Roasted Sweet Pepper Soup

This soup can be as spicy or as mild as you like, and is a great accompaniment to a light summer meal. It also is great in the fall as part of a hearty meal- it goes especially well with enchiladas.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
6 large Jimmy Nardello peppers,seeded and chopped (these are Italian frying peppers, red bell peppers can also be used)
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced (I like to add extra garlic)
3 thyme sprigs (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
5 guajillo or pasilla chilies**
3 cups chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, or lime juice (I prefer lime)
tabasco sauce, to taste
cayenne pepper, to taste
sour cream, for accompaniment
tortilla chips, for accompaniment


1. Preheat the oven to 250°. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 4 qt pot. Add sweet peppers, onion, garlic, and thyme. Sweat until onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.

2. Remove stems and seeds from dried chilies, toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes, or toast them carefully in a skillet just until fragrant and just starting to soften. Place in a bowl and just cover with boiling water, let stand until the are softened, about 10 minutes. Taste the water, if sweet and and tasty, use when pureeing the chilies. Otherwise, add softened chilies to a blender or a food processor with just enough chicken broth puree them into a thick paste.

3. Add the remaining chicken broth to the sweet pepper mixture, simmer for 15 minutes. Using a stick blender, puree until smooth. Alternately, puree in batches using a food processor or a blender. Strain if desired for a smoother texture.

4. Stir the chili puree, into the sweet pepper mixture. Add the cream, and vinegar, simmer for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt, tabasco, and additional vinegar or lime juice.

5. Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips. (I don't actually do this because chips are starchy, thus we don't eat them, but I bet it's yummy)

*This is where I went wrong the first time I made this soup- I roasted a dozen habaneros and jalepenos, seeded them, and added them to the chili puree in step 2. I would advise against it. :)

This recipe was inspired by on a recipe from James Peterson, _Splendid Soups_

Awesome Chocolate Chip Bread

This is a delicious version of a chocolate chip quick bread, and it almost is like a coffee cake. Not too sweet, it makes an excellent breakfast treat- even the "starch eaters" around here devour it!

Chocolate Chip Bread

Bowl #1
6 egg whites

Bowl #2
6 egg yolks
1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Bowl #3
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown rice flour or oat flour**
2 1/2 cups almond flour

Bowl #4
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

Beat egg whites to stiff peaks in a large bowl. Add the contents of bowl #2, then add the contents of bowl #3. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Bake for 25 minutes until lightly golden brown. Cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

**I don't always add the rice or oat flour.  Sometimes I leave it out completely, and though the texture is a little softer, the bread is still quite yummy.

Makes about 12 servings, about 2" square. Each serving has ~4 grams of starch, unless you omit the rice/oat flour and then it is effectively starch free.


----
Update 4-1-2012

After months and months (and months!) of making this almost everyday, I've streamlined the process a little. You can make it as written, or:

Place eggs (not separated) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip until doubled, light colored, and thicken. This should take about 5 minutes.

Add all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips. Whip on high for about a minute. Add the chocolate chips, whip for about 30 seconds.

Place the batter in a parchment-lined pan and bake as directed.

recent delays

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. I'm a grad student. This time of year.... well, it's dicey, at best.

Apple Dutch Baby

This is a really yummy cake/pancake/coffee cake. It's not overly sweet if you use a tart apple, and is nicely filling with the protein from the almond meal. It doesn't taste at all like a raisin bread, even though there is a full cup of raisins in the cake. The raisins help stabilize the cake, and add a very subtle flavor.

There are two options given for sweetening the topping. Honey is rather high in maltose, and if you opt to use honey there is over 300 mg of maltose per serving. If maltose or honey isn't an issue, either sweetener is delicious. If you have trouble with either maltose or honey, I'd recommend using the brown sugar option.


(Shown made with a mixture of Jonagold and Granny Smith Apples, brown sugar mixture used to sweeten topping)

Apple Dutch Baby

Pancake:
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup flax seed
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine


Topping:
4 large apples, diced
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cornstarch or tapioca starch
*1/2 cup honey
*2 teaspoons cold water
OR
*1/3 cup brown sugar
*scant 1/4 cup white sugar
*1 tablespoon cold water

Directions:
Preheat at 300 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, flax seed, sugar, xantham gum and baking soda. In a food processor, puree raisins and eggs. Combine raisin puree, almond mixture and milk, mix until smooth.

Place butter in a 10-in. ovenproof skillet. Heat tilt over medium heat until butter is melted, swirl pan to coat bottom and sides. Pour batter into hot skillet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and center is cooked through. Let pancake rest at least 10 minutes before topping with apple mixture.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, saute apples in butter until lightly browned. Combine topping ingredients, add to apple mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and slightly syrupy. Set aside until pancake is ready.

To serve: Spoon topping over pancake, cut into 8 slices.

There is just under one gram of starch per serving when made with cornstarch, slightly more if you substitute tapioca starch. If you omit the cornstarch and choose to thicken the topping by simmering it for a few minutes, it is effectively starch free, though not entirely starch free as the raisins add about 4.5 grams of starch to the recipe (approximately 1/2 gram of starch per serving).

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

4 cups almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
1 cup flax meal
2 TBSP cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp guar gum
2 cups cooked or canned pumpkin
8 eggs
1 stick butter
1 cup chopped dates
2 tsp baking soda
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp vanilla


Combine eggs, vanilla, and butter. Add spices. Add pumpkin. Slowly add almond, coconut, and flax. Add dates, mix very well. Let batter rest.

While batter rests (an important step, since coconut flour needs time to hydrate) preheat oven to 300°.

Fill muffin cups (be careful not to overfill) and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done. Be sure to cool completely before serving. This makes 3 dozen muffins, but they freeze and reheat beautifully. There is less than 1/2 gram of starch per muffin.

Brownies

There are a million gluten free brownie recipes out there. Here is mine, and happily brownies are naturally low in starch without being low in decadence!

Brownies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup mini marshmallows (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Next, stir in the vanilla extract and eggs. Finally, stir in the oat flour, guar gum, salt and chopped nuts, and chocolate chips (if using).

Pour into the prepared pan and press mini marshmallows, if using, into the batter. Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 16 brownies, with less than 2 grams of starch per serving.

Crepes...

... more or less.


I tried to cook these on the stove similar to pancakes. However, they were just too fragile and didn't hold up. Baking them in the oven solved this. You may notice that this is very similar to my recipe for strawberry shortcake. In fact, aside from the fillings and the time of day that you'd typically serve them, they are nearly the same. The base "cake" (that was invented when I was trying to make a new version of pancakes) is very versatile!

Crepes

Crepe Base

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tbsp butter (melted)
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 cup potato flour (not starch)
1/8 cup flax seed
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling
6 ounces marscapone cheese (you can modify this amount somewhat based on the package size available)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
sugar, to taste (about a tablespoon is probably plenty)

Fresh fruit of your choice


Preheat oven to 350°. Line one 13x19 jelly roll pans with parchment paper.

Combine the liquid ingredients. Slowly whisk in the flours. Whisk in the flax seed, let batter rest for 10-15 minutes. Whisk in the baking soda, pour into prepared pan, spread into a thin layer.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until done. It should be cooked through (a toothpick tester should have no crumbs) but it should not have browned very much.

Invert pan onto a cooling rack, leave parchment on cake and let cool. When cool, remove parchment.

While the crepe base is cooling, using a stand mixer or a heavy-duty whip marscapone, cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until fluffy. Be careful not to add too much sugar- this shouldn't be a sweet filling.


To assemble:

Cut crepe base into nice sections. Place one section on a plate, top with filling and fresh fruit. Fold in half, serve.

Makes 9 servings, with 2.5 grams of starch per serving (depending on filling choice).