gluten-free – Page 34 – GUTSy Performance Nutrition

strawberry, asparagus + radish flatbread

May 22, 2016May 17, 2017by Rebecca5 Comments

It started with my annual, have you tried asparagus before? questioning at the high school garden. To all the new students who told me they won’t eat asparagus, I brought them over to the plants, cut off a few stalks, snapped them into smallish pieces, and handed them over.

This always works.

I love converting asparagus haters. Fresh-off-the-plant raw asparagus is the epitome of what spring tastes like. It’s not tough or bitter or slightly limp like some of us have grown used to. It’s alive and green and has a flavor that even vegetable-avoiding high school students can get behind.

Since then, we’ve been eating a few asparagus-filled meals on repeat.

The first is this strawberry, asparagus + radish flatbread. It is perfect for a light meal or can be paired with others for more of a tapa-style selection. The Recipe Redux theme this month is tapas and small bites, so check out the link-up below for more ideas, if you’ve the mind. William and I have tended to make two of these flatbreads at a time, eat one for dinner, and then the other for lunch leftovers the next day. I like mine drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar and he leaves his as is. We love them.

The other asparagus dinners we’ve been enjoying and sharing with friends this spring include a quick sauté of asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, and peas over Lindsey’s chickpea mash and then again with her vegan chickpea alfredo pasta, which we serve with asparagus, peas, and any number of other spring vegetables.

Strawberry, Asparagus + Radish Flatbread, makes 2

1 1/3 cups garbanzo bean flour

2/3 cups brown rice flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2-2/3 cup water

1 bunch asparagus, chopped into 2-inch pieces

1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced

juice from 1/2 lemon, or more to taste

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs. raw honey

1 lb. strawberries, sliced

1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

balsamic vinegar, to drizzle, optional

Mix the flours, oil, baking powder, salt, and water. Add enough water to make a dough that can be handled and rolled. Then allow the mixture to rest for about 10 minutes. Divide it in two, and roll out one of the flatbreads on a floured work surface. Transfer to a baking pan or pizza dish and with a pastry brush or your fingers, coat the dough with a small amount of olive oil.
In a large bowl, toss the asparagus, radish slices, lemon juice, and garlic.
Then top the dough with half the asparagus mixture and bake at 400 degrees F for about 16 minutes. Without removing from the oven, add half the sliced strawberries, a handful of parsley, and a drizzle of honey, and then bake for an additional 3-4 minutes, just to warm the ingredients.
Remove from the oven, drizzle with a small amount of balsamic, if desired, slice and serve.
Repeat with the remaining dough and ingredients.

Spring

Almond Poppy Seed Muffins

May 9, 2016by Rebecca3 Comments

When I first started hanging out with this guy, William, he practically lived off of plain spaghetti, Kraft mac + cheese with peas, and Costco almond poppy seed muffins.

Naturally, I immediately began making shared meals chock-full of vegetables and inviting him along for bike to the market afternoons to buy beets and greens. I hadn’t a thought for the picky tastes of a guy who’d grown up favoring frozen peas as the sole vegetable of choice for most meals—and in those early days of a new relationship, he did not once balk at the sudden change.

The two of us joke often about how I hooked him before he was exposed to all the crazy. Since I was easygoing for approximately two days before all the guards came down, he either liked me in spite of it, or I have magical charms I had not considered.

It is safe to say much has changed since those early days: There hasn’t been mac + cheese in the house for ages and William’s desire for pasta without a bunch of greens and things is a thing of the past. Also, I’m fairly sure my crazy has ratcheted up a few notches.

I think I’ve only kept him around because I have a knack for muffins.

After his initial request and changing one ingredient at a time for approximately four batches, William proclaimed these absolutely perfect. Over the past month, he’s eaten approximately twenty muffins and is still asking for more rather than proclaiming a need for a break. It is an all-time record.

Perhaps it’s the opioids. :)

Almond Poppy Seed Muffins, makes 4 jumbo-sized muffins

1/2 cup (55 grams) almond meal

1/2 cup (70 grams) millet flour

1/4 cup (35 grams) brown rice flour

1/4 cup (50 grams) cane sugar

2 Tbs. (12 grams) arrowroot starch

1 Tbs. ground flax seed

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1 Tbs. poppy seeds

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

1/4 cup canola oil

3 Tbs. aquafaba or 1 Tbs. ground flax + 3 Tbs. warm water

1 tsp. almond extract

1-2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a muffin tin with muffin liners or a light coating of oil and flour.
In a large bowl measure out the and mix the dry ingredients and then set aside.
In a separate large liquid measuring cup, stir together the milk, oil, aquafaba, almond extract, and lemon juice.
Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together.
Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for approximately 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutrition + Health, Spring

superseed porridge with rhubarb, blood oranges + tahini

April 27, 2016April 27, 2016by Rebecca8 Comments

William took over my yoga mat the other night and started doing weird yoga-esque stretches I’ve never seen before. I’m certainly no yoga expert, but I think he was making them up. When I inquired about this new foray into brief stretching, he started talking about helping out his Qi (sounds like chee), which in Traditional Chinese Wisdom is the circulating vital energy or life force within us.

Around our house, I talk about Qi all the time, especially as it relates to mental clutter, anger or frustration, and digestive unease–basically whenever I notice something is personally out of balance. William is just about the only one I talk about Qi with, and having him suddenly spout my words back at me was a moment of startling clarity. As it turns out, when we spend enough time with someone, we begin to believe and do the same things as each other. I guess that’s why he also wanted only a big thrown together “beans and rice salad” for his weekly meal contribution recently, instead of the more typical tacos, pasta, and pizza fare.

It all makes me wonder, what little practices and sayings am I picking up from him (and others) that I haven’t noticed?

Superseed Porridge with Rhubarb, Blood Orange + Tahini, serves 1

I eat more oatmeal than my old horse but have also been experimenting with a good mixed grain/seed porridge combination these past few months. I’ve finally found one I like. It includes a few of the pseudo-grains/seeds I’ve been trying to enjoy more of including amaranth and buckwheat. They are wonderful and nutritional heavy-weights, but have strong, distinct flavors that can overwhelm all on their own. I leave out what we consider true seeds from the actual mix as I like to add ground sesame, flax, sunflower, pumpkin, hemp, chia, or tahini as the whim strikes, and I expect you will as well. Sometimes I add in an adaptogen like ashwagandha or maca powder, which I’m eagerly learning more about in my herbal medicine classes for their ability to help us adapt to stress. That’s a highly individual thing, however, and I recognize that simply making a good morning meal and eating it mindfully at a table is a vast improvement for many of us. I’ve tried this porridge mix with a number of flavor combinations throughout the seasons, but the one I love right now is heavy on the rhubarb with blood oranges and tahini.

Super Seed Porridge Mix, makes 10 1/3-cup servings

2 cups old-fashioned oats, gluten-free if necessary

2/3 cup quinoa flakes

1/2 cup amaranth

1/2 cup buckwheat

Mix together and store in a container of choice. When ready to cook, use 1 cup water to 1/3 cup grains for each serving.

Rhubarb, Blood Oranges + Tahini Porridge

rhubarb sauce, as much or as little as preferred

1-2 tsp. tahini

1 cup water

1/3 cup porridge mix

1 blood orange, sections separated and roughly chopped and a little zest stirred in.

sweetener, to taste

I stew the rhubarb into a sauce or compote ahead of time. Including chopping and prep, it takes no more than 20 minutes. Simply chop a few stalks of rhubarb roughly and then add to a small saucepan along with a small splash of water. Cook over medium high for a few minutes until it becomes a sauce. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t add sugar to the sauce and instead leave it tart. I’ll add a sweetener of choice to whatever I mix it into and adjust as needed. If I feel like getting fancy, I’ll stir in a little vanilla or orange zest.
Then boil the one cup water and whisk in the grains in a small saucepan. Cook until it becomes a porridge, and stir in the rhubarb sauce and tahini in the last few minutes, until warm.
Finally, add in a little orange zest and the orange sections in the last minutes, as their Vitamin C is heat sensitive and easily lost in cooking. Add sweetener of choice to taste.
All in all, this is more of a weekend porridge—or as I’ve taken to doing, it can be easily made up the night before. I cook the entire thing save the blood orange, and then pour into my serving bowl and let it chill overnight in the fridge. The next morning, I simply reheat in the microwave and stir in the orange and orange zest and I’ve got a fancy start to an otherwise busy morning.