Archives for “sugar free”

Black-Eyed Pea Soup (with Ham and Chicken)

March 4, 2010 · Filed Under Crockpot Wednesday, Slightly Indulgent, What can I eat ..., chicken, crockpot, dairy free, easy, entree, flourless, gluten free, recipe, slow cooker, soup, sugar free ·15 Comments

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, What can I eat that’s gluten free?, Crockpot Wednesdays, Pennywise Platter, and Simply Hot Recipes.

One of my favorite people and, also, one of my favorite gluten-free bloggers is Stephanie of A Year of Slow Cooking. For a year, she literally cranked out crockpot recipes day after day—without fail. Now she stays busy with so many other things including two other blogs (that makes three in total), a new baby (that makes three children), a hubby, and so much more. However, she still gives us, her loyal readers, enough recipes on her slow cooking blog to keep us happy. All of her recipes are gluten free, but I love that so many of them are naturally gluten free. That’s a large part of the gfe approach. For one thing, it just makes life easier not to have to remember to order a case of gluten-free X or to have to run out to get gluten-free Y, particularly since there are no gluten-free specialty items in my grocery store. So, in my opinion, cooking with real food just makes sense for convenience. That may seem contradictory to many, but it’s true. But let’s get to my latest favorite recipe of Stephanie’s.

Stephanie posted a Black-Eyed Pea Soup recipe for New Year’s Day. I have loved black-eyed peas long before they were the name of a hip musical group. Give me some black-eyed peas and I’ve got a wonderful meal. So, this recipe has been in the back of my mind. With a support group meeting coming up, I wanted a dish that would serve many, but I wanted to use mostly what I had on hand. Stephanie’s recipe calls for spiced sausage, but I didn’t have any. My mom and my sister always save the ham bones from holiday meals for me so I can use them to make soup from scratch. Sometime that’s potato soup, but more often than not, it’s a soup that combines veggies and other meat, like chicken or turkey (or sometimes small amounts of several meats, like in my Everything Soup). My sister had given me a nice big ham bone, with a decent amount of meat left on it. The freezer yield two chicken carcasses. I also had a big bag of carrots and package of celery in the refrigerator just waiting for some action.

I added a few inches of water to my big stockpot and brought it to a boil and then added my frozen chicken carcasses. I let them simmer for a while as I did other things in the kitchen. Occasionally, I’d stir them, and finally I turned the burner off and left the lid on a while. Once I was sure the meat was ready to be picked off the bone, I put a colander inside another stockpot and poured the whole pot through the colander. My lovely broth was in the pot and the chicken—bones and all—remained in the colander. Once that cooled a few minutes, I picked the chicken off the bone and set it aside. This is really a great way to get the most from a chicken and not have waste. Even if I buy a rotisserie chicken at the store, I know we will eat a few meals from the chicken before I freeze it and it eventually gets turned into great broth and other meals. So even at a price of $6.99 for a rotisserie chicken, I can end up with several meals and at least a quart of chicken broth. That sounds like a bargain when you look at it that way. So imagine what a savings, roasting your own chicken could be. I often make broth from my chicken carcasses; then I use the “found” chicken for soup or other favorites like chicken pot pie and chicken and rice casserole. However, feel free to use safe packaged chicken broth and chicken from cooked chicken breasts, etc. for this recipe.

Black-Eyed Pea, Ham, and Chicken Soup
(Click here for a printable version of this recipe.)

1 pound dried black-eyed peas (I don’t recommend using canned as a substitution, but fresh or frozen would work well)

1 ham bone (ideally, with some meat remaining on it)

2 cups, cut-up chicken

2 diced onions

2 cups diced or sliced carrots (I prefer slices, but I halve the larger slices)

1 cup diced celery

6 cloves garlic (I used 3 tbsp minced garlic)

6 – 8 cups of chicken broth (I used my homemade broth and just kept adding until my crockpot was almost full)

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp coarse sea salt (any salt will work though)

Soak your beans overnight. Drain and pick out the undesirables (e.g., discolored beans) in the morning.

Use a 5- to 6- quart crockpot. (I used my 6-quart oval programmable crockpot.) This recipe will serve a lot. It served at least a dozen folks at my support group meeting. (We had about 25 folks, but not all ate soup. Those who did enjoyed at least one full mug.)

Dice the veggies, and add them to the crockpot with the black-eyed peas that have been soaked and drained.

Pour in broth, and stir in Italian seasoning and salt.

Add ham bone. You can also add the chicken at this point, or save it until closer to the end of cooking time. As your chicken is already cooked, it’s your preference on when you want to add it. I did add mine at the beginning and the soup was great, but adding it at the end would have also worked and kept the chicken in nice little chunks.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for about 6. About a half hour to an hour before serving, use an immersible blender to smash up about 1 cup of beans. If you don’t have an immersible blender, scoop out 1 cup of beans, blend them in a traditional blender, and add back to the soup. You will really only need to blend for a few seconds. Stir after blending. The soup will thicken and have the most wonderful color.

Adapted from Stephanie O’Dea at A Year of Slow Cooking

Shirley’s Notes: If you don’t want to use ham, but would like the flavor, Better than Bouillon makes a ham base that could be used. Probably a teaspoon or two would add some nice flavor. If you’d like fewer servings or would like to use a smaller crockpot, don’t just halve this recipe. You’ll want the same amount of black-eyed peas, 2 cups of meat, 4 cups of broth, and about the same amount of seasonings. Be sure to take a look at Stephanie’s recipe, too, which serves 8. Stephanie suggests adding Tabasco sauce to taste after you’ve ladled your soup into your bowl. We enjoyed it without, but if you like to add a little zip to your soup, that might be an option for you. Any time, we want a little taste of hot at our house, we tend to add some Texas Pete hot sauce. Many of the peppers used in Texas Pete are grown locally.

I have two cooking confessions. Confession #1—This is the very first time I’ve ever soaked black-eyed peas. I’ve always used canned black-eyed peas before, although one has to be careful to find good ones. (Some canned black-eyed peas are very mushy and come in a thick unappetizing broth. Other brands contain just black-eyed peas in salted water and taste pretty good.) These dried black-eyed peas are far better than any of the canned varieties and almost seem dainty in comparison, even after soaking. As Alta added in comments, fresh black-eyed peas are the very best when you can get those. She said that frozen black-eyed peas come in a close second. As both Alta and Stephanie said, black-eyed peas offer a wonderful, earthy flavor. I’ll definitely be using more dried black-eyed peas. I’ve never even seen frozen black-eyed peas before, but I’ll look for those, too. One benefit of using dried black-eyed peas is that like other dried beans, they are very inexpensive.

Confession #2—I’ve never used an immersion or “stick” blender before. I’ve had one stashed in a cabinet for years. Son had received one as a gift for dorm life for making milkshakes and such. That involved what he considered to be work, so he left it behind for me to use instead. When Steph’s recipe called for this type of blender, I pulled it out and was delighted at how well it worked. I’ll be using that blender a lot more for soups, sauces, etc.

Several readers commented on Stephanie’s post that they didn’t even like black-eyed peas, but loved this soup. So, if you’re not a black-eyed pea lover, you still might want to give this soup a try. Several of my members commented on how much they enjoyed this soup the other night. I heard the words “comforting” and “homey.” On a cold evening with alternating rain drops and snow flakes, this soup was indeed very welcome. Even those who didn’t comment must have enjoyed it, because there was little left from the full slow cooker. I served this soup with mini-corn muffins and that made for a great combination.

Because soup always thickens in the refrigerator overnight, I added some leftover chicken broth to make my mug of soup for lunch yesterday. For dinner with these leftovers though, I’ll just reheat the thickened soup and serve it over some mashed potatoes. The thickened soup would also be great over rice over or noodles. If you’re looking for some other great soup recipes, be sure to head over to Linda’s What can I eat that’s gluten free? roundup where soup is the theme this week. I already took a peek and there are some terrific, new recipes … like Diane’s West African Chicken and Peanut Stew and Jenn’s Osso Buco Stew. I love it when there are so many recipes that make your mouth water, that you’re not sure which one to try next. Linda had a great idea with her soup challenge!

What else is happening?

Chaya is hosting her first giveaway over at her Sweet and Savory blog … a Paula Deen cooking ensemble. Check it out here.

Diane’s Friday Foodie Fix tomorrow features rice recipes. If there’s something most of us who are gluten free know about, it’s rice! Be sure to link up your favorite rice recipe and check out others here. Diane is also doing a survey and soliciting input right now on eating out gluten free.

This Sunday is the Academy Awards show where those golden Oscars get presented. If you hadn’t had time before, take a few minutes to check out our Gluten-Free Progressive Oscar Dinner Party. You can see all the links at my two posts for this event: Veronica’s Pumpkin Soup or Southern Fried Oysters.

Ginger hosted The Gluten-Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival this month. See all the entries at her site, Ging Recommends. Created by Kim, The Food Allergy Coach, this carnival features recipes, tips, reviews, and so much more. Take the time to read what’s been submitted here and consider adding your own links next month.

I enjoyed seeing the tropical vacation meals in this month’s Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free! carnival over at Bean’s Without Adornment. Anything associated with the tropics is very appealing to me right now. There are some fabulous meals and even a few drinks that are so worthy of those cute, colorful little umbrellas. Get tropical here.

Next month’s Go Ahead Honey is being hosted by Amy over at Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free. Her theme is Guiltless Pleasures. Being the Slightly Indulgent queen on Tuesdays, she’s now going to take us to the next level! (Check out this week’s Slightly Indulgent entries here.) Fellow bloggers, start planning your post now. (You can read the rules here.) Readers look for Amy’s roundup at the end of the month. I have enough guilty pleasures already, so some guiltless ones will be very nice!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: crockpot, crockpot wednesdays, dairy free, easy, GFE, go ahead honey, pennywise platters, recipe, slightly indulgent, slow cooker, soup, What can I eat ...

Another Gluten-Free Progressive Dinner Party Plus …

February 19, 2010 · Filed Under Progressive Dinner, dairy free, dessert, easy, gluten free, ice cream, recipe, sugar free, treats, vegan ·4 Comments

Next week is the Gluten Free Progressive Oscar Dinner Party. Yes, all of us are creating a meal related to an Oscar-nominated movie—another brilliant idea from our fearless GFPDP leader, Diane (The W.H.O.L.E. Gang). Won’t it be fun to see what everyone makes? Not only are you guaranteed a variety of wonderful recipes in our monthly GFDP, but there are always recipes to fit everyone’s dietary needs. I’ll be serving my meal on Monday, so please be sure to check in after the weekend.

Today is the Friday Foodie Fix over at Diane’s. The “secret” ingredient is agave nectar. Head over to my Out and About page to see what I’ve created. I promise that you won’t be disappointed!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Tags: dairy free, GFE, honey, maple, nuts, recipe

Maple-Nut Sundae and Xagave

February 19, 2010 · Filed Under Friday Foodie Fix, Out and About, dairy free, dessert, easy, giveaway, gluten free, recipe, sugar free, treats, vegan, vegetarian ·51 Comments

Full disclosure: The nice folks at Xagave sent me some of their Xagave nectar to use at the beginning of the year. They also provided a cookbook, Where Nutritious Meets Delicious, of recipes using Xagave. The Xagave and cookbook for this giveaway were complimentary as well. However, I was not paid to write this post. I am writing the post because I like the taste of the Xagave over other agave nectar products that I have used.

This post is linked to the Friday Foodie Fix—Agave (The W.H.O.L.E. Gang).

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner of this gfe giveaway—Lauren of Celiac Teen! Thanks to all who entered and special thanks to the Xagave folks for sponsoring the giveaway!

One of the most popular spots in our area is Carl’s Frozen Custard. Carl’s is a family-owned ice cream “mecca.“ Carl’s has been in business since 1947 and still uses its original 1940s Electro-Freeze ice cream machine. Housed in an Art Deco-style building, Carl’s has colorful neon illumination, including a giant cone. As far back as I can remember, we’d go to Carl’s. It’s been on my mind lately because it opened for the season a week ago. I don’t remember a time when we didn’t go to Carl’s as a special treat. We lived a half-hour away so we didn’t visit frequently. Now I still live a half-hour away—just in the other direction—so we still do not visit frequently. That makes any visit to Carl’s a special occasion. However, there was a period of time (part of college and a few years afterwards) when I lived just a mile or two away from Carl’s. In college, I even devised a Carl’s diet. Yes, I’ll admit it. I’d go to Carl’s when it opened at 11:00 am, get a small chocolate shake, inhale it, and then not ingest anything until I ate a small dinner. Oh, I did lose weight, but it was one of several foolhardy dieting strategies of youth and was soon abandoned. (Melissa’s recent post on her fabulous Montana Cookies mentioned The Hollywood Cookie Diet, which reminded me of my short-lived Carl’s Diet.) Because Carl’s is not open year round, we tend to go immediately when it opens for the season, stop a few times during the summer, and then stop by right before it closes in November. There’s always a line of folks waiting (except when it’s closed as shown in my photo). Often it’s a very long line, but the staff is the picture of efficiency, taking no time to exchange pleasantries. Non-locals are often amazed at how short the wait can be.

My favorites at Carl’s have changed over time. There was a period of time where I went for a simple vanilla or chocolate sugar cone. Then, I became somewhat addicted to the maple-nut sundaes. Imagine vanilla frozen custard covered with a gooey mixture of maple syrup and walnuts. Their sundae was way too sweet, but hard to resist at the time. When I became a teenager, hot fudge sundaes with nuts were my order. However, as I became more mobile, sitting to eat a sundae did not seem practical, so I moved on to chocolate shakes. Then one day, Mr. GFE and I were both in line and we heard the person in front of us order a hot fudge shake. Hot fudge shake? We both looked at each other with raised eyebrows and when the cashier/server looked at me for my order, the words, “hot fudge shake” came out. Mr. GFE ordered the same and we’ve never looked back. There’s nothing mysterious about this treat. They simply add a squirt or two of hot fudge to the chocolate milkshake before completing the mechanical stirring action. The flavor is fabulous. We both agree that we could never go back to a regular chocolate shake again. Yes, the hot fudge shake is definitely our choice these days. But, when I saw Diane’s secret ingredient was agave, Carl’s maple-nut sundae came to mind.

I found a maple-walnut syrup recipe at Recipezaar.com that sounded similar to what I wanted. However, it contained corn syrup, maple syrup, and granulated sugar. I omitted the corn syrup, omitted the granulated sugar, and added a small amount of Xagave—all of which increased the ratio of walnuts to syrup. Per the Xagave site, “Xagave is a premium blend of agave nectar derived from organic agave salmiana (white agave) and organic inulin from agave tequilana (blue agave). This combination results in the highest quality nectar with the best taste, best cooking qualities and the most heealth benefits of any nectar on the market; making our nectar the perfect sweetener for all of your cooking, canning, and baking needs.” I actually do like the taste better than any other agave nectar I’ve tasted.

In the end, the taste and consistency of the maple-nut syrup I made using Xagave, maple syrup, and water was just right—plenty sweet, but not too sweet, with softened walnuts hunks, and, of course, no refined sugar. When the maple-nut syrup was finished cooking, the vanilla ice cream was also ready. I waited for the maple-nut syrup to cool just a tad before ladling some over the ice cream. The resulting maple-nut sundae was incredibly good. Then my immediate concern became the fact that I was home alone with enough ice cream and maple-nut syrup to make several sundaes. Miraculously, Son and a buddy of his showed up … whewww, that was close! I fed them lunch and then served their sundaes. Son raved over his sundae, especially how good the walnuts tasted. That’s saying a lot because he typically does not like nuts in his dishes.

This sundae is gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, egg free, soy free, and probably “more free,” but it still tastes of indulgence.

Maple-Nut Sundae
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

Vanilla Ice Cream

1/3 cup Xagave (or honey)
3 cups full-fat coconut milk, chilled (2 cans)
1 ½ – 2 tsp vanilla extract (I used my homemade vanilla extract)
some scraping from inside one vanilla bean (optional, to taste)

Mix all together in bowl with mixer or in blender. Add to ice cream maker and churn 20 to 30 minutes. Chill in freezer after churning if needed. Scoop and top with maple-nut syrup (recipe below).

Maple-Nut Syrup

1/2 cup Xagave
1 cup maple syrup
½ cup water
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (or walnut halves)

Combine Xagave, maple syrup, and water in sauce pan.

Bring to a boil slowly, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat and simmer until syrup thickens, about 15 minutes.

Stir in walnuts; simmer about 5 minutes more. Mixture will thicken upon standing.

Cool enough to serve warm (but not hot) over ice cream or refrigerate and serve later.

Shirley’s Notes: I used a very heavy pan that was much larger than needed so I would not have to worry about stirring constantly to keep the mixture from burning. I loved the process. As the mixture simmered and bubbled, it put on quite a show as you can see from the photo above. The syrup will “harden” quite a bit in the refrigerator. Therefore, reheating or at least allowing syrup to return to room temperature may be necessary if it has been chilled for a long period of time.

It might be Friday, but it’s Sundae time … enjoy!

UPDATE: The Xagave folks are sponsoring a giveaway of a 25-ounce bottle of Xagave and their cookbook, Where Delicious Meets Nutritious. While the cookbook is not exclusively gluten free, most of the recipes are naturally gluten free (e.g., flan) or easily made gluten free (teriyaki sauce).

The deadline for the giveaway is Friday, February 26, 9:00 pm, Eastern.

Here are the many ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Subscribe to my feed via email or RSS and leave a comment saying that you did.
3. Tweet about the giveaway sharing the link and leave a comment saying that you did.
4. Post a message on your Facebook page about the giveaway and leave a comment saying that you did.
5. Post about the giveaway on your blog and leave a comment saying that you did with your link.
6. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment saying that you did.
7. Become a fan of my new gfe-gluten free easily page on Facebook and leave a comment saying that you did.
8. Read and comment on any of the posts in the Gluten-Free Progressive Oscar Dinner Party. You can find all the links here. Then leave a comment on this post saying that you did.

All entries will be tracked by the individual comments, so you must enter a separate comment to get an additional entry. One comment showing you did all these things will only be counted as one entry, so please remember to note each by separate entries.

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!