From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

Locally, some restaurants have been ‘expanding’ what they put on nachos. I’ve had and made nachos with cheese and added cooked bacon, sour cream, olives. I’ve also been playing around with the 3 cheese queso dip. Yes, queso is cheese in Spanish. There’s lots of recipes for this and making them seems to depend on where you live for availability of ingredients. Many of them quote White American cheese, from both grocery store and restaurant. White American melts wonderfully but it is processed, so not the healthiest cheese. From labels I’ve read, it has double the sodium of regular cheddars and my mouth was very aware of how salty sauce was. Another recipe had smoked Gouda cheese. Again many versions are processed not regular Gouda and double the sodium as well, but a lovely smoky flavor. Use the cheese sauce for nachos, scalloped potatoes, add to mashed potatoes, a stand alone dip – devoured, I even put it on top of a cheese lasagna.

What I do, vary as you like, what you have, but so easy for a meal anytime with ingredients sitting in the fridge after busy day at work, kids starving and something they can assemble without you. As you can see from list of ingredients, very similar to my Mexican salad, so you can do both for week night rotation. Arrange tortilla chips on jelly roll pan and sprinkle with cheese to melt in oven, or arrange chips on individual plates, sprinkle with cheese and microwave. Then let everyone choose their own toppings, like a taco bar.

Gluten-Free Mexican Nachos

Ingredients:

• Tortilla chips – I like Tostitos original as they’re flat and crispy and labeled gf.
• Mexican cheese, either a mixed blend of cheeses or one of the blocks of Mexican cheese you can crumble.
• Cheese dip (see below)
• Cooked beef (see below)
• Deliberately leftover, fresh corn roasted or bbq’d, niblets cut off
• Salsa of your choice
• Tomatoes, cut up
• Avocado, peeled, deseeded and cut into small cubes.

Cheese Dip

• 2 cups, 16 oz, 480 ml, half and half, or whole milk
• 8 oz, 250 g soft cream cheese
• 8 oz, 2 c, 250 g sharp cheddar shredded
• 8 oz, 2 c, 250 g Smoked Gouda, shredded. Cut off any dark outer skin as it doesn’t melt well
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed.
• I like to add an Al Fresco sweet spicy gluten-free chicken sausage, skin removed, 1/4’d lengthwise and cut into small slices
• some green of green onion thinly sliced
• chopped cilantro if you want
• add some pepper flakes or smoked paprika, or substitute pepper jack. Add salsa, chopped tomatoes or roasted hot peppers to sauce
• no extra salt

Cheese Dip Directions

1. Gently melt half and half, cheeses and garlic until smooth. Add rest of ingredients. Add some more milk if very thick.

Beef Topping

• Make and keep in fridge for nachos, salad, tacos, baked potatoes. Add to chili
• 1-1+1/2 lbs (750g) ground beef or ground turkey
• one medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed.
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) ground cumin
• 1 tsp (5 ml) smoked paprika or pepper flakes, Tabasco to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a 4 cup (1 ltr) pan over medium heat.

2. Add meat, onion, garlic and gently fry until meat is browning and producing fat. I find with ground turkey you often have to add a tablespoon of oil to stop meat sticking.

3. Add spices and 1/4 c (60 ml) water, cover and cook for about 10 minutes over low heat. Watch meat doesn’t burn and that it is cooked at end of time. Add salsa or substitute salsa for water.

Then assemble the nachos.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

The key to this zesty recipe is the pepper jelly. There are quite a few varieties of pepper jelly on the market. You can also make your own pepper jelly by following the directions for pepper jelly in a packet of Certo pectin. Obviously there is a difference in both taste and heat between individual brands, so use half the stated quantity of pepper jelly to start with and then add more to your individual taste. Even if you used exactly the same pepper jelly as I did, your taste could want more or less heat. Also realize that the vinaigrette tasted on a spoon will taste far hotter than once it is mixed with a salad. The sweetness of the jelly mellows the vinaigrette and makes a vinaigrette with a sweet spicy but mild kick. Just enough to realize the heat without your nose running and lips tingling madly.

Gluten-Free Mexican Salad

Ingredients:

Vinaigrette:

• 2 tbsp (30ml) gluten-free hot pepper jelly placed in small microwave safe bowl and melted in microwave 10-20 seconds. I like to clean, sterilize and reuse jam jars for these sauces as you can see what’s in them in the fridge. I buy Trappist Hot pepper jelly.
• 1 tsp (5 ml) honey
• Zest of 1/4 lime
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) fresh lime juice – about ½ to 1 lime. Half of a lime can produce only about 1+1/2 tablespoons of juice, you need to add more to total 2 tablespoons. The extra little bit of lime does make a difference in taste for me.
• ½ teaspoon salt (or more or less to taste)
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup avocado oil (120 ml)
• 2 teaspoons (10ml) Koops Arizona heat mustard, labeled gluten-free
• green of 2 green onions
• about 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley and/or cilantro

Salad:

• Deliberately leftover, 2 corn on the cob, roasted or bbq’d and niblets cut from cob
• Shredded romaine or other lettuce, enough for 4 people
• Tomatoes, either large cut up, or small grape or cherry
• 1 ripe avocado, halved, depitted and cut into small dice
• Mexican cheese of your choice, shredded or crumbled
• Gluten-free salsa of your choice for heat
• ½ red pepper deseeded and cut into ½” dice – optional
• ½ c cooked chick peas – optional
• fresh cilantro chopped – optional
• Whatever other salad ingredients you personally like
• Tortillas – I like the crunch of Tostitos, labeled gluten-free, crushed a little
• I got real lobster salad at the market – that was fabulous, but salad shrimp, cooked chicken, spicy sausage, pulled pork without sauce. Or an egg and it can be vegetarian

Directions:

1. Mix all vinaigrette ingredients together, lightly pulse with immersion blender to chop herbs and also thickens vinaigrette and leave for about 1 hour for flavors to blend together.

2. On individual plates or one large platter, attractively arrange lettuce and top with circles of tomatoes, avocado, red pepper and any other salad ingredients you think would be suitable. Top with crushed chips just before serving.

3. You can also leave shrimp, chicken, in 1/4 c vinaigrette for an hour to absorb flavor. Then pour shrimp, chicken and vinaigrette on top of salad.

Vinaigrette keeps in fridge for several days. If you used olive oil it will appear solidified, like melted butter chilled.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

I gave Lithuanian cooking classes demos for about 10 years at our local ethnic library and spent July 2005 in a Lithuanian language course at the University of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. And no, I am not of Lithuanian descent, but I was given so many old and new Lithuanian cookbooks, tried the recipes, made them for class and was told they brought back memories of grandmother making them. This particular recipe is a mix of two cold beet soup recipes. One is taken from the Lithuanian Heritage magazine and the other is from ‘Treasures of Lithuanian Cooking.’ The recipes are almost identical as to ingredients. Now I give talks with vibrant photos of Lithuania with history, culture, and a gluten-free Lithuanian buffet to libraries, clubs etc.

Chilled Beet Soup

Makes about 12 half-cup servings

Ingredients:

• About 1 lb raw beets, cooked, peeled, and shredded in food processor
• Half a European cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise and finely diced
• 2 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and finely diced – optional
• 4 green onions, leaves only finely scissored
• 2 c buttermilk (I buy Kate’s of Maine that is genuine buttermilk, labeled gluten-free, not from a culture)
• 1 c cold water or beef broth
• ¼ tsp sugar or honey or more to taste once chilled
• salt and pepper
• ¼ c sour cream (or more)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill – dill is a strong flavor, so don’t add too much at first

Directions:

1.Mix all the ingredients together and chill for 1-2 hours or overnight. The flavor does improve on chilling as everything melds together.

2. Taste after chilling and add more salt, pepper or herbs to taste.

Traditionally this soup is served with a dollop of sour cream (100% of course – Friendship brand is most authentic) in the middle of each bowl and an individual plate of slices of hot, plain boiled potato. You take a spoonful of hot potato from the plate and dip the spoon into the cold soup so you get the contrast of hot and cold in each mouthful. It tastes really good this way.

When it comes to eating gluten-free, we need to make sure that the food we are putting into our bodies is indeed gluten-free. When it comes to cheese, you do need to be cautious. Love deli cheese? You have to be cautious of cross contamination from the cheese slicer in the deli. If you want to be safe and not worry, you need to search out Boar’s Head Cheese.

Boar’s Head is a family owned business that started in New York City over 110 years ago. Frank Brunckhorst founded the company out of his dissatisfaction with the quality of deli meats available at the time. He set out to create a brand that focused on quality meat, and started the line of deli meats, cheeses, and condiments that we still enjoy today. Boar’s Head prides themselves as being master craftsmen in their industry, and skilled artisans in the art of meat and cheese making. They hold themselves to high standards of quality, use only the finest ingredients, and their entire product line is gluten-free.

Boar’s Head offers 25 varieties of cheese, in styles from all over the world. You can find Vermont cheddar, Danish blue cheese, Swiss cheeses, French goat cheese, and more at your local deli. Boar’s Head has 6 varieties of Gouda cheese, fresh mozzarella, and two varieties of hard Italian cheese as well.

Boar’s Head Cheese is delicious enough to eat as a stand-alone item or on your favorite sandwich. We recently created a delicious and quick lunch option that uses Boar’s Head Cheese.

Lunch time on the weekends is hectic around my house. There always seems to be something going on. We rely on Boar’s Head to provide us with delicious tasting gluten-free cheese. Our latest creation was a quesadilla.

For this quesadilla we used the Colby Jack cheese from Boar’s Head. Colby Jack is a tasty mixture of Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses. It is a semi soft cheese that is sold in many shapes. For our quesadilla, we used the Coby Jack cheese slices.

Boar’s Head Colby Jack Cheese Quesadilla

Ingredients:

• 1 gluten-free soft tortilla shell
• ½ cup pinto beans, smashed
• 2 slices of Boar’s Head Colby Jack Cheese
• optional garnish: Sour Cream, Guacamole, Salsa, Cilantro, Green Onions

Directions:

1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, warm the soft tortilla shell.
2. Place one slice of Boar’s Head Colby Jack cheese on half of the tortilla.
3. Next, layer the smashed beans on top of the cheese slice.
4. Place the remaining Colby Jack cheese slice on top of the smashed beans.
5. Fold the tortilla in half. Warm each side to a golden brown or until the cheese melts.
6. Garnish with your favorite extras such as sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cilantro or green onions.

ENJOY!

Boar’s Head Cheese is a great option for my family. We love that the cheese slices come in resealable containers. This works out very well for my family. The cheese stays fresh and protected in the containers.

Check out the full selection on their website, you’re sure to find your favorite.

Guest Author, Cindy Gordon, is the owner and writer behind VegetarianMamma.com Cindy shares recipes that are gluten-free and vegetarian on her site. Her site also shares insight to her gluten-free travel experiences and provides tips on where to safely travel while gluten-free.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

This spinach and artichoke square recipe is based off of a Pampered Chef recipe from their gluten-free cookbook. I knew when I read their recipe for crescent roll dough, that their weight quantities were off. I made my own gluten-free flaky pastry recipe that I use for pot pies, English sausage rolls, then did my thing with the topping.

Gluten-Free Spinach and Artichoke Squares

Makes roughly 24 x 2×2″ squares

Ingredients:

Pastry

I make this quantity of pastry (makes 1+1/2 lbs of dough) and then freeze half of it to use later.

1/2 recipe for 10″ pie crust base or a thick top crust.

• 1 c ( 4oz, 112 g) my gluten-free flour blend. If you sub a different blend, you need to weigh flour and remember that every gluten-free blend cooks up differently.

• 1 c (4oz, 112g) almond meal. This is almonds with skin that have freckly appearance on baking. Almond flour is almonds ground without skin but usually more than $10/lb.

• 2/3 c (3 oz, 84g) gluten-free cornstarch, I buy Argo labeled gluten-free.

• 1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder, I buy Rumford’s labeled gluten-free, non-GMO and aluminum-free.

• 1/2 tsp ( 3ml) xanthan gum

• 1/3 c (80 ml) ice water, ice cube in small cup with ¼ cup water

• 1/3 c (80 ml) liquid egg substitute or a large egg plus 1 tbsp egg sub, broken up with a fork.

• Salt

• 2 sticks (8 oz, 224g) butter, cut into thin slices, put in freezer for about half an hour until really hard and cold.

Topping

Note, that I rarely use just mayo in a recipe but prefer to mix it 50/50 with Greek Yogurt.

• 1 x 10 oz (280g) block of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry.

• 1 x ~ 14 oz (400g) can of artichokes, drained and chopped.

• 2 roasted red bell peppers, rinsed if from jar, patted dry and cut into fingernail size pieces. I normally used freshly roasted red peppers, but with all these flavors, jarred peppers are fine.

• 1 x ~ 6 oz (180g) can of sliced water chestnuts, chopped small. I like the crunch, neutral flavor. I have tried this with cornichons that taste like bread and butter pickles.

• 1 c (4 oz, 112g) shredded Swiss cheese. Original recipe used Feta cheese, I preferred flavor of Swiss.

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely crushed.

• 3/4 c ( 6 fl oz, 180 ml) of mayo and Greek yogurt mixed.

• 4 green onions (spring onions) trimmed and scissored small.

• 1/4 c (60ml) Parmesan cheese to top.

• I didn’t add extra salt. Add some freshly ground pepper.

Optional: add some chopped olives, either black or green with pimiento stuffing.

Use pepper jack cheese for heat. Smoked Gouda. Mozzarella doesn’t add much flavor. Thin slices of baby corn can be added for crunch.

Directions:

Pastry

1. Put gf flour, almond meal, cornstarch, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt in bowl of food processor or in mixing bowl. Pulse or stir to combine.

2. In food processor or in bowl, pulse or cut in 4 oz butter until it is in large breadcrumb size- think panko breadcrumbs.

3. I then change to coarse large shredding/grating blade for food processor and shred remaining 4 oz butter into mix.

4. Empty into 8 cup (2 ltr) bowl. Stir to separate butter clumps. Sprinkle on iced water and egg and stir until mix starts coming together. If you still have dry mix at bottom of bowl, scoop it with your fingers without squeezing butter or warming up mix in your hands. Only if mix stays really dry, add about 1-2 tsp more of iced water. This makes a moist dough, not wet. If dough is dry then it crumbles and cracks on rolling out.

5. Divide dough in half, wrap and freeze one half for later use. Refrigerate dough for half an hour.

6. Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Put dough on parchment (greaseproof) paper and top with plastic wrap. Dust parchment paper and top of dough with gf flour, dough easily sticks. Roll out to roughly 10 x12″, lifting dough to stop it sticking. Try and roll to a rectangle with few cracks or tears. A bit of water on fingers patches cracks, take pieces from uneven edges to patch larger cracks. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect, it still will taste good and will be hidden by topping. I then lift parchment paper with rolled out dough and place it on 10×15 sheet. This is far easier than trying to lift dough from parchment paper. Don’t forget to remove plastic wrap.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, it should be golden brown allover, edges will be a bit crispier than middle, as edges tend to be thinner. I find if you don’t cook it enough now, it will taste under cooked for serving.

Toppings

1. Mix all topping ingredients together except for parmesan.

2. Spread topping on cooked pastry base right up to the edge, it won’t flow over sides or rise.

3. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake in oven for about 20 more minutes. It won’t rise, or really brown. Cooking is to marry the flavors, melt the cheese and cook the garlic and spinach. Parmesan doesn’t brown.

4. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly then cut into squares with pizza cutter. Base should be sturdy to pick up in fingers, good cold, base goes soft if microwaved.

This gluten-free salad celebrates the joy of the sweet and salty contrast of the dates and Boar’s Head’s SmokeMaster Beechwood Smoked Black Forest Ham, as well as the healthy and textural use of chickpeas and kale. This is a great salad for someone who doesn’t think he or she likes kale!

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches Kale Lacinato or similar variety
• ½ lb SmokeMaster Beechwood Smoked Black Forest Ham diced
• 1 can (15 ounces) Chickpeas
• ½ cup Dates
• ¼ cup Red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp Delicatessen Style Mustard
• 1 clove Garlic minced
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 2 tbsp Fresh cilantro chopped
• 2 tbsp Lemon juice fresh
• ½ cup Olive oil
• ½ tsp Kosher salt
• ¼ tsp Black pepper freshly ground
• ½ cup Bold Chipotle Gouda Cheese shaved
• ½ cup Mandarin orange
• 2 tbsp Pomegranate seed

Directions:

1. Thoroughly wash kale, spin dry and strip stem from leaves. Chop into bite-size pieces.
2. Dice ham into small pieces, reserve.
3. Strain liquid from the can of chickpeas.
4. Remove pit from dates, and cut the dates into rings.
5. In a mixing bowl, add red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, honey, cilantro and lemon juice. Slowly incorporate olive oil until it emulsifies with the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Toss kale, ham, chickpeas and dates with dressing. Place in clean bowl and shave Boar’s Head Chipotle Gouda cheese on top. Garnish with oranges and pomegranate seeds.

Eat well without compromising flavor with this delectable gluten-free salad. Simply cook your shiitake mushrooms and mix your salad, arranging slices of London Broil Roast Beef alongside Chévre Cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms
• 2 cups mixed greens
• 4 slices London Broil Cap-Off Top Round Oven Roasted Beef
• 2 oz Chèvre Goat Cheese
• 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• Lemon juice, to taste
• Asian pear, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Slice the shiitake mushrooms and cook them in a non stick pan over medium-high heat until nice and golden on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
2. Place mixed greens at the bottom of a shallow plate.
3. Arrange your slices of beef in the center of the pile of greens.
4. Add shiitake mushrooms and soft goat cheese.
5. Drizzle balsamic vinegar and lime juice to taste over the whole salad.
6. Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper if desired

An easy-to-prepare gluten-free squash soup that’s just perfect for chilly days ahead.

10 minute prep time, 6 servings, 300 calories

Ingredients:

• 1 c Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• 8 c chopped butternut squash
• 1½ t ground cinnamon
• 1 t ground nutmeg
• 1 t kosher salt
• 8 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 c vegetable or chicken broth
• ¼ t cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions: