Chicken and Dumpling Soup - Gluten Free Recipe

Chicken soup with dumplings?  Here is a recipe for home made dumplings that are gluten free.  Comfort food!

 

Chicken Soup with Dumplings

Bring prepared chicken broth to a boil.  Add diced carrots, celery, and onion as desired.  If you have meat leftover from making the broth, add that back at this point, also.

Prepare dumplings:  In medium bowl, stir 1 egg, 1 tablespoon water, and ¼ teaspoon salt together.  Add 1 cup brown rice flour, mixing to make a crumbly but moist mixture.  The bits should be about 1 teaspoon or smaller in size.   With a spoon, drop dumplings into boiling broth.  Cook until tender (10 to 20  minutes depending on size of dumplings).   Serve immediately.

Grainless Poppyseed Crackers

Coconut, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds are the main ingredients in these amazing home made crackers.  Poppy seeds provide contrast and flavor.

Grainless Poppyseed Crackers

1 cup chip coconut flakes

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup cold milled flax seed

¼ teaspoon guar or xanthan gum

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Place 1 cup pumpkin seeds in food processor and process until fine and powdery.  Remove ground seeds from food processor and set aside.

Place 1 cup coconut chip flakes in food processor for 1 minute or until almost paste like (coconut oil is released and causes powdery flakes to stick together).

Add ground pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds, guar gum, and salt.  Blend.  Add egg and blend until all ingredients form a firm ball.

Place ball between two sheets of parchment paper and roll as thin as possible (1/16” or less). Remove top sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle poppy seeds evenly over the surface of the cracker mixture.  Replace the parchment paper and roll again, pressing the poppy seeds down into the cracker mixture.  Remove the top sheet of parchment paper again and use a pizza cutter to slice dough into cracker sized pieces (about 1 ¼” squares).  Lift entire sheet of parchment with crackers still on it onto a cookie sheet.

Dust the tops with coarsely ground salt.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown and firm. 

Caramelized Onions

How to Caramelize Onions

Caramelized onions are one of my favorite additions.  Their rich flavor enhances most everything.  I love them on pizza.  I love them as a topping for sourdough bread.  I love them mixed with vegetables.  This is such a simple ingredient - just some olive oil drizzled over sliced onions and cooked over medium high heat, stirring constantly to keep them from burning, but making sure they brown gently.  The sugar in the onions gets sweated out and turns golden brown - it really does caramelize. 

Gluten Free Vegetarian Pizza

 This Gluten Free Vegetarian Pizza has a Sourdough crust, Garlic Herb Pizza Topping, and is topped with caramelized onions, red pepper, asparagus, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and black olives.  It is identical to the Vegan pizza I shared yesterday, except for the addition of goat and sheep cheeses; Pecorino Romano, raw goat cheddar, and Manchego - a Spanish sheep cheese. 

Gluten Free Vegan Pizza

Yesterday, I shared my recipe for Garlic Herb Pizza Sauce - a Gluten Free version.  The crust is Gluten Free Sourdough.  The toppings include caramelized onions, fresh mushrooms, red pepper, artichoke hearts, black olives and asparagus.  

Garlic Herb White Sauce for Pizza - Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free Recipe

So, you want to make a Gluten Free pizza, but you don't eat tomatoes?  Maybe you also don't eat dairy products - so what to do?  Here is my recipe for Garlic Herb Pizza Sauce, and it is really quite yummy.  Not as colorful as tomato sauce, but it is a zippy, flavorful alternative. 

In the photo above, I have precooked my crust for about 10 minutes.

While the crust was baking, I prepared my Garlic Herb Pizza Sauce:

Garlic Herb Pizza Sauce

wheat, tomato, dairy, soy, egg and dye free, but still flavorful!

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 heaping Tablespoon brown rice flour (or other flour of your choice)

1/2 cup white wine, apple juice, water, or other liquid of your choice (or more as desired)

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add crushed garlic and flour, stirring to make a smooth paste.  Have your liquid ready to add as soon as the flour/oil mixture starts to thicken.  Stir constantly while adding liquid until you have the desired consistency (may need to add less or more than 1/2 cup).  When sauce has reached the desired consistency, remove from heat and add seasonings.  The sauce is now ready to be spread over the crust to be followed by your choice of pizza toppings.

Sourdough Gluten-free Foccacia Bread

Some members of my family are sensitive to yeast as well as gluten, eggs, and cow's milk products so I thought I would try making a bread using naturally derived sourdough with no added yeast.  Yesterday, I explained how I made my gluten free sourdough.  Today, I am sharing my recipe for making a gluten free Foccacia Bread using sourdough starter.

Cynthia’s Sourdough Foccacia Bread

Wheat, dairy, soy, egg, sugar free

  

Make a Sponge.  About 6 to10 hours before you want to bake the bread, start the sponge.  Remove sourdough starter from refrigerator and mix with 2 – 3 cups flour of choice (I use 3 parts brown rice and 1 part tapioca starch) and 2 -3 cups water. 

Mix thoroughly.  Should be the consistency of thin pancake batter.  Cover and place in a warm setting at least 4 hours until bubbly and smells yeasty.  As the sponge sits, the solids may separate.  If you see water on the surface, don’t worry, this indicates your bread will be moist.

Save Starter  After the sponge is good and bubbly, pour off at least 1 cup of starter back to the original container (I don’t bother washing it) and return this to the refrigerator until next time.

Mix Bread

Combine in a small bowl:

½ cup millet flour

1 heaping teaspoons xanthan gum

1 heaping teaspoon salt

1 heaping teaspoon egg replacer (or baking powder). 

Mix dry ingredients well – this prevents the xanthan gum from clumping up.

Sprinkle dry mixture over sponge and mix well with a wire whip, spoon, or electric mixer.  As you mix, the batter will thicken and start to bind together.  When it looks like a soft regular bread dough (or has consistency of muffin batter), mix in:

2 Tablespoons oil (I use olive)

2 Tablespoons agave nectar

Baking

At this point, dough can rest in the bowl for a second rising, or can be transferred to a pan. Once in the pan, it should be covered with plastic wrap or a damp towel for 1 to 3 hours until you bake it. 

For a foccacia, spread batter about 1” – 2”  thick on a flat pan.  Before baking, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds or add more flavor with grated Romano cheese, sundried tomatoes, caramelized onions, herbs, etc. – whatever appeals to you.  (or maybe these ingredients could be mixed in – have not tried that).  Bake 25 minutes at 400 or until firm and golden brown.

* I have made this recipe with an egg.  When I use an egg - I omit the egg replacer.

Gluten Free Sourdough Starter - How to Make Your Own

Sourdough starter is easy enough to make and once you make it - it lives on in your refrigerator indefinitely.  I made my own gluten free sourdough starter several years ago and am still using it!

Here's how:

Mix 1 cup water with 1 cup of brown rice flour.  Place this mixture in a shallow glass bowl and cover it with cheesecloth.  Set this outside on a warm day for several hours or overnight.  Leave it in a warm place for 2 to 5 days, depending on how long it takes to bubble and sour.  It is a good idea to stir the mixture occasionally, as the rice flour will settle to the bottom of the bowl.  If it starts to dry out - you can add more water.  Once it has a good sour aroma and is full of bubbles, it is ready to use.  Each time you use the starter, replenish it with a mixture of equal parts flour and water.

This is what gluten free sourdough starter looks like.  The rice flour settles to the bottom.  But there are bubbles floating on top of the water and it smells nice and yeasty.

This process takes advantage of the wild yeast cells that occur naturally and are floating in the wind.  Now - as a disclaimer - I need to explain that I live in rural Montana.  There isn't any air pollution here to speak of.  I don't know how this process will work where you live, but it is probably worth a try. I am pretty sure wild yeast cells are everywhere - even in the city.   If you don't want to risk wasting an cup of rice flour - maybe try using a half cup of rice flour.

If, at any time your starter turns pink or moldy - you need to throw it out and start again. 

Grainfree Cheese Crackers

Grainfree Cheese Crackers

1 cup chip coconut flakes

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup cold milled flax seed

1 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

¼ teaspoon guar or xanthan gum

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon water (more as needed)

Place 1 cup pumpkin seeds in food processor and process until fine and powdery.  Remove ground seeds from food processor and set aside.

Place 1 cup coconut chip flakes in food processor for 1 minute or until almost paste like (coconut oil is released and causes powdery flakes to stick together).

Add ground pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds, finely grated cheese, guar gum, and salt.  Blend.  Add egg and blend until all ingredients form a firm ball.

Place ball between two sheets of parchment paper and roll as thin as possible (1/16” or less).

Use a pizza cutter to slice dough into cracker sized pieces (about 1 ¼” squares).  Lift entire sheet of parchment with crackers still on it onto a cookie sheet.

Sprinkle Pecorino Romano cheese over the top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 6 minutes or until golden brown and firm. 

Blueberry Muffins - Wheat, dairy and soy free recipe

Gluten, Dairy, and Soy free Blueberry Muffins

What could be yummier than muffins packed with moist flavorful blueberries?

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoon oil

3 eggs

1 ½ cup GF flour (may be all brown rice flour or combination of your choice)

¼ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

¾ cup milk or nondairy liquid

½ teaspoon vanilla (optional)

1 heaping cup of fresh or frozen blueberries (no need to thaw)

In the mixing bowl, cream together sugar and shortening.  Then beat in the eggs.

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder and add to the egg mixture alternately with the milk.  Don’t over beat.  Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into greased muffin cups (or papers).  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Makes about 1 dozen muffins.