I've done many many "turkey" dinners as a vegetarian, and several turkey dinners gluten free now so I thought I would pass on some of my tricks and recipes to survive a mega food gathering while sticking to your dietary restrictions (and making it easy on your hosts/guests too!).
I'll be posting recipes all week to give ideas and/or inspiration to keep your dinner as healthy as you want it to be!
Today we'll start with a delicious alternative to the white rolls that often grace the dinner table... vegan gluten free corn bread muffins. Not only will you not miss those old refined white flour rolls, you'll forget they ever existed! I'm also going to post a yummy harvest kale salad from the Oh She Glows website. The green kale is in season and will add vitamins, fiber, and along with the light lemon juice dressing, will help kick start your digestion before you get started on the bigger plates.
Vegan, gluten free cornbread: from the minimalistbaker.com
Yields: 8 muffins
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg (2 Tbsp flax seed meal + 6 Tbsp water)
- 1 cup + 12 Tbsp plain unsweetened almond milk + 4 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 1teaspoon baking soda
- 8 Tbsp vegan butter, melted or coconut oil
- 1 cup cane or granulated sugar (sub other sugars with varied results)
- 4 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
- pinch sea salt
- 1 cup + 12 Tbsp fine yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup + 12 Tbsp gluten free flour mix
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease eight small ramekins or eight muffin tins.
- Prepare flax egg in a small bowl and let set for a few minutes to achieve an "eggy" texture. Measure out almond milk and add lemon juice and let curdle for a few minutes. Then add baking soda and stir once more. Set aside.
- To a mixing bowl, add melted butter or coconut oil and sugar and whisk vigorously to combine. Then add applesauce, flax egg, and whisk once more. Next add almond buttermilk mixture and whisk vigorously again to combine.
- Next add salt, cornmeal, flour and stir with a spoon until just incorporated. It will look thin and somewhat lumpy. That's what you're going for.
- Divide batter between greased ramekins or muffin tins
- Bake for 28-35 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into a center comes out clean.
- Let rest in the cooking dish for a few minutes before serving.
Harvest Kale Salad: recipe and picture from ohsheglows.com
Ingredients:
FOR THE SALAD & DRESSING:
- 2 medium bunches destemmed kale, finely chopped (8 cups chopped)
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
- 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (just eyeball it)
- 1-2 handfuls dried sweetened cranberries, for garnish
- 1 cup pecan halves, toasted
- 1.5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pinches fine grain sea salt
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 300F. Spread the pecans onto a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and lightly golden.
- Remove the stems from the kale and discard (you can save for smoothies if you are hard core!). Finely chop the kale leaves (the smaller, the better!).
- Wash the kale and spin dry. Place dried kale into a large bowl.
- For the dressing: In a mini food processor, process the garlic until minced. Now add the lemon, oil, salt, and pepper and process until combined. Adjust to taste, if desired. Pour the dressing onto the kale and mix it into the kale with your hands or toss with spoons. Keep mixing for about 1 minute to ensure everything is coated perfectly.
- For the pecan parm: Rinse out the mini processor and pat dry. Add the pecans into the processor and process until the pecans are the size of peas or a bit larger. Now add in the nutritional yeast, oil, and salt and process again until it's a coarse crumb. Be sure not to over-process - we still want a nice crunchy texture here, not powder.
- Sprinkle the pecan Parmesan all over the salad. Toss on a handful or two of dried cranberries. Wrap and place in the fridge for 30-60 minutes to soften. I tried letting this salad sit overnight in the fridge and I greatly preferred the flavour of the salad served the day of, so I don't recommend making this salad the day before and letting it sit in the fridge overnight.
Read more: http://ohsheglows.com/2013/11/25/the-best-shredded-kale-salad/#ixzz3ndbehTWB