Stuffed peppers might seem like a fussy idea but they’re really not. I have been trying to make these for the blog for over 12 months now. Usually what happens is I buy the green peppers for stuffing – selecting nice flat-bottomed peppers, of course – and I stick them in the fridge. A couple days later I’ll think of another recipe I want to try and I’ll grab one or two of my peppers and completely forget that they were meant to be stuffed with tangy, garlicky rice and lentil filling. So after doing this a few times I resigned myself to the fact that maybe I just didn’t want stuffed peppers badly enough so I stopped planning to make them.

Then randomly one night Levi asked me to make stuffed peppers. So I added green peppers to my shopping list and bought them. And shock of shocks … I actually went through with it. Finally.

Now, for some notes about the ingredients.

This recipe calls for arborio rice. You know, the rice that’s used for risotto? Well, the creaminess that you expect from risotto comes from the arborio rice and it definitely gives this dish a slight thickness and creaminess. I highly recommend using arborio if you have it on hand. If you don’t, any long grain rice will do. You can use brown rice or even a rice blend here too.

Saffron is a Spanish-cooking staple as far as I can tell. Saffron is also pretty expensive. I suppose that might have something to do with where it comes from and how it’s harvested. The threads of saffron are harvested from a particular type of crocus flower. The saffron is the stigma of the crocus flower. Each stigma is painstakingly plucked from the flower and dried. Saffron is considered one of the most costly spices by weight. Sometimes it can be difficult to locate quality saffron here in my city but I have found it quite often in little tiny containers at Bulk Barn. I often times wish we had a spice shop like The Silk Road Spice Merchant in Calgary where I could walk in and explore all varieties of spices from around the world. You can order online and they’ll ship too.

I use red lentils in this recipe because they are nice and subtle. You could definitely use brown lentils or even lentilles du Puy instead but ensure you have enough liquid to facilitate even cooking so that the lentils and rice are finished cooking at around the same time. You may find that you need to add another 1/4 cup of vegetable broth to the simmering tomato rice-lentil mixture and let it cook just a bit longer than the 15 minutes indicated. You’ll have to experiment and watch it closely as I haven’t tested using other lentils out. If you do try other lentils in this recipe, I’d love it if you’d share your tips in the comments below.

You can make your own tomato sauce or buy some from the store. I have done both. If tomatoes are in season or a decent price at the grocery store then making your own sauce is definitely the way to go. If you need a good recipe for homemade tomato sauce then check out my recipe here (not the same as marinara sauce). Using a can of tomato sauce from the grocery store in a pinch is totally acceptable and in fact, in these photos I used canned. The only difference you’ll notice is the salt content will increase with store-bought sauce. You may need/want to adjust your seasoning accordingly.

Oh and lastly, the peppers. You can use either green or red bell peppers in this. I used green because they happened to have the nicest flattest bottoms. This filling was enough to fill four medium peppers quite full. If your peppers are smaller, use 6. If yours are bigger, you should still be able to use 4 but they won’t be overfilled like mine were.

Let’s talk about cooking this mess. You can stuff a whole pepper or cut the peppers in half lengthwise and stuff the halves. You could cut thick slices through the cored pepper, into rings and lay those in the baking dish and fill them with the rice mixture. Finally, you could bake this as a casserole and take the peppers cut into large chunks mixed in. Pour the tomato sauce over top and bake it that way. Pretty much any way you cook this recipe up, it should be approximately the same amount of time.

Apparently there are baking dishes out there specifically to cook stuffed peppers in. If you care about having a pepper flop over in the pan then maybe invest in a pan like that. Since baking stuffed peppers doesn’t happen all that often here I can’t justify buying a silly pepper pan. Just bake this in a baking dish that they fit nicely into – I used my square glass 8 x 8 baking dish lined with foil. I didn’t care that one of the peppers flopped over once I uncovered them.

Spanish Stuffed Peppers

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Main Course

Cuisine: Spanish

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 large green bell peppers with relatively flat bottoms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• ¼ cup red lentils
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 2½ cups vegetable broth
• Pinch of saffron threads
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 cups tomato sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a baking dish with aluminum foil.
2. Cut green peppers according to how you’d like to stuff them. (See in-post comments from above.)
3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onions and garlic in oil until softened and starting to brown.
4. Add rice and lentils. Stir.
5. Add diced tomatoes, dried oregano and sugar. Cook for about 10 minutes or until most of the liquid from the tomatoes is absorbed.
6. Add vegetable broth and saffron threads. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed but the rice should be al dente. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
7. Spoon into green peppers. Pour tomato sauce around the peppers and over top.
8. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until rice is cooked through.
9. Let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before transferring to plates.

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Forget everything you ever thought you knew about chickpeas. They’re not just for hummus anymore.

These cookies are the most amazing gooey morsels of taste excellence and I think they’re relatively healthy.

I originally saw this recipe on one of my friends’ Facebook wall. I had all the ingredients on hand so I figured why not try them. I had to adjust the recipe that was there because I refused to waste 1/4 cup of chickpeas like the recipe indicated. So I made some adjustments where I thought some needed to be made.

There are a bunch of different posts with the same basic ingredients as the one on Facebook and I’m really not sure who to credit in this case. So please forgive me Internet for just not.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip-pea Cookies

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

The secret ingredient to these grain-free chocolate chip cookies are chickpeas. They taste amazing!

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 x 19 oz can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry
• ¾ cup natural peanut butter (see note)
• ¼ cup maple syrup or agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt, optional
• ¼ – ½ cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the work bowl of your food processor combine all ingredients except chocolate chips. Blend until completely smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
3. Add in chocolate chips and pulse a few times.
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls on prepared baking sheet. You don’t need to leave a lot of room between the cookies as they don’t spread out or rise up much at all.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for about 5 – 10 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
6. Cookies can be frozen.

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Note: I used fresh ground peanut butter which has very little oil (like none, basically) and no salt. If your natural peanut butter has a lot of oil you may only need 1/2 cup of peanut butter. Start with less and add more by the tablespoonful as needed. If your peanut butter is salted you may omit the pinch of sea salt.

You can blame my mother.

It is because of her that I can’t help but enjoy things like turnips and parsnips.

Actually,  don’t blame her, thank her instead. This one is a gooder.

It doesn’t look like much. Three humble root vegetables – carrots, parsnips and turnips – cooked and mashed with some tasty things.

Root Vegetable Mash

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

The less than glamorous turnip and parsnip combine with sweet carrots and spices to make your tastebuds happy.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Side Dish

Cuisine: Vegetables

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 small turnips, peeled and diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• Water, to cover
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅛ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Instructions

1. Place chopped vegetables in a large saucepan and cover with water.
2. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, until vegetables are fork tender. Drain water.
3. Add coconut oil and seasonings. Mash until chunky, don’t mash it to a puree.
4. Serve hot.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 118 Fat: 4g Carbohydrates: 20g Sugar: 7g Sodium: 120mg Protein: 2g

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The coconut oil does impart a subtle-but-definitely-there coconut flavor to this dish. If you’re not a fan of coconut oil and would prefer to use vegan margarine you can definitely do that. Just expect the flavor to change. You can also use olive oil, but I’d suggest using slightly less.

I think a pinch of nutmeg and/or cinnamon might be tasty in this too. I know the garama masala generally has cinnamon in it but I think a bit more, plus nutmeg, would make this a great festive dish that would be ideal in any season – but especially nice in the cooler spring months (especially this year!) or in autumn.

This recipe is very very simple. So simple that I feel silly whenever I open a store-bought can of prepared tomato sauce. This sauce has a lighter color than what you’ll get out of a can but as far as general all-purpose tomato sauces go, it is perfect.

This recipe is not to be confused with marinara sauce, Italian tomato sauce or red sauce. Those all have other herbs and spices added to them. This is a blank slate that you can doctor up on your own depending on whatever recipe you’re using it in.

All-Purpose Tomato Sauce

 

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Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour

 

Nothing beats homemade – and that’s the case for this super simple all-purpose tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Sauce

Serves: 750ml

Ingredients

• 4 lbs tomatoes, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup water

Instructions

1. Add diced tomatoes and minced garlic to a large skillet over medium heat. Let cook down for about a half hour, stirring occasionally. A lot of moisture will come out of the tomatoes.
2. Add salt and lemon juice. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook down for another half hour, stirring occasionally.
3. Once the tomatoes are the consistency of a thick paste transfer to a high powered blender. Add water and blend at high speed until very smooth.
4. Use in your favorite recipes.

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You can freeze this tomato sauce for up to a year.

You can keep this in the fridge in a tightly sealed container for up to a week.

If you want to make up a big batch of this sauce you can do so and can it. I’ll be posting recipes and instructions later this summer for  canning my own tomato paste and tomato sauce using a pressure canner. If you’re familiar with canning you could use your know-how to can this sauce – but of course you’ll want to do a much larger batch than just one 750 ml jar worth if you’re canning!

Are you a fan of mustard?

I am kind of on the fence about it.

I certainly don’t hate it but I rarely use it. I can appreciate it in certain recipes and I don’t even mind if mustard takes center stage once in a while and yet I still hardly use it. Yellow mustard isn’t really high up on my preferred condiment list. Grainy mustards, dijon mustard or spicy hot mustards, on the other hand, are much more up my alley. It’s about time I give mustard a bit more airplay here.

So while I’m on the topic of mustard let me share a fact with you.

It’s virtually impossible to look attractive shoving Brussels sprouts into your mouth. It’s a fact.

Did you know that roughly 80% of the mustard in Canada is grown right here in Saskatchewan? The things grown in this province are pretty amazing. Lentils, quinoa, mustard and much more.

A local purveyor of mustard products is Gravelbourg Mustard. I’ve given some of their flavored mustards – Saskatoon Berry Mustard – in a vegan food swap last year. They have some great grainy German style mustards, French (dijon) style mustards, and other fruity mustards.

Another Canadian mustard maker from Ontario is Kozlik’s Mustard and they have an amazing mustard called Triple Crunch which is made with whole mustard seeds and Canadian Club whiskey. I have some of this mustard and it’s terrific. (Important note: I did not realize that this whole mustard contains honey. I’d rather not get into a whole debate about vegans and honey right now so just consider this a heads up and choose a whole seed mustard that suits your preference.)

I use a whole seed mustard in my recipe along with regular dijon-style mustard. I love the crunch and the little bite the whole mustard seeds give the dressing.

This recipe will end up in the regular rotation for sure.

Maple Dijon Roasted Brussels Sprouts

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

The combination of tasty mustards and maple syrup make a wonderful dressing for roasted Brussels sprouts.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 lbs brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
• ½ large red onion, sliced thinly
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon good quality dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon extra-grainy (preferably whole grain) mustard
• Pinch salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place trimmed and halved brussels sprouts, sliced red onion and minced garlic on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
3. Roast in preheated oven for 35 minutes, until lightly browned and tender.
4. In a small bowl whisk together maple syrup and mustards. Taste and add a pinch of salt, if needed.
5. Transfer roasted brussels sprouts to a serving dish, drizzle with dressing and toss to coat. Serve hot.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 138 Fat: 6 Carbohydrates: 21 Sugar: 12 Sodium: 115 Protein: 4

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I have learned that this dressing is good on a lot of things. Some of it ran into the quinoa that was also on my plate and I quite enjoyed it. The dressing recipe makes about 1/2 cup in case you want to make it with something other than the Brussels sprouts.

Okay I’ve done it again. Even though last time I made deep fried pickles I promised I wouldn’t make them again for another 10 years, I did it. It’s been at least a year though so that’s okay, right?

The original recipe I posted were for pickle ‘chips’ rather than spears. I had tried making spears but the coating kept falling off in the fryer. But then I decided to try to figure out a way to make some coating that didn’t fall off. And I did it.

These are true-to-form deep fried pickles that you’d find in a pub on the appetizer menu. Except these are totally gluten-free and vegan. (Though still what I’d consider gluten-free vegan junk food. Not endorsing this as a healthy option by any means. Hehe.)

I tested this out with a couple different flours and flour blends. My advice is to use just a plain brown rice flour in this recipe. I have used millet flour just fine as well. I’d avoid pre-mixed gluten-free flour blends that have an indeterminate amount of light starch (cornstarch, tapioca starch, etc.) or xanthan/guar gum added to it as they tend to have a gummy effect in this recipe and require a lot more liquid. This recipe was written and tested using brown rice or millet flour.

The key to making these pickle spears is a three-step breading process. First, the excess moisture from the pickle spear is absorbed by a light dusting of gluten-free flour. Then the spear is dipped into the gluten-free batter. Lastly it’s dredged lightly in the seasoned bread crumbs and placed ever-so-gently into the deep fryer to get nice and crispy.

It can be a bit of a messy project but it’s a fun one too.

Make sure you eat your pickles as fresh out of the fryer as you can without burning your mouth (after letting any excess oil drain off onto paper towel). They’re not as spectacular once they’ve cooled down to room temperature. Levi still ate them but I wasn’t as crazy about them cooled off as I was when they were nice and hot still. You can eat these plain or serve them with the vegan buttermilk ranch dip that I shared in the first fried pickle post here.

Gluten Free Deep Fried Pickles II

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Another version of gluten-free deep fried pickles – this time I made crunchy fried pickle spears. Yum!

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Appetizer

Cuisine: Snacks

Serves: 4 as a snack

Ingredients

• 3 large (and I mean large) dill pickles, cut lengthwise into 4 spears each
• ¾ cup gluten-free flour, divided
• ½ cup water (plus more for thinning as needed)
• ½ cup gluten-free vegan bread crumbs
• ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
• Oil for frying

Instructions

1. Preheat oil in deep-fryer to about 375°F, according to manufacturer’s instructions.
2. Arrange three shallow dishes with edges in a row. Place ¼ cup of the brown rice flour in the first dish. Whisk the remaining ½ cup of brown rice flour with water in the second dish. Add more water by the tablespoon as needed to thin to a pancake-batter consistency. Mix gluten-free bread crumbs and garlic powder in the third dish.
3. Roll the pickle spears in the brown rice flour until they’re just lightly coated. Dust off any excess.
4. Dip in the batter. Don’t let too much drip off as it may come off in big dollops.
5. Roll gently in seasoned bread crumbs to cover the batter completely.
6. Place gently in the hot oil. Fry until just lightly browned – about 5-10 minutes depending on your deep fryer.
7. Remove and let drain on to a paper towel lined plate to soak up any excess oil.
8. Serve hot.

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I confess that I am slightly embarrassed to be blogging this recipe. Only a bit. Levi insisted it was worthy of appearing here because it will appeal to people with kids – or people with husbands who are basically kids, like Levi.

I came up with this easy and fast lunch option for Levi one day when he stopped at home to unload one of the work trucks and had all our guys in for lunch. (Our guys = employees from our business.) Normally we’d just heat up leftovers but the night before I pigged out on whatever leftovers we had in the fridge so there was nothing to eat.

I pulled out some corn tortillas from the freezer and planned to make quesadillas with some green onion, cilantro and Daiya cheddar. Except I only had Daiya mozzarella. Levi is the least picky of all the people I know but still mozzarella doesn’t really make a really good typical quesadilla, not to me. I just thought to myself ‘pizza’. I had a small can of pizza sauce in the cupboard and some fresh mushrooms in the fridge, so why not?

I made Levi’s first so he could get back out to work quickly. He was raving over them and I thought to myself … he’s just excited about food in general. These can’t really be *that* good. He was mumbling over and over how I need to blog it. Take a pic like this, he said, as he indicated the most tasty-looking angle on a half-eaten pizza quesadilla.

So I took his advice and took a picture like this.

Kannon looks like he’d like some pizza-dilla.

(I mostly wanted to show this pic because Kannon is in it. Isn’t he sitting like such a handsome and well-behaved boy? Really, he’s just hoping I drop some.)

Then I made myself one. And yeah he was right. Not only is it simple and cheap and fast – and it actually tastes pretty good for slapping some stuff together.

You can mix up the ingredients you put inside the quesadillas. I used mushrooms because it’s what I had on hand. When I finally agreed with Levi that these should make an appearance here, I made them again and added some grated red onion for a nice bite too. If you’re a fan of green peppers or olives or whatever you’d normally put on a pizza, just throw it in. Just make sure your pieces aren’t too bulky – keep it to a fine dice – so that the cheese melts around it all and sticks the two corn tortillas together nicely.

So while this isn’t a very gourmet or unique recipe, or really even a recipe at all, I hope you’ll enjoy this one. It’s an easy recipe to keep in your back pocket for those fast lunches or snack times.

I so badly wanted to call these pizzadillas but I thought that was probably pushing it just a bit too far.

4.0 from 1 reviews

Quick & Easy Pizza Quesadillas

 

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Prep time

2 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

22 mins

 

These speedy pizza quesadillas make a tasty – and super simple – lunch in no time. They’re sure to please the kids – or the one who is a kid at heart.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Main Course

Cuisine: Quick & Easy

Serves: 4 quesadillas

Ingredients

• 8 corn tortillas
• 1 cup Daiya mozzarella shreds
• ¼ cup canned pizza sauce
• 2-3 large mushrooms, sliced thinly
• ¼ small red onion, grated or very finely chopped
• ½ tablespoon oil, for brushing tortillas

Instructions

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat.
2. Brush a bit of oil on one side of a corn tortilla and place it in the hot skillet.
3. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon worth of Daiya evenly on the tortilla.
4. Place about 4 or 5 mushroom slices on top letting some of the cheese show through.
5. Dollop a bit of pizza sauce over top.
6. Brush one side of another corn tortilla and place it on top with the oiled side out.
7. Let fry in the skillet for about 5 minutes until the bottom is just slightly browned. Flip carefully and let the other side crisp up slightly too, another 4 or 5 minutes.
8. Repeat with the remaining quesadillas. If you have a larger skillet you can probably do two at a time.

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I feel obligated (for some weird reason) to admit to you all that I recognize that this is not the healthiest meal option out there. I didn’t  bother doing up the nutritional info for this one because, what’s the point? So here I am stating the obvious – this is like a quick and easy last minute slap together type thing that I am hoping you all don’t think we eat on a daily/regular basis and I’m hoping you won’t either. So now that we’re all clear on that, I can rest easy.

Ah broccoli and cheddar. A match made in heaven. A perfect marriage of flavors. There’s something comforting about broccoli and cheddar. Except you don’t need real cheddar. You can use Daiya cheddar shreds and still enjoy this classic flavor in this tasty recipe.

These little cute bites make a great appetizer or a fun side dish. If you don’t have a mini-muffin pan I recommend baking this in a casserole dish and serving it up like a baked quinoa side dish. I tried making these in a regular muffin pan once and they just didn’t stay together nicely for a pop-in-your-mouth appetizer. The flavor will still be amazing both ways.

These keep in the fridge for a couple days once baked up but will lose their crispiness so if texture is important to you, gobble these up the same day.

Oh, and a note about chopping the broccoli. You should make sure you actually chop it up into nice small pieces. I left some bigger florets the first time I made these and where there were bigger chunks of broccoli the mini-muffins fell apart.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Broccoli ‘Cheddar’ Quinoa Mini-Muffins

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Vegan and gluten-free broccoli ‘cheddar’ quinoa mini-muffins are a great appetizer or a fun side dish. Healthy and delicious.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Appetizer, Side Dish

Serves: 24 mini-muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 cups chopped broccoli
• 1 cup Daiya cheddar-style shreds
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon dried parsley
• ⅛ teaspoon Herbamare or your favorite seasoning blend
• Oil spray for mini-muffin tins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin tin with oil.
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Stir to combine well. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
3. Spoon mixture into greased mini-muffin tins. Press firmly to pack each muffin cup fully.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until edges become lightly browned and crispy. Let cool about 5 minutes before popping the bites out out of the muffin tin.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 mini-muffin Calories: 37 Fat: 1g Carbohydrates: 5g Sugar: 0g Sodium: 60mg Protein: 1g

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Oh man do I ever love salad rolls. Crunchy, chewy, fresh. With that peanutty dipping sauce. They don’t take all that much time to roll out  but usually I don’t ever end up with a full plate to serve because I’ll sample as I roll. Levi will stop by and check my technique and sample as he walks on by. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work when there’s not much left on the plate to show for it. (It’s not actually that much work, by the way.)

I was craving salad rolls with spinach, bell pepper and cucumber and had everything ready to go to roll them up and somehow I misplaced my rice paper wrappers. I know I have three different sizes and shapes sitting in packages somewhere. Not sure where. Somewhere in my still disorganized kitchen.

Instead of refrigerating everything – which I could have very easily done – I decided to set up a ‘make your own noodle salad’ bar on the kitchen island and Levi and I filled our bowls with rice noodles, baby spinach, crunchy peppers, fresh cucumbers, cilantro and green onion. Then we topped it off with canned mandarin orange segments for a tiny bit of sweetness.

I have to say I was pretty thrilled with how the dressing turned out too. A lot like the usual peanut dipping sauce but thinner in consistency and with a bit of that salad dressing zing from apple cider vinegar. I really think you’ll enjoy this one too.

The beauty of this is that you can put whatever you want into this noodle salad as far as veggies go. So that’s why I’m just sharing the salad dressing recipe in this post. Every time I’ve made a version of this salad it’s been different vegetables.

You can sprinkle on toasted cashews or peanuts for some added crunch.

If you don’t use mandarin oranges in the salad and don’t want to open a can just for the reserved liquid, go ahead and use the same amount in water. You’ll want to taste your dressing to make sure it has the right balance of flavors – particularly salty and sweet.

Thai Spinach Noodle Salad Dressing

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

A peanut sauce style dressing for your Thai noodle salads.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Salad

Serves: 1 cup

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 1 tablespoon Bragg’s liquid soy
• 1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons agave nectar
• ½ cup reserved mandarin orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon dried chili flakes
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 -2 tablespoons water, as needed

Instructions

1. Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Add more water as needed to thin to the right consistency.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 2 tbsp Calories: 64 Fat: 4g Carbohydrates: 5g Sugar: 4g Sodium: 148mg Protein: 2g

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I’ve gotten really hard on myself lately about recipes and photos. I’ve made a few recipes that are honestly amazing and no matter what I can’t seem to get the right shot. I give up, we eat it, and I leave the recipe in the Drafts folder until the next time I feel like recreating it and hope that my photographing mojo would improve by then.

This recipe I’ve made four times. Each time something either prevents me from taking a good shot or the shots I think I’ve gotten okay are lousy or my favorite excuse of late: the ‘the lighting sucks anyways and omg I’m so hungry I need to eat this right now, who cares about the damn photo’ excuse.

I am at this crossroads for this particular recipe. It’s so good guys. I feel guilty not sharing it with you sooner. Vegans and non-vegans alike have raved over the amazingness of this dish and I’ve kept it from you because I feel an inadequacy in photography.

Finally I decided I’d post this recipe with the photos that I had – even though I really disliked them. Turns out, they’re stuck on my old laptop which has decided to fizzle out and die on me. Here’s a case for why I put all my photos on an external hard drive now. So, I did end up remaking this recipe once more just for the photos. And while they’re still not stunning, I am done with taking myself too seriously about it. (All the pro-star food bloggers out there are probably cringing at me.)

In these photos I didn’t actually layer the lasagna in the order I give in the recipe. I ended up mixing the spinach and ricotta together and doing just one layer of that. It tasted pretty good but I still think you should follow my suggestions in the instructions below. The lasagna flavors will be tastier and evener and more betterer. Yes, betterer.

Now about the lasagna. First, it’s important (to nobody) to note that I don’t spell it lasagne. I think anyone who spells it lasagne needs a lesson in Italianery or perhaps grammarizing. From Grammarist.com:

Next, this recipe – like most lasagna recipes – is kind of involved. It takes a bit of planning to make a quality lasagna. So take that as fair warning because you may need advance preparation to make it awesome.

This lasagna includes two components that are actually separate recipes on my site.

Basic Marinara Sauce – You have the option of making your own homemade marinara sauce or buying a good quality gluten-free and vegan one if time does not permit you to make your own. I won’t judge you too harshly. I’ve swapped out store-bought marinara from time to time. We all have. Let’s just forgive and forget okay?

and

Almond Ricotta/Feta – The almond ricotta is going to be a bit harder to swap out and replace with something store-bought. So you’ll want to take the time to make it. I promise it’ll be worth it. Since you’re not taking the recipe all the way to the ‘feta’ stage, you don’t need as much time – don’t bother with the straining and don’t bother baking it either.

And now a bit about the other ingredients:

I used brown rice lasagna noodles. Rizopia makes a lasagna noodle that you don’t have to boil first as long as you have enough sauce that’s runny enough to cook them. If you have a thick marinara sauce you may find that there’s not enough liquid to cook the noodles so they’re tender before they start to dry out. That happened to me once. You can still do this without pre-cooking the noodles, just make sure you have a runny enough sauce. Add some extra water to your sauce if it’s quite thick. That being said, and though it’s against every part of the lazy cook in me to pre-boil the noodles I still find this the best option. I don’t cook them until they’re soft, in fact they’re still pretty firm. But you can rinse off any extra starch after boiling and half the cooking is done which is kind of nice too.

Finally, we need to discuss the greens. I’ve made this with different greens or combinations of greens each time. Use spinach or Swiss chard. Fresh is always best but if you don’t have access to fresh greens, you can use frozen chopped spinach just make sure you squeeze it dry. I still think you should saute it with olive oil and garlic to infuse some flavor into it. I would be surprised if your supermarket doesn’t carry fresh spinach even throughout winter though – even bagged in the pre-packaged salad aisle.

Oh wait, one more thing … the eggplant and zucchini. I suggest peeling the eggplant but leaving the zucchini unpeeled. The eggplant skin was just slightly too tough and made eating the lasagna afterward a bit of a pain. The zucchini skin was tender enough to leave on though. You can grill, broil, or saute the eggplant and zucchini slices. If you grill or broil the vegetables, just brush on a bit of olive oil. If you’re sauteing you may need a bit more olive oil for the pan as it kind of soaks into the eggplant.

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Roasted or Grilled Vegetable Lasagna

 

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Prep time

50 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

1 hour 25 mins

 

This may not be a traditional Italian lasagna but the flavors can’t be beat. Eggplant and zucchini, almond ‘ricotta’ and sauteed garlicky greens layered among brown rice lasagna noodles.

Author: Megan – The Gluten Free Vegan

Recipe type: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant, peeled cut in half lengthwise and sliced
• 2 small zucchini, sliced lengthwise
• Olive oil
• 1 lb. fresh greens (spinach or Swiss chard) – or 2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed and sliced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 recipe Basic Marinara Sauce – or 1 jar good quality store-bought gluten-free/vegan pasta sauce
• 1 recipe Almond Ricotta (prepared without straining overnight or baking)
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ½ lb mushrooms, sliced
• 2 10 oz box gluten free brown rice lasagna noodles (you may not need all of the noodles)
• 1 cup Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

Instructions

1. Prepare Almond Ricotta according to recipe instructions.
2. Prepare Basic Marinara Sauce according to recipe instructions, if using.
3. Cook eggplant and zucchini using method of choice. (See post for tips.)
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute a few minutes until garlic begins to soften, making sure the garlic does not get overly browned or burned.
5. Add in greens. Saute with garlic oil until wilted. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
6. Add Italian seasoning to almond ricotta. Mix to combine and set aside.
7. Cook lasagna noodles according to package instructions until shy of al dente. Leave the noodles fairly firm. Drain, rinse and toss noodles with a bit of olive oil to prevent sticking. (Skip this step if you’re not pre-cooking the noodles.)
8. Preheat oven to 350°F.
9. In a 9×13 baking dish, spoon about ¼ cup marinara sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.
10. Layer with lasagna noodles.
11. Add enough marinara sauce to cover the noodles – around 1 cup.
12. Layer half the eggplant and half the zucchini and all of the sliced mushrooms.
13. Add another layer of lasagna noodles.
14. Spread almond ricotta gently over the lasagna noodles.
15. Spread the sauteed greens mixture over the almond ricotta.
16. Add another layer of lasagna noodles.
17. Add more marinara sauce to cover the noodles – around 1 cup.
18. Layer the remaining eggplant and zucchini.
19. Add another layer of lasagna noodles.
20. Spread remaining marinara sauce over top.
21. Sprinkle with Daiya mozzarella-style shreds.
22. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until noodles are tender.

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3.2.1230

In case you need a bit of a visual for how to layer the lasagna I came up with this awesome little diagram below illustrating the layers from top to bottom:

– Daiya –
– Marinara Sauce –
– Noodles –
– 1/2 Eggplant & Zucchini –
– Marinara Sauce –
– Sauteed Greens –
– Almond Ricotta –
– Noodles –
– 1/2 Eggplant & Zucchini + Mushrooms –
– Sauce –
– Noodles –
– Bit of Sauce in Bottom of Pan –

I so badly wanted to do a cute little drawing of all the layers labelled but I don’t currently have those kinds of skills. The above little diagram will have to do.

Buon appetito.