This is a very easy recipe. In a medium bowl, place:
With your hand mixer on low, mix; as it comes together, you can speed up your mixer to add more air to the frosting. If the mixture is too thick, add more strawberry puree; if it is too loose, add more non-dairy cream cheese.
My husband doesn’t often enjoy my “special” recipes but this is one he flips over. Its one of his favorite things about strawberry season. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of different pie crust recipes trying to develop a really tasty, flaky, gluten-free pie crust. I haven’t been very successful. I’ve found the tastiest gluten-free pie crust, but not sugar-free, in my local supermarket’s frozen-food section, Wholly gluten-free by Wholly Wholesome. Although not sugar-free, it has a very low amount of sugar, just 2 grams per serving.
Pre-bake pie shell in 375 degree oven following directions on the reverse of the label. Let cool. While that’s cooling make the cream:
Put in a 2 quart pot:
Bring to a boil. While its heating, blend:
When the milk is boiling, whisk in the cornstarch slurry and continue whisking until the mixture thickens. Take off the heat and add:
Blend until well mixed and margarine has melted. Cool. When the cream is almost cold, pour into the baked pie shell and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
You can either use one cup of strawberry jam as a topping for this cream, or use the following:
In a small pot mix
Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. If you remove this from the heat when it starts to thicken instead of waiting for a boil, you’ll have a looser topping like mine above. If you let it boil, you’ll have more like a the strawberry jam consistency.
Top with your favorite non-dairy whipped topping or you can decorate with strawberry cream cheese frosting.
This is one of my favorite times of the year — strawberry season. What a wonderful treat fresh picked strawberries are; they make so many great things, so much more than just strawberry shortcake. I should probably tell you that I was never able to make jellies or jams, tried for years without any success. But when I discovered Pomona’s Universal Pectin, it works every time! Like magic!
Here’s a delicious and easy recipe for sugar-free strawberry jam. Note that you can also make raspberry, blackberry, peach, apple, pear, plum, prune, etc., jams using this method.
Wash and hull:
You can either mash them with a potato masher or puree them in your food processor; it all depends on how smooth you want your jam. If you like pieces of strawberry in your jam, use the masher.
Follow the instructions on Pomona’s Universal Pectin* to make calcium water.
Put in a 3 quart or larger pot:
Bring to a boil.
While you’re waiting for the strawberries to heat, combine:
I find the pectin mixes best into the nectar if you add the pectin to the agave rather than adding the agave to the pectin. Use a small whisk to blend.
When the strawberries are bubbling, stir in the pectin-nectar mixture. Continue heating for several minutes (2-3) to dissolve the pectin. Remove from heat. Pour into water bathed jars. This should make 4 pint jars and a 1/2 pint jar.
You can either put these filled jars into a water bath for 10 minutes or, I prefer the easier method of just letting them cool completely and then placing them in the freezer.
In fact, these cookies have no flour in them at all. Here’s what you can do with the chickpeas you have left over when you use the agua fava (or aquafaba; bean water) in a recipe. These are pretty good although not as chewy as the high calorie version and they can be quite soft. Adding a nut butter, I use tahini since I’m allergic to nuts, gives them a great flavor. I like to freeze them because they taste really good frozen; it adds the chewiness that you get in regular chocolate chip cookies.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees; cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with a non-stick spray.
Put in your food processor
Blend until the garbonzo beans and dates are pureed into the mixture. I watch until I don’t see any more lumps and then blend it for several more minutes since its not the most pleasant experience to bite into a large chunk of chickpea when eating a cookie!
Stir into mixture 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use Chatfield Carob Chips) [be sure to check the package for allergens such as dairy and sugar]. Drop by tablespoons (or 1/4 cup measure) onto the prepared cookie sheet and then, with the back of a wet spoon, flatten cookies. Bake for approximately 12-18 minutes depending on how large or small you make the cookies. Makes between 10 to 20 cookies depending on size.
*If you don’t like the taste of dates or they have too much sugar content, you can use 1/4 cup of agave, honey, or coconut nectar in this recipe or 1 tablespoon stevia. If you add one of the nectars, be sure to decrease the water to 1/4 cup.
Tip: I’m really bad about flattening cookies; these work as bars just as well so I usually spread the batter in a 9×9 or 8×10 greased pan and increase the baking time to 20-25 minutes.
With a small cabbage (I like to use Chinese cabbage), remove outer leaves and cut in slides or wedges. Put in your food processor and pulse until medium dice (depending on what you like, me I like to taste the cabbage but I know people, like my husband, who like cole slaw finely diced).
Put in a medium to large bowl depending on how much cabbage you have and add:
To make the dressing, put in a small bowl:
Stir until mixed and add to the cabbage mixture. Depending on the amount of cabbage you have, you may need a little more or a little less mayonnaise. Salt and pepper to taste.
If you’d rather not have a mayonnaise-based cole slaw, here’s a vinaigrette to use instead:
Blend together:
I use a canning jar and shake it until emulsified.
Its been quite a few years since I was able to use mayonnaise products since I became allergic to eggs. Most mass-produced mayonnaise also includes oils that I can’t have like canola or soybean. About three years ago, I learned about agua fava, the liquid that you drain off the can of beans, like garbanzo or kidney, which can be used as an egg substitute. I resisted this for quite a while since I didn’t relish the idea of using this liquid — really turned me off in fact. Last year, I really wanted some cole slaw and was tired of my vinaigrette version. It tasted like the Cain’s mayonnaise I grew up with! I was thrilled. So, with summer approaching and the time for cooler foods, here’s my recipe for egg-free mayonnaise using agua fava and some salad recipes to go with it. And the great thing about it is that you don’t have to worry about it spoiling like you do egg-based mayos.
Put in a blender:
Start blender on a low setting and begin slowly, and I mean really slowly, drizzling in oil. You’ll add 1 cup of oil total for a thick mayonnaise, or 1 1/4 cup for a thinner dressing. I like to use 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup avocado oil. Makes me feel less guilty using oils that are actually good for us.
Makes a little over 1 cup of mayonnaise. Use in your favorite recipes. Most people won’t be able to tell the difference between this and the mayo you buy.
Doesn’t everyone love a good pasta and cheese? For those of us who are allergic or sensitive to dairy this is one comfort food we thought we’d have to give up forever. However, today with all the non-dairy cheeses that are available, making a pasta and cheese dish is quite easy to do. And if you want to lighten it up, substitute cauliflower rice for half the pasta. You could also use chopped broccoli. This one is very creamy and luscious. Here’s how I make it.
You’ll need:
In a 2 qt saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups of your favorite milk (I use Tempt hemp milk; its strong flavor holds up to the cheese). Add 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper and 12 ounces of Daiya Classic Cheese blend or your favorite non-dairy cheese (you want to use grated cheese here). When milk gets hot, reduce heat to low. Stir frequently to blend as the cheese melts.
Heat 4 qts water in a large pot. When its boiling, add 8 oz of your favorite pasta (I used Ancient Grains Supergrain rotini but I often use Lensi Chickpea pasta, or POW) along with 1 teaspoon salt. Cook according to package directions, drain.
Grease a 2 qt casserole pan, add cooked pasta and about two-thirds of your cheese sauce. Stir to mix. I top it with a couple of slices of Daiya Provolone but you could also use a mixture of margarine (or oil) and gluten-free bread crumbs (my husband’s favorite). Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.
I have a great many food allergies which makes it impossible for me to consume pre-made foods, mixes, etc. Everything I eat, I have to make from scratch. This started about 25 years ago. Since then, I have put together a large library of delicious recipes that are free from many of the most common food allergens such as dairy products, eggs, gluten, sugar, alcohol, nuts, soy or corn. Here is one of my favorites:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baked donut pan (if you don’t have one but you have a pan that makes six small Bundt cakes, that will work as well).*
* Another option is to fry: in that case, add only 3/4 cup of liquid to keep the dough from getting sticky so that you can roll it out and cut out the donuts. Or, keep the liquid and drop from a spoon into the fat. Fry them at 375 degrees.
**Add with the wet ingredients.
***I use the alcohol free vanilla found at Trader Joe’s.
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