Tag Archives: food allergies

Soup of the Day: Summertime Black Bean Soup

I don’t know about you, but growing up in the south soup was not a summer food.  At least not in my house.  We ate cold food whenever possible, and my mother did her best to forget that we owned a stove (not a judgment, just the facts: she is the best mother in the world and she will be the first to tell you that she gets “hurmpy”– hot grumpy).  Given that background, I was surprised to find on our recent trip to Mexico that soup was served every day.  Yes, in Mexico, during their hottest season, delicious, delectable soups were offered every evening: beet soup, lentil, vegetable, chickpea, onion. . .they were varied and, despite the heat, perfect.

Well, I suppose Jason took a liking to the idea; in spite of the 90 degree plus weather here in Virginia he has requested soup a few times since we came home.  The one I’m going to share with you today we eat as a full meal, rather than a soup course, but I imagine you could make it fit beautifully into a larger menu.

This recipe is inspired by a long time favorite from the Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon, Cuban Black Bean Soup Santa Fe.  If you are on the lookout for a fantastic and healthy cookbook that you will turn to again and again, I highly recommend this one.  Beyond that, I suppose both our recent trip and the beautiful, abundant produce available at the market just now are responsible for the evolution of this soup.  Doing the Allergy Elimination Diet?  This soup is a great option for you.  Enjoy.  (Please forgive the rotten pictures; I just can’t seem to work the camera properly these days :S ).

 

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Summertime Black Bean Soup with Roasted Corn and Avocado Salsa

makes 5 -6 main course servings

Soup Ingredients:

2 cups dried black beans, rinsed, picked over, and soaked in water to cover

2 bay leaves

2 Tbs cumin seeds

1 large jalapeno, chopped with seeds

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large white onion, medium dice

2 green bell peppers, medium dice

6 cloves garlic, sliced or uniformly chopped

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

Soak beans overnight in enough water to cover (four cups is a good starting number).  In large pot or slow cooker, combine beans with soaking water, cumin seeds, jalapeno, bay leaves and 1 tsp of salt.  Add 3 cups water and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and bring to a simmer, cooking, partially covered, until beans are tender, roughly 2 hours.

In a large skillet add olive oil and garlic and turn to medium heat.  When garlic becomes fragrant, add diced peppers and onion.  Season with salt and pepper (start with no more than half a tsp of salt. . .you can always add more, but you can’t take away).  The goal here is to sweat the vegetables, not brown them, so keep the heat gentle as you sautee then until softened.

When the beans are tender and the vegetables are softened, using an immersion blender or food processor, blend half the beans (being sure to include the two bay leaves) and 1/4 to 1/3 of the vegetables together until thick and smooth.  Add this and the vegetable mixture to the remaining beans in your large pot.  Stir thoroughly to combine and taste for seasoning.  Simmer for another 20 minutes.  Serve garnished with roasted corn and avocado salsa.

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Roasted Corn and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

2 ears of corn

2 ripe avocados

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

lemon or lime

1/8 tsp. chipotle chili powder

Directions:

Set oven to broil.  Line baking sheet with foil.  Remove husks from corn; cut avocados in half and remove seed.  Rub corn and avocado lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Broil, turning as needed until uniformly charred.  Avocados will finish before corn.  When cool enough to touch cut corn from cob, remove avocado from skin and cube.  Combine corn, avocado, cilantro, chipotle chili powder and the juice of 1 lemon or lime.

Brown Butter Cookies, Q, and a Merry Christmas to You!

Feliz Navidad, mes amis!  I know, I know, I’m mixing my languages, but those two phrases are each so lovely, they should be together once in awhile.  Jason and I are back in Georgia for the Christmas holiday, spending quiet, happy time with family.  My dad gave us an astoundingly tasty welcome with some homemade bbq.

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Say hello to Frank’s Smokin’ Hot Butt!  After 17 hours of smoking and baking, we gorged ourselves on this porky pulled goodness.

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Add homemade sauce, green beans, “cracked taters” and coleslaw, and it was a very nearly perfect meal.  And while I’m not allowed to share the secret recipe for that beautiful butt, I can slip you a little sugary Yuletide cheer.  What would you say to a gluten-free brown butter, chocolate-chip oat cookie?  If you are smart, you are saying, “Yes, please!”.

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This recipe is an update of last Christmas’s gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookie

Gluten-free Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 c. gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats

½ c. brown rice flour

2 c. tapioca starch

1 c. amaranth flour

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp kosher salt

2 ½ sticks butter, browned and cooled slightly

1 ¼ c. brown sugar

1 c. + 2 Tbs. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

9 – 12 oz. chocolate (I use 70% or higher), chips, chunks or chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

In a large bowl whisk together flours, starch, oats, baking soda and powder, salt and sugars.In a separate bowl, mix browned and cooled butter, vanilla, and eggs.

Stir wet and dry ingredients together until fully mixed. Finally, add the chocolate and stir until evenly distributed.  Allow dough to rest in refrigerator  at least one hour, or up to three days, then bake .

Bake cookies in oven for 8-15 minutes, depending on desired doneness. Note: cookies may appear lighter in color than wheat flour cookies when done.

Aside from eating and cooking, I’ve spent just a bit of time finishing up my last sewing project.  This is an unflattering photo of my badly ironed new shirt (I’m blaming my mother’s iron, which I am pretty sure predates the last ice age).

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It is an ivory silk/cotton blend that feels amazing!  I love this fabric so much, this is the second time I’ve used it.  Anyway, enough about my boring-to-you shirt.  I really just wanted to take a few minutes  before Tuesday to say Merry Christmas, and may God bless you as this year comes to a close.

Merry Christmas

 

Allergy Elimination Diet Baked Apples

Happy Friday, my friends!  Before we all slide gratefully into the weekend, I want to share one last recipe for the week. These luscious baked apples are designed with allergy elimination diet participants in mind, but they are really a gorgeous treat for anyone.  So haul out those left-over cranberries (and if you are feeling a little naughty, grab the caramel or homemade whipped cream as well. . .not you a. e. d.’ers) and add these to your weekend breakfast/brunch list.  These apples can be prepped and stuffed the night, or several days, before baking.  Peeled or not, it doesn’t matter, just be sure to rub the naked bits with lemon juice or brush them with maple or agave to keep them from discoloring.  To make your cavity, you may use a corer, melon baller, spoon, or, my favorite, a sharp edged 1/2 tsp. measuring spoon.  You are not going all the way through the apple; leave at least a 1/4 to 1/2 in of flesh at the base.

If you are not on an allergy elimination diet, or if you are, and you are not avoiding oats, by all means throw a handful of gluten-free rolled oats into the mix.

Allergy Elimination Diet Baked Apples

make 2 med/lg apples

2 apples (I always prefer pink, but use your favorite, so long as it is firm and good for baking)

(2 Tbs. g.f. oats optional)

2 Tbs. chopped cranberries

2Tbs. pumpkin seeds

2 tsp. flax seeds

1 tsp. chia seeds

1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 heaping tsp. ground cinnamon

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp. coconut oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. + maple syrup (extra to brush over outside as desired)

lemon juice

Hollow out cavities in apples, being careful to remove very hard core areas.  Rub exposed apple flesh with lemon juice. Mix all remaining ingredients and divide evenly between apples.  The size of your apples could change the amount of filling needed.  If using apples immediately, preheat oven to 375.  Place apples in baking pan lined with tin foil.  Bake until knife blades slips through apple flesh with a bit of pressure, but still solid (you don’t want stuffed applesauce).  Remove from oven and serve immediately.  If making ahead wrap apples individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 3 or 4 days.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Chocolate Marbled Banana Nut Bread

Howdy.  I just realized that it is very nearly my one year birthday!  Well, my blog birthday.  In honor of that, I’ve made myself a cake. . .bread.  Okay, actually I’m having tea with a friend tomorrow and I wanted something moist and crumbly to take along, and that is why I baked.  But I think this is good enough to count for both occasions!  A rich, fragrant, nut-filled banana bread marbled with chocolate and spiced with cinnamon.  Yum!  If you’ve been with me for a while now you may be saying, “wait a minute, don’t you already have a banana nut bread recipe?”.  Why yes, yes I do, right here. But this one, if not a completely different animal, has enough differences to be a welcome addition, for me if no one else!  This one is not only gluten-free, but dairy free as well (and with the migraines I’ve been having lately, I’m trying to be extra careful!). My next foray will be to add chunks of ginger, perhaps briefly poached in vanilla, to this recipe.

For this version I did sorghum flour, tapioca starch, brown sugar, maple syrup, and walnuts; you will understand when you see the ingredient options below.  A quick note on that:  I hope the varied ingredient options I often offer aren’t confusing.  I am attempting to a) make it possible for people, despite their geographic location, to find some version that uses ingredients available to them, and  b) show you that cooking/baking isn’t a program set in stone.  There are ratios of ingredients that absolutely matter, but if there is one thing my daddy taught me (besides the basics of making a killer steak) it was to be fearless about making recipes my own.  Do my substitution experiments always work. . .no.  But sometimes I stumble upon something my mouth finds truly outstanding, something I would never have found if I had stayed inside the recipe box.  So, happy experimenting (or direction following); if you make changes or just make the original, send a note and share the goodness!

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Chocolate Marbled Banana Nut Bread

makes 1 loaf

1 c. or about three ripe bananas, mashed

2 large eggs, beaten to light foam

1/4 c. olive or coconut oil

1/4 c. brown, cane, or coconut sugar

6 Tbs. maple syrup (agave, brown rice, honey, or golden syrup will work)

1 c. sorghum or brown rice flour

1/2 c. tapioca or potato starch

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup toasted pecan or walnut pieces

2 0z. chocolate, 62-80% cacao

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a loaf pan with parchment.  In bain-marie or metal bowl over pot of barely simmering water, melt chocolate until only small pieces remain solid.  Remove bowl from heat, and stir chocolate until smooth.  Set aside.

Mix beaten eggs, banana mash, and oil.  Add sugar and syrup, and combine.  Mix in flour, starch, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Scoop 1/3 cup of batter  and add to melted chocolate.  Stir until thoroughly combined.  In batter bowl add toasted nuts and fold to incorporate.  Scrape chocolate mix into batter bowl and fold til evenly streaked but NOT combined.  Pour into lined pan and place in oven.  Check at 45 minutes with toothpick or cake tester (or, if you are a confident bread maker, do the thump test).  If not done, tent with foil to prevent over-browning.

Remove from oven and cool, on rack in pan, for 15 minutes.  Lift from pan and finish cooling on rack.  Savor.

Allergy Elimination Diet: Reintroducing Eliminated Foods

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This is the fourth post in our allergy elimination diet series.

Hello a.e.d. participants.  Congratulations!  You made it through 28 days of massive diet upheaval, intense hunger and cravings, and pull-your-hair-out confusing trips to the grocery store.  Well done!  Now, the time has come to slowly and carefully reintroduce the foods you have eliminated.

No, that does not mean you go and grab the first double stack cheeseburger  you see.  In order to accurately  determine which foods may be problematic, each type needs to be tested in its most basic form.  Wheat- not bread, because that could be gluten, wheat, soy, yeast or an additive (if you use a prepackaged bread).  Instead buy some cream of wheat and eat it plain.  For dairy products, reintroduce basically and individually.  Milk, cheese, yogurt (unflavored), and ice cream should all be done separately and days apart.  Cow, goat, sheep and other milks should also be tested separately.  This allows you to determine if one type of dairy is problematic and not others, if all dairy is problematic, or (for the lucky among you) no dairy is problematic.

You get the idea; every reintroduced food, from Almonds to Zesty lemons, should be in its simplest state.  After eating, carefully observe the effects each food has on you.   Consider keeping a record of the results for your doctor and yourself. Give yourself roughly a day with each food, and have that food two or three times over the course of the day.  If you have a bad reaction to a food, wait until you are symptom free before moving on to a new item.

Also, if you find a problem, educate yourself.  Don’t wander through the rest of your life a victim to this allergy or sensitivity; find out if there are treatments,  make sure you have a clear enough understanding of the problem to keep yourself safe and healthy.  Look for or create alternative favorite recipes; educate your loved ones, patiently and graciously.  On that note:  after this intense a.e.d. experience, food and your personal restrictions are looming large in your mind.  Don’t assume that they are in everyone else’s;  you friends and family have their own problems and health concerns and, simply, lives to keep up with.  If they offer you a problematic food, don’t melt down; calmly decline and explain.  You may have to do this a dozen times with the same person.  Also, for group meals and parties:  it is easier (and safer) for an individual with allergies to make provision for themselves than to expect others to do it for them.  So take a dish that fits your dietary needs, and make it so fantastic that others want the recipe! If someone does go out of their way to cater to your allergy, show them how much you truly appreciate that consideration.  Bottom line, extend a little grace to those around you.

I sincerely hope that the allergy elimination diet information provided here on One is Hungry has been helpful.  I will be continue to post new a.e.d recipes and stories of other people’s a.e.d. journeys from time to time.  The more accurate and in depth information that is made available, the greater the chance that someone with find the answers or help they are looking for!  If you have completed the a.e.d. journey and would like to share your story, tips or recipes, please contact me.