Chicken coriander stir fry

This recipe is:

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

This is a fresh and sharp tasting stir-fry, which although quite dry, is so stimulating to the taste buds you won't mind a bit.

Gluten free chicken coriander stir fry

Serves 4

600g chicken breast, sliced into approx 1/2cm thick slices
1 teaspoon dry-roasted coriander seeds (just pop on a hot pan for 30 seconds until you smell them)
400g sweetheart cabbage, finely sliced
Olive oil
10 tbsp natural yoghurt (or soya yogurt to keep it dairy-free)

The chicken marinade

2 tsp ground coriander
6 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
4 spring onions, finely sliced
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
Fresh ground black pepper

Mix the marinade bits and bobs with the chicken and leave to stand. Throw the chicken in its marinade in an oiled hot wok and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the cabbage and stir fry until the cabbage is softened but still has a bite. Serve with some super-healthy brown or red rice (we cooked ours in chicken stock, which was very pleasant :-)

Dairy-free pesto

This recipe is:

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

How do you make dairy free pesto? Well, it's rather cunning, and I thought of it all myself. Ready? You leave out the parmesan. Yep, I know, mind-blowing isn't it? But then we tweak a little to help make up for the missing cheese (ah hah!) And of course, home made pesto is gluten free.

Dairy free pesto recipe

Handful pinenuts
1/2 - 1 clove of garlic, depending on how stinky you mind being
Salt & fresh ground black pepper
3 decent handfuls of fresh basil, chopped
Olive oil
Drop or two of lemon juice to taste

Here's the dairy-replacement bit - brown half of your pinenuts on a dry pan - this adds a deeper flavour that you lose with the cheese.

Stick it all in a blender and blitz it up. Or, if you prefer a more rustic pesto, grind the garlic with the leaves and salt in a pestle and mortar, remove, then mash the pinenuts down. Mix with the olive oil.

Adjust the flavour of your dairy-free pesto by adding a drop or two at a time of lemon juice.

Et voila! Gluten free, dairy free pesto for spreading on sarnies, stirring into pasta, or rubbing on yourself, if that's what takes your fancy.

:-)

Red rice salad

This recipe is:

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

You know I'm a fan of having gluten free food handy at all times to avoid emergency-response crap food consumption? Well I've just prepped a portion of Cashew nut pate, a regular fave, and a new recipe - a Red Rice Salad, gluten free in every way of course. Here's how...

Red Rice Salad Recipe

150g red rice
300 ml stock - we used chicken, fresh from the bird, but vegetarian stock cubes will do
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp linseeds
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/2 tsp chopped garlic
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cucumber sliced into matchsticks
1/2 courgette, in matchsticks too
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs - I used basil, mint, rosemary but grab whatever you've got handy - coriander, marjoram, whatever

Sald Dressing:
75ml (3 fl oz) olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp gluten free soy sauce (tamari)

Firstly, does anyone else regularly burn nuts while browing them? I've decided it's due to the fact that it takes quite a while for the pan to get hot enough to toast them, by which time you've forgotten, then they brown very quickly. I've taken to setting the cooker timer, but even that doesn't always work.

Anyway, back to the red rice salad....

If you don't have all the nuts/seeds, just miss some out/substitute for others.

Cook the rice in the stock for about 20 mins or until cooked but with a little bite still. Once cooked, allow to cool, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

So now you've got a tasty, filling gluten free red rice salad sitting in the fridge for whenever the hunger pangs strike. Nice.