Pesto with a twist, and Daiya Cheese

So, being gluten and dairy free, and being the obsessive researcher that I am, I look at lots of blogs on this topic. There is all this buzz about the blogosphere on Daiya cheese... I had never heard of it, and couldn't find it anywhere...

Lo and behold, today, while at one of my favorite fresh markets, (Sunflower Farmer's Market that is) I walked by the dairy ("dairy") aisle and saw in brand new fashion a package of DAIYA CHEESE sitting there... granted, it is a little pricier than regular cheese, but at $3.99 a bag, I thought I would try it and see what all the kerfuffle is about.

Here are some pictures of the package so you can get an idea about what I am working with:

As you can see, it's definitely not NOT a whole food, but it is definitely not something made from scary ingredients either. But does it taste good?

Well, I tasted it, and I have to say it tastes a LOT better than the rice cheese I have used in the past. So, I decided to make a dairy free (vegan) Pesto. And, let me just say, that the finished product is DELICIOUS.



So, I love pesto. I don't know about all of you, but it happens to be my favorite thing at Italian restaurants. But, pine nuts? $19.95 per pound? Yeah, right. I instead use RAW sunflower seeds. Much more cost effective, and just as tasty if you ask me.

I also get my fresh basil at Sunflower Market, which just so happens to be right up the street from me, making my life so much easier... It's about $4.95 for a big bag of ORGANIC Basil!

So, typically, the recipe calls for, (and I want to note that up until the last month, I have been using) PARMESAN SHREDDED CHEESE, but since going Dairy free, that's not an option for me. So, in steps the Daiya... Here is the recipe and some pictures for you.

2 cups PACKED fresh basil leaves
1/3-1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds (or pine nuts)
3 cloves of fresh garlic (or I use the minced garlic, and use about 1 1/2 teaspoons of it)
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Daiya cheese (or Parmesan)

In a food processor, add the fresh basil leaves and sunflower seeds and garlic and pulse it a few times until everything looks really chopped up. Then add the salt and pepper, pulse again. Add the cheese and turn the food processor on, while pouring in the olive oil fairly slowly.

That's it. Taste it, make sure it's the consistency you like, and then just eat it and enjoy it!

It will stay good in the fridge for about a week, but it freezes really well. I like to freeze mine in individual snack size plastic baggies and then just defrost it with warm water when I want to use it. I don't cook mine, because I like the raw pesto best, but you can definitely cook yours if that is the way you like it.

Me personally? I like to put it on toast and devour. :)

If you are curious about the bread that I use, it is called UDI'S WHOLE GRAIN BREAD. It is SO SO SO GOOD.

I think that I can safely say that Daiya Cheese is now among Udi's Bread as the only product of it's kind that I will buy when I buy it.

With Love,
Suz

Something new...

I have started my own Gluten Free cooking site for my recipes. It's no big deal, but you can check it out. I've added a new recipe, and uploaded some of my old ones from here.

The Messy Gluten Free Cook

I'm back... with a recipe!

I know I've been a real slacker lately. I promise it isn't because I hate blogging... in fact, it's just because I haven't really known what to write about. I've had a bad case of bloggers block.

Tonight, I made Ez and myself some nummy dinner. I'll tell you all about it.

I made it up on the fly, trying to think of something Mediterranean/Italian but that was Gluten Free (of course) and light... I didn't want anything too heavy. Summertime is not for super heavy saucy dishes in my mind.

So, I looked at what ingredients I had on hand.

Canned tomatoes and black olives, white rice (I would recommend brown rice, but I didn't have the time to cook rice for 80 minutes) fresh baby spinach, minced garlic, onion powder, fresh whole white mushrooms (the biggest I've ever seen!) olive oil, and dried basil... what to make?

So, I decided on a rice goulash of sorts. I call it...

SPINACH & STUFF RICE...
(I'm not too creative I guess! ha ha) 
And it looks a little something like this:

 
I started out making the plain rice... I usually have it on hand already made so that I can cut my cooking time down exponentially. As I said, I prefer brown rice, but decided on the quick route today with white rice.

Then, I got out a large bowl, and my other ingredients. 

1 1/2 - 2 cups CUT FRESH BABY SPINACH (I love the big bag of it at Costco)
1 Can of CANNED DICED TOMATOES (with the juice)
1 can of CANNED LARGE BLACK OLIVES
1-2 cups of FRESH WHOLE (EXTRA LARGE) WHITE MUSHROOMS


Take the baby spinach, and cut it... I guess you could use a food processor, but I wanted mine a little larger pieces so I used my kitchen scissors. (It made about 1 1/2-2 cups of spinach) then put it in the bowl.

Then I took the canned diced tomatoes and added the tomatoes and the juice to the spinach in the bowl. 


Then I put the large black olives in to my Vita Mix 5200 and chopped them finely (this was more for my toddler's benefit... if veg is too big, he usually turns up his nose so I have to hide it).  I then added the finely chopped olives to the bowl. 

I then chopped up the mushrooms in to 1/4- 1/2 inch square pieces... just diced them, I didn't bother measuring them with a ruler or anything... then I added them to the bowl too. 


I mixed everything together and then let the bowl sit for a little while as I prepared the stove top. For this you'll need:


2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on your tastes) dried BASIL
A few shakes of onion powder (again, make it taste good to you)
About a 1/4 teaspoon of salt... (add however much you want, I don't like things salty, because I like to taste the freshness of my food)


I added 2 Tablespoons of Olive oil to the pan and set the temp to med-high and added 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (I might have added a little bit more, since I love garlic so much... but just add it to your taste preference). I continually stirred the garlic and oil so that the garlic wouldn't burn. STIR STIR STIR. 


Add the basil and the onion powder. Continue to stir for about 2 minutes. Once you feel the garlic is cooked enough so as not to be too pungent, add the bowl of ingredients to the pan. 


Stir it all together and saute for about 3 minutes... just enough to cook the mushrooms a little bit but not long enough to give yourself soggy spinach. (You be the judge) 


Add your salt, and stir some more, then add your rice (about 2 cups worth of cooked rice) and stir it all together and set it aside. 


This should feed about 3 or 4 people. 


I think if you wanted to, you could add some bacon or chicken to it and it would be delicious! 

 Yummy in the tummy! It has Ez's stamp of approval... which is saying a lot!

With Love,
Suz