Gnocchi Sans Gluten

It's Friday, Friday, Gonna Get Down On Friday!

I'll shut up now :)

I don't have classes Friday afternoons, so this is the time I do the "heavy-duty" cooking that needs to happen for next week. Aka: the stuff that takes a while to make and uses just about every pan, utensil and dish in my kitchen.

I'm a big fan of Italian food, and one of my favorite things that I can no longer eat is gnocchi. Those little dumplings just make me all sorts of happy :) I keep checking the labels in the grocery store, in vain, for some wheat free gnocchi... but apparently that's one thing that hasn't been translated over yet. So for my heavy-duty cooking this week I made gnocchi!

Gnocchi (Makes ~ 8 dozen)

~2.5 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and sliced

3 Cups Rice Flour

2 Eggs, beaten

Salt - to taste

First off, remove all rings, watches and bracelets... you'll thank me later. Otherwise, enjoy picking bits of potato out of your jewelry...

Boil your potatoes in salted water until they can be easily poked through with a fork, reserve about 1 Cup of the potato water. Using a potato masher (or a potato ricer, if you've got fancy kitchen stuff) squish the potatoes until there aren't any chunks left. Put the flour, eggs, 1/2 Tbsp salt and potatoes into a really big bowl. Knead it together, with your scrupulously clean hands, until it forms into a big ball. If it's too sticky add more flour, if it's too dry add a little of the potato water you reserved earlier. 

You can see my dough was a bit sticky, so I had to add some more flour...

Grab an orange sized chunk of the potato dough and roll it into a snake...  you know, like you made with play-dough in kindergarten. It should be around 1/2" wide.

Then you're going to cut the rope up into 1/2" chunks and boop them on the head squish them a bit with a fork so they have a cute little pattern on top. (I seriously said "boop" every time I squished one, it makes it a bit more interesting :D ) I put mine onto waxed paper lined baking sheets.

Now you're left with two options: cook them now or store them in the fridge for a while.

If you want to cook them right now, put them into boiling salted water and cook for around 3 minutes. They'll float to the top when they're done.

Serving suggestions: spaghetti sauce or just a little bit of butter and garlic. 

Edit: I tried freezing these and then thawing them after a few weeks, it was a disaster... :( It could be because the gnocchi I made were too dry, but more likely the lack of gluten means the starch doesn't bind together as well

"Pasta" Salad With Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Alright, its getting way too hot!

It's April 1st, not July 1st! The high is supposed to be 89F today... That's getting past the point of "Ooooh! Its nice outside!" and getting into "Eeeew! Sweat!" territory. If you've been to Tulsa, you understand that once it gets past about 75F you've got some serious humidity going on... gross!

Anywho, I decided to make "pasta" salad for lunch today (and probably dinner too... yay leftovers!) because I have no desire to make my apartment any hotter. So here ya go :)

"Pasta" Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes
1 lb Quinoa & Corn blend pasta
1 Cup Chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained
1 Cup Green olives, pitted (you can use the manzanilla olives with pimentos, it still turns out well)
1 Cup Fresh basil
2 Cloves garlic
1/3 Cup Extra virgin olive oil
Zest and Juice of 1 Large Lemon
3/4 Parmesan cheese (omit if you're dairy free like me!)
Salt and Pepper

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain but reserve 1 cup of cooking water. Rinse under cold water and toss with a little oil and parmesan cheese.

In a food processor, combine the tomatoes, olives, basil, garlic, oil, lemon juice, cooking water and lemon zest. Process until it is well combined but still somewhat chunky. Pour over the pasta and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and serve!

GF/DF Mac and Cheeze!

Happy Sunday!
This is the day of the week I like to try new recipes and don't really do much of anything :)
Anyways, I tried out a new recipe today - because I've been craving mac and cheese like crazy! I found it at this awesome blog called Oh She Glows where they do lots and lots of vegan recipes, including this one for vegan mac and cheese! Although I am not vegan by any stretch of the imagination, my milk allergy makes it pretty much impossible to have any kind of dairy-style sauce...

So without further ado, here is the recipe! I would not suggest eating this or cooking this in a white shirt - the sauce is very orange and does not come out!

Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheeze (modified from Oh She Glows)

1 C roasted butternut squash or canned butternut squash

1 Tbsp butter substitute

1 C plain (unsweetened, unflavored) almond milk

1 Tbsp cornstarch (or potato starch, I had some leftover from making flour)

7 Tbsp nutritional yeast (see note at end)

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more)

1/2 lb cooked rice pasta

If you're roasting the squash:

Preheat the oven to 425F, chop up the squash into small chunks and drizzle with a large amount of extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. Put into a baking dish (or cookie sheet) and roast for 40 min, give it a mix half way through.

For the sauce:

Melt butter over medium-low heat in a medium sauce pan. Whisk together the almond milk and starch in a small bowl until there are no clumps. Add to the pan and whisk together. Stir in the remaining ingredients and whisk over low heat until thickened (5-7 min). Once the squash is roasted, or if using canned squash, add the sauce and the squash to a food processor/blender and puree until smooth. Serve over the cooked pasta. I sprinkled it with some season salt, and that just made it even better!

***About the nutritional yeast: It sounds kinda gross, but it's actually really good - and good for you! It tastes a little like Parmesan cheese with a bit more of a nut flavor. I bought mine at whole foods, don't buy it in bulk if you're gluten free or allergic to wheat - they store it right next to the flour and their brand actually is produced in a facility that processes wheat. I bought the KAL brand that they sell in a big tub - it states wheat free right on the label!