Category: Dairy-free

Accompaniments · Appetizers · Dairy-free · Do-ahead · Gluten Free · Holiday Food

Provencal tuna and olive spread (Thoionade)

Belinda1 Comment

Recipe c/o Patricia Wells “The Provence Cookbook”

This is the easiest dip to make and one that can be made up to a week in advance and kept in the fridge, covered.
I bought the Nyons olives and the tuna on Amazon, which made life much easier. Please make sure you get a really good-quality and flavorful brand of tuna in oil. The one I love for the best flavor is this Spanish one…

1 cup best quality French brine-cured black olives (such as Nyons), pitted
2 tbsp capers in vinegar, drained
2 tbsp dry red wine
2 plump cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
One 7 ounce can best-quality tuna in olive oil (do not drain)
1 to 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, as necessary
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, to taste.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all of the ingredients except the lemon juice.
Process to form a thick paste, adding additional oil and the lemon juice if necessary to form a smooth puree. Taste for seasoning.
The spread can be stored, covered and refrigerated, for up to one week.

NOTE: Along the same lines, prepare a more pungent sardine-based spread, or sardinade, substituting a 3-1/2 ounce can of best-quality sardines cured in olive oil for the canned tuna.

Asian flavors · Dairy-free · Fish

Miso-Ginger Marinated Grilled Salmon

Belinda

This is a lovely, easy recipe from Bobby Flay.

I had two salmon fillets in the fridge and googled “Miso marinated salmon” and up popped this gem!
If you want the salmon a little sweeter, you can add 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup sake to the marinade. That too is lovely.
This is also lovely with many other thicker fish like black cod or Chilean sea bass

Just a note, Bobby says to marinate the salmon for 30 mins, but I marinated mine for 8-9 hours and it was divine.

Serves 4

1/4 cup white miso (fermented soybean paste)
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar (optional)
2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
2 to 3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp minced green onions
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
4 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 salmon fillets, 8 oz each
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Yuzu juice, for drizzling, optional

Whisk together the miso, mirin, vinegar, soy sauce, (brown sugar and sake, if using) green onions, ginger, and sesame oil in a small bowl.
Place the salmon in a baking dish, pour the marinade over, and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes (I actually marinated mine for 8 hours and it was gorgeous) in the refrigerator.

Personally, I roast the fish, skin-side down in the oven at 350 for about 20 mins max but Bobby Flay uses this method below:

Heat grill to high. Remove the fish from the marinade and season with salt and pepper. Grill the salmon, skin side down, with the cover closed, until golden brown and a crust has formed, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Turn the salmon over and continue grilling for 3 to 4 minutes for medium doneness.
Drizzle with a little yuzu juice, if desired, and serve.

Baking · Dairy-free · Do-ahead · Gluten Free · Vegan

Rhubarb, cardamom and pistachio tart

Belinda

This vegan recipe comes from the wonderful Meera Sodha who writes recipes for the Guardian.

“I don’t believe in rules when it comes to the pairing of ingredients, but I removed rhubarb from its lifelong partner in crime, custard, with caution.

Rhubarb by character is bright, fierce, acerbic and usually not for the faint-hearted unless tamed by something soothing. In custard’s place, I’ve used its more sophisticated cousin, frangipane, a sweet cream made using almonds, pistachios and oat milk flavored with zesty orange and cardamom. (Though, if this makes you feel uncomfortable, and because there are no rules, you could always serve this tart with custard instead.)”

Makes 1 x 9 inch (23cm) tart

For the pastry
8oz (250g) plain flour
7 tbsp (105ml) light olive oil
1.5oz (40g) caster sugar
1 pinch sea salt
3 tbsp cold water

For the filling
7 tbsp (105ml) light olive oil
4.5oz (125g) caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp extra to finish
2oz (50g) cornflour
7oz (200g) ground pistachios
1.5oz (40g) ground almonds
4 tbsp (60ml) oat milk
1½ tsp cardamom powder
Zest of 1 orange
8oz (250g) forced rhubarb or just the top tender parts

To make the pastry, put the flour, oil, sugar and salt in a bowl, and mix with a clean hand. Add the water, mix again, then knead for three minutes. Return to the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350F/200C (180C fan)/gas 6.
After the pastry has rested, place it between two sheets of baking paper and flatten it gently. Roll to about 3mm thick and just larger than a loose-bottomed 9″ (23cm) tart tin.
Peel off the top sheet of baking paper, place a hand under the bottom sheet and flip the pastry on top of the tart tin – don’t worry if it cracks or breaks. Reserve the baking paper. Press the pastry into place, cut away the overhang and use the offcuts to fill any cracks.
Prick the base all over with a fork, crumple up one of the sheets of baking paper, unravel it and put it in the tart case. Fill with baking beans (or uncooked rice) and bake for about 25 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and lightly golden.
Remove, and leave to cool.

To make the filling, mix everything except the rhubarb in a bowl until well combined, then set aside.

When the tart case is cool, lift out the baking paper and beans, and scrape the frangipane mix into the tart shell. Even it out and smooth it down with the back of a spoon.
Now decorate as you wish: you could cut the rhubarb to size to lay stripes across the tart, or cut it into shorter lengths and tessellate. I like to do mine as in the photograph above by neatly arranging 1/4″ (6cm) pieces of rhubarb at the centre of the tart, then filling the gaps around it with smaller pieces, cut to size.

Sprinkle the extra tablespoon of sugar all over the top of the rhubarb, then bake for 40-45 minutes, until the filling is starting to bronze slightly and the rhubarb is tender. Leave to cool a little before cutting and serving.

Baking · Dairy-free · Dessert · Do-ahead · Gluten Free

Easy whole orange and almond cake

Belinda

This is a wonderful recipe from the ladies who used to own the Post Office Café in Bundanoon, N.S.W, Australia.
A dusting of powdered sugar and served with blueberries and either créme fresh or mascarpone are the best accompaniments…

2-3 oranges , unpeeled. If they are really large, then just use 2. But the more “orangey-tasting” the more oranges!
250g (8oz) almond meal. (FYI, almond meal is made from raw, unpeeled almonds and is a coarser grind than almond flour, which is made from blanched peeled almonds)
6 large eggs
250g (8oz) sugar
1 tsp baking powder

Set the oven to 180C (350F)
Boil the oranges whole for about 30 mins or until soft. Remove from the water and let cool to room temp or enough so the eggs wont turn to scrambled eggs when they’re added to the orange.
Put the soft oranges into a blender and blend to a pulp, then add the eggs and sugar and blend until thick and pale
Add the almond meal and baking powder and mix well.

Put into a well greased cake tin and bake for 1 hour. Leave to cool a little and remove from the tin to a wire rack.

Dairy-free · Gluten Free · Poultry

Easy Slow Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken

Belinda

Recipe from Nigella lawson
“This is one of those recipes you just can’t make once: that’s to say, after the first time, you’re hooked. It is gloriously easy: you just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, pervading the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme – and of course, mellow, almost honeyed garlic.
I got the idea of it from those long-cooked French chicken casseroles with whole garlic cloves and just wanted to spritz it up with lemon for summer. The wonderful thing about it is that you turn the lemon from being a flavoring to being a major player; left in chunks to cook slowly in the oven they seem almost to caramelize and you can eat them, skin, pith and all, their sour bitterness sweetened in the heat.

Serves: 4-6
1 chicken (approx. 2.25kg / 4½lbs) cut into 10 pieces, or 4 1/2 lbs of just thighs and legs (my preference)
2 large heads of garlic (separated into unpeeled cloves)
2 good-sized unwaxed lemons (preferably thin-skinned) – cut into chunky eighths
1 handful fresh thyme
3 tbsp (or more) olive oil
⅔ cup white wine
black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon fine flowing salt

Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.

Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper and sprinkle over the kosher salt, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavor-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours

Remove the foil from the roasting tin, and turn up the oven to 400F.
Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
I like to serve this as it is, straight from the roasting tin: so just strew with your remaining thyme and dish out.

Baking · Dairy-free · Do-ahead · Grains

Jim Haley’s no-knead bread

Belinda

This is the easiest and best no-knead bread recipe you will ever need and you can enjoy adding whatever flavorings you like to this recipe, like cheese, olives, herbs, cranberries etc
Recipe by Jim Lahey adapted by Mark Bittman for the New York Times.

3 ⅓ cups/430 grams all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting
¼ tsp instant yeast
2 tsp kosher salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed

In a large bowl combine the flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons/390 milliliters water, and stir until blended; the dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.
Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.

Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, the dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before the dough is ready, heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Put a 6 to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from oven. Slide your hand under the towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.
Shake the pan once or twice if the dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned.
Cool on a rack.

Appetizer Vegetarian · Dairy-free · Gluten Free · Vegan · Vegetable sides · Vegetable-related · Whole30 compliant

Roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini, pine nuts and za’atar

Belinda

I made this recipe tonight, adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe and it’s absolutely wonderful with such interesting flavors. Well worth trying!

Serves 4-6

1 large butternut squash (around 2lbs worth), cut into 1/2″ by 3″ wedges
2 red onions, cut into eighths or 1/2″ wedges
6 tbsp plus 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3.5 tbsp tahini, or more as needed
3 tbsp water, or more as needed
1.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 large clove garlic, minced
2oz raw pine nuts
1 tbsp za’atar
3 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Warm a serving platter.
Position a baking rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the squash and onion and 6 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 tbsp  Kosher salt, 6 good twists of the pepper grinder, and toss to combine.
Spread the vegetables out on a large, rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 35-40 minutes, or until the vegetables have taken on some color and are cooked through with a little char. (Keep an eye on the onion: If it starts to burn before the squash is cooked, you may need to remove it before the squash.

Remove from the oven.

While the vegetables are roasting, in a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, water, lemon juice, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt until the sauce is the consistency of honey. You might need to add more water or tahini, depending on the consistency.

In a small skillet over medium-low heat, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil until shimmering. Add the pine nuts and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring often until the nuts are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a small plate to cool. Keep the oil too

To serve, spread the vegetables out on the warmed serving platter and drizzle with the tahini sauce. Sprinkle the pine nuts and their oil on top, and garnish with the za’atar and parsley. Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and serve.

Asian flavors · Dairy-free · Fish · Gluten Free

Vietnamese caramel salmon

Belinda

This is a wonderful, tasty and low calorie dish by Melissa Clark

“Here, I’ve replaced the more traditional catfish with salmon, which has a rich succulence that can stand up to the ginger, chiles, and black pepper. And by using brown sugar instead of making my own caramel, I’ve also hastened the process so that the whole thing is ready in less than thirty minutes. The salmon still has time to absorb all the intense flavors of the caramel, but it doesn’t overcook, staying firm but tender. Serve this with some kind of rice as a gentle foil for all the rich spiciness on the plate.

Serves 4

4 skin-on salmon fillets, preferably center-cut pieces (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 tbsp coconut or extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt to taste
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tbsp Asian fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Sliced scallions (white and green parts), for garnish
Thinly sliced jalapeño, for garnish
Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

Set an oven rack 6 inches from the heat source (usually the second rack position, not the one closest to the heat source), and turn on the broiler.

Brush the salmon fillets all over with the oil and season them lightly with salt.

In a 12-inch oven-safe skillet set over medium-high heat, combine the brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, lime zest and juice, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of water. Bring to a simmer.

Place the fish, skin-side up, in the skillet. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, without moving it, until the fish is cooked through halfway, 4 to 6 minutes.

Spoon the pan juices over the fish and transfer the skillet to the oven. Broil until the fish is just cooked through and the skin is caramelized in spots, 2 to 5 minutes for medium rare, depending upon the thickness of the fish (thicker ones will take longer).

Transfer the fish to a serving plate and garnish it with scallions, jalapeños, and cilantro. Drizzle with the pan sauce, and serve.

Appetizer Vegetarian · Dairy-free · Gluten Free · Vegetable sides · Vegetable-related

Crushed beets and avocado with chunky olive dressing, feta and pistachio nuts.

Belinda

As I get older, I gravitate more and more to really interesting plant-based recipes.

Serves 4

6 medium beets (about 800 grams)
A good balsamic vinegar for roasting beets and sprinkling over the salad
½ cup Castelvetrano or Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 good sized shallot, sliced paper thin
1 1/2 tbsp drained capers, roughly chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped + small whole leaves for garnish
3 tbsp flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1 1/2 ripe avocados
4 oz of either goat cheese or Greek feta cheese
1/3 cup toasted, salted pistachios or toasted roughly chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the beets and place them in a roasting pan lined with nonstick aluminum foil. Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle some balsamic vinegar over them. Toss to coat.
Cover them with aluminum foil and cook the beets for around 1 hour or until very soft.
Remove them from the oven, uncover and using the bottom of a wide bowl or jar, gently crush the beets until they break off into craggy fragments. The pieces will be all different shapes and sizes and this is okay!
Transfer the beets to your serving platter, drizzling them with more olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

While the beets are roasting, make the dressing:
In a medium bowl, combine the olives, shallot, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, and some ground black pepper. Use a fork to “whisk” and mix it up. Set aside.

Toast your nuts and if using hazelnuts, very roughly chop them. You want plenty of crunch to top the salad.

Peel, pit, and dice the avocados, and the scatter the diced pieces evenly over the beets.
Quickly stir the mint and parsley leaves into the dressing, and then spoon the dressing over the crushed beets and avocado.
Crumble the cheese over the salad and finally sprinkle it with the nuts, topping with a few mint leaves.
Test one more time for seasoning as beets soak up a lot of the seasoning.

Dairy-free · Dessert · Do-ahead · Gluten Free · Holiday Food

Gluten-free mixed berry crumble

Belinda

I made this for Christmas this year and besides being really easy, it was a huge success.
I also prepped it the day before, so just had to throw in the oven after the Christmas dinner was served up.
Very easy!

Serves 6, but can be doubled easily

6 cups mixed berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and hulled/chopped strawberries)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon for berries
1/4 tsp cinnamon for the crumble
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, chilled
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, combine berries, sugar, lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Add cornstarch and toss to coat berries. Transfer to a baking dish or oven-safe skillet.

In a bowl, combine flour, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until distributed.

Cut in the butter and using hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture until large crumbs form. Stir in walnuts, if using.

Sprinkle mixture over top of berries to completely cover.

Bake in a 375 F oven for about 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Remove from oven and let stand for about 5 minutes.
Serve warm. Top with vanilla ice cream, if desired.