Easy Gluten Free Recipe - Sweet Potato and Orange Soup

This recipe is:

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

Easy gluten free recipes do exist. You don't have to spend hours slaving at a hot stove to have safe, nutricious and delicious food. Here's an easy gluten free recipe which will take only 20 minutes from start to finish.

Sweet Potato and Orange Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
450g sweet potato, peeled and grated
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
850ml vegetable or chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
seasoning.

Cooks note - for further ease and speed, just roughly chop the vegetables and blend with a hand blender when they're cooked.

Saute the onions in a large pan, in the olive oil, for a minute or so until they are soft but not browned. (If they are browning, turn down the heat). Add the sweet potatoes, celery, stock, thyme and orange zest.
Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove the sprigs of thyme.
Add the orange juice and parsley. Season to taste

If cooking gluten free food is getting you down, do some sums and you might start to feel less downtrodden. This easy gluten free recipe is 20 minutes from start to finish, so if you make double that's only 10 minutes invested. Plus when the soup is simmering, you're not "cooking"- you can be chilling with a glass of wine or pottering about doing something else. So let's say you're only truely investing 5 minutes cooking a lovely meal. I reckon that's okay, don't you?

Quick Gluten Free Snacks - Hot Nuts Anyone??

This recipe is:

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

As I pondered whether I should have red or white wine with my friend as we Stiched and Bitched (that's knitting to the uninitiated), I decided to knock up a quick gluten free snack, fondly known as hot nuts ;oO

Sesame seeds
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
whole almonds
cashew nuts
chilli flakes
tamari (a gluten free soy sauce substitute)
fresh lemon juice

In a hot pan, lightly toast the sesame seed, just until they start to pop. Add the pumpkin seeds and toast for a further minute or so. Add all the other nuts and as much chilli flakes as you can bear, and stir frequently to prevent scorching. When all the nuts and seeds are hot, add a splash of tamari and the juice of a squeezed lemon - careful as it will sizzle! Serve hot with beer or wine. Alternatively you can sprinkle this over a salad.

An alternative quick gluten free snack is to use wasabi paste instead of chilli flakes. A different kind of burn, but just as tasty!

Lovely lentils - another gluten free baby food recipe

This recipe is:

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

Lentils get a bad press, but I think they make an excellent gluten free baby food. Recipes vary, but here's a tried and tested favourite - lovely lentil and vegetable puree. This also freezes really well, so you could easily double up the quantities and have some ready for emergencies.

Gluten Free Baby Food - Lovely Lentils and Vegetable Puree

l leek, washed and sliced
2 carrots, washed or peeled if not organic, and chopped
50g red lentils
300ml stock - chicken or vegetable
100g cauliflower, washed and broken up
1/2 apple, peeled, cored and chopped

Saute the leek for a few minutes, then add the carrots and cook for another few minutes. Add the lentils, pour over about 3/4 of the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the cauliflower and apple, and simmer for a further 10 - 15 minutes or until the lentils and vegetables are cooked, adding your remaining stock if the mixture is getting dry.

Let it cool slightly and blend to the desired consistency.

I made the mistake of adding far too much stock and ended up with lentil soup, not lentil puree, which was tasty, but much slower to feed the baby.

Serve with some finger food (if old enough) such as slices of gluten free toast with omega rich seed butter, to keep their interest up. (Note - seed butter may not be suitable if there is a history of sesame seed allergies in the family).

I've made this gluten free baby food loads of times, even now that baby can handle "big" food such as risottos. She loves it and it's a saved me many a time when there's been some in the freezer.

Gluten free dinner recipe - Chicken, Mushroom and Courgette Risotto

This recipe is:

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

Well I've been abandoned by the gluten free food freak - he's off on a jolly, sorry, business trip for the week, so it's down to me to feed the family. After standing at an open fridge door and scratching my head for a bit, I came up with chicken, mushroom and courgette risotto.

Chicken stock (from the freezer).
olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
300g risotto rice
2 sundried tomatoes, chopped finely
3 organic courgettes
250g organic mushrooms
handful fresh parsley, chopped (which I keep in the freezer for emergencies!)
200g roast chicken
optional - grated parmesan cheese

Risottos are great as you can put almost anything into them and they usually taste great. The technique is essentially the same, no matter what you put in it.

Heat up your chicken stock.

In some olive oil, saute gently the garlic and onion, for about 10 minutes, without letting it brown. Turn up the heat a little, and add your risotto rice and stir for about 1 minute. Add the chopped dried tomatoes and a ladle of hot chicken stock and stir into the rice mixture. Keep adding stock one ladle at a time and stir frequently. The rice will take about 18 minutes or so from when you added your first ladle of stock. Taste the rice and it should have a light "bite" to the centre when it's ready.

Meanwhile, finely grate the mushrooms and courgettes. (I did this so baby can eat the risotto too). Lightly saute the mushrooms and courgettes in a frying pan, with a little olive oil, for about 10 minutes. Add the parsley and finely chopped chicken (again chopped for the baby) and leave until you're ready to add it to the cooked rice.

When the rice is ready, add the vegetables and chicken, season and stir in well. Leave to sit for a few minutes, then serve.

This gluten free dinner recipe went down well with both baby and I - the husband, had he been here, would have loved it too. And today I packed up a little pot for baby's lunch at nursery. Hopefully today she will still like her chicken, mushroom and courgette risotto!