Vegan, Gluten Free Tofu Meatballs with Crabapple Sauce - Cheaper than Meat! + Meatless Monday

Free of dairy, eggs, gluten, nuts, corn

Crabapple or Crab Apple? I'm never really sure. Either way, this crabapple sauce and these vegan, GF meatballs are surprisingly amaze-balls. (The only thing cheesy here is that sentence).

These vegan, gluten free tofu meatballs in Crab Apple Sauce were really born  out of desperation. Since we moved back home to BC, we've been entertaining people in our new apartment a couple of times a week. It's been great to finally invite family and friends to our place after 3 years of living elsewhere. 

But entertaining can be expensive. Tofu, on the other hand, is relatively cheap.

 
I was facing several challenges, vegetarians, food allergies, my unwillingness to make yet another trip to the grocery store... Necessity is the mother of invention, and man did this invention turn out surprisingly AWESOME! So awesome that I made it three times in two weeks for three different sets of dinner guests.

Best Vegan and Gluten Free Pizza Crust & Olive Tapenade (a quick & easy Meatless Monday dinner)

Free of gluten, soy, nuts, dairy, eggs

I almost feel guilty about how easy this pizza crust is to make. When I first started the blog I posted a recipe for an awesome pizza crust. I still love that crust. However, this one is just about as good and takes half the time (and half the bowls, meaning less dishes to clean!)

So if I'm going to feel guilty, I might as well enjoy it. Therefore, I smother the crust in easy homemade olive tapenade and some steamed veggies - both of which I can do while the crust is rising and baking.

The best part? I get two pizza crusts out of this recipe and I can freeze one for an even simpler dinner another night :)

Brown Rice and Lentil Crackers

 Gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free, nut free

Gluten Free Vegetable, Brown Rice and Lentil Crackers

Back when I could eat gluten I practically lived off vegetable thins, wheat thins and slices of cheese.  I really, really missed those when I had to stop eating gluten.  While I’ve tried a variety of pretty decent pre-packaged gluten free crackers, the primary ingredient is usually rice flour, and the savoury flavour of my old glutinous staple seemed lacking.  Not long ago, I found myself reading the ingredients on the back of a box of vegetable thins, wondering if I couldn’t recreate them using red peppers, tomatoes, celery, carrots, etc. 

Although I have my flax seed crackers as a quick staple cracker, and they are certainly tasty, they don’t have vegetables in them, and they didn’t provide any basis for creating the type of cracker I was envisioning.  So I searched around and found this recipe for brown rice “Snackers and Breese” on Meghan Telpner’s blog, Making Love in the Kitchen. While my crackers have ended up quite different, her version provided the basis for me to experiment! I seriously love these crackers now, and make them in huge batches and store them in glass jars.  

They're also pretty filling, they're like a small meal.  And with all the veggies and brown rice and lentils, I think it’s pretty safe to say that you can eat these guilt free.  Depending on what I have in the fridge, the recipe alters a bit, sometimes I use zucchini, red or green peppers, or any other veggies that I find. 

This makes quite a lot of gluten free vegetable crackers so for your first time you may want to half the recipe.  Otherwise, I use 4 baking sheets for these; 2 rectangular cookie sheets, and 2 pizza pans, because that’s what I have.

Ingredients:

1c dry brown rice

1/3 c dry brown lentils*

(Altogether this makes about 4.5-5 cups cooked rice and lentils)

2 ¼ c water

1 Tbsp butter (optional)

2 carrots, grated*

2 celery stalks, grated*

½ red pepper*

5 grape tomatoes, or 3-4 slices tomato*

½ Tbsp dried onion

1 tsp dried garlic

½ Tbsp rosemary

½ Tbsp parsley*

1 ½ tsp salt + extra for sprinkling on top

¼ c olive oil (or coconut)

½ c ground flax

½ c ground millet (or millet flour, any other type of flour will likely work also.  The brown rice and lentils make a very sticky blend)

2 Tbsp water

Directions:

In a large pot, add lentils and brown rice.  Add cool water and swish around (water will be cloudy), drain the water using your hand to block the rice and lentils from draining out.  Repeat 3-4 times until the water runs clear. 

Add the 2 ¼ c water and butter to the rice and lentils.  Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes until the rice is soft.

Heat oven to 350F.  Prepare baking sheets by spraying with oil, then cover with parchment paper.

In a food processor, blend rice and lentils and everything else together until it is a sticky mass. 

Using a wet spatula, divide the mush onto the baking sheets and spread the batter very thin. 

Using the edge of the spatula, score the batter by drawing lines about 2 inches apart lengthwise and widthwise.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, until the crackers begin to harden, but not blacken (you have to watch these carefully to make sure they don’t burn).  Turn the oven off, but leave the crackers in the oven for another hour.  As the oven cools, the crackers will harden. 

I like my crackers with little slices of cheese, spread with sunflower seed butter, or dipped in chocolate raisin date-spread.

What do you like to serve your crackers with?

*OAS Information: If you have Oral Allergy Syndrome and have a problem with any of the above ingredients, note that the baking process *should* destroy the allergen protein and make most of these veggies safe to eat.  For some, celery and even lentils can still be reactive even after cooking.  When in doubt, eliminate any of the ingredients you think you might have a problem with.  The lentils aren't necessary in this recipe. 

Gluten Free Flax Meal Sandwich Bread

Gluten free, egg free, nut free, soy free

 

Flax Meal and Millet Sandwich Bread

This flax and millet bread is cheap, easy and takes all of 20 - 25 minutes from start to finish.  Oh, and it’s also super tasty.  It makes a great sandwich bread because it is soft and flexible, doesn’t crumble and isn’t dry or gummy.  Grinding your own flax meal and millet flour in a coffee grinder using flax seeds and millet is even cheaper than buying flax meal and millet flour (check here for more info on grinding your own flour), so if you grind your own flour this bread can be made for very cheap indeed.   

If you are ok with buying from the bulk section it’s even cheaper as flax seeds and millet can be had much cheaper in bulk bins than pre-packaged.  Be careful, though; people who are celiac or very gluten sensitive should be aware of the potential for cross- contamination from other glutinous bulk products.  Personally, I’m super gluten intolerant and have never had a problem with bulk bins, but there is a possibility of contamination so it’s up to you to decide if you want to take your chances. 

 

When I first discovered I was gluten intolerant, I used to make a flax bread that was wonderfully soft and yummy.  The problem was that it also required something like 5 eggs, which can get pricey, especially when you buy free range like I do.  So I stopped making it and moved on to other things.  However, a few weeks ago I was preparing to leave my Wisconsin home with hubby-to-be and spend the summer back home in Vancouver, BC.  I was trying to use up whatever was leftover in the apartment and I was low on flours to make my regular bread things, but had a bag of flax seeds, which I knew I could grind up to make my own flax meal.  So I searched around the internet for a gluten free, egg free flax bread recipe.  I found this one here for a flax pizza crust.  I adapted it to make use of whatever was in the cupboard and came up with this gluten free flax bread.  

Flax Meal Bread

It makes a great sandwich bread, but can also be eaten plain, or slathered with your favorite toast toppings.  I also like to spread Chocolate Raisin and Date Spread on it as a snack.

Ingredients:*

1 c + 1Tbsp ground flax (flax meal)

½ c millet flour (or about ¼ + 1Tbsp millet, ground)

1 tsp salt, plus a bit more for sprinkling

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 c water

Optional Seasonings

2 tsp oregano

½ Tbsp dried onion

1 tsp garlic powder

½ Tbsp rosemary

Shredded cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients, optional seasonings and water together. 

2. Let rest for 5 minutes to thicken.  Don’t let it sit longer than this or else the dough will become too thick to spread. 

3. In the meantime, prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with oil, or laid with parchment paper and sprayed lightly with oil.

4. Preheat oven to 450F. 

5. Spread flax batter over the sheet, about ¼” thick, sprinkle with more salt, and bake about 10 minutes, until hardened but still slightly springy. 

What’s your favorite way to use flax meal and flax seeds?

* OAS Information: Some people with Oral Allergy Syndrome may have problems with some of the herbs used here (even though I suggest using dried, which *should* be safe).  You may want to substitute these with something you know you can safely eat. 

This post was shared with the following great blog hops: Made from Scratch Monday, My Meatless Mondays, Monday Mania, Just Another Meatless Monday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Traditional Tuesdays Whole Food Wednesday  Real Food Wednesday Gluten Free Wednesday Allergy Free Wednesdays

Grow Your Own Bread - Sprouted Lentil Bread

Grow your own gluten free bread for under $1

a.k.a. gluten free, nut free, dairy free, egg free Ezekiel or Essene Bread

a.k.a. healthy bread on the cheap

Sometimes in gluten free baking, as in life, a little rain must fall.  I’ve been doing a ton of experimenting this past week, and the result has been some near hits (i.e. garbanzo bean bread, burnt crackers, beet chocolate cupcakes and sweet potato muffins) and epic misses – i.e. a sprouted lentil socca bread in which the recipe did not note specifically that the sprouted lentils were supposed to be dried, ground and used as flour.  The result: a somewhat tasty lentil mush, but definitely not bread.  *Sigh*  However, it inspired me to keep trying and make sprouted bread that wasn't complicated or difficult.  Read on for the recipe! The result - a really easy, incredibly cheap bread.  Read on...

While the beet chocolate cupcakes and sweet potato muffins were tasty and edible, they were a bit too moist (I probably used too much applesauce in my zeal to cut down the sugar and oil), so I’ll be fiddling with them again and you can expect the recipes to come soon.  I wanted to try using beets and sweet potatoes in baking because they’re one of the few vegetables available at the farmers markets right now (yeah, I’m a locavore ;) 

But the one real hit this week – such a hit I’ve made it twice already – was this sprouted lentil bread that I concocted modeled off of Ezekiel bread, which is a bread made simply from wheat berries.  Sprouted wheat berries are very trendy right now, and you’ll find them in smoothies and in bread.  However, celiacs and gluten intolerants beware!  Notice the “wheat” in the word?  While there is some notion that the sprouts don’t contain gluten, that the gluten is only in the kernel, I would be very cautious as I haven't seen any research to prove that the sprouts themselves are totally safe.  Plus, in Ezekiel bread the whole thing gets mashed together, kernels and all.  Then the mash gets formed into a bread loaf and baked (or for you raw foodies, dehydrated) on low heat for a long time. 

Lentils, sprouted about 1" long

So last week I was craving bread, and wanted to make some, but I hate that gluten free bread is always so expensive, either to buy or to make.  The ingredients aren’t cheap.  I wondered if it wasn’t possible to simply use other sprouts to make Ezekiel bread.  I searched the internet but couldn't find anything that didn’t require dehydrating the sprouts and grinding them for flour, or that didn’t require 10 different kinds of sprouts.  Well I happened to have a bunch of overgrown lentil sprouts and figured it would only be a loss of about 50 cents if it didn’t work.  

And it worked!  So well that I made it again last night.  This bread literally costs less than $1 to make, and it is filling and hearty.  The taste is a bit earthy, but you could add other things, such as seeds, dried onion flakes, raisins or dried fruit.  Then slather with honey or jam or anything else you like.  I’ve been eating it with some homemade sunflower seed butter). 

Dough made with lentils ground in coffee grinder

Note: You’ll have to sprout the lentils about 4 days in advance 

Ingredients:

¾-1 c dried lentils, soaked overnight (8-12hrs) and sprouted for until 1” long (about 3-4 days) see sprouts for directions.  This will make about 3 – 3.5 cups sprouted lentils and will totally fill a large mason jar.

4 Tbsp ground flax seed

½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp water

Directions:     

1.    Spray a baking sheet with oil and lay a sheet of parchment paper over it.  
2.    Either in a food processor or coffee grinder, grind the lentil sprouts until they form a paste. In a coffee grinder you will have to do several batches, and it will be lumpier.  (See the photo of the dough) This is fine.

3.    Preheat oven to 250 degree.

4.      Mix all ingredients together for 3 minutes to make a sticky lump.  If adding fruit or extras, now is the time to do it.  Let the dough rest for 10 minutes while the oven heats up.

5.      Wet hands with water and form an oval or circle flat bread shape with the dough and lay out on the baking sheet.

6.      Bake for approximately 1.5 - 2 hours, checking every half hour or so.  Baking time will depend on the height of your bread, the higher it is the longer it will take.  The outside will get crusty and brown fairly quickly, but the inside takes longer to bake.  If you want to do this as raw food, you could do this in a dehydrator at a lower heat for a longer time - I'm no raw food expert so I can't give specifics but I'm sure you could follow directions for regular Ezekiel bread on this one.  I have a dehydrator, but little patience! 

Notes: The second time I made this I ground up 2 Tbsp of sunflower seeds and added that.  I also added 1 Tbsp of poppy seeds, and ¼ cup of raisins.  The bread is nice and sweet now, with a slightly nutty flavour.

If you try this, please let me know if you've added anything!  I'd love to hear your suggestions :)

UPDATE:  for another sprouted lentil bread, check out my Sprouted Red Lentil Bread!  Another fabulously cheap gluten free bread.


*OAS Info: Lentils are a common OAS food.  The sprouting and baking process may help to destroy the allergen proteins and make this safer for OAS folks to eat, but it's no guarantee. If in doubt, check with your doctor

Have you checked out my gluten free pasta book

 Recipes for Unusual Gluten Free Pasta: Pierogis, Dumplings, Desserts and More! ?  

Get yourself a copy and start making some GF won tons, pierogi, dumplings, or orzo today :)

This post was shared on the following great sites: Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays,
  

Fast and Easy Flax, Multi-Seed Crackers!!

Last night I was craving crackers like mad, and while there are some great gf crackers out there, I can't spend $6 on a box that has like 10 crackers in it.  Alas, many of the cracker recipes I've looked up require either
a) some obscure ingredients that I don't keep on hand (and I usually do have a pretty good stocked pantry of gf ingredients)
b) a whole lot of one expensive item - really, 3 cups of chia seed?  I might as well buy the expensive box or
c) 20hrs in a dehydrator.  Yes, I have a dehydrator, but no, I want my crackers now!! Not in 20hrs!  So I tweaked a recipe I've been working on that was originally based around this recipe here http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-quinoa-crackers-gluten-free-444067

I've substituted the quinoa flour for millet because the millet flour is much cheaper.  Yes, I know quinoa flour is high in protein etc, but it's like 4x the price and millet is not exactly unhealthy either!  I have added some chia seeds to this particular version, although I've made it without chia and it works too.  The original recipe said to grind up some of the flax seeds, but I don't have a grinder (yet. I'm finally getting one though and I'm very excited!!  More on that when it arrives :), nor do I have flax meal kicking around, so I just used the whole seeds and it turned out fine.  Both flax and chia get a gel like substance when soaked in water so they bind these crackers together pretty well. This recipe is hardly any work, the most laborious part is spreading them on the sheet.  See the recipe below. 

 Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup flax seed 
* 1 tsp chia seeds
* 1/3 cup + 3tbsp water (If omitting chia, remove the 3tbsp of water)
* 1/2 cup millet flour (or 1/4 millet and 1/4 garbanzo flour) 
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt plus a little extra for sprinkling on top if desired
* 1 tablespoon olive oil 
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 tbsp dried rosemary 
* 1 tbsp dried onion flakes
* 1 tbsp mixed seeds if desired, i.e. poppy, sesame, sunflower and/or amaranth seeds


Method:
1. In a large bowl, soak flax seeds and chia in water for 15 minutes.  It will be goopy.
2. In the meantime, preheat oven to 375degrees.  Grease a 9x11 cookie sheet baking sheet and sprinkle with flour. 
3. Mix all remaining ingredients into the flax / chia mix and spread thinly onto the baking sheet. I found the best way to spread the crackers was to use a spatula coated in oil. Then I scored lines across the top to make the cracker shape so when they were cool I could scrape them off the pan and break them into squares, rather than my first attempt which yielded large chunks and lots of crumbs...
4. Bake at 375 degrees until crackers starts to brown on the edges (probably about 15 minutes), flip and bake a few more minutes.

*OAS Info: This is free of all the common OAS allergens I have found.