Bacon-Cheese Potato Skins (Gluten-free)

Set these out for a snack or appetizer and they’ll disappear in no time!  Offer a plateful to hungry teenagers and they’ll quit asking how soon dinner will be ready.  While watching a game or a movie, serve these with a veggie tray and you won’t be in the kitchen during the action.

Bacon-Cheese Potato Skins

4 medium russet potatoes

4 slices bacon

1/3 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon fresh chives, snipped

1/4 cup butter, melted

1-1/2 cups Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded

3 tablespoons Tabasco Sauce, or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, optional

1.  In a 400 degree F. oven, bake the potatoes for 1 hour, or until done; let cool.  Meanwhile, cook and drain the bacon; crumble it.  Mix the sour cream with the chives; put in small serving bowl and chill until ready to use.

2.  When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut length-wise to make two relatively flat pieces.

3.  With a spoon, scoop some of the potato out of each skin, leaving about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick potato shells. (Save the scooped-out potato for another dish.)  Butter the entire surface of each skin, inside and out.

 – If you want to fix ahead, prepare up to this point and refrigerate, covered, up to 24 hours.  Let return to room temperature and continue:

4.  Place the skins on a cookie sheet and broil until well-browned, 8 to 10 minutes. 

5.  Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of shredded cheese into each skin.

6.  Sprinkle crumbled bacon over the cheese.

7.  Broil the skins for 2 more minutes to melt the shredded cheese.  Serve with the sour cream dip and Tabasco Sauce or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. 

8 servings.

Black-Eyed Pea Salad

A refreshing change for a gluten-free side dish or lunch, this high-fiber salad has lots of flavor and nutrition. I like to use canned peas, since that’s the easiest, but you can use fresh or frozen black-eyed peas, cooked and cooled. To make it even healthier, use low-fat or fat-free mayonnaise, which will reduce the calories by as much as one-fourth.

Black-Eyed Pea Salad

1 Cup Black-eyed Peas, canned, drained

4 Tablespoons Celery, minced

2 tablespoons Onion, minced

2 tablespoons Mayonnaise

1/8 teaspoon Pepper, ground

Dash Tabasco Sauce, optional

2 Cups Torn Lettuce Leaves, optional

Mix together, chill and serve by itself or on lettuce. Makes 2 servings.

Creamed Soup Base, Comfort Food by the Gluten Free Gourmet

Comfort food. We all love it…that’s why it’s call comfort food.  Bette Hagman works her wonderful touch on old favorites in this cookbook, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods: Creating Old Favorites with the New Flours.   (This is an affiliate link.  I will receive a commission if you buy this book…that helps pay the bills.)

My favorite recipe from this cookbook (although not the only one!) is the Creamed Soup Base (p. 277-278).  As she says in her note at the beginning, “This base is a time-saver when a recipe calls for a can of creamed soup.  I always keep some by my stove so that it is now as handy for me as canned soups used to be.  A few tablespoons of this dry mix plus water or stock…and you can have cream of chicken soup, mushroom soup, tomato soup, cheese soup, shrimp soup or a cream sauce or gravy.”  She also has a note to adjust for vegetarian or lactose intolerant, if you want.

The link above is

Roben Ryberg’s Excellent Gluten-Free Cookbook

Roben Ryberg’s excellent book, You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living   (this is an affiliate link –  I will receive a commission if you buy this book…that helps pay the bills), will help with lots of those questions you’ll have while cooking for celiac disease.  One of the first recipes I tried from this book was for Fruit Muffins (pp. 138-139), which I wanted to make with blueberries.  I found two versions, one potato-based and one rice-based.  Before each of them she described what was different about that particular version and what was especially good about it.  For the Fruit Muffins, I decided I like the Rice-based version best!

For the Pumpkin Quick Bread (pp. 140-141) Roben has four versions – Corn-based, Oat-based, Potato-based and Rice-based.  I think I tried three of them (I was out of oat flour, so I couldn’t try that), and they came out very much as she described.  The Corn-based was “Moist, dense and not too spicy.”  The Potato-based was “A very pretty, tasty loaf.”  The Rice-based, my favorite, was “…a very moist bread with nice pumpkin and spice flavor….”

I love looking up the latest recipe I’m thinking about cooking.  Roben has some great ideas! Try them for yourself. You can find her book here: You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living.

Cream of Pumpkin Soup, Gluten-Free

You may not have discovered how wonderful soup can be until you put what you like best in it.  This pumpkin soup is simple, flavorful, yet also so good for you! 

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

1 1/2 Cups Water

2 each Chicken Bouillon Cubes, gluten-free (or vegetable flavor can be used)

1 tablespoon Dried Onions, minced

15 Ounces Pumpkin

2 tablespoons Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Water, cold

12 Ounces Evaporated Skim Milk, or 2% evap. milk

1/4 Teaspoon Celery Salt, to taste

1/4 Teaspoon Garlic Salt, to taste

1/4 teaspoon Pepper, freshly ground

4 Sprigs Celery Leaves, for garnish

In 2-quart saucepan, heat 1-1/2 cups of the water with the bouillon cubes and the minced dried onion.  After bouillon cubes are dissolved, stir in the pumpkin.  Reduce heat to medium and continue heating, stirring frequently.

Add rice flour to remaining 1/2 cup of water, stir well and add to pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly.  When mixture thickens, slowly stir in the evaporated milk, reducing heat to low.  Heat through, but do not boil once the milk is added! 

Add celery salt, garlic salt, and pepper to taste.  If too thick, add a little more water, a few tablespoons at a time.

Garnish with celery leaves, or parsley, and serve.

Beef Round Steak in the Crock Pot, Gluten-Free

For a classic stick-to-the-ribs family-style meal that will satisfy celiacs and non-celiacs alike, try this lean but filling dinner.  With good seasonings and vegetables, a beef round steak cooked in the crock pot with a tasty gluten-free gravy is an easy, dependable favorite.

Since this has the meat, the vegetables, the potatoes and the gravy already in it,  I could easily picture dipping a piece of gluten-free bread in that gravy.  Other than that, the whole meal is in the pot!

Beef Round Steak in the Crock Pot, with Gluten-Free Gravy, Green Beans, Carrots and Potatoes

2 pounds Beef Round Steak, trimmed and cut in pieces

1/4 cup Rice Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1 1/2 cups Beef Broth (gluten-free)

2 Teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce, Lea & Perrins

1 pound Carrots, peeled and quartered

1/2 Cup Celery, chopped

1 Large Onion, cut in wedges

1 tablespoon Dried Parsley, or 1/4 cup fresh snipped

1/2 Teaspoon Winter Savory, or Rosemary, and/or Basil, as desired

6 Medium Potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 1/2 Pounds Green Beans, Frozen, cut

Put meat in crock pot.  Mix flour, salt and pepper, and pour over meat; stir to coat meat with flour.  Add remaining ingredients except green beans.  If needed, add enough water to cover it barely.  Cover; cook on low 8 to 10 hours (or high for 4 to 6 hours), adding green beans last 45 minutes.  Stir before serving. 

Servings: 6

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Start to finish: 8-10 hours on low (4-6 hours on high)

Green Bean Casserole, Gluten-free

If you liked Green Bean Casserole before starting to cook gluten-free, like me, you may have missed it especially on Thanksgiving when the turkey dinner was on the table. 

With the two most challenging ingredients made simpler by Roben Ryberg (as I’ve shown in a couple of recent posts), this traditional green bean dish can rejoin the favorites at your gluten-free holiday dinners again, and everyone can enjoy it. 

Green Bean Casserole, Gluten-free

1-1/3 Cups Mushroom Soup, Condensed, gluten-free (see post on 12/7/09)

1/2 Cup Milk

1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce, gluten-free

1 Dash Pepper

30 Ounces Green Beans, Canned, drained (2 cans)

1-1/3 Cups Fried Onion Rings, gluten-free (see post on 12/5/09)

 Mix soup, milk, soy sauce and pepper in 1-1/2-qt. casserole, stirring well to mix. Add green beans and half the onion rings.  Bake at 350 deg. F. for 25 min. or until hot.  Stir.  Sprinkle with remaining onions.  Bake 5 minutes.

New England Clam Chowder (Gluten-Free)

Not too rich, but creamy and filling, a bowl of this gluten-free New England Clam Chowder makes a lunch to last till dinner, or a cup of it with a salad will do the same.

New England Clam Chowder

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 Cup Diced Celery
3 Cups Yukon Gold Potato, cooked and cubed
1 Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley
1 Each Bay Leaf
3 Tablespoons Rice Flour
1 Cup 1% low-fat milk
6 1/2 Ounces Chopped Clams

In a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan, heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery; saute until onion is becoming transparent. While cooking onions and celery, drain clams, reserving clam liquid and adding enough water to equal 1 cup.

Add cubed potatoes to onions and celery; continue to cook, stirring frequently, until heated through. Add the reserved clam liquid with water added, the 1 cup water, and the salt, pepper, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Simmer, covered, about 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf.

Blend flour into milk with a fork; stir into pan. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in clams; heat through and serve: 1-1/2 cups for a bowl, 1 cup for a lighter serving.  (Makes 6 cups.)

Gluten-Free Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup for Sauces, Casseroles, and especially Green Bean Casserole!

This is so easy to make you might want to use it even if you don’t need to have a gluten-free dish.  As with the Onion Rings mentioned earlier, this tastes good enough you need make no excuses to anyone about its being gluten-free.  Roben Ryberg includes this in her book,  You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living, p.158.

 Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup, by Roben Ryberg (Gluten-Free)

This casserole helper isn’t what you think it is.  Cream in the title would lead you to believe dairy is a main ingredient, but it isn’t.  In fat, it barely registers–that famous brand has less than 2 percent dairy.  This recipe is not for eating as is–if you want to enjoy a bowl of great cream of mushroom soup, please try the other recipe on page 161.  However, if you need a good substitute for a non-gluten-free commercial brand to use in a casserole, this one will do the job nicely.  This recipe replaces one (10-3/4-ounce) can of cream of mushroom soup.

4 Ounces Fresh Mushrooms, chopped finely

3 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup Water

2 Tablespoons Cornstarch, or potato starch plus 1 Teaspoon Cornstarch, or potato starch

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

 - Wash and finely chop the mushrooms.  Place in a small saucepan with the butter.  Cook over medium heat until the mushrooms are very fragrant and tender, approximately 5 minutes.  A little browning of the mushrooms will add to the flavor.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a cup and stir to dissolve the starch.  Add to the pot.  Stirring, bring to a boil to allow the mixture to thicken.

- Use as called for in any recipe.

You can find Roben Ryberg’s book for yourself here:

You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living

With These Onion Rings, Even Gluten-Free Green Bean Casserole Is Possible

When holiday dinners come around, a frequent request is Green Bean Casserole. At first, I thought it was impossible to make gluten-free but not obvious about it. Now I have found that I can do it. The two problematic ingredients, the onion rings and the mushroom soup, can be done, and dinner will be more complete for fans of this classic side dish.

When first starting to cook for a celiac diet, onion rings seemed to me a great loss. French fries didn’t seem too difficult, since they weren’t coated with batter, but to me homemade onion rings were challenging. I didn’t want to go to that much trouble just for me, when others wouldn’t eat them — but then they would want some of their own. This batter works for all of us!

Thanks to Roben Ryberg, in her great cookbook, You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living
(p. 41), you can make onion rings so good that, as Roben says, “…no one will know they are gluten-free….” Here’s her recipe.

Onion Rings – Corn-based
These are very good onion rings. If you share them, no one will know they are gluten-free. I’ll never tell!

1 large onion, preferably sweet, peeled and sliced ¼ thick
Peanut or canola oil, for frying

Batter:
3/4 cup cornstarch, 95 grams
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan gum
1/2 cup milk

Topping:
Salt

- Heat the oil, in a saucepan or dedicated deep fryer, to 370°F.
- In a small bowl, combine the batter ingredients. Add the sliced onion.
- Remove the onion slices from the batter and place in the hot oil. Fry for approximately 2 minutes, until the coating is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt.

Serves 4.

NOTE: If making fried onions to use in green bean casserole, cut the slices 1/8 inch thick and barely coat with batter. These thin slices will fry in approximately 1 minute. No additional salt is needed after frying.

You can find Roben Ryberg’s book for yourself here:

You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living

Watch for the mushroom soup recipe, coming soon!