up
5. bake for 60 minutes at 345 degrees
6. let cool for a few minutes then cut and serve


and it's fabulous the next day.


A few things:
1. The spinach ricotta mixture can be made a day or two ahead then stored in an airtight container
2. The dough can be made a day or two ahead, then wrapped in parchment and sealed in a ziplock bag.
3. When you roll the dough out, cover it with parchment to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. I roll it out on a silicone baking mat. Do your best to roll it out to the whole dimension of the mat.
4. The trickiest part was rolling up the layers together. Use the mat to help you, because it will move everything in one go and keep it smooth and even. So, use the mat to turn over that first edge and then to keep on easing the roll.
5. Do your best to coax the whole rollup into the middle of a mat for baking, and slide a baking sheet under it before putting it in the oven.

Lentils and Quinoa with Coconut Milk -- quick, vegan, down and dirty

This is one of those quicky meals that gets ready in a hurry and tastes great. Additionally, it's amazing for you. And at the rate at which my 4 year old shovelled it in, I would say is kid-friendly. The coconut milk makes it sweet, me thinks. Anyway, my handsome husband went back for more, and a good time was had by all. Unfortunately not in the quicky sense. Although this can definitely be a meal by itself, I would be wont to pair it with sautéed broccoli or some such staple. We're kinda brassica addicts  in this household.

ingredients:

1/2 cup amaranth
1 cup quinoa
1 cup dupuis lentils

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion
1 carrot

1 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric

1 can 400 ml coconut milk
1 can boiling water

300 g package frozen spinach


directions:
1. put in a pot
2. cook for 45 minutes
3. eat

Red Rice Sushi

I usually make our sushi with cal rose brown rice. I get grains that are so short they are nearly round. However, I ran out of brown rice, and tried making sushi with colusari red, which is a medium length whole grain, and is red. I cooked it the way I cook brown rice for sushi -- 1:2 with water -- and it ended up adequately starchy and sticky that it held together for our cute and colourful sushi rolls. Tonights escapade involved black sesame seeds, avocado, and spinach. I hate to be redundant, but that's what I had in my fridge. Did I mention I hate shopping? These taste great! I wonder what purple rice sushi would taste like??

ingredients:

1 cup red colusari rice
2 cups water

brown rice vinegar
sea salt

avocado

spinach leaves

nori


directions:

1. cook the rice in the water -- 1 hour
2. season the rice with the vinegar and sea salt
3. spread the rice on sheets of nori
4. lay down the fillings, and roll the sushi up
5. slice and serve

Sweet Potatoes and Lentils, IN the Crockpot!

January settles in around us, and there have been days in which we've reached nearly -30 with the windchill. How does a bowl of hot stew sound? Pretty good to me. Crockpot, do your thing.

Don't get too hung up on exact measurements. If you put in a little more or a little less of a particular vegetable, it won't make much difference. Just enjoy the process, and enjoy the results. I rough cut all the vegetables -- as opposed to dicing with precision -- to get them into the crockpot ssssssssuper fast. Things to do, people to see, you know how it is. Actually, just more play time with my son.

The resulting stew is really everything a stew should be: full bodied, full flavoured, mellow, yummy, comforting, and delicious.



ingredients:


2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cups small lentils (green, masoor, dupuy)
1 cup sliced dried mushrooms (crumbled up) (I think they were shiitake or something bigger ...
5 cups water


coarsely chopped:

3 cups sweet potatoes
2 cups diced carrot
2 cups diced celery
300 g spinach diced


3 cups napa cabbage, chopped small

4 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
handfuls fresh herbs -- I threw in some very large sprigs of rosemary and oregano


500 g broccoli florets


directions:

1. turn your crockpot on, and set the timer if you have one. I think medium heat for 6 hours should do the trick.
2. layer in the ingredients as follows: coconut oil, garlic, onion, mushroom pieces, lentils, celery, sweet potato, carrots, spinach, sea salt, cumin, chili powder, water. Herbs.  Lots of herbs. Now. Later. Herb it up.
3. throw on the nappa cabbage.
4. when the stew is cooked, add in the broccoli and let the residual heat cook it up once you've turned your crock pot off, or cook it for a little while but not too long.
5. think of all the friends you'd like to feed with this yummy stew, and remember how lucky you are to have them.


You can serve this with a loaf of freshly baked bread, or some savoury muffins. Or whilst wearing a hula skirt and a kind of absent-minded smile. Your choice, really. I know what I'd choose, but that's just me.

Actually, we ate our with savoury corn muffins and top hats -- spats optional. No elephants in attendance this time.