Gluten free baked beans recipe

This recipe is:

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

Ah baked beans. Long have I been banished from your door by the spectre of food allergy. But now you are back, without the offending tomatoes, and how I welcome thee.

What am I on about I hear you think. Well you know, there's nothing wrong with a little drama to add spice to this evening's recipe for gluten free baked beans. This is a seriously simple recipe, and although it takes aaaaaaaaages to cook, you can just leave it cooking all day if you like. And you can make bucketloads and freeze your baked beans for hassle-free snacking.

Gluten free baked beans

First off, hats off to the New Covent Garden Soup Co. for this recipe. If you haven't got their recipe book 'Soup and beyond', get it. It contains quite possibly the craziest recipes I've ever read, and (sometimes surprisingly) they are very, very good.

And so onto the baked beans...

450g (1lb) dried haricot beans
250g (9oz) smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons, or like, bits
2 tablespoons molasses - molasses should always be gluten free (it's just sugar) but of course check the tin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Now this actually left a little too much bitterness from the molasses for me, so we tweaked with:
1 tablespoon demerera sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Ground black pepper
Some gluten free worcestershire sauce

Soak your haricot beans overnight then boil for about an hour until the beans are tender and the skins beginning to come away. Keep the liquid you cooked them in.

Put half the bacon in the bottom of an oven dish with a lid. Put the beans on top. Mix together the molasses mustard, salt and sugar and pour over the beans. Cover with the bean cooking liquor. Sprinkle remaining lardons on top.

Cover and bake at 150C / 300F / Gas 2 for 4 1/2 hours checking every now and again and adding water if needed to cover beans.

Now that makes some seriously tasty gluten free baked beans, and if you're into that sort of thing, the sort of beans you could easily have for breakfast. We reckon that they could be tweaked a little more with some fresh sage or rosemary towards the end of cooking, and you could really go to town and add a load of veggies like carrots and celery if you fancy it.

So there we go. Gluten free baked beans you can eat even if you and tomatoes are sworn enemies, like me.

Gluten Free Mincemeat Recipe - Spicy Carrot and Sherry Gluten Free Mince Meat PLUS Gluten Free Suet Recipe

This recipe is:

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

It's coming up to the festive season and now's a good time to make some gluten free mince meat, ready to make mince pies, or stuff big bramley apples ready to be baked in the oven or microwave.

Gluten Free Mincemeat - Spicy Carrot and Sherry
225g cooking apples (bramley), peeled and cored and finely grated
100g carrots, peeled and finely grated
450g sultannas
225g currants
grated rind and juice of 1 orange
100g of shredded gluten free suet - recipe below
salt
100g demerara sugar
4 tbsp sherry
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice

Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Put into clean jars, and leave to mature for at least 2 weeks.

Top gluten free tip - Gluten Free Suet Recipe

Ready made gluten free suet is difficult to track down, so if you're stuck, you can make your own. Take 2 parts solid vegetable fat to 1 part gluten free flour e.g. 100g of fat to 50g of flour. Put the fat and flour in a blender, and blitz for a few minutes until it is combined. Put the mixture back in the fridge and allow to cool, then use.

Gluten Free Recipe - Lamb Loin with Spicy Quinoa and Apricot Mint Sauce

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

I had a packet of pork loin in the fridge that was destined for another recipe, which I didn't fancy, so I adapted a lamb recipe and came up trumps with a rather tasty gluten free recipe.

Lamb (or Pork) Loin with Spicy Quinoa and Apricot Mint Sauce
(the original recipe calls for Couscous but that's not gluten free)

For the Meat
450g of lamb or pork loin
olive oil
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, bashed in a mortar and pestle to release the flavour
2 crushed garlic cloves
Salt and pepper

For the Apricot Mint Sauce
25g dairy free margarine (or butter if dairy is not a problem)
1 small onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp soft brown sugar
50g no soak dried apricots, chopped
300ml chicken stock
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

For the spicy Quinoa
25g dairy free margarine (or butter if dairy is not a problem)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
250ml chicken stock
25g raisins
3 tsp pine nuts, lightly toasted
250g quinoa
olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley, chopped

First, marinade the meat, ideally overnight in the fridge or if you're pushed for time (or forgot!) an hour or so will do. Mix the oil, rosemary and garlic in a shallow dish and add the meat loin. Rub the oil into the meat for a minute or so, then cover and place in the fridge.

To make the sauce, melt the margarine (butter) in a small pan, and gently fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes until it is soft. Add the spices and sugar an cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and apricots, bring to a simmer, cover and leave to simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes. When the time is up, add the mint, then blitz with a hand blender until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more chicken stock. Season to taste.

While the sauce is simmering, make the spicy couscous. Melt the margarine and lightly fry the spices for 1 minute. Stir in the sugar and stock and bring to the boil. Add the raisins, pine nuts, and quinoa, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. While the quinoa is simmering, and add extra stock if necessary, as quinoa has a nasty habit of soaking up a lot more liquid than you expect. When 10 minutes are up, test the quinoa, which should be al dente (slight bite), then leave to soak up any excess liquid for a few minutes. Just before you are ready to serve, stir in a drizzle of olive oil, add the lemon juice and fresh herbs and season to taste.

While you've got the sauce and quinoa cooking, heat up a griddle or thick frying pan. Take the meat out of the marinade, season both sides, then fry for 3-4 minutes each side. Set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or so to allow the meat to relax.

This gluten free recipe was a major hit with the gluten free food freak and the baby alike (although I picked out the baby's pine nuts as they're a bit much for her mandibles currently). This is so tasty we are planning to serve it to the inlaws at the weekend, and I hope they will like it too.