Gluten-Free Recipes for Side Dishes



Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

July 28, 2020

From Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Cauliflower rice can be boring. I wanted to come up with a recipe that’s not as boring and I think I have achieved that with this one. I hope you like it! Half a head of cauliflower should yield about 1lb or four cups of rice using the (coarse) grating attachment for your food processor. If you chop or pulse the cauliflower you just get square-shaped bits similar to couscous, not rice. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 large head of cauliflower shredded – about 1lb (500g) weight, 4 cups.
  • 1 Tbsp (15 ml) butter
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml) olive oil, avocado oil or almond oil
  • Medium onion peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely crushed
  • 1/2 red bell pepper, deseeded and cut into 1/2-1 inch squares. I like red for color and sweetness.
  • 2 tsp (10 ml) hot pepper jelly, optional
  • Lime juice – about 1 tablespoon /15 ml
  • About 1/2 c (120 ml) cilantro chopped – is about 2 tbsp (30ml) when chopped.
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 Tbsp butter to finish – optional

Directions:

  1. Break the cauliflower in florets and cut off most of the stalk. The stalk just doesn’t shred nicely.
  2. Rinse cauliflower, drain and pat dry.
  3. Put shredding blade into your food processor and shred cauliflower. It shreds into rice looking grains except for little pieces of stalk.
  4. Melt some butter and olive oil together in 9 inch skillet.
  5. Add finely chopped onion, red bell pepper and garlic. Cook over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until softening.
  6. Add cauliflower rice, salt, pepper and optional hot pepper jelly, stir well, cover and cook for another 5 minutes until cauliflower is cooked as you like it.
  7. Stir in lime zest, lime juice, cilantro, add a knob of butter if you want, it really adds to taste. Turn off heat, let stand for a minute for flavors to mingle.

Note: Use basil and sun-dried tomatoes for Italian flavors, oregano, mint, artichokes, and feta for Greek flavors. Use cooked beans and some coconut milk for Caribbean style. Parsley and green onions can be used on all recipes.

You can find Chef Oonagh Williams at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh on Facebook, LinkedIn or her website. Chef Oonagh has a culinary arts degree, celiac disease and other food allergies. Remember most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers ‘mess’ around with it and only baking really needs changing.

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TAGS: DINNER, SIDE DISHES, VEGETARIAN


Strawberry Vinaigrette

June 30, 2020

From Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

I’ve tried some strawberry vinaigrette recipes with sour cream and yogurt and didn’t like them. So I went back to my old faithful of a maple herb vinaigrette.  Use honey if you don’t have maple syrup. Strawberry jam sweetens and helps intensify the strawberry flavor. You MUST use sweet ripe strawberries or you’re wasting your time and money. It’s not sticky sweet. A girlfriend that doesn’t like sweet loved it. My husband thinks a salad isn’t complete without feta cheese and cashews. 

The following was filmed and edited by us at home. It aired on ABC-TV on June 3, 2020.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Vinaigrette
Makes about 1 cup of vinaigrette

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp lemon juice, or white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.  Please make sure vinegars say made from wine or grapes, apples or cider. 
  • 1 tsp gf honey mustard or regular Dijon
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp strawberry jam – I’ve used Bonne Maman or Trappist jams
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey or 2 tbsp jam. 
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley 
  • green of the stalk of one green onion – none of the white end.
  • 4 med to large ripe strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
  • 1/4 c light tasting oil. Extra virgin olive oil overpowers the flavor. I tend to use 3 tbsp avocado oil and 1 tbsp evo. I never use canola oil.

Directions:

  1. Put everything in a 2 cup jug and blend it with an immersion blender, or a liquidizer. If you don’t have either, mash the strawberries really well with the rest of the ingredients. 
  2. Cover and leave for at least an hour for the flavors to meld. Taste then and adjust salt, sugar, vinegar to your taste.  But remember a dressing tasted on its own on a spoon or fork tastes very different from a dressing on a salad with other fruit, veggies and cheese. So stir dressing and dip a lettuce leaf in to taste after dressing’s sat for a while.

I like fresh crisp lettuce, some more sliced strawberries, some chopped celery or Gala apple for crunch, and some feta cheese.  I’ve tried it with Brie but it didn’t taste right. Add cooked chicken, shrimp, tuna for more protein. Spinach leaves. Try making it with fresh raspberries, peaches, mango and appropriate jam. 

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TAGS: APPETIZERS/SNACKS, SIDE DISHES, VEGETARIAN


Orange Sauce

March 26, 2020

From Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

This gluten-free sauce goes well with an Easter ham, chicken, waffles/pancakes, over a cake or with ice cream.

In my wheat flour days, I had skinny sweet potato fries with a dipping sauce of roughly equal quantities of butter, maple syrup and bourbon—it was dangerously addictive. This is a gluten-free variation that my husband and I enjoy. I normally keep a container of concentrated orange juice in the freezer, transferred to a screw top container as it doesn’t freeze solid. I use orange juice concentrate in various recipes using orange juice for a more intense flavor.

Gluten-Free Orange Sauce

Ingredients:

  • ½ stick, 2 oz butter 
  • ½ c orange marmalade – I use an orange marmalade that has thin pieces of orange peel, not the expensive thick and chunky marmalade. 
  • ½ c orange juice concentrate
  • ½ c chopped toasted nuts
  • 2 tbsp rum, brandy, orange liqueur, bourbon – whatever you like and can have. Optional but does give a lovely flavor. 
  • 2 tsp gluten-free cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water. 
  • Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Melt butter, marmalade and concentrate together.
  2. Add nuts and rum, etc.
  3. Simmer for a minute, add cornstarch and water mix, stir well, bring back to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes and then serve. This does reheat well, keeps in fridge.  Add it to the skillet of fried chicken, pork so it mixes with meat juices and sugars caramelize slightly. For meat, add some rosemary to pan or mint to go with lamb.
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Spicy Sausage and Peach Cornmeal Muffins

January 2, 2020

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

The original (non-packet mix) wheat flour recipe for these muffins came from Better Home and Gardens. It appealed to me in the middle of a New Hampshire winter. Prosciutto (Italian ham) is delicious but also expensive, so I use one of the Al Fresco fully cooked, labeled gluten-free, sweet and smoky bbq sausages, weighing 3 oz instead of 4 oz chopped prosciutto. They have a nice texture, still a slight graininess of cornmeal, excellent warm with butter. 

Some of you probably know that I don’t normally use packet mixes. I do have a culinary arts degree and always cooked from scratch so even in wheat flour days I couldn’t see the point of using a packet mix that tasted commercial and still needed egg and oil as well as containing unpronounceable ingredients. But I am realistic and know that plenty of people will use a packet mix. Friends that I trust about food recommend the ‘Krusteaz gluten-free honey cornbread and muffin mix’, 15 oz box which includes both millet and sorghum flour for better nutrition the same as my blend.  No rice flour or potato starch.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Krusteaz mix, which includes baking powder, xanthan gum and honey powder so no additional baking powder, xanthan gum or sugar added.
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup half-and-half or light cream
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup chopped peaches. The recipe recommended using frozen peaches if fresh weren’t available.  I have found lots of frozen peaches are tasteless and not sweet. I used 6 slices/3 oz of Del Monte canned peaches, rinsed off juice or syrup, patted dry and chopped. The muffins will be soggy if you don’t dry off the peaches.
  • 1 x 3 oz Al Fresco sweet and smoky bbq sausage, quartered lengthwise and chopped small. You can leave the skin on. 4 to a packet.

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  l used paper liners in 2 1/2-inch muffin cups, less clean up and portable; set aside. 
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together half-and-half, eggs, and melted butter. Stir in peaches and sausage. Stir in Krusteaz mix and salt. Stir just until combined. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. They say filling 2/3 full so I only get 8 muffins, but they don’t rise much and are not the huge monsters you get in-store. 
  3. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the edges are golden. Remember that ovens vary and so does the size of the muffins you make and can take longer to cook.  I literally pull one apart to check all the way to the bottom. 
  4. Serve warm with butter.  They reheat nicely in the microwave.

 

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Cooked Cauliflower Rice and Cauliflower Rice Salad

August 29, 2019

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

Cauliflower Fried Rice

Directions

  1. Break cauliflower in florets and cut off most of stalk. Stalk just doesn’t shred nicely.
  2. Rinse cauliflower, drain and pat dry.
  3. Put shredding blade into your food processor and shred cauliflower. It shreds into rice looking grains except for little pieces of stalk.
  4. Melt some butter and olive oil together in 9 inch skillet.
  5. Add finely chopped onion, half a red bell pepper deseeded and cut into small dice, 1-2 cloves garlic crushed. Cook over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until softening.
  6. Add cauliflower rice, cook for about another 5 minutes until cauliflower is as cooked as you like it.

Variations

  • Add a knob of butter if you want, it really adds to taste.
  • Add a handful of fresh herbs and serve as a side dish.
  • Top with some nuts, cheese for meatless Monday.
  • Add hot peppers, pepper flakes.

Cauliflower Raw Rice Salad

  1. Break cauliflower in florets and cut off most of stalk.  Stalk just doesn’t shred nicely.
  2. Rinse cauliflower, drain and pat dry.
  3. Put shredding blade into your food processor and shred cauliflower. It shreds into rice looking grains except for pieces of stalk.
  4. Add some maple herb vinaigrette (below) to lightly moisten cauliflower rice.
  5. Add chopped, fresh tomatoes, including any juice, small diced cucumber, shredded carrot—really whatever you would normally add to a rice salad. Stir and serve.

Salad is crisp when freshly mixed, but cauli does soften if refrigerated overnight. But then you could stir fry it for fried rice. Lovely light crunch without the softness of rice. Stand over bowl eating before serving good.

Maple Herb Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tablespoon white wine or red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard. You can also use honey Dijon, spicy for variation.
  • 2 Tablespoon maple syrup. I use stronger tasting maple syrup—Grade A medium amber. Use honey if you don’t have maple syrup.
  • 2 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 6 Tablespoon avocado oil or sunflower oil
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley measured before chopping
  • Green of 4 green onion/spring onion, scallion stalks
  • Few celery leaves if you have them
  • Good pinch of salt to taste
  • Freshly ground pepper

Directions

  1. Put vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and maple syrup in jug or 2 cup Tupperware style container or clean jam jar. Stir to dissolve salt etc.
  2. Add oils and fresh herbs. Run immersion blender to finely chop herbs. If you don’t have immersion blender then chop herbs finely with scissors and add to dressing. If you do use immersion blender, dressing will thicken and go almost white/green in color.  On refrigeration, olive oil will solidify and then revert to liquid at room temperature.

This dressing mellows on standing so that no one ingredient overpowers the others.  Try it this way first and then experiment with different vinegars, other fresh herbs but try less total quantity of herbs, add different mustards etc. Remember your taste for salt or sugar can be different to mine.

This is my go-to dressing, easily made, loved by everyone.  Please don’t substitute fake sugar or agave nectar. Maple syrup or honey add to taste, they’re not just a sweetener.

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TAGS: DINNER, LUNCH, SIDE DISHES


Mardi Gras Dirty Rice

August 28, 2019

Recipe courtesy of ZATARAIN’S® 

Dirty Rice is a one-pot meal that starts with flavorful and easy-to-prepare Zatarain’s Dirty Rice, which can be customized to each guest’s unique tastes.

Gluten-Free Mardi Gras Dirty Rice
Prep 5 minutes/Cook Time: 35 minutes. Serves 7

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add bell peppers; cook and stir 3 to 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. Remove from skillet. Add sausage to skillet; cook and stir 5 minutes or until no longer pink.
  2. Stir in Rice Mix and water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 20 minutes. Return bell peppers to skillet. Cover and cook 5 minutes longer or until rice is tender.
  3. Remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes.

Gluten-Free and Flavor-Full! A Quick Guide to Eating Gluten-Free from Zatarain’s

For those with celiac disease, or just choosing to follow a gluten-free diet, cooking and shopping for gluten-free meal ideas can be daunting. Zatarain’s, the brand serving up authentic New Orleans-Style foods for more than 120 years, offers a wide variety of flavorful gluten-free rice mix options to jazz up mealtime. With Zatarain’s, there’s no need to sacrifice flavor to suit dietary needs.

Zatarain’s offers 19 rice mixes – with more in development – that feature a gluten-free designation on the front of the product packaging, confirming that each rice mix has been formulated as gluten-free and the production systems and processes have been validated to ensure the finished rice mixes are free of gluten. These rice mixes – including favorites like jambalaya, dirty rice and yellow rice – are the same flavorful products people already know and love, but with a gluten-free seal now displayed on the package.

For a complete list of Zatarain’s gluten-free rice mixes, visit www.zatarains.com/glutenfree.

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Sweet & Spicy Cucumber Salad

July 29, 2019

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten Free Cooking with Oonagh

I typically make a basic cucumber salad with oil, vinegar, sugar and raw garlic. Then I saw a post with a new recipe, and as usual tried it and did my own thing. You can alter the heat factor of this recipe to your family’s taste. You do need to use salt. Salt crisps up the cucumbers, draws juice from the cucumbers into the vinaigrette and also shrinks the cucumber. 

When you first make this cucumber salad, you look at a huge amount of cucumber and think that’s not enough vinaigrette/dressing. Yes, it is. I like both thinly sliced cucumber and small cubes. Don’t keep it more than a couple of days in the fridge. 

Gluten-Free Sweet & Spicy Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 English/European cucumber, rinsed (aka seedless cucumber even though it does have seeds, just less than regular American cucumber). Remove from plastic wrap when you buy it as it can go moldy rapidly if left in plastic. Or equivalent of small Persian cucumbers, they look really cute sliced or cubed, but are more expensive. 
  • 2 Tbsp HOT pepper jelly. Sweet pepper jelly doesn’t add heat. I buy Trappist hot pepper jelly at my local grocery store. I’ve also made this with Maesri Spring roll dipping sauce from an Asian market. Do not buy Maesri sweet chili sauce, far far spicier hot – nearly killed my husband. 
  • Zest of a lime 
  • Juice of a lime 
  • 1/4 c (60 ml, 2 fl oz) mild oil. I use avocado oil
  • Green of 2 green onions 
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp salt (3-5 ml) – make it with half teaspoon and add more after refrigeration if you like more salt. 
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Cilantro to taste. Start with only 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro. You can also use Thai basil. Or even lime basil, so good. 

Directions:

  1. Melt pepper jelly in a 4 cup microwave safe bowl in microwave, add lime, oil, salt, herbs.
  2. Cut ends off cucumber then I thinly slice the cucumber on a mandolin or cut into small cubes, like a sugar cube.
  3. Stir cucumber into vinaigrette, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.  Stir, taste and serve. Some recipes like to add sesame oil, but sesame oil is a very strong oil and easily overpowers. 

 

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English Scones

May 21, 2019

A gluten-free Mother’s Day treat!

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh


I saw the original wheat flour dough for this recipe in one of my English cookbooks and made gluten-free version of the dough, tried it, liked dough, but was bored by filling  But since then I have used my gluten-free version of the dough to make scones, non-yeast cinnamon buns, non-yeast Stromboli, yeast and non-yeast Lithuanian bacon buns, and Italian sweet ricotta Easter Pie. All of this just by altering amount of sugar, butter and type of liquid from fat free milk to heavy cream.

This pastry is a cross between pie crust and cookie dough—soft, rises due to baking powder, very rich.

In all my hands-on wheat flour cooking classes as well as brunch parties for clients, I always had to make my English scones, with raspberry jam and whipped cream with Chambord, or peach jam and cream with peach schnapps. Clients would stand in kitchen watching me make scones, unable to believe that people still baked real food. Scones are a part of life in England, cream teas, Sunday afternoon tea. My mother used to make them by the hundreds for church fair.

Gluten-Free English Scones
Makes 6 scones

Ingredients:

  • 5 oz (1 cup less 1 tbsp, 140g) King Arthur gluten-free all purpose flour – no baking powder or xanthan gum. Available in 24 oz box in grocery store.
  • 3 oz (¾ c, 84 g) almond flour – note finely ground almond flour (white) is less volume than more coarsely ground almond flour or almond meal (freckly), that’s why I weigh. Too much or too little by volume will alter recipe. Not all measuring cups are accurate.
  • ¼ c (1 oz, 28 g) powdered (icing) sugar
  • ¾ stick (3 oz, 84 g) cold butter
  • 2 tsp (10ml) gluten-free baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ tsp (3 ml) xanthan gum, ¼ tsp xg crumbled too much even when cold.
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp (5 ml) gf vanilla extract, almond if doing more almond filling.
  • ¼ c (60ml, 2oz)- 1/3 c cream.  I use cream for scones for a richer taste, but also a more tender dough that will crumble a bit when warm, it doesn’t need more xanthan gum.  I use 1/4c cream if I am baking scones on a baking sheet where they will spread. If you are putting scones into mini whoopie pie tins or a ‘shape’ then I use 1/3 c for dough so it’s moister but will spread without walls to contain scone.

Directions:

  1. Mix gluten-free flour, almond flour, sugar, xg, baking powder and salt together, then rub in cold butter until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Food processor is quickest.
  2. Mix egg, cream and extract together and whisk with a fork to blend egg.
  3. You can add liquid mix to dry mix in food processor and pulse to combine.  For scones I prefer to take dry mix from food processor into 4 cup bowl, add liquid and stir until combined.  Gently knead a few times with white rice flour.
  4. Pat dough into roughly 6 inch circle, Cut into 6 pieces, separate and place on lined cookie sheet or skillet and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.  Scones should have risen, be a nice light golden brown color, and look fluffy inside when you break one open. Round each piece into a ball to cook in mini whoopie tin etc.
  5. Remove from oven, let cool slightly.  If you try to halve scones too soon, they will disintegrate. Then halve and serve with good raspberry jam (my favorite) topped with imported clotted cream – about $5 for 6 oz jar in specialty cheese section of my regular grocery store. Or just whip and sweeten some heavy cream.
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TAGS: APPETIZERS/SNACKS, BREADS, BREAKFAST, HOLIDAY, SIDE DISHES


Warm Olive and Artichoke Dip

January 28, 2019

Warm Olive and Artichoke Dip

From Cindy Gordon of Vegetarian Mamma

This post is sponsored by Crunchmaster®. The opinions are my own.

Because of the name, I am sure that you guessed that olives and artichokes are the stars of this dish. They pretty much run the show in the flavor department.

For this recipe, I used canned olives and canned artichokes. If you have one of those fancy olive bars in a local grocery store the olives and artichokes from there will work too!

Gluten-Free Warm Olive and Artichoke Dip

The other ingredients are:

  • Yogurt
  • Cream cheese
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Crunchmaster crackers for dipping

It is a pretty simple list of ingredients. The best part is that you can easily prep this artichoke dip recipe ahead of time and then bake it on game day!

I am not kidding when I tell you that once your guests see this hot artichoke dip become all golden and bubbly, they will not be able to resist it!

 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FULL GLUTEN-FREE RECIPE ON VEGETARIAN MAMMA

 

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Sweet Slice Ham with Cranberry Chutney

December 19, 2018

Sweet Slice Ham with Cranberry Chutney

Courtesy of Boar’s Head

This sweet and tangy cranberry chutney perfectly complements the rich flavor of our Sweet Slice Boneless Smoked Ham for an elegant dish worthy of any holiday gathering.
Gluten-Free Sweet Slice Ham with Cranberry Chutney

Ingredients:

Directions:
  1. Heat the juice in a small saucepan and add the red wine vinegar.
  2. Add the dried cranberries, cover and let steep 15 to 20 minutes.
  3. Stir in the spices, onion sauce, and mustard. The chutney can be cut into smaller portions if desired.
  4. Serve slightly warm along with ham slices, or store in the fridge until ready to use.


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