Author: cookingwithoutallergens

I was born and raised in central New Hampshire but have also lived in Boston; Tempe, Arizona; Pittsfield, Massachusetts; and Derry, New Hampshire before moving to Edina, Minnesota in 2019 after my husband died. I'm a retired archivist, worked for the Arizona State Archives and the National Archives and Records Administration. Began cooking at age 4, learned to read reading a cookbook. As a teenager, I often cooked family meals as my mother was busy correcting papers or doing class preparations for the next day. Began developing food allergies at menopause and the number has grown over the last several decades.

New Home Page!

I’ve spent the last several weeks adding tags and categories to all my recipes so that adding a search button to the home page will allow visitors to my site to search all the recipes for whatever food they want to cook. So if you are on the home page and want to look for recipes with, say, mushrooms, you can search on the word “mushroom” and tah dah, a search page will list all recipes that include mushrooms.

I’ve also added listings of most recent posts along with a section on followers so visitors might see who else is looking at my blog and perhaps visit your blogs as well. And lastly, which I think is perhaps the least helpful, is an archives of all my blogs by date. If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning and saw a recipe in say, January 2019 but you don’t remember the title or if it was under entries or side dishes, this listing should be helpful.

I hope you’ll find the changes on the home page useful. Thanks for following my blog and I will continue to try to make improvements.

The other thing I’ve been doing the last few weeks, which is something I do about every two years (for the last 30 years!), is working on a recipe for gluten-free bread that doesn’t include eggs. I’ve tried three so far, one came out like a brick which is normal for the recipes I’ve tried in the past. Another actually did rise slightly and was not as dense as most gluten-free breads I’ve tried to make, but tasted awful! The third one just didn’t work at all, didn’t rise, didn’t taste good, nothing! But I’ll keep working on it. I’ve pulled out all my old issues of Gluten Free and More as well as all my cookbooks and I hope to come up with a good tasting, less dense, loaf in the near future. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken

This sweet and sour chicken is baked, not fried, so is healthier as well as delicious! The soy sauce substitute in my frig was running out of time and rather than freeze it, I decided to try a new recipe and here’s the result. Served over the vegetable fried rice (see earlier blog), this is a hearty, well balanced, fairly easy dinner. Since the chicken needs to marinate in the sauce for at least 2 hours, plan ahead. Serves 2-4 depending on how much chicken is used.

In a gallon zip-lock bag mix:

1/2 cup soy sauce substitute

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons mustard powder

1/2 cup date sugar

1/4 dry ginger or 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust vinegar and/or sugar to your taste before adding:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs

Refrigerate and let marinate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×9″ baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Add the chicken and marinade to the dish making sure the chicken pieces don’t overlap. The marinade will cook as well so no need to worry about bacteria from sitting in the frig with chicken but if it concerns you, simply save out a 1/2 cup of marinade before adding the chicken to pour over the chicken once its in the baking dish.

Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour. Serve with rice or the vegetable fried rice. Garnish with scallions.

Quick and Easy Vegetable Fried Rice

I made some Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken today (see my second blog of the day) and had a little substitute soy sauce left over so thought how about some fried rice. One of my favorite dishes, my mother always made it with bacon and eggs but of course, not able to do that anymore. So this one is fairly easy and quick if you use frozen brown rice (I love the packets from Trader Joe but many markets now carry frozen pre-cooked brown rice, just don’t use the instant – all the good stuff is gone and you’re left with just carbs!). Checked the freezer and the pantry and sure enough had a nice variety of vegetables so decided to give it a try. Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you have in your pantry or freezer.

In a 10″ skillet heat:

2 tablespoons olive oil

Add:

1/2 medium onion sliced

3 stalks celery sliced on the bias

1/2 cup grated carrot

1 cup frozen French cut green beans

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 small can, drained bamboo shoots or sliced water chestnuts

Cook over medium heat for several minutes, stir once or twice to make sure vegetables cook evenly. Then turn heat down to medium low and cover. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add 1 1/2-2 cups cooked (or frozen) brown rice, stir to combine and cover to heat the rice another 3-5 minutes. Add:

2-4 tablespoons soy sauce substitute

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon red chili flakes or hot sauce (optional)

Stir in the sauce and the dish is ready!

Easy Light Italian Dressing

I like a variety of salad dressings, makes salads more interesting if they don’t always taste the same. I generally use a small canning jar but if you have a glass jar that you’ve emptied of whatever that’s at least 1 cup in size, wash it out and keep it for making dressings. I find it easier to shake for a few minutes rather than whisking.

In a small 1 cup jar, add:

1/2 cup avocado oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar (or whatever vinegar your family likes)

1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey (or 1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Italian herb blend

Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously for several minutes.

Want creamy Italian dressing? Simply use a little larger jar or whisk in a bowl the above with:

1/4 cup non-dairy yogurt, sour cream, or vegan mayonnaise

Orange Sauce

You’ll need:

  • 1/4 cup raw honey
  • 1/3 cup orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • dash of salt
  • 1 1/4 cup stock (chicken or vegetable)
  • 1 tablespoon vegan margarine
  • 1 tablespoon gluten-free flour (all purpose or brown rice works best)
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange rind

In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice and honey along with the vinegar, salt, orange rind and stock. 

Mix together the margarine and flour into a paste.   Add to the simmering sauce using a whisk so that you don’t get any lumps.  Continue cooking sauce until thickened, only a couple of minutes.  Its now ready to serve.

Marinara Sauce

This is a remake of my Aunt Jean’s marinara sauce. I started making this recipe for my family as a teenager and have continued using it ever since. Many times, I made this for my roommate and son, brings back many memories.

Needed:

1 tablespoon olive oil

  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 1 bell pepper, any color, diced

Cook for several minutes until onion is translucent before adding:

  • 2 garlic cloves diced
  • 1/2 cup grated carrot
  • 64 ounces of pureed tomatoes
  • 16 ounces diced tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup tomato paste
  • fresh oregano, thyme, and parsley (about 2 tablespoons of each)
  • monk fruit powder, stevia, or agave nectar if needed for additional sweetness

In a large skillet, saute the onion and bell pepper for a few minutes and then add the diced garlic and the grated carrot.  Saute until softened, about 3 minutes over medium heat.  Add the red wine (or mushroom stock) and cook off the alcohol.  Add the pureed and diced tomatoes and simmer over a low heat, covered, for approximately 1 hour.  Uncover and simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Add the fresh herbs along with salt and pepper to taste and the tomato paste.  If needed, depending on your taste, add additional sweetener. 

Green Goddess Dressing

This is a great dressing for any salad you want to put it on. If you want it creamy, add some vegan mayonnaise to the recipe. Yum, yum!

In a food processor put:

  • 1 ripe avocado, skinned and pitted
  • 1/4 cup dried parsley, or 1/2 cup fresh parsley (you can add more if you like parsley; not one of my favorite herbs so I didn’t use much)
  • 2 tablespoons avocado oil
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon juice if you prefer)
  • 2 tablespoons ground pumpkin seeds
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Water to get to dressing consistency, 1/4-1 cup (my dressing came out fairly thick and I used 1/2 cup of water)

Blend until creamy and all ingredients are combined.  Here, again, I used some roasted whole coriander seeds that I pulsed in my spice grinder so they were not fully ground and the pumpkin seeds were also only partially ground.  This added some crunchy texture to the dressing.

Simple Curry Sauce (dairy-free, gluten-free)

This is a very easy sauce to make using a curry powder; I prefer the Madras curry powder. If you’re adventurous and want to make your own curry powder, there are a number of recipes and videos on-line (YouTube especially) which show the process.

In a small sauce pan, heat

2 tablespoons oil

then add

1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of curry, depending on your taste and cook for approximately 30 seconds until you can smell the curry. 

Add 2 tablespoons all purpose gluten-free flour.  Whisk and cook for several minutes. 

Whisk in 3/4 to 1 cup (the amount of milk depends on how thick you want your sauce) of your favorite milk (coconut milk works great here but rice, hemp, almond also work fine).

Easy Sausage Gravy (dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free)

I’ve been discovering many different things to eat for breakfast since I am now allergic to eggs. Sausage and gravy is one of my very favorites. So satisfying.

To make sausage gravy, fry in a non-stick skillet

  • 1 pound lean turkey sausage (if you use pork sausage, drain off fat before proceeding; and there are excellent meat-free sausages now available if vegan is desired)

When cooked, add

  • 2 cups of your favorite non-dairy milk (DO NOT USE SOY MILK)

Whisk until smooth

  • 1 tablespoon gluten-free all purpose flour (depending on the milk you use, you might need to use more than 1 tablespoon but no more than 2 TBS should work)
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy milk, except soy

Add to pan; whisk until smooth and thickened; this should only take about 2-3 minutes over medium heat.

Soy Sauce Substitute (soy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free)

I do so love Chinese foods but not an easy thing to find these foods that don’t contain soy. Harder yet to cook them without an alternative other than coconut aminos. Since I’m also allergic to coconut, that doesn’t work for me! So here’s a recipe for a substitute that isn’t as salty but adds that umami we crave with Chinese foods. I frequently make a double batch and freeze it in small 1/4 cup portions since it will last in the refrigerator only about 3-4 weeks but freezes very nicely.

In a small saucepan mix:

1 1/2 cups bone broth – I used mushroom but beef would also work

3 teaspoons vinegar

1 tablespoon unsulfured molasses

2 teaspoons date sugar (or date syrup)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by half. Cool.