salad

Potato Salad with Eggs and Carrots

0 · Mar 17, 2011 · Leave a Comment

A tasty gluten free potato salad with hard-boiled eggs, carrots and onion. The cooking is done in the microwave to cut down on the heat in the kitchen.

This is based on the potato salad shown at this webpage: http://www.sachikocooking.com/english/en0106prt.htm, altered to use less mayonnaise and much less sugar.

3 red bliss potatoes – if they are about the size of a tennis ball, the three potatoes together will weigh about a pound.
3 large carrots, grated on the large holes of a box grater
1 cup very thinly sliced onion
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Sauce:

1/4 cup gluten free mayonnaise
1 teaspoon gluten free ballpark mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2-1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Mix the shredded carrots, sliced onion and salt thoroughly and set aside. Let this rest while you do all the other preparation, so that the salt can draw water out of these veggies.

Clean the potatoes, pierce each one and remove the eyes, microwave them using the potato setting on your microwave. Set aside to cool, then peel and chop.

“Hard-boil” the eggs in the microwave, adding 1 teaspoon water per egg. We use a device called a “Micro Egg” for cooking eggs in the microwave. With this device, it took slightly longer than 1 minute at 100 power to cook the two eggs in one Micro Egg. Set the eggs aside to cool, then dice.

Squeeze the water out of the salted carrot/onion mixture by putting these salted veggies in a kitchen towel and squeezing firmly.

Put the squeezed carrots and onion in a bowl. Add the chopped cooked potatoes, diced eggs, parsley. Mix the sauce ingredients in a separate bowl, then fold the sauce in to the carrot-onion-potato-egg-parsley. Adjust the flavors, chill and serve.

Thai Cucumber Salad Dressing

1 · Feb 3, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Salad is the BFF (best friend forever) of seasoned gluten free eaters. Here is another simple, inexpensive gluten free dressing that can be used on many different kinds of fresh vegetable. In this case, we used English cucumbers – those long, long cucumbers that are often sold mysteriously laminated but have the advantage of holding few seeds.

To make attractive edges on the cucumber, increase the fiber in the finished dish, and avoid peeling, we use a fork to deeply score a cucumber from end to end, on all sides. Scoring the cucumber in this way breaks up the peel so the diner does not have to masticate like a herbivore. Then we cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, then sliced it crosswise into moon shapes. If you use a standard American cucumber, after halving it remove the seeds by scooping them out with a spoon.

Put the cucumber slices (or grated carrot, daikon radish or whatever vegetable you want to lightly pickle) in to a glass bowl. A fancy bowl is not required – any glass bowl will do.

Mix up the following dressing, pour it over the cucumber slices, stir and chill:

1/2 cup cider vinegar (homemade is best)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 water
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium shallot, peeled and minced
1 dried cayenne pepper, minced (or 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
fresh ground black pepper (optional)

You can add more cucumbers to the leftover dressing and serve the same salad again the next day.

A note for the wheat-eater who is serving a gluten free diner: be cautious with the sugar container. Sometimes a tired baker scoops up some flour from the flour container and then uses the same measuring cup to scoop up some sugar. If that’s something you tend to do, use a fresh container of sugar to make this dressing for your gluten free friend.

Lime and Agave Salad Dressing

0 · Jan 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Here is a delicious gluten free dressing of agave nectar and lime juice, based on a “thai-style” dressing that can be found all over the internet. (The standard “thai-style” dressing contains the now evil corn syrup, once sooooo trendy and now hiding shamefully in the back of many American cupboards, waiting to be used in pecan pie.)

We had a bottle of agave nectar sitting on the shelf, and apart from wondering why that agave was not made in to tequila we hadn’t given it another thought. As usual, we are entering the new year with a load of greens on our plates, hoping to reverse the effects of holiday indulgences. The problem with all that salad? It can be boring! The only hope is an arsenal of interesting sauces to “dress” up the greens. Here’s one:

1/4 cup amber agave nectar or other sweetener or your choice
1 1/2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce (check the label)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1/2 of a large lime, or one whole small lime)
1 tablespoon oil (not from olives)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil
1 tablespoon snipped fresh mint leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground chili (cayenne or red pepper)
1 tiny clove of garlic, peeled and grated or minced

Mix all ingredients together and serve with a salad of mixed greens, sliced boneless chicken seasoned and pan-fried, sweet cherry tomatoes, nuts etc.

Chianti goes well with this dressing.

Mare Salad (Italian Seafood Salad)

3 · Dec 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This is a delicious Italian seafood salad with chickpeas. Divine!

1/2 pound of fresh, small scallops, parboiled for a very short time – just until done – in a 50/50 mixture of white wine and
water – use Cape or bay scallops if you can get them. If using the large sea scallops you will have to slice them in halves or quarters.
1 dozen pitted Kalamata olives, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed (peel the tough
skins off, or cook from scratch instead of using canned)
1 medium red onion, diced (be sure not to use too much – the red onions are pretty gigantic in the supermarket these days)
2 Tb. flat italian parsley, diced
2 Tb. olive oil
2 Tablespoons red vinegar
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix it together and let marinate overnight.

Notes:

You can add 1/2 pound sliced cooked squid. Only parboil the squid for 30 seconds or it will become tough and rubbery.
Do not use any “imitation seafood” or “seafood legs” or any of those fake crab products – they are often made with wheat.

Thanksgiving Recovery Salad

0 · Nov 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment

After three days of recovery from the delicious Thanksgiving feast, we want a GF salad! This one from www.gfzing.com has lots of vegetables and fruits, with a little cheese and nuts.

Thanksgiving Recovery Salad gfzing.com — Thanksgiving Recovery Salad from gfzing.com

A composed salad of the following ingredients fits the bill exactly:

2 Roasted Pears (recipe is below)
1/2 Avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
1/2 bunch Fennel, sliced or shaved
2 ounces Goat Cheese or gluten free blue cheese, chunked (optional)
2 TB sweetened dried cranberries or raisins (gluten free)
1/3 cup Candied Nuts
6 cups Salad Greens, washed
1 Carrot, grated
1 recipe Tangerine Dressing

Roasted Pears: wash 2 unripe (hard) Bartlett pears, remove the cores and cut them in to 8 pieces, stem-to-blossom end. No need to peel them. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup pure Grade B maple syrup (or Grade A Dark Amber) and 1 TB minced fresh ginger (optional). Combine the pear slices with this syrup mixture, then spread the pear slices on a foil or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn the slices over and bake an additional 5 minutes if desired. You cannot use a silpat lined pan for this process because the oven temperature exceeds the heat tolerance of silpat.

Roasted Pears gfzing.com before baking — Roasted Pears before baking

Avocado: Peel, pit and slice 1 ripe avocado, then mix the slices with the juice of a lemon or tangerine. The citric acid in the fruit juice will keep the avocado from turning brown.

Candied Nuts: Mix walnut meats, pecans or almonds with 2 TB granulated sugar. Place in a small frying pan and fry over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sugar melts and begins to caramelize, sticking to the nuts. Remove the nuts from the pan at this point and place on a parchment paper-lined plate to cool. Separate the nuts so they don’t form one big nut mass.

Assemble the salad – Gfzing.com recommends that the greens, fennel, grated carrot, and cranberries or raisins can be tossed with the dressing. On each individual salad plate, gently arrange the avocado slices, pear slices, candied nuts and optional cheese on top of the dressed greens. Don’t try to toss avocado slices with the salad – disaster that way lies!

Salad for two, with fried eggs

0 · Jun 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment

We are all excited that the first food share has arrived from a local CSA – a local community agriculture program. The first share of the year included beautiful red lettuce, spinach, radishes, white turnips, and bok choy.

For this salad, we chose to use what was in the cupboard to approximate a recipe from the Hamersley’s cookbook – Bistro Cooking at Home. This is a great spring meal after a hard day’s work. It makes you realize how a few simple things are all that are needed for a truly fine meal!

Make a whole red lettuce ready for a salad dressing (clean and tear the salad). Fry a couple of slices of gluten-free bacon until crispy, then drain the fat and reserve the bacon and a tablespoon of the melted fat. Toast up some regular wheat bread for the wheatavores, and a couple of slices of Glutino bread for the celiacs. Set out some butter, the bacon pieces, and a couple of glasses of Riserva Ducale Chianti, 2005.

Next, make the dressing:

Mix: 1 teaspoon gluten-free Dijon mustard

1/2 a medium shallot, chopped fine

1/2 a clove of garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

salt

fresh pepper

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 a Tablespoon sherry wine vinegar (that’s 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1 Tablespoon reserved bacon fat

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Dress the lettuce, then fry 4 eggs, over easy, in the remaining bacon fat. Season them with salt and pepper. Serve the dressed salad with fried eggs, bacon pieces, toast and butter on the side, and a glass of chianti!

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten-free!

Watermelon Salad with Pine Nuts

0 · Aug 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment

We had a salad like this at a restaurant recently. It is quite refreshing!

We developed the recipe here for the Gf-Zing! website, celebrating flavor in the gluten free world.

6 cups fresh arugula (enough for four people to have a good-sized salad – about 1 1/2 cups for each person)
6 cups of cubed chilled watermelon (very important that it be chilled!)

1/2 cup crumbled gluten free feta cheese

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (toast them in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they start to brown)
2-3 Tablespoons minced fresh mint (you can use some fresh basil if you don’t have enough mint – the combination is good)

Mix all of the above and toss gently with a dressing made of 1 Tablespoon olive oil, 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 Tablespoon minced shallot, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Serve immediately with toasts made from a Betty Hagman’s gf fat-free french bread, and some marinated goat cheese to spread on the toasts. Gf-Zing! does not verify the gluten free status of any product.