Chickpea Flour Dutch Baby Pancake

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Grain-free && Very low fat && Low sugar && 30 minutes or less

Need a delicious breakfast that won’t take all morning to make? I got ya covered!

The pancake obsession continues! In this installment, we make a single gigantic pan-sized pancake, which can provide a fun change-up from having many smaller buttermilk pancakes, for example. If you haven’t had a dutch baby before, I’d describe it as the cousin of a traditional pancake, but with a texture and taste that’s a bit more reminiscent of custard than bread. And, unlike smaller pancakes that must be made and flipped in many batches, requiring you to stand at the stove and pay attention for quite some time, this is a simple batter that comes together in one bowl, is poured into a large pan, and bakes in the oven for 15-20 minutes, during which time you can kick back and sip your morning coffee until it’s done.

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If you have had a dutch baby before, I will note that the product of this recipe won’t puff quite as much as a dutch baby made with traditional ingredients, but it will still taste just as custard-y and delicious.

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Chickpea Flour Dutch Baby Pancake

Makes one 12″ dutch baby pancake.

Special equipment: 12″ cast iron or stainless steel (oven-proof) frying pan. (Or use a 10″ skillet and one greased 8 oz ramekin)

Bits:

135g (1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp egg whites (equivalent of 3 whole eggs)
40g (2 Tbsp) roasted yam flesh / canned pumpkin
1 cup low-fat / non-fat milk
120g (1 cup) chickpea flour
1/2 tsp fine-grain salt
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp white sugar (or coconut sugar)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp reduced fat butter for greasing (note: this adds less than 0.75 grams of fat per serving, and is pretty essential to preventing the dutch baby from sticking to the pan!)
Optional: fresh berries, date syrup, maple syrup, or a dusting of cinnamon and sugar, for topping

Algorithm:

Put a 12″ oven-proof frying pan in the oven, and preheat the oven with the pan in it to 450ºF.
While the oven is heating, in a medium mixing bowl, combine egg whites and yam (or canned pumpkin). If you’re using roasted yam flesh, for a more homogeneous consistency in your pancake, blend the egg and yam with an immersion blender until smooth. If you’re using canned pumpkin, just whisk with a fork until egg and pumpkin are combined.
Add chickpea flour to egg mixture and whisk with a fork until well combined. Add remaining ingredients except the reduced fat butter, and stir until well combined. You should have a thin, smooth batter.
When the oven has come up to temperature, remove the pan from the oven (be sure to use an oven mitt!). Drop in the butter, and swirl to evenly coat the pan. As soon as the pan is coated, quickly pour in the pancake batter, and place the pan back in the oven.
Bake for 15 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Cut into wedges, top with fresh cut fruit, syrup, or a dusting of cinnamon and sugar, as desired. Enjoy!

Fresh Mint & Snap Pea Pasta/Chickpea Bowl

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Grain-free && Very low fat && Vegan option && 30 minutes or less

I know I already posted this dish with a rough algorithm for the recipe on Instagram, but I seriously CANNOT stop eating this dish! (Why do mint and peas go so well together?!? Apparently the British already had this figured out, but it’s news to me!) I was hesitant to post yet another pasta recipe, but my continuing love for this one is too great to contain. So, I figured it’s time to get serious about it, write down exactly the recipe I’ve settled on (instead of just winging it every time as I had been), and share it with the world.

23C09841-B3E2-4833-99AA-4225C3166877 — The Insta pic that got this whole thing started.

As I said on Instagram, I saw a recipe in The Irish Times by Nigel Slater from his new book Green Feast (Dear Seattle Public Library, Please add this book to your collection so I can check it out. Sincerely, Robot Recipes) for a pea, paparadelle and parmesan dish. The recipe was super simple, and screaming to be made, but with several twists to make it more robot friendly, and give it a little more zip. The result is a great seasonal recipe; I don’t know about you but my garden is currently in danger of being overwhelmed with fresh mint, and to my delight every other stall at my local farmer’s market has plump, crisp sugar snap peas that taste amazingly sweet even raw. It’s also super fast to throw together for lunch or dinner (or perhaps a pre-dinner snack!).

If you don’t have grain-free pasta on hand, this recipe also works well with canned chickpeas substituted instead. If you don’t have fresh sugar snap peas, just use extra frozen peas.

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Fresh Mint & Snap Pea Pasta / Chickpea Bowl

Serves 4 (makes about 2.5 cups mint pea sauce)

Ready in 30 minutes or less

Bits:

8 oz. box of grain-free pasta (I used Tolerant Red Lentil Rotini in the Instagram pic, and Tolerant Green Lentil Penne in the other two pics); or substitute two 14oz. cans garbanzo beans, rinsed
4 1/3 cups (1 lb. + 1 cup) frozen peas
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (such as Imagine Organic Vegetarian No-Chicken Broth)
2 – 3 cups sugar snap peas, stemmy ends cut off, and chopped in half if desired for more bite-sized pieces.
1/4 cup (7g) chopped fresh mint leaves; plus extra mint leaves for garnish
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
Black pepper (or lemon pepper) to taste
Optional for non-vegans: 1 cup low-fat/non-fat cottage cheese

Algorithm:

Cook grain-free pasta according to package instructions. If you use a similar chickpea and/or lentil based pasta like the one I used, after boiling, strain out the cooking water from the pan, and fill the pan (with the pasta still in it) back up with cold tap water. Rinse and strain out the cold tap water. This not only to stop the cooking when it’s done, but also will remove extra starch and prevent the pasta from sticking together.
In a small saucepan, combine the frozen peas and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes. Strain out the peas, reserving 3/4 cups of the broth. Set peas and broth aside.
If using fresh sugar snap peas: Using either the same small saucepan or a second one, fill half full with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the fresh sugar snap peas and boil for 2 to 3 minutes, until soft, but not mushy. Strain out the water and refresh with cool water to stop the peas from cooking further.
In a blender (bonus if you have a high-speed blender!) combine the reserved 3/4 cup broth, 3 1/3 cups (equivalent of 1 lb bag) of the peas boiled from frozen, 1/4 cup (7g) chopped fresh mint leaves, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth.
Divide pasta, reserved peas (from frozen), and the sugar snap peas (if using) among four deep bowls. Add 1/4 of the mint pea sauce to each. Garnish with chopped fresh mint leaves and extra pepper (or lemon pepper) as desired. I love to top my bowl with about 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese as well. Serve and enjoy!

Tomato Cobbler with Buttermilk Chickpea Flour Biscuits

Grain-free && Very Low Fat && Vegetarian

The summer weather is really getting into swing now, but I am lucky to live in Seattle where it almost never gets too hot to turn on the oven. Even if it got super hot, I am probably crazy about cooking and baking enough that I’d turn on the oven anyway.

This recipe is an adaptation of one found in Hetty McKinnon’s beautiful and amazing new book “Family.” I know I’ve said I love her before, but it’s worth saying again; check out all of her cookbooks if you can. Of course I changed this recipe to make it robot-compatible (grain-free and practically non-fat), and I amped up the spices a little bit. The recipe calls for a lot of tomatoes, and would be great for using up those soft wrinkly tomatoes in the back of the fridge that got just past their prime before you could eat them fresh. Or if you can, go to your local farmer’s market, look for someone selling tomatoes and ask them if they have any “seconds”; I get seconds of organic tomatoes at my farmer’s market fo $1/lb, and usually there’s barely anything wrong with them! To be honest, I cut back on the amount of tomato filling when I made this because I just didn’t have the tomatoes, and I thought it was fine.

The real star of the show here is the buttermilk biscuits! Because of the chickpea flour, they’re not quite as light and flakey as traditional buttermilk biscuits of course, but they’re still full of warm, soft, savory biscuity goodness, without the grain or fat!

Tomato Cobbler with Buttermilk Chickpea Flour Biscuits

Adapted from Hetty McKinnon’s “Family” cookbook (p.163)

~45 minutes prep, 40 minutes to bake, 10 minutes to cool (total: 1 hour 35 minutes)

Serves 4 to 6

Bits:

Tomato Filling:

1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño, diced fine
4 garlic cloves, crushed with the flat side of a knife and diced fine
4 fresh thyme sprigs (or 2 tsp dried thyme)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp chickpea flour
4 lbs tomatoes (any variety), cut into about 1″ chunks
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Hot sauce to taste (optional, if like me, you like everything to have a little kick)

Buttermilk Biscuits

120 g (about 1 cup) chickpea flour
110 g (3/4 cup) fine-ground corn meal
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin
100 g (about 1/2 cup) yam, roasted or boiled until flesh is fully softened
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, plus extra for sprinkling
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Algorithm:

Adjust oven racks so that one is in the center of your oven, and the other is any distance below that. Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC).
Make the tomato filling:
- In a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat, add the red onion, and cook about until caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes; add a tablespoon or two of water if the onion starts to stick to the pan.
- Add the jalapeño, garlic, thyme, and balsamic vinegar to the pan and immediately add the chickpea flour. Cook for one minute, while stirring continuously; don’t worry if the chickpea flour soaks up all the liquid and looks a little dry.
- Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and hot sauce if you’re using it. Give everything a few good stirs. The chickpea flour should dissolve into and thicken the liquids in the pan to make a nice sauce. Add water a tablespoon at a time if it’s still to thick, or turn up the heat and cook it down for a couple minutes if it looks too watery.
Make the biscuits:
- In a medium bowl, add the chickpea flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, paprika, and cumin in a bowl, and stir to combine.
- Treat the yam just like you would butter; add it to the bowl, and using your fingertips, rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Stir in the nutritional yeast and chopped chives. Pour in the lemon juice and buttermilk; whisk with a fork until no the buttermilk is incorporated.
Put it all together and bake:
- Lightly grease the sides of an 9″ by 13″ baking dish with reduced fat butter or vegetable oil spray (this adds a negligible amount of fat to the dish).
- Pour in the tomato mixture. Loosely form 12 balls of biscuit dough (or drop 12 large spoonfuls of biscuit dough) and place them evenly on top of the tomato mixture.
- Place a baking sheet (or large bit of aluminum foil) on the bottom rack to catch any drips, and place the tomato cobbler on the top rack. Bake for 40 minutes; check halfway through and loosely place an aluminum foil hat over the baking dish if the biscuits start to get too dark.
- Remove from the oven and dust lightly with extra nutritional yeast. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes. Serve while still warm. Pairs well with a fresh arugula salad.

Parsnip Date Hazelnut Chickpea Flour Loaf

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Grain-free && Very low fat && Slightly and naturally sweetened

This quick loaf coffee cake is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. But, parsnips in a coffee cake you may ask? To which I’d reply, sure, it’s no stranger than putting carrots in a cake, which many would argue is much more delicious than strange. Parsnips are just another root vegetable, and they’re even carrot shaped, if that helps to put you more at ease. While maybe not be quite as sweet as carrots, they have a little more of an earthy, and almost creamy, flavor that’s hard to describe; well worth a try. Parsnips really have their heyday in fall when everyone starts to get excited about root vegetables, but like carrots, they seem to be available and delicious year round.

Made with 100% chickpea flour, it’s totally grain-free, and the only fat comes from the chickpea flour. It’s also sweetened only with a little bit of date syrup, making it pretty guilt-free for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, or dessert… you might even be able to pass it off as a dinner item; after all, chickpea flour is high in protein and parsnips are a vegetable. I say go for it!

For this loaf I recommend using a store-bought date syrup like The Date Lady‘s, which seems to be have a somewhat greater concentration of sweetness than the home-made stuff I’ve posted about (see my recipe for 110010 Birthday Cake for how to make your own date syrup. As the store-bought kind seems to be darker and a little sweeter, I have my suspicion that after blending the dates and water to make syrup, it’s probably cooked down a little to concentrate it; I need to do an experiment to check my hypothesis, and will be sure to report back when I do. But unless you have time to do the experiment yourself, try to go with store-bought.)

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Parsnip Date Hazelnut Chickpea Flour Loaf

30 minutes prep time, 45-55 minutes bake time

Makes 1 9″x5″ standard-sized loaf

Bits:

Dry:

150 g chickpea flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ground fenugreek seed

Wet:

200 g grated parsnips (start with about 300 g / 2 large parsnips, then peel and grate to get 200 g)
¼ cup (70g) roasted mashed garnet yam (or butternut squash)
3 Tbsp (50 g) egg whites
½ cup (125 g) nonfat greek yogurt
1 Tbsp nonfat milk
2 Tbsp (40 g) date syrup
1 Tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp hazelnut extract (or omit and increase vanilla extract to ½ tsp)
¼ tsp almond extract

Algorithm:

Line a 9”x5” standard size loaf pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Combine dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl (sift chickpea flour as it tends to clump).
Grate parsnips, if not already grated, and measure out 200 g. Set aside.
Add wet ingredients except the parsnips in small mixing bowl and stir until pretty much smooth.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Fold with rubber spatula until almost combined.
Add the parsnips to the batter and fold until combined.
Bake 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out *almost* clean. Check after 20 minutes and put a foil hat over the top to prevent dark spots.
Be a boring grown-up and clean up your mess while the loaf bakes.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan, unstick the parchment, and let cool completely on a wire rack (best if you can leave it for at least 45 minutes to an hour, if not longer) before wrapping it up and putting it away).

Keeps for 2 weeks tightly wrapped in plastic in the fridge. Also freezes fairly well, but texture may suffer a little.

Spring Pea, Asparagus, and Beluga Lentil Bowl with Mint-Pea Yogurt Dressing

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Grain-free && Fat-free && Vegan Option && 30 minutes or less

I’m really getting into spring produce now that spring is in full swing! This bowl is a perfect edible way to celebrate the season. It’s actually a mix of a couple different very spring recipes I came across recently, adapted to what I had in my fridge at the time. It definitely isn’t the most photogenic dish, which made me hesitate for a second about posting it, but it was so delicious, I thought it would be a big shame not to share.

The mint-pea yogurt dressing is a slight adaptation from Hetty McKinnon’s new book “Family“, which is a gorgeous treasure trove of creative and delicious recipes, most of which can be made in under an hour; suitable for a weeknight dinner. I adore Hetty’s first book “Community“, which earned her the reputation in my mind of being the “other” Ottolenghi (plus she’s vegetarian!). Her books are worth seeking out.

Spring Pea, Asparagus, and Beluga Lentil Bowl with Mint-Pea Yogurt Dressing

30 minutes or less

Serves 4

Bits:

4 medium yukon gold potatoes (or any good roasting potato, or 1 lb cauliflower)
Sprinkle of olive oil for roasting (optional)
1 cup beluga lentils (or sub Puy / French lentils)
1 cup vegetable broth
1 lb asparagus, woody stems removed and chopped into 1½” batons
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
4 cups arugula
Salt and black pepper
Fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped, for garnish
Fresh chives, finely chopped, for garnish

For the Mint-Pea Yogurt Dressing:

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/4 cup packed (10 g) fresh mint leaves
1 cup (250 g) non-fat Greek yogurt (sub vegan yogurt to make the dish vegan)
1 tsp honey (sub maple syrup to make the dish vegan)
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
black pepper, or to taste

Algorithm:

Roast the potatoes: Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC). Fill a medium sauce pan half way with water and set to a boil on the stove. Rinse and chop the potatoes into 1″ cubes. When the water is boiling, add the cubed potatoes, bring back to a boil, and boil for 1 minute. Drain the water and spread potatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Toss potatoes with a couple drops of olive oil and a generous dusting of salt. Roast for 25 minutes until potatoes just start to brown.
Boil the lentils: In a small sauce pan, add the lentils, 1 cup of vegetable broth and 1 cup of water. Bring the contents to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid, and let simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain any remaining liquid.
Boil the asparagus: Fill a medium sauce pan (rinse and re-use the pan used to boil the potatoes) half way with water, and bring to a boil. Add the chopped asparagus and bring back to a boil. Boil the asparagus for 2 minutes. Strain out asparagus with a slotted spoon and set in a colander or sieve to drain and cool.
Boil the peas: Bring the water used to cook the asparagus back up to a boil. Add the peas for both the main dish and for the dressing (2 ½ cups total), cover, and reduce heat to medium. Boil fresh peas for 2 minutes, or frozen peas for 4 to 6 minutes, until warm through. Strain out the water and set aside.
Make the mint-pea yogurt dressing: Combine ½ cup of the cooked peas and the remaining dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Taste and add more salt and pepper as desired.
Put it all together: Combine the roasted potatoes, lentils, asparagus, the remainder of the cooked peas, and the arugula in a large serving bowl, or portioned out into smaller dinner bowls, and toss to combine. Drizzle generously with the mint-pea yogurt dressing, and sprinkle with chopped fresh mint leaves and chives. Enjoy!

Note: The dish without the dressing will last a lot longer in the fridge than if you combine it with the dressing and chopped fresh mint and then store it. If you anticipate the possibility of leftovers, have people add dressing and the chopped fresh mint and chives to their individual servings just before eating. Store the salad and the dressing separately in air-tight containers in the fridge, where they will keep for a week. Chopped fresh herbs may or may not last as long, depending on their freshness, so store any extra by themselves.

Surati Toor Dal with Broccoli and Roast Potatoes

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Vegan && Very low fat && Grain-free

I think I could eat some form of dal for at least one meal every day. Actually, I probably do. I’ve even been known to eat it for breakfast. (Really, why *not* eat it for breakfast?) Even now that the weather is starting to warm up here, there’s still nothing (well, almost nothing) more comforting and appealing to me food-wise than having a hot bowl of dal with some roasted potatoes and green veggies scattered on top. (Especially broccoli. Why am I obsessed with broccoli??) There are so many variations of dal and lentil soup recipes, and any simple roasted or boiled veggie makes a great topping, so it’s easy to change things up and keep these kinds of recipes interesting. I’m sure I’ll be posting more like this in the future.

This is a complete meal in a bowl that is vegan, filling, healthy, and above all tastes amazing. I had this for dinner last night, and actually opted for seconds instead of dessert (dessert for cyborgs is greek yogurt with seasonal fresh fruit on top… hard to beat, even if ice cream weren’t off limits.)

I think I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, my absolute favorite place to get dal and other Indian groceries is Indian Sweets & Spices in Shoreline, Washington, just about a 20 minute drive north of Seattle. They have a great selection of organic dals, organic besan (chickpea) flour, organic spices, and plenty of non-organic everything else (including the best fresh curry leaves I’ve been able to find in the greater Seattle area, including the International District). You can also get organic dals and ingredients from Amazon of course, but I find everything costs at least twice as much on Amazon (even with free shipping) as it does at Indian Sweets & Spices, or any local international grocery store I’ve been to. So, particularly in this case, it really helps your community AND helps you to save a bunch money if you can shop local, wherever that may be.

(NOTE: This post is not sponsored, nor is any other post sponsored; all of the opinions expressed are solely mine. I feel strongly about what I like, and want to encourage people to use good quality ingredients and support their local economies whenever possible.)

Surati Toor Dal with Broccoli and Roast Potatoes

About 45 minutes start to finish

Serves 4 as a complete meal

Bits:

For the dal:

1 ¾ cups toor dal + ½ cup mung dal (or use all toor dal, or all red lentils, depending on what you have)
3 ½ cups vegetable broth (I use Imagine Vegetarian No-Chicken Broth)
1 tsp turmeric
2 large or 3 medium roasted red peppers from a jar
1 jalapeño (or other preferred chili)
1″ finger of fresh ginger (~ 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp after mincing)
20 fresh or frozen curry leaves
2 Tbsp peanut butter powder, reconstituted with 3 Tbsp water (Anthony’s is my favorite)
1 tsp jaggery (a.k.a. gur) (or 1 tsp honey or maple syrup)
1 ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida (a.k.a. hing) **See note below.
1/2 to 1 tsp dried red chili flakes, depending on desired spiciness

For the veggies:

3 to 4 medium potatoes (I use yukon gold or red potatoes, as they’re less mealy than russets), cut into ¾-inch cubes
~ 1 tsp olive oil (optional, use a good drizzle more if you’re not fat-intolerant)
1 ½ tsp salt
2 heads of broccoli

Algorithm:

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper.
Start the dal:
- Put the dal into a medium-sized deep mixing bowl and fill the bowl with water to the top. Skim off / pour out the foam and then strain the dal into a fine-mesh sieve. Repeat 3 or 4 more times until the rinsing water is just about clear.
- Tip the dal into a large sauce-pan or stock pot. Add the vegetable broth and 3 ½ cups water. Bring to a boil. Skim off as much froth as you can, then add the turmeric powder.
- Turn the heat down to a vigorous simmer, cover partially, and leave to simmer. Set the timer for 30 minutes.
Make the potatoes:
- Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil, add the cubed potatoes, and boil for 1 minute.
- Drain the water from the pan, and spread the potatoes on the parchment-lined baking sheet (rinse out the pan and set aside for now. Sprinkle the olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle over the salt. Toss it all together to coat the potatoes as evenly as possible, and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Add ingredients to the dal:
- Cut the roasted red peppers into small dice, and stir into the dal.
- Mince the jalapeño and fresh ginger and stir into the dal.
- Roughly chop the fresh curry leaves and stir into the dal.
- Stir in the reconstituted peanut butter powder and jaggery (or sweetener of choice)
- Check the dal and add more water about a ½ cup at a time if the dal hasn’t started to fully fall apart and it’s starting to look a little dry.
Make the broccoli:
- Fill the pot the potatoes cooked in with water and bring to a boil. While it’s coming to a boil, cut the broccoli tops into small florets and the stems into bite-sized (about ¾”) chunks.
- When the water is boiling, drop in the broccoli and boil for 4 minutes until easily pierced with a fork.
- Strain out the water, and refresh in cold water to stop them cooking.
Finish the dal:
- When the dal is done cooking (after about 30 minutes, when the lentils are falling apart), put the heat on low and stir in the salt and lemon juice.
- Put a small frying pan on over medium heat and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, and dried chili flakes. When the seeds start to pop, tip them into the dal and stir through.
Add dal to each serving bowl and top with broccoli and potatoes. Enjoy!

Leftovers keep in the fridge for a week; dal can be frozen in an air-tight container for several months.

**Note: Asafoetida is another one of those ingredients that is helps make Indian dishes taste authentic and amazing, and it’s really tough to find a good substitute for. If you’re gluten-free, you have to watch out because it’s often mixed with wheat to help with processing it into a powder. A couple brands I’ve seen use fenugreek (and other fillers) to help with the processing, which makes it gluten-free, but you lose some of the intended flavor, and get a bunch of fenugreek instead… which is probably not bad, but I can’t imagine it’s quite as good. It can be tough to find, but pure asafoetida is naturally grain-free (and therefore gluten-free), and of course will have undiluted flavor. I’ve searched high and low for pure asafoetida powder, and Nature’n’Me is the best I’ve found so far (but sadly I’ve had to feed the monster to get it). If you really have to, you can try substituting ½ tsp garlic powder and ½ tsp onion granules instead.

Spring Pea, Bean, & Kraut Soup

Vegan && Non-fat && Grain-Free && 30 Minutes or Less

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I’ve made this soup every spring for the past several years (maybe even going on 10 years now…). It’s feels like the perfect bridge between warm comforting winter soups, and bright fresh spring produce. Plus, it’s really fast to throw together, especially if you’re starting with dried beans that you’ve soaked and cooked ahead, or if you want to make things super speedy with canned beans instead.

I’m just food-obsessed enough (and rely on beans as a super essential source of protein in my diet enough) that I am probably more diligent than most people about soaking and cooking dried beans on a regular basis. But really, if you can remember to do a couple pretty much hands-off steps ahead of time, it’s easy to have cooked beans on hand whenever you need them. And, who am I kidding, I have a hard time remembering too, so I write myself notes when I’m meal planning. I literally wrote myself a note last night for this morning to remind myself to put some dried cannellini beans in a quart mason jar (about 1/3 full) and fill it with water to soak this morning before work. Then when I got home, the jar of soaking beans sitting out on the counter reminded me to dump it all in a pan and start them boiling first thing before anything else. Once my coat and shoes were off, cats were fed (kitty dinnertime is a production at my house, but that’s a story that’ll have to wait for another day), and I started getting the rest of the ingredients out of the fridge, the beans were only a few minutes away from being cooked through.

This soup is adapted from a recipe by Peter Berley, in his excellent book “Flexitarian Table,” and Peter Berley also gets credit for the bean-cooking tip that I am about to impart to you now. Of course step one is to soak the beans first for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours at room temperature; if you start them soaking but don’t end up having time to cook them by 24 hours, just pop them into the fridge, still in their soaking water. They’ll wait there patiently for at least a few days until you get around to cooking them. The secret tip comes in at step two: pour the beans and their soaking water into a medium sauce pan and set to a boil; boil until they foam, skim off as much of the foam as you can, then strain out the beans, dump the soaking water, and rinse the beans and the pan completely. Then the final step is to put the beans back in the pan and add fresh water to cover the beans by about an inch. Getting rid of the foam and boiling them in fresh water in a clean pot makes the beans a bit easier to digest… even non-cyborgs need help digesting beans sometimes. My own secret bean-cooking tip is to use half broth and half water to boil the beans in the last step; this gives them a little extra flavor and makes them good enough to eat on their own. If you’re me, you’ll sneak more than a few while the rest of dinner is cooking, as a rule.

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I took a couple extra minutes to round out the meal. For my partner, who has no dietary restrictions, I made basically a fancy, but super speedy, grilled cheese sandwich, using a thick slice of sharp cheddar, sliced cherry tomatoes, chopped fresh chives, and a light smear of some grainy dijon mustard. (My grilled cheese secret tip is to start things cooking with some butter in the frying pan with the heat on medium high, and as soon as the bread crisps up, finish the sandwich in the oven at about 400F for a few minutes so the cheese melts and the rest of the filling warms through without burning the bread).

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For myself I made a egg-white scramble (eggs are great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner), into which I threw some chopped arugula, sliced cherry tomatoes, a bunch of chopped fresh chives, and salt and pepper of course, which I then served up with some reheated leftover roasted potatoes (and let’s not forget the hot sauce!).

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All of these were really quick and easy to make, and made for an all-around fresh and filling dinner.

Spring Pea, Leek, & Kraut Soup

Start to finish in 30 minutes or less

Serves 4 as a main course

Bits:

2 to 3 large leeks, white and tender green parts only, cleaned and thinly sliced (about 2 to 3 cups)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint, plus extra for garnish
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp ground pepper, or to taste
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
1 1/2 cups cooked/canned cannellini beans (or other white beans, if you don’t have cannellini on hand)
2 cups vegetable broth (I like Organic Imagine Vegetarian No-Chicken Broth)
2 cups water
3/4 cups drained sauerkraut + 1/2 cup drained sauerkraut (or kimchi) for garnish

Algorithm:

Add the leeks to a large saucepan or medium stockpot, and dry-fry over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until the leeks get soft and start to turn golden. (Add a tablespoon of water if the leeks start getting too dry and want to stick to the bottom of the pot).
Add the chopped fresh mint, salt, and pepper to the pot. Give it a stir and cook for another minute.
Add the peas, beans, vegetable stock, and water to the pot and bring to a simmer. If using fresh peas, simmer the soup for about 6 minutes until the peas are tender; if using frozen peas, simmer for about 4 minutes until peas and beans are hot throughout.
Add 3/4 cups of the sauerkraut and simmer for another 2 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and add more salt and/or pepper to taste.
Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Garnish with additional fresh mint and extra sauerkraut (or use kimchi instead of the extra kraut for a little extra spice and tang!). Slurp and enjoy.

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (+Caprese Sandwich)

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Very low fat && Grain-free && Vegan option

Giving up grains does not have to mean giving up bread! At least, if your definition of bread is a little flexible. I can’t say I have a recipe for sourdough or a nice crusty french baguette that will fool you into thinking you’re eating regular wheat flour bread, but this chickpea flour bread still unmistakably bready, and versatile enough to fill in just about wherever you need it. It’s light enough to use for a sandwich, and perfect for topping with chutneys or spreads and dipping into soups. My partner (human, with no dietary restrictions) isn’t really a fan of beans (I still don’t know how that’s possible), but he voluntarily gave this bread a taste; he said it’s “passable” and he’d eat it without complaint if served to him… coming from him, that’s a big success!

A couple of the keys to making this recipe work so well are the milk and the roasted yam (always!). You can still make bread if you use water instead of milk and omit the yam, but the bread will be a bit more dry and will taste more reminiscent of beans, so I recommend using milk and yam if at all possible. At this point I’ve just been keeping some roasted yam in my fridge at the ready at all times, since it’s so useful in baking with 100% chickpea flour. It’s super convenient to have handy whenever the need to bake strikes me, and it’s also tasty on its own, mixed into some dal, or as a side in a larger meal if I find I have extra leftover.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Chickpea flour flat bread with “spicy red pepper jelly” from my local deli

Lately I’ve been craving a good savory, juicy sandwich (which is a little weird because I’m not normally much of a sandwich person), so I used the flat bread recipe below to build a reasonable facsimile of a caprese sandwich (see further below): tomatoes, basil, strained low fat cottage cheese (in place of the fresh mozzarella), and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, plus a extra sprinkle of salt and pepper for good measure. In my pre-cyborg days when I tolerated fat better but not at all tomatoes, I’d make myself caprese salads and sandwiches with fresh mozzarella but subbing thick slices of roasted beet for the tomato; it’s not exactly the same, but it’s quite delicious in its own right. Try it out if you can’t have tomatoes, or if you want a new spin on a classic caprese.

I’m hoping to develop a grain-free yeasted loaf bread recipe, and I think I’m close to having a 100% chickpea flour quick-bread that could be sliced and used like sandwich bread too. Stay tuned!

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread

Makes six 4″x 4″ “slices”, or two large naan-style flat breads

Note: About 1h 30 mins total time, including 1 hour rise time.

Bits:

1 cup nonfat milk, warmed to about 110ºF (warm to the touch, but not hot; I microwaved a cup of cold milk from the fridge for about 40 seconds) (Substitute plant-based milk for vegan option)
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp (half packet) active dry yeast
270 g (2 ¼ cups) chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cumin
90 g (about ½ cup) roasted, mashed yam (optional, but recommended)

Algorithm:

In a small bowl, combine milk, sugar, and yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes for the yeast to wake up. If using water instead of milk, you should see some foam on the surface, but foam will be harder to see if using milk.

Sift the chickpea flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add the salt and cumin, and mix through. Pour in the milk-yeast mixture and add the mashed roasted yam into the chickpea flour and stir gently by hand until you get a very wet dough.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot for 1 hour; the dough will rise a bit, but not quite double in volume.

Put a large baking sheet into the oven and preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Tear off a large piece of parchment paper about the size of your baking sheet and set it on the counter. Take a large pinch or two of chickpea flour and rub it around the surface of the parchment paper; a very fine layer should stick; discard excess flour.

For “sandwich bread” squares, pictured above, scoop the dough out onto the parchment. With a rubber spatula, spread the dough out into a large thin rectangle, about 8″ x 12″ and 1/4″ thick. For large naan-style flat breads, scoop the dough into two equal mounds on the parchment paper. With a rubber spatula, spread the dough out into ovals about a 1/2″ thick.

When the oven is done heating to 425ºF, remove the baking sheet, slide the parchment with the dough on it onto the sheet, and place back in the oven. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until top is fully set, but don’t let it brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes. For sandwich bread, slice into six equal 4″x4″ squares (and slice off any rough edges, if you’d like). Top as desired, and enjoy!

Not Mac ‘n’ Not Cheese

Grain-free && Very Low Fat && Easily Veganized

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This simple mac ‘n’ cheese recipe is made without traditional macaroni and without cheese, but still tastes cheesy and satisfying like the old classic! The “mac” is replaced with pasta made from chickpea and/or lentil flour, which I’m seeing around more and more these days (such as this and this). You may have to be careful if you can’t tolerate grains though, because I’ve seen some chickpea and lentil pastas that also have rice flour in the ingredients. The cheese-free cheesy taste comes from a combination of nutritional yeast and spices, which won’t be any surprise to vegans.

The addition of fresh chopped tomatoes and some basil or arugula puts this dish over the top for me. If you can’t tolerate tomatoes in your diet for whatever reason, I feel your pain; I had to give them and other acidic foods (and coffee!!) up for about six years until after I got my gastric pacemaker a couple years ago. Fortunately, this recipe is nearly as great, in my opinion (maybe better, in your opinion) with another vegetable mixed in. My go-to substitute for tomatoes in any recipe always used to be roasted red peppers, which I think would work perfectly well here. Really you can mix in anything you want; any combination of fresh herbs, cooked broccoli florets, cubed roasted sweet potato, or roasted fennel would be quite tasty. Or don’t mix anything in, and keep it classic (and more kid-friendly)!

Finally, I make this recipe with some skim milk to keep the final recipe nearly non-fat, but if you are vegan and can handle fat, you can easily substitute the alternative milk of your choice to veganize it.

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Not Mac ‘n’ Not Cheese

Serves 3 hungry adults as a main course

Bits:

Optional veggie mix-ins (pick one, or none):

1 pint halved cherry or plum tomatoes + handful roughly chopped basil leaves
2 large roasted red peppers, chopped + handful arugula
½ lb roasted or steamed broccoli florets
1 lb roasted sliced fennel + small handful roughly chopped fresh parsley
1 ¼ lb cubed roasted sweet potato or butternut squash + small handful roughly chopped fresh sage

For the pasta:

8 oz box of chickpea or lentil grain-free pasta

For the sauce:

Dry:

¼ cup chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
Large pinch of chipotle chili powder (more or less depending on spiciness preference)
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp smoked paprika
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Wet:

1 ¼ cup milk of choice (skim cow milk to keep the dish nearly non-fat, or alternative plant-based milk to make vegan)
¼ cup water
½ tsp of Dijon mustard
1 ½ Tbsp tamari
optional if you can eat fat: 1 Tbsp olive oil

Algorithm:

If adding a vegetable/herb mix-in, prep that first. Roasted vegetables can be roasting while you make the pasta and sauce. If using fresh sage, either dry-fry it or fry it in a little bit of oil to crisp it up.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients for the sauce in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Combine wet ingredients for the sauce in a small sauce pan, and turn the heat on medium-low. Stir continuously until almost simmering. If you let it boil, cow milk might split, so take care.
Remove pan from heat and slowly pour a little bit of the pan liquids into the dry ingredients, and stir to form a paste. Gradually continue to add a little more at a time of the pan liquids into the dry ingredients, stirring as continuously as you can, until the mixture in the mixing bowl is smooth and runny. Add the mixing bowl contents back into the sauce pan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Stir continuously, until the mixture has thickened to a cheese-sauce-like consistency; this should only take a few minutes.
Divide pasta between serving bowls, and pour equal amounts of sauce on each. Add vegetable and herb mix-ins to each bowl, and gently stir until vegetables and herbs are distributed evenly. Devour while still warm.

Chickpea Flour Buttermilk Pancakes

Grain-free && Very low fat

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes. Robot compatibility verified.

My pancakes don’t always come out picture-perfectly round, like so many pancakes you may see on the internet. Good thing you can’t taste shapes.

These pancakes are sort of where my fat-free, grain-free baking all began. When I had to cut out grains and fat from my diet because of my gastroparesis, obviously that had no affect on my weekend morning cravings for a warm fluffy stack of pancakes. I had a good recipe for chickpea flour buttermilk pancakes in my copy of the Chickpea Flour Cookbook by Camilla V. Saulsbury (check out her blog https://powerhungry.com/ for lots of great grain-free recipes!), but they contained more fat than I could tolerate as written. So I’d been making them just with the fat cut out, but they seemed to be dissatisfyingly dry; not really a surprise with the fat removed, but, I thought, what can you do? Right around then autumn was getting into full swing and to distract myself from the inevitable disappointment of the end of the summer berry season, I was amping myself up for all the delicious squashes and root vegetables just coming into season. I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes that came out as fluffy and delicious as the chickpea flour buttermilk pancakes I’d been making, but I couldn’t find a grain-free and low- or non-fat pumpkin pancake recipe anywhere (I knew that was a tall order), so I resolved to make one up myself.

That was when I discovered pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato are excellent stand-ins for the fat in a recipe! (Of course I wasn’t the first person in history to discover this, but it was a totally new concept to me, and seems to not be a super-well-known baking fact in general.) The pumpkin/squash/sweet potato (whatever you decide to use) makes these pancakes tender and moist, while keeping them enjoyably light and fluffy. At the time I was a little disappointed the pumpkin flavor didn’t really come through, but that keeps the flavor of these pancakes pretty classic and well-suited for any time of year!

strawberry maple pancake

Cooking pancakes seems so straightforward on the surface: pour batter into pre-heated pan, cook a couple minutes, flip, cook another minute, devour. Pretty much every pancake recipe I’ve seen is written that way. Maybe it’s just me and my obnoxiously persistent attention to detail, but there seems to be a lot more nuance to it than that. In the 13 years since I’ve been making pancakes (yes, apparently I needed to earn a college degree before I could embark on the journey of trial, error, and self-discovery that is pancake-making), I feel like I’ve learned a lot. For years my pancakes were flat and heavy (and that was with regular white flour and as much fat as a normal pancake recipe calls for). Finally my pancakes are actually something to be desired, and part of that is technique, so I figured I’d share a list of pancake-making tips that could have saved me years of floppy lifeless pancakes, if only I’d known! These tips apply to standard grainy/fatty/sugary pancakes the same as they do for my grain-free, no-added-fat, slightly-sweetened pancakes in the recipe below.

Pancake cooking tips:

Batter consistency is important. I saw many a recipe that said the batter should be between spoonable and pourable, whatever that means. A thicker batter will result in taller pancakes, but you risk burning the outsides of your pancakes waiting for the middle to cook through; if you turn down the heat to avoid burning anything, the shock of the heat won’t be strong enough to kick the leavener into action quickly, resulting in heavy pancakes with not much rise. Similarly, if your batter is too runny, there won’t be enough structure in the batter for the pancakes to hold together and rise tall; instead they’ll just spread, and might come out with a light texture, but they’ll be very flat. The way I’d describe the batter consistency that I’ve had luck with is “thick but still pourable”. Hopefully if you follow recipes as written, particularly if you weigh your ingredients, rather than measuring by volume, the batter consistency will come out right. I weigh my ingredients, but sometimes depending on the day of month and the phase of the moon, my batter will come out a little too dry or too wet, and will need some tweaking. Recognizing a good consistency comes with experience to some extent, but feel free to tweak your batter as you cook, if your pancakes are coming out too thick (add buttermilk) or too runny (add flour).
Pre-heat your pan while you make the batter! This will help your first batch come out right, and help ensure consistency between batches.
Pancakes are sensitive to the exact heat of the pan. Every pan and every stove is different, so it will just take some trial and error with your particular set up to know what the best heat is to cook your pancakes properly. Adjust as you go, if needed. Once you find the right heat setting, get out a fat sharpie, make a big mark on your stove dial, and label it in big, delicious letters “PANCAKES”, so you can find the right heat level again easily for future pancake-making (…not really).
The first batch in the pan is always wonky. Is it just me? Maybe. I think it may be the fact that the pans start clean and maybe don’t get coated with an invisible layer of oil/butter/pancake magic that seems to stick around after the first batch. Also, the first batch is really a test batch that you should use to gauge the heat of your pan on the stove and the consistency of your batter. Start with only one or two pancakes in the pan for your first batch, just to be safe and get that pancake magic in there, so your following batches will come out correctly and consistently.
Pancakes take more than the one to two minutes to cook than many recipes suggest they do. “Pancakes are so simple and only take a couple minutes to cook!” Hah. Disagree. That said, they shouldn’t take 10 minutes per side either… If they cook in one to two minutes I’d guess they’ll come out burnt on the outside and underdone in the middle, so turn the heat down. If they take 10 or more minutes to cook they’re going to be flat and you’re going to get very bored very fast, so turn the heat up. Set your expectations properly.
Wait until your pancake looks ready to flip before flipping it. This one’s probably the most useful tip. The tell-tale signs that a pancake is ready to flip are: 1. the edges of the pancake should look dry on the surface, and 2. little air bubbles should be rising up and popping on the surface in the middle of the pancake (which should not look as dry as the edges). Once you see both of these signs, flip away.
Pancakes that wrinkle when you try to flip them likely need more time to cook through on the inside before you try to slip the spatula between the pancake and the pan, even if the outside looks dry and cooked. I’ve found this to be an issue with chickpea flour pancakes in particular. This also brings back into focus the delicate issue of pan temperature; the inside needs to cook through without the outside burning, so if your pancakes wrinkle up when you try to flip them, maybe turn the heat down a hair and given the pancakes an extra minute to cook. But also, don’t worry about it too much; like I said, you can’t taste shapes.
Use two spatulas to lift your pancakes from the pan. Don’t be stubborn about trying to avoid getting extra utensils dirty. This also helps your pancakes not wrinkle.
Don’t keep your cooked pancakes in a warm oven while you make the rest. In my experience this just dries them out. If you really need to, re-heat any cold pancakes in the microwave for a few seconds; they’ll taste just as good as straight from the pan.
Note specific to chickpea flour pancakes: The inside of the pancake tends to firm and fluff up as it cools. If you try biting into a chickpea flour fresh off the skillet, it may seem a bit mushy and possibly even under-cooked. Give them a couple minutes to cool on a plate, and then the texture will be fluffy and amazing! (IMHO)

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Robot-compatible Chickpea flour Buttermilk Pancakes

Note: These pancakes freeze and reheat in the microwave pretty perfectly! I recommend making a huge batch and always having some in the freezer for instant pancake gratification. They’ll keep just fine in the fridge for at least a week too.

Makes about 17 pancakes with about a 5″ diameter (I use a not-quite-full 1/3 cup measure to scoop the batter)

Bits:

Dry:

313 g (2 1/2 cups) chickpea flour
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (I make my own with this recipe: https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/how-to-make-pumpkin-pie-spice/)

Wet:

144 g egg whites (or about 3 large eggs, if you don’t mind the fat from the eggs)
325 g (about 1 1/4 cups) roasted and mashed pumpkin / winter squash / sweet potato (NOTE: Canned pumpkin will work too, in a pinch, but roasted pumpkin / squash / sweet potato will make a noticeably softer, fluffier pancake! My favorite is roasted red kuri squash, but I most frequently use roasted sweet potatoes as they are cheap and accessible year round.)
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
2 1/2 tsp sweetener of your choice (I have been using coconut palm sugar lately, because I have some to use up; brown sugar or white sugar will all work fine.)
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Reduced-fat butter (it exists!) for greasing your pan, if your pan needs help to prevent sticking

Algorithm:

Preheat a large, ideally non-stick, frying pan on medium heat on the stove (see pancake-cooking tips above).
Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir to combine.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients except the butter. Stir together, mashing as needed to be sure the pumpkin/squash/sweet potato is smoothly mixed through.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and stir gently / fold vigorously with a rubber spatula until combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl when mixing, to ensure there are no surprise pockets of dry ingredients.
Put reduced fat butter if needed into your frying pan in order to prevent sticking. Make sure the surface of the pan is coated evenly. The pan should be heated such that butter should sizzle, but not immediately brown when added to the pan.
Use a scoop (I use a 1/3 cup measure) to pour batter into pan. The pancake is ready to flip when the edges look dry, and air bubbles rise up and pop in the middle (see tips above). Flip and cook each pancake for another minute or two. The pancake is done when the spatula slides easily under the pancake and the bottom is golden brown.
Top with jam, fruit, or maple syrup, and enjoy!