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Homemade Pasta Recipe

Gluten-free pasta with homemade red sauce.

By Meet Karina

Homemade Ragù Sauce Recipe- An Easy Red Pasta Sauce

This basic Italian sauce can be vegan or hearty enough for an omnivore. You choose. If you're doing the whole vegetarian thing, use meaty Portobello mushrooms. Omnivore? Use organic, lean, grass fed or free-range for the healthiest non-inflammatory meat.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound protein (ground meat, or crumbled sausage) or Portobellos
1 good sized onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup organic tomato paste
1 cup organic gluten-free broth
1 28-oz can Muir Glen organic whole tomatoes, with juice
1 cup red wine (may omit, but I'd up the balsamic vinegar)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
A splash of balsamic vinegar

Near the end of cooking:

A dab of honey or organic raw agave, if needed, to balance acidity

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven and add your protein of choice (or chopped Portobellos); stir until lightly browned. Add the onion and garlic and stir; cook until the onion is soft.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in the tomato paste and cook it a minute or two.

Add in the broth, tomatoes and red wine. Break apart the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Add in the herbs, sea salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Stir. Cover and lower the heat, keeping the sauce on low simmer for an hour.

Check the thickness of the sauce and cook it longer to reduce it, if you like. If the sauce is too thick, add more broth.

Taste test- if the sauce is acidic, add a dab of honey or agave until the flavors balance.

Serve over hot cooked gluten-free pasta, a bed of steamed brown rice, or a bowl of fluffy quinoa.

Serves four.

Mangia!

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Best carrot cake recipe

Frosted carrot quinoa bars. Gluten-free. Dairy-free.

Gettin' Fancy

By Meet Karina 

My intrepid husband slash sous chef was craving a carrot cake style quinoa bar for a mid-morning snack. To be exact, he said, Hey. I'm craving a carrot cake style quinoa breakfast bar. You know. For breakfast. To which yours truly replied, Look who wants to get fancy. My chocolate chip quinoa breakfast bars aren't good enough for you? Now you need frosting? To which said long suffering husband replied, Frosting makes everything better.

Who am I to argue with that?

Need a snack with your café con leche? I've got one for ya.

Vegan cream cheese frosting makes these gluten-free bars dairy-free.

Frosted Carrot Quinoa Bar Recipe- with Walnuts

We love chopped walnuts in our carrot cake, not to mention most muffins and tea breads, but if you prefer pecans, darling, knock yourself out. Nut-free? Add raisins instead.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch or tapioca starch
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum 
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3 free-range organic eggs, beaten or Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup pure maple syrup or agave nectar
1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Stir-ins:

1 cup grated carrots
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or raisins)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a 9x12-inch baking pan with parchment.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and dry ingredients.

Add in the melted coconut oil, eggs or egg replacer, maple syrup, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until the batter is smooth and sticky.

Stir in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts.

Spread the batter evenly in the baking pan.

Bake in the center of the oven for about 22 minutes until firm to the touch.

Cool on a wire rack.

Frost with vegan cream cheese icing- find my Maple Cream Cheese Icing recipe here.

Chill frosted bars before wrapping, to set the icing. These freeze beautifully. Remove wrap before defrosting to keep the icing from sticking.

Makes 24 small bars.

Cook time: 22 minutes

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Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia Bread

Today's new recipe? Gluten-free sun-dried tomato bread.

  

A Focaccia To Love

Moving season is upon us. Yes, Los Angeles has a moving season. Southern Californians do not like to move in cold weather- in other words, when the mercury dips below the 60º mark. 58 degrees? It's time for UGGs and cocoa and ordering in. Not for hoisting sofas up or down a flight of stairs. Are you crazy? 

And yes. We are moving. Come June 1st or thereabouts we are joining the migrating, apartment swapping masses. We are weeding through the promises that bloom on Craigslist (a veritable bouquet of alluring superlatives). Amazing! Gorgeous! Light and bright! And the ever popular- HUGE! This whole searching (and so far, not finding) process inevitably makes me insanely hungry for bread. Not store bought bread. Freshly baked warm from the oven bread. The kind of rustic, crusty loaf that conjures the word hearth. And home.

Because when you're searching for a place to live, nothing whispers home to your soul like the yeasty sweet aroma of baking bread. 

This gluten-free sun-dried tomato bread is crusty and tender.

 

Gluten-Free Sun-Dried Tomato Bread Recipe

We found some fabulously sweet sun-dried tomatoes at Trader Joe's for this new bread recipe. They were delightfully tender and not too chewy. I like my sun-dried tomatoes to resemble fruit, not leather. They gave this rustic bread a rich, Italian inspired flavor.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
1 1/2 cups potato starch
1/2 cup almond meal or GF millet flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
4 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic, to taste
1 1/4 cup warm water (115ºF)
1 teaspoon raw sugar
1 packet rapid dry yeast
2 organic free range eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 teaspoon mild rice vinegar (or lemon juice)
1/2 cup lightly packed sun-dried tomatoes (dry packed)

Instructions:

Warm the oven by turning it on and off. Line a 9-inch cake pan with a piece of parchment.

In a mixing bowl combine the sorghum flour, tapioca starch, almond meal, brown rice flour, dried basil, xanthan gum, sea salt and garlic.

In a large measuring cup add the sugar to the water and dissolve. Add the yeast, stir and set aside until the yeast gets happy and poofy. (The sugar feeds the yeast.)

Add the proofed yeast and liquid to the flour and begin beating to combine. Add the eggs, olive oil and vinegar. Beat for a minute or two until the dough is smooth.

Lightly chop the sun-dried tomatoes. Toss them into the dough. Stir to distribute.

Scoop the dough into the prepared pan, shape and smooth the top with oiled hands.

Set the pan in the warm oven, on the center rack, and allow the dough to rise. A quick rise of 20 minutes will produce a flat bread style rustic loaf (shown). A longer rise, until doubled in height, should give you a slightly higher loaf, depending upon your altitude and ambient temperature.

When the dough has risen, turn the oven on, to 375ºF.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until firm and golden. Note: At about 20-25 minutes I brushed the top with olive oil. This helps make a lovely golden crust.

Serve this flavorful bread warm from the oven, with authentic extra virgin olive oil. (See this book Extra Virginity for the truth about olive oils- thanks to my pal Gluten-Free Anna for the heads up on this book.)

Makes one 9-inch rustic bread

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Karina's Gluten-Free Zucchini Quinoa Breakfast Cake

Packing. Let's Eat Cake.

By Meet Karina 

From the L.A. archives- a personal favorite you may have missed... Remember those maple sweetened almond zucchini mini-muffins? I do. They've become one of our favorite grab-and-go gluten-free treats. I tuck a bag of them- fresh out of the freezer- into my bulging purse knapsack beach bag tote whenever we venture far afield. Like. The Valley. Because, well. You never know. It can get crazy. In L.A. you might end up jammed on the 405. Stuck as in four lanes = a parking lot stuck. Stuck as in, Dude that's my hunger growling louder than Kurt Cobain's rasp on the rattling radio speaker pleading, What else could I be? All apologies. 

I know this from experience. I learned the hard way (the way I learn most things in life). Driving in L.A. can lead to stop-n-go squatting in the baking sun. And a where is my nail file and why did I leave the apartment without food and water and ice in a cooler panic. Because the thirty-three minutes it took yesterday to get to Studio City is seventy-five minutes today.

That's when I started imagining a zucchini cake.

For breakfast.

On the 405.

Heading north (allegedly). To sign a lease. On a new apartment with an ample well planned kitchen and an open living room with a fireplace. And two balconies- one sunny for growing herbs, one shady in the afternoon, facing a quiet leafy green street lined with lavender gardens and rose bushes and honeysuckle and song birds. 

We'll be moving in two weeks.

Your intrepid Gluten-Free Goddess has some packing to do.

Good thing we baked a zucchini quinoa cake.

Warm from the oven gluten-free dairy-free zucchini quinoa breakfast cake

Maple sweetened gluten-free zucchini quinoa breakfast cake

 Gluten-Free Zucchini Quinoa Breakfast Cake Recipe

.

Sweetened only with a half cup pure maple syrup, this cake is not overly sweet. Which makes it perfect for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack. Almond meal, sorghum flour and quinoa flakes add protein and nutrition.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups almond meal
2/3 cup sorghum flour (or brown rice flour, if you must)
1/2 cup quinoa flakes (cereal flakes, not whole quinoa)
1/4 cup tapioca starch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light melted coconut oil
3 organic free-range eggs, beaten
1-2 tablespoons coconut milk, soy or rice milk, as needed  
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract 
1 packed cup shredded zucchini, patted dry

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8-inch Springform pan with a circle of parchment.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond meal, quinoa flakes, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, xanthan gum, sea salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Add in the maple syrup, coconut oil, beaten eggs, and one tablespoon coconut milk. Beat to combine. If needed, add another tablespoon of coconut milk to loosen the batter. Add the vanilla and almond extract. Beat the batter until it is smooth and slightly sticky.

Add in the shredded zucchini and stir by hand to combine.

Spoon the cake batter evenly into the lined cake pan. Smooth the top with wet fingers. I add a few strands of grated zucchini to the top for flecks of green.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and springy-firm to the touch. A wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean.

Cool the cake pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Loosen the edges with a thin spatula or knife and release the clasp on the Springform pan. Move the cake to the wire rack and continue cooling.

This filling, satisfying cake is very moist and slices best when cooled. Wrap and freeze leftover slices for easy to-go treats. (Especially if heading out in mad traffic.)

Serves 8-10.

Recipe Notes:

I baked this moist and satisfying breakfast cake in a parchment lined 8-inch Springform pan. If you have only a 7-inch layer cake pan it will work. Line it with a circle of parchment paper. Keep an eye on the center- it may need an extra minute or two in a smaller pan (higher center).

And speaking of pans- I beg you, Darling. Do not bake gluten-free cakes and breads in those disposable aluminum foil pans. They are way too thin to bake gluten-free batter evenly. Foil pans cause over-browning on the outside, and gummy, undone centers.

If baking for a gluten-free friend- protect her from cross contamination and line your cake pan with clean foil or parchment paper. (And don't use your old wooden spoons- gluten protein is sticky, and tenacious.)