Easy gluten free lunch - Roasted Stuffed Peppers, Feta and Cherry Tomato

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Egg free

Sometimes you need to use up what's in the fridge and get creative with your ingredients. So I rustled up an easy gluten free lunch - roasted stuffed peppers with feta and cherry tomatoes.

Bell pepper
Feta cheese, roughly chopped
5 Cherry tomatoes, halved
Balsalmic vinegar
Fresh thyme or basil

Heat the oven up to 220oC (440oF).
Cut out the stalk of the pepper and remove the seeds and white bits.
Stuff the pepper with the feta cheese, tomatoes and herbs, then pour in approximately 2 teaspoons of balsalmic vinegar.
Wrap the stuffed pepper in aluminium foil and place upright in the oven for about 30 minutes. Alternatively you can cook this on a BBQ.

Open the foil parcel carefully, then serve with mixed green leaves. Delicious. Although it takes a while to cook, it really doesn't get much easier than that! Gluten free lunches can be easy with a little bit of creativity, some herbs and a good store cupboard!

Gluten Free Chocolate On Test

Gluten free chocolate is a must. Some people consider chocolate unhealthy because of the caffeine and theobromine (the chemical that can give dogs heart attacks!) but I say they're all wrong. Chocolate is an essential component of a healthy diet! Period.

Here are 5 gluten free chocolates put to blind taste test by a panel of independent, discerning chocoholics; me, the gluten free food freak aka the husband, the sister in law and her fella.

First equal = Oban Chocolate Company Belgian 70% chocolate and Valrhona Green
Montezuma organic 70% chocolate (it's also soya free)
Valrhona Orange
Green and Blacks 70% chocolate

We were interested in; mouthfeel, initial taste, after taste and more-ishness.

Valrhona is hard to come by, but it's the chocolate of choice of many celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay so we had high hopes for it. It did indeed tie for first place with our friend's chocolate from the Oban Chocolate Company (please believe me that this was genuinely independant!), because both were equally good albeit with very different tastes. Also, we thought the Valrhona was too strongly and uniquely flavoured to be a regular guzzle.

The Montezuma chocolate is great and they do a fine line in big bars filled with fruit or nuts or other goodies - and all gluten free (except one or two, which are well marked)! The other Valrhona was good but bizarrely fruity, kind of like orange sultannas. And the ubiquitous Green and Blacks came in at the rear, but's a great storecupboard chocolate for cooking and such like.

We're off to the sister in law's wedding this weekend, and because of their chocolate fetish, we arranged for giant gluten free chocolate truffles - the size of a tennis ball - to be made for each guest. I will let you know how these go down with the guests, but I suspect they will be much revered. You can buy gluten free chocolate here - just make sure you remind Helen to only include gluten free chocolate as there are a couple of chocolates that aren't gluten free (but 99% of them are gluten free, so there are still plenty to choose from).

So, feed your inner chocoholic gluten free chocolate and let someone else do the worrying about whether it's good for you!

Scallops with mango salsa - gluten free recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Thanks to Jamie Oliver for this one, and although it has been tweaked a bit it was gluten free in the original recipe. Scallops are a touch posh for a school night perhaps, but what the heck. Our seafood here in Oban is outstanding, fresh from Carol at Watts on the pier and we eat it every chance we get.

In Jamie's recipe, the scallops are only cooked by the citrus juice. Gluten free food wifie isn't too keen on raw stuff, so we adapted a little.

So...

Scallops with mango salsa

(This served 2 in our house)

6 scallops
1 mango
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 handful basil, finely sliced
Juice of 2 limes / 1 lemon or a mix
1/2 fresh chilli, finely chopped (we left this out so baby could partake)
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
Salt & pepper to taste

We used a bit too much mango for balance in the dish - half would have done, but it was so tasty. The trick seems to be to get enough citrus juice into the dish to balance the sweetness of the mango, and if it's a ripe mango that's quite a lot of citrus.

We also used lemon instead of lime, but that's because lime is one of the things I have to avoid at the moment for allergy reasons (which is well irritating - I love Thai food).

What we did with the scallops, to get round the raw thing, was to cut them into 1 cm cubes then fry them in 2 batches on a very hot pan for less than one minute. You want to get a bit of colour onto them but leave them raw in the middle so the heat gently cooks them once they're off the heat. That way they won't be tough. There's little that's as much of a shame as an overcooked scallop. ;-)

Scallops with mango salsa is really, really good. It is really easy and looks dead swanky. And of course it's gluten free without trying. If you like seafood, give it a go.

More Gluten Free Breakfasts - Fruity Quinoa Porridge Recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

I was feeling a bit fruity :>) this morning, so I decided to try out a new gluten free breakfast recipe - using quinoa flakes. So, here's my fruity quinoa porridge recipe for you to try.

Gluten Free Breakfast - Fruity Quinoa Porridge Recipe

Into a large measuring jug, pour the equivalent of 300ml of quinoa flakes, then top up with about 900ml of water. Put the water and quinoa flakes into a pan, stir well, and bring to the boil. Lower heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in your measuring jug, add the equivalent of about 200ml of dried fruit - I used unsulphered apricots, cherries, cranberries and blueberries but you can use whatever you have in your store cupboard. Add the fruit to the porridge once it's boiled, and allow it to simmer until cooked. Keep an eye on the mix as you simmer, and add some more water if it looks like it's going to stick.

For extra nutritional get up and go, add some chopped flax seeds, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds and/or some almonds.

If you need a bit more sugar but don't want a high glycemic hit, add a dash of concentrated apple juice or agave syrup.

I made this recipe up and am pleasantly surprised to report it is genuinely tasty and the texture of the quinoa is much better than I expected. Plus, double bonus, the baby absolutely loved it, so I'll be making this gluten free breakfast again. Surprise yourself and make this quick and nutritious quinoa porridge recipe and start your day with a yummily full tummy.

Courgette, leek & basil soup

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Here in Scotland, the days are turning colder and wetter. Our plans for a day in the garden were scuppered by a day-long downpour, so it was into the kitchen for warming soup.

The salad drawer in the fridge yielded 3 leeks and 5 ropey old courgettes, so our recipe decision was made for us. The chicken from last night went into the stock pot first thing with some onion, bay leaves, thyme and so on, leaving us with a strongly flavoured stock by afternoon. That formed the basis for the soup. Here's how the rest went...

Courgette, leek & basil soup recipe

3 leeks
5 courgettes
Olive oil or butter
100g quinoa grain (superbly nutritious and tasty gluten free grain)
Good handful basil
2 bay leaves
Salt & pepper

Chop your leeks and courgettes and fry gently for 10-15 minutes in olive oil or butter until soft. Pour in the stock, add the bay leaves and quinoa. Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Blend until smooth (removing bay leaves first). Chop the basil and add to the soup. Season to taste.

Normally I'd bulk out a soup with lentils, but the quinoa gave a much smoother texture and was really good with the courgettes, giving a smooth, almost creamy effect.

A gently flavoured gluten free soup that warmed our cockles on a dreary day.