Gluten Free Fresh And Fast

The overall taste and sweetness of your soup, will depend on the type of sweet potato that you use. My favorite variety is Hanna. Botanically, it is a member of the Morning Glory family. It has white creamy flesh, and it is very sweet. It has vitamins A and C, and fiber, potassium and iron. It is available all year round. Once peeled it oxidizes very quickly, so only peel it, when ready to cook.

Alternatively, keep it under filtered water, until cooking time. It is very versatile, can be boiled, fried, steamed, mashed. This white fleshed sweet potato was the first one to be commercially grown in the USA in the 16th century.

It has a low glycemic index when boiled, e.g. in soups, as boiling conserves the resistant starch. But if you roast it, because of the destruction of this resistant starch, the glycemic index goes high. It is a good substitution for potatoes. The sweetness is appealing to children of all ages.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and cubed)
3 carrots (peeled and sliced)
1 leek, white part only (washed and slices)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1/2 medium size celeriac bulb (peeled and cubed)
2 bay leaves
Salt to taste
8 cups (2 quarts) cold water

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil, in a soup pot. Add leek, carrot, celery, celeriac. Cook lightly for 5 minutes.

2. Add potatoes, water, bay leaves, salt to taste and bring to boil. Cover and simmer until all the vegetables are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. While transferring to a blender, take out the 2 bay leaves. Blend in a high speed blender, (like Vitamix or Bullet).

4. Serve with any greens.

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Squashes are definitely popular today. The winter varieties like butternut, acorn, hubbard and pumpkin with their beautiful range of fall colors symbolize the harvest and are harbingers of Thanksgiving. Try to vary how you prepare them.

They can be steamed, roasted, baked, stuffed, pureed. They are also good team players, added to soups and stews. They have hard rinds, and can be stored in a cool place without refrigeration for a month or so. They are starchy vegetables, providing satisfying meals.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tbs olive oil
1 large butternut squash (peeled, seeded and cubed)
1 celeriac (peeled and cubed)
1 leek (well cleaned between layers, and chopped)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp dried minced onion
Salt to taste
8 cups cold water

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil, in a soup pot. Add leek, celeriac, and squash, gently cook for 5 minutes.

2. Add water, parsley, bay leaves, dry minced onion and salt. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

3. While transferring to a blender, take out the 2 bay leaves. Blend in a high speed blender, (like Vitamix or Bullet).

4. Transfer back to pot, and taste the seasoning, adjust as necessary.

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Cauliflower Cream Soup (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free, Vegan)

Cauliflower belongs to the cruciferous vegetable family, together with broccoli, Brussel sprouts, bok choy, and cabbage. Cruciferous vegetables have a compound called sulforaphane, that is believed to be helpful in heart health and in cancer prevention.

Cruciferous vegetables, together with the Allium vegetable family (garlic, leek, chive, onion) provide a natural plant source of sulphur. Sulphur is essential for glutathione production. Glutathione provides protection against free radicals and heavy metals.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tbs olive oil
1 large cauliflower (cut up)
1 onion (peeled and chopped)
2 parsnips (peeled and sliced)
1 large potato (peeled and cubed)
1 celeriac (peeled and cubed)
2 bay leaves
8 cups of water
1/2 cup grated vegan cheese
Salt to taste

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil.

2. Cook onion, celeriac, potato, and cauliflower lightly.

3. And water/stock. Add the bay leaves. Bring to boil, cover pot and then simmer for 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

4. Take out the bay leaves, and blend the soup.

5. Transfer back to pot and season to taste. Garnish with grated vegan cheese, chopped fresh parsley.

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Load up on your vegetables for this soup. With good organic ingredients, the taste that plants can offer is satisfying. But be generous. Just two carrots and an onion won't do it.

Make sure you have a good variety of seasonal veggies.

You really have a free hand with the ingredients, pick whatever extra vegetable there is in your fridge.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (chopped)
3 carrots (sliced)
3 celery ribs (chopped)
2 parsnips (peeled and sliced)
1 turnip (peeled and cubed)
2 potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1/2 small white cabbage (sliced thick)
1/2 small cauliflower (broken into) florets
1/2 cup celeriac (peeled and cubed)
Fresh herb on hand ( parsley, basil, oregano, thyme)
8 Cups water
Salt to taste

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil.

2. Cook chopped up vegetables lightly in oil, for 10 minutes. Take care not to burn them.

3. Add water. Fresh herbs and salt. Bring to boil, cover pot and then simmer on low heat for 25 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

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Beetroot is extremely nutritious. It contains nitrates that the body transforms to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide dilates blood vessel, contributing to lower blood pressure. The red and yellow beets colors are betalains, (pigments) that may help to disrupt cancerous mutations in cells. Beetroot has vitamins C and A, folate and magnesium. Beet greens are among the healthiest greens with their high nitrate levels and magnesium, potassium and folate content. Almost all the different diets agree on its value, and usefulness in cooking. I consider beetroot, a kitchen staple. Use it raw in salads, a side dish or a soup. Organic, 100% beetroot juice is excellent. Unfortunately, it does take a long time to cook. I speed this up, by using baked beetroot. Please refer to the recipe of the Baked Beetroot. If baked beetroot is not available, then I recommend to shred it, or slice it finely in a food processor to lessen the cooking time. If you use raw beetroot in this recipe, pls cook it for 20-30 minutes, check tenderness periodically.

Ingredients.
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 medium beetroot (baked, peeled and cubed)
1 large onion (diced)
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 carrot (peeled and sliced)
1 quarter of a small green cabbage (shredded)
2 medium potatoes (peeled and cubed)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 handful of fresh dill (washed and chopped)
4 oz coconut yoghurt
Salt to taste
6 cups cold water (or vegetable stock)

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil, in a soup pot. Add onion, celery, carrot and cabbage. Lightly cook for 5 minutes.

2. Add potatoes, beetroot, tomato paste, caraway seeds, water/stock and salt to taste. Bring to boil, cover half way, take the heat down and simmer.

3. Once boiled, add the fresh dill. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

4. Taste, adjust seasoning.

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Mushrooms have been praised for centuries, for their exquisite taste, and also their medicinal use. In Egypt only royalty was allowed to eat them. Although I cannot promise you immortality with some portobello or shiitake, they can greatly contribute to your health. Botanically, they are fungi, and their spores can easily travel from one country to the other.

They contain selenium, potassium, copper, vitamin D, (a rare occurrence in plants) glutathione, (a potent antioxidant), ergothioneine (an amino acid).

Due to these nutrients, their health benefits include, cancer fighting, especially breast cancer, immune boosting, anti inflammatory action, anti aging, life extension and more. I am looking forward seeing more variety of mushrooms on the market. Please only buy mushrooms from official vendors.

8 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup wild rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots (peeled and sliced)
2 parsnips (peeled and sliced)
1 large onion (peeled and chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
3 stalks celery
1 pound mixed mushrooms (baby portobello/crimini, white button, shiitake, sliced)
6 cups stock (vegetable for vegan)
1/2 cup coconut yoghurt

Instructions
1. Cook wild rice according to package instructions. White it is cooking, start soup.

2. Warm olive oil. Add onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip, celery, cook for 5 minutes, then add mushrooms. Cook for 10 more minutes.

3. Add stock, bay leaves, thyme, salt to taste. Bring to boil, take down the heat , cover, and simmer until vegetables are almost ready, about 15 minutes.

4. Add cooked wild rice, and carry on cooking for another 10 minutes.

5. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with coconut yoghurt, for added beneficial bacteria, (and a pretty color).

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Adding beans and peas to your soups, does increase their nutritional value. They have to be soaked and thoroughly cooked, to get rid of their lectin content. Lectins are proteins, so high temperature and pressure will destroy them.

Once lectins are destroyed, beans and peas offer protein, fiber and several key minerals. Green peas, with their significant soluble fiber content, slow down sugar absorption, thus lessening sugar spikes in blood.

They have vitamins B1 and B5. They have phytonutrients like isoflavones, that might help to reduce hormone dependent cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Spit peas are also high in potassium, necessary for heart health and to balance sodium, and also have molybdenum for detoxification, manganese, copper, phosphorus.

You can substitute yellow split peas in the recipe. They have the same nutritional benefits, and a slightly more delicate flavor.

8 servings

Ingredients

If pressure cooked:

1 pound dried, green split peas

8 cups (2 quarts) water

If you are using tinned peas:

1 tin cooked peas

Instructions for cooking peas in the pressure cooker.

The night before:
1. Pick the peas thru, to avoid an accidental piece of stone or foreign material.

2. Wash under running water.

3. Soak them, with filtered water. Add enough water not just to cover the peas, but about 5 to 6 inches above the peas. They will soak up the water.

The following day:

4. Rinse off peas. Do not use the soaking water.

5. Add double amount of filtered water to peas.

6. Cook in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes.This is enough time for the peas to disintegrate, and they are transformed into total creaminess.

7. Follow the pressure cooking instructions. Turn off the heat and pull the pot to a cold spot on the stove. Let the pressure come down on its own.

You will end up with more cooked peas, then you need for this soup. Use 5 cups and you can freeze the rest up to 3 month

Ingredients for Pea Soup.

5 cups cooked green split peas

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 leek, both white and green parts (thoroughly cleaned and chopped)

2 carrots (peeled and chopped)

3 parsnips (peeled and chopped)

3 stalked celery (chopped)

1 tomato (chopped)

2 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

2 springs thyme

5 cups water

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil. Cook chopped up vegetables lightly in oil, for 10 minutes.

2. Add water, bay leaves, thyme, garlic, salt to taste. Bring to boil, take down the heat , cover, and simmer until almost ready, about 15 minutes.

3. Add cooked split pea ‘puree’ slowly, while stirring it constantly. Bring it back to boil, watching that the puree does not get burnt onto the bottom of the pot.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with chopped fresh herbs, or croutons.

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You can chose to cook your beans, or use tined ones.

Looking at these ingredients, we are looking at several herbs and vegetables of the 'Blue Zones people', known for their health, and longevity. I gently urge you to learn to use a pressure cooker, and cook your own beans.

Even Dr. Grundy, lectin expert agrees, that after proper soaking and pressure cooking, legumes offer health benefits, good useable protein and no digestive discomfort.

Go slowly, to increase your beans, they are very satisfying and nutritious. Fennel is one of the super vegetables of this recipe, offering vitamin C, B6, folate, potassium, and fiber. It is also known for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Fresh herbs of this recipe (parsley, oregano, thyme, basil) are anti-inflammatory and boost immunity.

12 servings

Ingredients

5 cups Cooked white beans with 6 cups cooking water, or 2 cans with 6 cups added water

1 leek
1 fennel bulb
2 parsnips
3 carrots
1 turnip
2 potatoes
1 zucchini
2 tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
2 stalk celery
1 bunch Swiss chard seems removed and leaves chopped
fresh herb, mix of parsley, oregano, thyme, basil

Instructions for cooking beans in the pressure cooker.

The night before.

1. Pick the beans thru, to avoid an accidental piece of stone or foreign material.

2. Wash under running water.

3. Soak them, with filtered water. Add enough water not just to cover the beans but about 5 to 6 inches above the beans. They will soak up the water.

The following day.

4. Rinse off beans. Do not use the soaking water. Add double amount of filtered water to beans.

5. Cook in a pressure cooker for 60 minutes. Follow the pressure cooking instructions. Turn off the heat, and pull the pot to a cold spot on the stove. Let the pressure come down on its own.

Instructions for White Bean Soup

1. Warm olive oil. Cook chopped up vegetables lightly in oil, for 10 minutes.

2. Add water, bring to boil, add fresh herbs, take down the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Add cooked beans, salt, while stirring constantly. Bring it back to boil, watching that the beans do not get stuck to the bottom of the pot. The bean cooking water has starch, and that will rise up very quickly! Cover pot, leaving a gap, for the steam to evaporate, and for the starch not to overflow. Cook until all is tender.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning.

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Chickpea miso is a great alternative for people who want to avoid soy. I use Miso Master organic chick Pea Miso. It is certified gluten free, and soy free.

It has less salt and more rice koji. Koji provides the spores for the fermentation. And fermentation produces beneficial lacto bacteria. It has a mild salty sweet taste that can enhance the flavor of different spreads and dressings.

You can choose to pressure cook your peas, or use tined ones.

Instructions for cooking chick peas in the pressure cooker.

The night before.
1. Pick the peas thru, to avoid an accidental piece of stone or foreign material.

2. Wash under running water.

3. Soak them, with filtered water. Add enough water not just to cover the peas, but about 5 to 6 inches above the chick peas. They will soak up the water.

The following day.

4. Rinse off peas. Do not use the soaking water. Add double amount of filtered water to beans.

5. Cook in a pressure cooker for 60 minutes. Follow the pressure cooking instructions. Turn off the heat, and pull the pot to a cold spot on the stove. Let the pressure come down on its own.

If you are using canned chick peas, use the whole can content, peas and liquid, plus add an extra 6 cups of water.

For 8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots (peeled and sliced)1 small or half of a medium daikon radish (peeled and sliced)
5 spring onions (cleaned and thinly sliced)
1/2 cup chick pea miso paste 6 cups chick pea cooking liquid or water
1 cup cooked chick peas or 1 tin of cooked chickpeas

Instructions Chick Pea Miso Soup
1. Warm olive oil. Cook chopped up vegetables lightly in oil, for 10 minutes. Take care not to burn them.

2. Add chick pea cooking water. Bring to boil. Watch the cooking water has starch, and that will rise up very quickly! Cover pot, leaving a gap, for the steam to evaporate, and for the starch not to overflow. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Add cooked chick peas.

3. While the soup is cooking, mix miso paste with a little cool water. Wait, do not add to very hot liquid.

4. Turn off heat, add miso paste, and stir. Taste, and adjust seasoning.

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Albert Szentgyorgyi who was born in Budapest, Hungary isolated vitamin C from Hungarian paprika, and received his Nobel price for it in 1937.

Hungarian cuisine has several non meat dishes made with sweet, red paprika (Capsicum annuum). Although usually kept for meat dishes, the following three types of cooking with sweet paprika, can be just as much used for potatoes, mushrooms, or squashes.

Potato paprikas is well loved, and cooked in Hungary. Waxy potatoes are a good choice, as they keep their shape. Yukon gold is good too, as it has a lower starch content than other starchy potatoes. It is also a very versatile potato to use in different recipes.

Liquid smoke is an excellent addition, to create a truly authentic taste.

Paprikas is served with a quickly cooked-in mix of sour cream and a little flour. Gherkins, or other pickles are also very common to complement this dish.

Porkolt (Stew) apart from the main ingredient, it has tomato and green pepper. It can be served with potatoes or dumplings. As a stew, it has much less water than a soup.

Gulylas leves (Goulash soup) is a real, hearty soup with caraway seeds and paprika. It can get very hot, if some spicy round hot peppers are added to it.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 and 1/2 pounds potatoes (diced)
1 large onion (sliced)
3 cloves garlic (sliced)
1 bell pepper (any color, sliced))
1 tomato (chopped)
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 cup coconut yoghurt (or your choice of non dairy yoghurt/cream)
water to cover potatoes
salt to taste
liquid smoke

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil. Add onion and garlic, cook until translucent.

2. Turn down the heat and add paprika and cumin seeds, stir again, then add potatoes, stir and add water and stir, so that nothing gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add bell pepper, tomato and tomato paste. Add salt to taste.

Pls. note that, paprika can burn very easily, then it loses a lot of its nutrition and taste.

3. Bring to boil, then take down heat, and simmer until potatoes are done. about 20 minutes.

4. If this soup, 'Paprikas' wants to live up to its name, you can add a mix of 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour and some nondairy milk, but the starchy potato usually provides enough thickening. Therefore you can skip this step.

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The first Corn Chowder recipe was published in 1884 by Mary Lincoln of the Boston Cooking School. The chowder itself might have been brought over by fishermen from Brittany, who spread their great recipe first in Newfoundland, then Nova Scotia and New England.

Originally it was a fish stew, with a white sauce base. Corn is one of the nine GM crops on the US market.

They are: alfalfa, cotton, canola, corn, soy, papaya, sugar beets, zucchini and yellow summer squash. Please chose carefully.

8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
4 cups corn kernels (if it is not organic, then it is GM)
1 pound potatoes, Yukon Gold is great (cubed)
2 carrots (sliced)
3 stalks celery (diced)
1 stalk broccoli (broken into florets)
1/3 bunch parsley
few springs fresh thyme
few leaves basil
8 cups water (or stock)
1/2 cup coconut yoghurt (or your choice of non dairy yoghurt/cream)
salt to taste

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil. Add onion, garlic, carrots, celery, cook for 5 minutes.

2. Add water, corn, potatoes, broccoli florets, herbs and salt.

3. Bring to boil, and cook until all is tender about 25 minutes.

4. Add non-dairy yoghurt and serve.

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Cherry Soup is one of the best known recipes from Hungary. The fruit is actually sour cherry, but the type used in this soup, is a very dark and actually very sweet type of sour cherry.

Traditionally, it is cooked in the summer, when cherries are plentiful. You can make it in any season with dark frozen cherries. As a holiday treat, for adults, you can also add some wine.

8 servings

Ingredients

2 packets frozen cherries (2 x 10 ounces) please check for stones!
1 cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
grated rind from one lemon
juice 1/2 lemon
3 cups 100% cherry juice (or other 100% red fruit juice)
1 cup water
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
6 ounces coconut yoghurt (or your choice of non dairy yoghurt/cream)
pinch of salt

Instructions
1. Add water, cherry juice, cherries, cinnamon stick, grated lemon rind and cloves to pot, and bring to boil. Once boiled, bring down heat to simmer for about 15 minutes.

2. Mix together tapioca starch in a little water.

3. Once cherries are soft, add starch mix, and bring back to simmer for one minute.

4. Remove cinnamon stick, add yoghurt or cream, pinch of salt and lemon juice.

5. You can blend some, or all of the soup. But have to be careful, as very often there are whole stones or fragments of stones left in the frozen cherries. If you decide to blend, pls. check all fruit thoroughly.

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Carrot is a good source of potassium, vitamin K1, beta carotene, and fiber. Interestingly, some plant antioxidant compounds absorb even better when cooked. These are alpha and beta carotene, lutein (for eye health) and lycopene (for heart disease and cancer prevention). The modest carrot has them all.

Although we use zucchini as a vegetable, botanically it is a type of berry called 'pepo'. It has vitamin A, (supports vision and the immune system) vitamin C, several B vitamins, potassium, manganese, magnesium and fiber. It also has several antioxidants, like carrots, lutein, beta carotene and zeaxanthin. The yellow summer variety offers sightly more antioxidants.

Carrot and zucchini together, they are a real powerhouse of antioxidant protection!

6-8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large zucchinis (peeled and grated)
4 medium carrots (peeled and grated)
handful of fresh parsley (washed and chopped)

Instructions
1. Grate both carrots and zucchinis in a food processor at a large setting.

2. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil.

3. Cook vegetables and chopped parsley in pan for 5 minutes. Season with salt.

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There are more than 300 varieties of squash in the world. Each region has its now special set of them.

1 cup a cooked butternut squash by itself, has only 83 calories, plus the portion of the olive oil, if roasted. It also has 7 grams of fiber. Only a little seasoning makes it taste exquisite, and roasting brings out its sweetness.

8 servings

Ingredients
1 large butternut squash (washed, peeled and cubed)
2 tablespoons olive oil
seasoning to taste (salt, minced onion, parsley, rosemary)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Put cubed squash on a baking parchment sheet. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, mix, add salt to taste, 1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion, a sting of rosemary.

3. Bake for for 60 minutes, or until soft.

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8 servings

Ingredients

4 colorful bell peppers

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
salt to taste

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 370 F.

2. Wash, cut and de-seed peppers.

3. Lay them on a baking parchment sheet, with skin up, and bake for 50 minutes.

4. Remove from oven, and put them in a container for 20 minutes or overnight.

5. Open container, and peel skin off with ease.

6. Dress it, and adjust taste.

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If you are pressed for time, you can cook this dish, with all the ingredients assembled, over the stove. Cook it covered, just simmering, until everything is tender, and the taste has developed. Cooking time is approximately 30 minutes.

4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 large baked spaghetti squash (strands removed)
3 cups cooked rice
6 ounces coconut yoghurt (or your dairy substitute) mixed with 6 ounces filtered water

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 370 F.

2. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven.

3. Add spaghetti strands and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Turn off heat, add cooked rice and top it with the yoghurt mix.

5. Bake covered in the oven for 30 minutes at 370 F.

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4 servings

Ingredients

2 table spoons olive oil
2 cups cooked white rice
4 bell peppers (top 1/4" cut off, and deseeded)
1 onion (diced)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup currants (cleaned)
4 olives (chopped)
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
2 cups vegetable juice (low sodium)
1 cup beetroot juice
1 cup tomato sauce
salt to taste

Instructions
1. Cook bell peppers, in water bath, (1/2 inch only) covered, in the oven at 400F, for 20 minutes.

2. Fry onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes, Add olives, pine nuts, currants rice, majoram, salt and mix.

3. In a separate small pot, make sauce. Warm vegetable juice and beetroot juice, and add tomato sauce. Mix 2 tablespoons tapioca flour with a little water. Once juice is warm, add flour mix, and wait to thicken, while stirring to prevent burning.

4. Take out bell peppers, and stuff them with rice mix. Pour sauce into pot and bake, covered, in the oven at 390F for 20 minutes.

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8 servings

Ratatouille is originally from Provence, France, but other French regions also have their versions of the dish. The eggplant, which is now very much part of the recipe, came from India, in the 16th century, and is a 'newer' addition to this very old recipe.

Chefs are debating the way to cook ratatouille. Either all in one pot, or, according to the traditionalists of Provence, each vegetable should be cooked separately, and the bell peppers should be charbroiled and skinned.

I added artichokes, and took the liberty to call it Breton style. This is personal. It brings back happy memories of summer holidays, as it reminds me of the endless fields of artichokes, stretching to the Atlantic ocean, and to the rugged coastline of Bretagne.

My choice is the very old recipe, no eggplant, and skinned peppers. For the skinless peppers, please refer to the 'How to Bake Peppers' section. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 zucchinis (cubed)

3 tomatoes (sliced)

1 large onion (diced)

4 cloves garlic (sliced)

4 bell peppers (bright color, baked, skinned and sliced)

1 jar artichoke hearts in water (drained)

8 olives (cut)

1 tablespoon minced rosemary

2 tablespoons thyme

1 cup basil leaves (whole)

Instructions
1. Fry onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil.

2. Add tomatoes. Cook until juices flow, then add zucchinis, herbs and olives. Don't cover it.

3. While cooking, keep an eye on the juices. If the temperature is too high, it could burn, but if it is too low, then you end up with soggy ratatouille. This step might take 25 minutes or so. When almost ready, add artichokes and peppers.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning.

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8 servings

Ingredients
1 long English cucumber
8 ounces water
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions
1. Peel and thinly slice cucumber. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to macerate. Help the process, by squashing and squeezing the slices by hand. (I recommend using food grade plastic gloves.)

2. Warm about 2 ounces of water to lukewarm temperature, and dissolve the honey.

4. Add the rest of the water, the dissolved honey, vinegar and paprika to the salted cucumber. Mix well. Taste, and adjust seasoning.

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Ingredients
4 baked beetroots (skinned and cut up). (Please see 'How To Bake Beetroot' section.)

1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiled and cooled filtered water

Instructions
1. Make dressing. Use boiled and cooled water, add honey, lemon juice/vinegar and salt.

2. Mix dressing and cut up beetroot, top with fresh dill.

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The type of Ghee I am using is called Grass-fed Organic Cultured Ghee by Pure Indian Foods. This is the world's first Grass Fed and Certified Organic Cultured Ghee, that is batch tested to contain less than 0.25% lactose and less than 2.5 ppm casein/whey.

It is also batch tested Gluten Free.

As a comparison, the gluten free standards set by the FDA is less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten. Therefore this product is 10 times stricter for casein/whey, then the FDA for gluten. I can only say that I was able to use this ghee for the first time in 20 years as my 'butter'. This is, of course my own experience.

Feel free to use frozen coconut oil for this recipe. Which ever is your choice, you have to keep some 1/2 cup units of frozen oil/ghee for this recipe in the freezer.

10-12 servings

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
1 cup white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons organic sugar (or your choice of sweetener)
1 tablespoon erythritol
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
your choice of:
1/2 cup frozen coconut oil grated, or lactose, casein and whey free ghee grated

Wet Ingredients
1 eggs
4 ounces coconut yoghurt (or your choice of dairy free milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 and 1/2 cups mixed dried cranberries and currants (well soaked and rinsed)

Topping
1 tablespoon organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Grate frozen coconut oil or ghee, mix with dry ingredients.

3. Mix wet ingredients and dried fruit.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.

5. Put in scone tin, or shape into a round and cut into wedges. Put on topping, and bake for 20 minutes or until you like the color.

6. Let it cool in the tin, for at least 10 minutes. If you want larger scones, fill the empty tin space with water, it also help baking.

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I like to bake big muffins, so you can get 12 muffins out of the recipe, if you rather have more.

I also like to fill the empty spaces with water, and that helps with the baking. Please make note of your own temperature and baking time, as these can vary, so you will remember for next time.

10-12 servings

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
1 and 1/4 cups white rice flour
1 and 1/4 cups tapioca flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
3 tablespoons organic sugar (or your choice of sweetener)
1 tablespoon erythritol
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
3/4 cup coconut milk (or your choice of dairy free milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
18 ounces of fresh blueberries (3 x little baskets, 6 ounces each)

Topping
1 tablespoon organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven. The temperature will depend on the type of your muffin pan. 400 F if you are using traditional muffin pans, or reduced by 25 F, if it is nonstick. I preheat to 365 F with my Goldtouch nonstick pan, from experience this is a good temperature for my pan.

2. Add all dry ingredients together, whisk gently.

3. Measure out wet ingredients and whisk gently.

4. Add fresh blueberries to wet ingredients, mix gently.

5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and fold together, always gently, or the blueberries will burst.

6. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Spread on some topping.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave in pan to cool, for at least 10 minutes.

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I like to bake big muffins, so you can get 12 muffins out of the recipe, if you rather have more. I also like to fill the empty spaces with water, and that helps with the baking. Please make note of your own temperature and baking time, as these can vary, so you will remember for next time.

10-12 servings

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons organic sugar (or your choice of sweetener)
1 tablespoon erythritol
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 ounces apple sauce
4 ounces coconut yoghurt (or your choice of dairy free milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup raisins (well soaked and rinsed)
2 and 1/2 cups chopped apples

Topping
1 tablespoon organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven. The temperature will depend on the type of your muffin pan. 400 F if you are using traditional muffin pans, or reduced by 25 F, if it is nonstick. I use Goldtouch nonstick pan, and from my experience, I bake at 365 F.

2. Add all dry ingredients together, whisk gently.

3. Measure out wet ingredients and whisk gently.

4. Add raisins and chopped apples to wet ingredients, mix gently.

5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and fold together.

6. Spoon batter into muffin pan. I use an ice cream scooper. Spread on the topping.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave in pan to cool, for at least 10 minutes.

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Please also read the ‘How to Make Nut Butters’ section.

Ingredients
Nut butters

Instructions
A short explanation, in case you have not come across this yet. 'Fat Bombs' is the name, used for this type of dessert.

You can use your creativity with dried fruit, grated coconut, cocoa powder. Please keep unused portion in the fridge, and use is within a few days.

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Home made dried fruit has the advantage of more nutrients, cleanliness, no additives and no contamination. I have been using my dehydrator for decades.

Dried cherries are a real treat, just as they are, or in baking, puddings or dipped in chocolate.

Ingredients
4 packets frozen cherries

Instructions
1. Let cherries thaw in a bowl.

2. Once all soft, squeeze out liquid.

3. Dry for approximately 14 hours at 115 F, if you use it within a few days, for eating, baking or freezing.

Four packets of frozen cherries produced the amount shown.

Drying time and temperature depend on your further usage. The lower temperature preserves nutrients better. You will end up with a dried fruit, that still has enough moisture. (In my experience, dried cherries usually disappear within a few hours.)

If partially dried fruit is kept unrefrigerated for a longer time, and the moisture content is still high enough, then molds can set in.

Therefore, from food safety point, temperature has to be high enough to produce some really dry fruit. The official temperature for drying fruit is 135 F.

Often after drying, oil is added to soften the fruit.

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Plants have lots of moisture in them. Please compare the final product of comparing raw and dried bananas. Make a note of your drying time and temperature, so you can adjust them more to your liking.

Ingredients
5 bananas

Instructions
1. Quarter bananas length-wise.

2. Brush the drying rack of the dehydrator with olive oil. This will ease the removal, as dried bananas will not stick.

3. Dry for approximately 12 hours at 115 F. And use it within a few days, for eating, baking or freezing.

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There are more than 300 varieties of squash in the world. Each region has its now special set of them.

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash, with thicker skin and longer looking time.

During cooking, the yellow flesh separates into spaghetti like strands. It is low in calories and takes on seasoning very well. Therefore it is a great substitute for pasta. It is a good source of fiber, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin B6.

Ingredient

1 medium spaghetti squash

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick squash a few times. You can also cut it in half, but it is quite hard work. Once baked it will be easier to do so.

2. Bake for approximately 60 minutes.

3. Let it cool, then cut it in half and remove seeds. Use a fork, and release the strands. This is a great starting ingredient for different recipes.

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4 servings

Ingredients

4 medium size beetroots

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Wash 4 medium beetroots (1 pound 11 ounces on picture). Leave ends on, to prevent bleeding. Wrap them in aluminum foil, to form little packages.

3. Bake them in the oven, for about 60 minutes. Remove, and let them cool.

4. The skin comes off very easily. Slice them for salad or use them in Beetroot Soup.

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I would like to start with the comment, that cashews (Anacardium occidentale) are related to poison ivy. Their raw shells could give people the same reaction as poison ivy. That is why they are sold shelled.

I am not going into more details here, but please investigate on line for further information.

Different parts of ginkgo biloba, (nuts harvested from the female tree have urushiol), mangoes (the peel yes, but not the pulp) and pistachios are also related to poison ivy to a lesser degree. If interested, please do further research.

Making nut butters at home, might seem a bit too involved at first. But with a little practice and organization, the rewards are great.

If you want to avoid certain nuts, but you are OK with others, then making your own nut butter makes a lot of sense.

You can avoid cross contamination, enzyme inhibitors, additives, spoilage, rancidity, and low nutritional value due to high temperature roasting among others. Never soak nuts in their shells. Some nuts have their skin on, like walnuts, pecans, others like macadamia nuts do not.

Recipes usually jump in, at the step where you dry/roast the nuts. But, I am describing the whole nine yards. I start with soaking them in water.

By soaking, you can get rid of dirt, phytic acid (that binds to minerals in the GI tract), enzymes inhibitors, and tannins (compounds giving the astringent tase to nuts). Even after a few hours of soaking nuts, they taste much more pleasant. Like a butterfly emerging from hibernation. 'Once upon a time it was nut butter making season...'

Instructions
1. Start by rinsing off the nuts, then covering them with water. Depending on the nut, you can soak it for 30 minutes to overnight. The harder the skin, the more time it would need. I usually soak pecans, macademia nuts and walnuts for a few hours. My experience is, that after a very long soaking, nuts just simply loose their taste.

2. Rinse off soaking water, pls. never use it. Leave nuts in sieve, to drip off as much water as possible.

3. Arrange them on dehydrator sheets. You might have to use some netting to prevent smaller nuts to fall thru. Set temperature to 120F to 130 F and start drying them for about 12 hours, or overnight.

4. Let them cool off completely. Condensation in the food processor might introduce molding.

5. This is the fun part, watching the nuts turn into butter! Add between 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt to a batch. Grinding/processing time will vary. You stop and go, to prevent overheating, and scrape off accumulation on the side of the processor. And soon, you will have the nut(fruit) of your hard labour.

My experience is that walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts did not need any addition, but pistachios due to their lower fat content, did, so I had to add some unrefined coconut oil to achieve creaminess.

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This is another short cut that might seem obvious. Making your own flour, has the advantage of less time between bigger size, that keeps more nutrients, and smaller particle size, that allows more oxidation.

Also there is no synthetic folic acid added to your home made flour.

Ingredient
Organic, gluten-free oat flakes

Instructions
1. Put oat flakes in food processor, and process until slightly rough consistency flour achieved.

2. Use in baking. Especially good as part of a pie crust. (Recipe follows soon.)

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Once you have your gluten free bread, you might want keep some for latter use by freezing some slices. You have to freeze the slices, and not the whole loaf.

Or you won't be able to slice or separate them, if they freeze in one block.

Ingredient
Sliced gluten free bread

Instructions
1. Slice your bread, and lay the slices on a baking parchment lined tray.

2. Put in freezer, and freeze for a couple of hours.

3. Put cut up parchment paper between slices, and put them in ziplock freezer bags. Keep in freezer for further use. The slices can be easily removed, and put in the toaster for quick use.

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You can use these right away, or once cubed, put on a tray and freeze for further use. Please follow steps as for 'How to freeze Bread'.

Ingredients
Gluten free bread slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
herb mix (garlic powder, dried minced onion, dried parsley, oregano)

Instructions
1. Cube bread slices. Add dried herb mix, and stir.

2. Heat olive oil. Add cubed bread. Fry gently. Use right away in salad or soups.

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You can always use clean, fresh berries.

One of the best application is to make ice cream, with bananas and cut up berries. (Recipe follows soon.)

Ingredients
fresh berries

Instructions
1. Clean and wash berries carefully, without causing bruising.

2. Dry them gently on paper towels.

3. Depending on their size, either cut them up, eg. strawberries, or leave them whole eg. blueberries, raspberries. Put them on a tray, lined with baking parchment.

4. Freeze them for an hour.

5. Fill ziplock freezer bags with frozen berries, and keep them in the freezer section.

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