Gluten-Free Goddess Recipe Blog

Pasta Frittata Magic.  Have I got a simple and flavorful Mediterranean inspired gluten-free pasta frittata recipe for you. It is perfect for the upcoming weekend. Throw it together for a lazy brunch, or a backyard picnic. But first, a logistical update. Notes from long ago and not so far away... From the archives:: We are back from LA, safe and as sound as two people can be jetting from the oxygen saturated beach of Santa Monica to the rarefied (read- bone dry nosebleed inducing) air of Northern New Mexico. My "of a certain age" skin is not decidedly not happy. My razor textured Floyd's cut now looks like a highlighted squirrel on a tequila fueled bender. And to add insult to follicle injury, there's a technical snafu that despite daily phone calls, shameless begging and patient (I assure you) correction of our physical street address (corrected three times by three different customer service representatives eager to assist you). That's right. N

How to cook quinoa in a rice cooker. So how do you cook quinoa? I was recently asked.  The answer is simple.   Easy. Fast. Rockin'. I cook it in a rice cooker. In fact, quinoa is the easiest no-fuss "grain" you'll ever cook. It's healthy fast food. Cook up a batch ahead of time and you can stir up a fabulous light lunch ( like these tasty recipes) in a New York minute. Well, maybe a Los Angeles minute. No wait. A Santa Fe minute. I can't keep up with where we are these days. It doesn't matter. It's all good. Try these favorite quinoa recipes and you'll see for yourself. Love + Peace, Karina xo How to cook quinoa in a rice cooker: 1. Using a fine mesh sieve rinse 1 cup of organic quinoa in cold water. Drain. 2. Dump rinsed quinoa into your rice cooker. 3. Add 2 cups fresh water* see notes. 4. Turn on your rice cooker. That's it. In about fifteen minutes* you'll have hot fluffy quinoa to play with. Quinoa is rather

Strawberry Rhubarb Love, Luv. Can't get enough of the classic spring pairing of strawberries and rhubarb? Me neither. So I baked a batch of muffins, dressed up to party with cinnamon streusel topping. These easy to toss together treats are tender pull-apart bites of grainy buckwheat sweetness studded with bits of tart rhubarb.  A recipe perfect for breakfast, brunch or afternoon tea.  Peace + Love, Karina xo

SWEET. The world is my oyster. No. Wait. I don't even like oysters. All that prying and shucking. All that shimmying. All that clinging, gelatinous muscle. You can have my share. Take it. Please. I much prefer a cupcake. No slimy abductor to deal with. No quasi-fishy liquor. Just tender, soft sweetness in exactly the right portion. Not too big. Not too heavy. Not too much. Just right. Texture, frankly, can be an issue for me. Size is another issue (portions bigger than my head? A serious turn off). And taste, well, that goes without saying (you know how I loathe bean flour). Have you read   Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight: What to Do If You Are Sensory Defensive in an Overstimulating World ?   If I was a storybook character I would inhabit The Princess and the Pea . Except that it would have to be The Gluten-Free Casein-Free Princess and the Pea (which by the way, I may also be allergic to; the pea, that is). While others around me appear to

A beauty of a bread for you to bake. Grainy, whole grain bliss. One of our absolute favorite gluten-free bread recipes. This rustic round loaf is tender and flavorful, and lovely dipped in extra virgin olive oil, Italian style. Crusty, fragrant gluten-free olive bread, warm from the oven. Giving up bread is hard. Bread is basic. Almost a need. Like air. Like breathing. It is both routine and celebratory. Prosaic and divine. A simple, torn-off hunk of good bread embodies a deep sense of nourishment, for body and soul. The bewitching mix of a handful of flour, some yeast, some salt, some water. Stir. Knead. Rest. Bake. And as if by magic, this warm and fragrant alchemical creation called bread appears. And all is right with the world. When I think of our honeymoon in Italy (seventeen years ago, darling) I think of the color of the evening sky above the cypress. A shot of burnished gold that shimmered with the faintest veil of pink and lemon yellow. I thi

Taco Salad Days Looking for a fresh idea for game day, a summer picnic, or backyard get-together? This cool and breezy quinoa taco salad might be just what you're craving. Laced with lime juice and sea salt, the combo of fluffy quinoa and ripe avocado, spiked with red onion and sunny sweet pepper, served on a crisp bed of romaine lettuce, is a light and healthy twist on the salsa drenched bean and cheese heavy taco salads so ubiquitous years ago. It's a total win for gluten-free vegans and vegetarians. And let's face it. Quinoa is much more hip than canned re-fried beans. And this particular quinoa taco salad boasts FODMAPs-friendly dairy-free vegan ingredients.  Quinoa is a complete vegetarian protein, so you really don't need the black beans (as a complementary protein)--- unless, of course, you're fond of those fiber rich little beauties in your quinoa salad. And if you do? Legume away dude. Dairy lover? You can add your favorit

Whole Grain Gluten-Free Muffins- with Love I've been thinking about muffins. And not just any ordinary, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, starchy, gluten-free muffins. Nope. A tender, whole grain, lower sugar, vanilla scented muffin that bursts with fresh strawberry flavor. Warm from the oven, these pleasantly grainy breakfast treats are pull-apart soft with juicy bites of strawberry. Sweet- but not too sweet. I used pure maple syrup for the primary sweetener, and a mere two tablespoons of organic brown sugar. And now for the interesting part. I also experimented with no xanthan gum. I used to rely on xanthan gum to give my gluten-free batter and dough the stretchability factor- a trait removed when I booted gluten from my kitchen and wished it vaya con dios .  But here's the thing. Shunning gluten is a complicated issue. Gluten imparts a flexibility to batter and dough, and baking without it can lead you to crumbly, gritty ruin if you're not careful. You're giving up

Luscious Lemon Cake! Perhaps, like me, you have  been craving a cake infused with a bright citrus taste- not too sweet and not too spongey. A true cake with old fashioned character and heft.  Something akin to a lovely simple cake I remember liking as a child, a store bought bakery cake called Louisiana Ring made by the famous Freihofer's bakery here in Connecticut. The cake featured a hint of orange. The day I decided to bake, I did not have oranges in the pantry- but I did have some lemons, organic Greek yogurt, and plenty of blanched almond flour.  And this simple home baked lemon cake was born.  In time for Spring. Love, Karina xo

Bake this beautiful strawberry rhubarb crisp. Let's face it. These days we need all the beauty we can get. And Spring herself is cooperating here in ole New England, serving up all the natural beauty you could ask for. There are crabapple, lilacs and apple blossoms snowing purple, pink and white. House finches, bluebirds, robins and cardinals are singing in the thicket. Lilacs are unfolding their fragrant violet petals, and canopies of trees are bursting from pale lacy green and soft sun-yellows to robust greens that filter ever higher sunlight.  And love. There is a lot of that going around, too. If you seek it out- it's literally all around us. Everywhere you look. In kind gestures of appreciation, faith, creativity, Spirit, and camaraderie. So in spite of the awful, horrible, no good, very bad troubles that have challenged us these pat three years, the human spirit remains strong. And Spring has launched her magic to remind us that the world still holds such beauty. In

Fresh + Sassy Strawberry Spinach Salad with Berry Dressing The older (wiser?) I get the more I crave simple.  The sweet, relaxed comfort of home cooking. An impromptu picnic on the patio with family-style classics like horseradish spiked potato salad . Instead of growing worldly and sophisticated and dabbling with truffle oil (a chemical taste beyond awful), each new gray silver hair spins my taste hula hooping into simplicity faster than Shakira can waggle. Well, maybe not that fast. She is pretty nimble. But you get my drift. I'm whipping up ten-minute rice stir-fries, not Coq au Vin. I’m blending up pomegranate smoothies , not roasting Duck a l'Orange. And lucky me, the dawning summer season is all about simplicity.  Who needs complicated and fussy when the farmers’ markets are abundant with glorious, fresh ingredients? Vegetables in every color. Ripe and voluptuous fruits. And every one of them gluten-free. And dairy-free. That’s the beauty of it. No

Light + Lemony Gluten-Free Pasta for Spring with Grilled Asparagus To speak about something as prosaic as pasta salad seems downright ho-hum. I mean. It's just a pasta salad. It's something I tossed together with stuff I had on hand. I hadn't planned on it. I didn't spend days contemplating the ins and outs and quirks of gluten-free penne. In fact, if I'm being unabashedly honest here I rarely think about food at all. Until I'm hungry. Until those familiar, nagging pangs begin gnawing their pesky little way into my consciousness, distracting me from my preferred, visual nomenclature- which rarely includes anything edible. I daydream about painting in the Rockies, the plight of bees, and walking low tide on Brewster Flats. I notice the temperature of light and the curve of negative space against a jar of old spoons. I think about expectations and illusions and perceptions. I ponder where my soul is taking me, tugging at me to pay attention to my life

Here is a wonderful year-round salad that is inviting, fresh and vibrant. The sort of salad a certain individual needs on a damp, Spring day when the sky is flannel white and the wind is capricious. On a day such as this it is tempting to head straight for comfort food. Baked Mac 'n Cheese . Or that last wedge of Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas  in the fridge. But what the body craves may- or may not be- what the body needs. I'm just saying. I'm no expert on cravings. But I do know that if I make a habit of indulging every gnawing whim and urge that wiggles its way into my sun deprived brain I'd munch Blueberry Banana Muffin Cake for breakfast and eat Shepherd's Pie  every noon hour from now till the Summer Solstice (a serotonin-boosting strategy not recommended, by the way, for those of us past a certain age where you can pack on voluptuous pounds faster that you can say blueberry pancakes on a stick). It also doesn't help that yours truly spor

Bundt cake inspiration- blueberries + bananas. My partner in (culinary) crime- the infamous and ever-up-for-baking husband Steve- informed me our bananas were mucho ripe. In fact, to be completely accurate, he poked his head into my cozy little studio the other day and declared, Our bananas are ripe. I should bake something. I looked up from my screen and murmured Hmmm, in assent. But what, exactly? Ripe bananas were calling. Begging to be a part of some grander life affirming tastebud tingling scheme. But do readers really need another banana cake recipe?  I pondered, slurping cold coffee. Blueberries popped into the pondering... Conclusion? Why not? Kisses, Karina

Today was a day I felt like baking. More than that, I felt like experimenting. Don't get me wrong, darling. I love ALL of my blueberry muffin recipes equally, yet... I just could not bring myself to repeat myself, to simply go to a recipe and follow it. The urge to tweak and adjust was too insistent to ignore.  I started thinking about sugar (I'm trying to eat less of it) and fiber (I'm trying to eat more of it). And of course, these days, I have shunned xanthan gum for good, so. There is THAT.  Here's what I came up with. A super tasty new muffin with big blueberry flavor, less sugar, and a lovely crumb thanks to the gluten-free oat bran, and touch of rice bran... Simple! And really, really good. From my kitchen to yours, a new gluten-free goddess recipe. Sent with love and prayers for peace, Karina xo

Ah, flourless chocolate cake. The perfect rich dessert.  Forgive the hyperbole. But I just can't help it. This is rich, sexy chocolate deliciousness on a plate. And such an easy recipe, especially if you use a food processor to do the work. Serve this to non-gluten-free folks with no apologies. None. Zip. Nada. And for gluten-free folks? Hand out seconds (we deserve it, don't we?). And the best part is- the recipe is inherently gluten-free and wheat-free. Always has been. No substitutions. No funny stuff. This is the same flourless chocolate cake I've been making for decades. It never contained flour. The only thing I've tweaked post-celiac diagnosis is adding more coffee and vanilla. Just because. And PS: See below why I make this recipe in a food processor- thanks to Bobby Flay. Happy SPRING! Karina xo

The mother of invention? If I call this new gluten-free bread an Irish soda bread, traditionalists will snicker. Raisins are not traditional in a "true" Irish soda bread, you see (if a soda bread has raisins in it, it's called Spotted Dog in the Emerald Isle, or so I'm told).  I never knew this, growing up on the salt-kissed clapboard villages of the Connecticut shore. I was blithely ignorant of this quaint canine moniker, despite a streak of Irish blood. We ate more pierogi and kielbasa in our culturally eclectic house than Irish soda bread and tea. So my own first home baked Irish soda bread had raisins in it.  And, actually, come to think of it, why the heck not?  When it comes to traditions, I wiggle and chafe beneath constraint and "should" like an itchy Catholic school girl with pinching new Easter shoes gazing out the window at the unsettled spring sky. I admire traditions. At least in theory. In an abstract way. Experimenting, though, is more int

For today's menu? Gluten-Free Shepherd's Pie Two Ways (one vegan). A frigid wind is rolling through, interrupting our whisper of solar warmth with bracing bursts of frosty cold. But the skies are clear and cobalt blue, nudging out the low wooly gray of yesterday. Still, it's the kind of day that calls for comfort in the form of food. Something baked in a crock. Something piping hot and old fashioned. Something with mashed potatoes. A savory pie, I said out loud, standing at the window watching our pair of cardinals and chickadees take turns at the feeder stocked with black oil sunflower seeds. Don't tease me, said my husband from his corner study, looking up, I imagine, from his latest screenplay effort. I wouldn't joke about a thing like pie, I assured him. I'm thinking- a shepherd's pie, I said. More to myself than him. But not the usual shepherd's pie. No lamb. No beef. No onion. No peas, I murmured. Please, he said. No peas. (His hearing is ex

Beef Stew. Who knew? This recipe is a surprise- even to me. You wouldn't expect a life-long Vegetarian Goddess to create and fall in love with an Irish beef stew recipe, but that is precisely what happened this weekend.  Shocking?  Tell me about it. Just when you think you've got your life all figured out, and your tastes and preferences arranged in a tidy packet of self-identification and veggie piety- all Hades breaks loose. Celiac. Food allergies. Broken hip. Suddenly, your food-world view is quite literally flipped on its leafy little head. So, after my orthopedic surgeon's instructions to "eat lots of animal protein" to support the healing of my hip fracture, my husband and I decided to try our collective hands at making our very first Irish beef stew together. The first beef stew of our marriage. And what did I do as I spooned the first taste into my hesitant, quivering lips? Gentle Reader, I swooned like

Easy Chicken Chili Time Or in other words- this is the Football Season May Officially Be Over (I'm from Massachusetts, so. TOM BRADY #12 #GOAT 4Evah) but Chili Season is Definitely Not Over post. And I confess that even after watching every episode of Friday Night Lights , football retains a certain mystery to yours truly. A few things I know. Tight ends tighten. Running backs are amazing athletes. Quarterbacks have eagle eyes, poise under pressure, great arms (and other fine qualities). And special teams kickers pray to the football gods when called in for a tie breaker with 6 seconds to spare in the final quarter.  Do I sound like I know what I am talking about? I don't. At least, not in depth. I just overheard some manly sporty banter over gluten-free tuna melts. To which I smiled politely.  Listened intently. And reached for a pickle. Back fields in motion. Quarterback sneak. The Snap. The Blitz. I love the lingo. It's a language alluringly foreign to m

How to make tasty homemade mac and cheese, for real. One of the first recipes I shared here on Gluten-Free Goddess was our old school, homemade, family style baked mac and cheese recipe. I won't mention how long ago that was, or how old the recipe actually is, darling. Suffice it to say, I first learned to make it in eighth grade Home Ec class (does Home Economics class still exist? Do they even teach cooking in middle school any more?). Aside from these ponderings, and the unnerving sensation of years advancing, rolling, as Warren Zevon says, like a rockslide down a hill, I've been craving this comforting, cheesy mac and cheese dish like mad lately. So I thought I'd post our Gluten-Free Goddess version of it. Seems like old fashioned homemade comfort food is the medicine I need lately. Maybe you do, too? Cheesy forever, Karina xo