Cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet with Black Bean Soup

A big thank you to Ulysses Press for sending me a copy of Cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet written by Erica Kerwien.  This isn't a large book but it's packed with over 100 recipes that are sugar-free, gluten-free and grain-free.  Filled with appetite stimulating pictures, the recipes are truly a "must have" for those struggling with Crohns or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), just to name a couple.

I admit I was a tad skeptical about the outcome of  the Black Bean Soup but it didn't stop me from trying the recipe.  Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients in my pantry - bonus!

2 Tbsp olive oil (or other cooking oil)
1 large yellow onion finely chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into coins
1 large celery stalk, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
4 medium garlic cloves minced
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp chili powder (I used more - love the bite of chili)
4 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth or water)
1 Tbsp honey
1 red pepper, small dice
2 cups black beans either from a can (with no additives) or dried beans that have been rinsed and soaked in 4 quarts of water overnight,then washed and drained)
a few tablespoons of lime juice, to taste
sea salt, to taste

1.  Place the olive oil in a large saucepan (at least 6 quart size) over medium size.
2.  Place the carrots, onion, celery and salt in the saucepan and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion begins to turn translucent.
3.  Add the garlic, cumin and chili powder.  Blend well and cook for a few minutes.
4.  Add the broth, honey, red pepper and beans and blend well.  Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
5.  Ladle out half the soup to a blender.  Puree until smooth and then stir back into the soup in the saucepan.  (I blended the whole thing)
6.  Add lime juice and sea salt to taste and serve with your favourite toppings.  This soup can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for later use.

This cookbook made a positive impression on me for a number of reasons:

1.  Bean soup is one of my favourite soups.  This version is unique in that I was able to identify so many different flavours.  The carrots added a sweetness that I really liked as it offset the slight amount of heat.  Adding a sour cream or creme fraiche topper introduced a sour in a good way.

2.  It's comforting and satisfying without being heavy.

3.  There is a large variety of really interesting recipes that I plan to try.

4.  The cookbook is still on my coffee table - that doesn't happen very often

5.  I come from a family of IBD, colitis and other intolerances.  I suspect this book will introduce some new recipes all around.

I only wish I had an extra copy for giveaway.  I'll have to ask the next time.

Vegan Eggplant Lasagna

The other day, I talked about eating more vegetarian meals.  Although there are some meat dishes I really enjoy, for the most part, eating less meat hasn't required too much effort or restraint.   In contrast, becoming vegan would be a completely different story for me.  

The vegan salad I made tasted great -- but I don't think I would survive never having feta cheese in my salad again.  This eggplant lasagna was already really flavourful!  But, I missed having real cheese on top.  Daiya is a great substitute.  But it doesn't melt the way real cheese does.  

Okay -- enough knocking vegan food.  In fact, this dish was actually really good.  I made a vegan eggplant lasagna (no noodles).  Here's what I did:

First I peeled and sliced eggplant into rounds. Then I sprinkled salt on both sides of the eggplant to remove the bitterness.

After letting the eggplant sit for about an hour (maybe longer), I rinsed off the eggplant to remove the salt.

I looked all over the place for a soy-based ricotta or cottage cheese.  I should have started with Google because it turns out that it's really easy to just make a ricotta-like substitute by blending a firm tofu and adding some spices (e.g., oregano, basil, garlic powder).

For the first layer, I spread out a fair amount of crushed tomatoes

Then eggplant

Then more crushed tomatoes

Then I put a layer of cheese

Then, the tofu ricotta and a layer of spinach

sliced mushrooms

and canned San Marzano tomatoes

Next comes the last layer of eggplant

I put the last of my crushed tomatoes on top of the eggplant and finished it off with more Daiya cheese.

I let the lasagne cook at 350 for about an hour (partly to make sure that the eggplant was cooked through, partly because the cheese was slow to brown and partly because we were eating the salad and visiting with friends)

Like I said, the dish tasted good.  It was a bit messy plating it.

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Hopefully you're not pictured out because I also wanted to quickly share the appetizer.  At the end of the garden season last year, we had a bunch of cherry tomatoes to use up.  So, although I could probably just eat them standing over the counter, we decided to preserve them by oven roasting them with garlic and freezing them in ice cube trays.

I took a bunch of the cubes from the freezer and warmed them up,

The entire appetizer was motivated by wanting to try the Apple Cider Vinegar Pearls we recently got.  Gingras makes these caviar-like pearls that are little bursts of apple cider vinegar.



Overall, the appetizer was just okay.  I really like the crackers (I just randomly chose them while shopping).  I think the vinegar pearls didn't add much to the flavour of the tomato, which already have their own acidity.  I suspect they would be better with a cheese or meat topping.  They also didn't visibly stand out very much against the tomatoes. Thankfully, I still have 2 out of the 4 sachets of pearls left.  So, I'll keep experimenting with them.

Peanut Butter Boy & Tangled Thai Salad

About a year and a half ago, Peanut Butter Boy (aka: Nick) contacted us about trying out some peanut butter samples for a line of PB that he was developing.  Nick started out as a food blogger who blogged about peanut butter recipes.  With all of his experience cooking and baking with peanut butter, Nick began to focus more on the quality of the peanut butter he was using.  In his search for the perfect peanut butter, Nick decided to take matters into his own hands and developed his own line of peanut butter.  

For now, Peanut Butter Boy has two peanut butters to choose from: Super Smooth and Crunch Power. Both peanut butters include only three ingredients: roasted peanuts, palm oil and sea salt. 

Since the peanut butter uses no fillers and is vegan-friendly, I knew I wanted to use it to make a vegan meal for friends we had invited for dinner.  I searched around for vegan salad dressings that include peanut butter and found this recipe for Fresh Restaurant's Tangled Thai Salad.  Even though the list of ingredients is long, I was drawn in by the pictures and a desire to try some ingredients that I don't normally use.  

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 cup chopped napa cabbage
• 1⁄3 cup jicama, cut into small sticks
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw carrot, spiralized (or cut/peeled into julienne)
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw yellow beets, spiralized (or cut into julienne)
• 4 tbsp Peanut Lime Dressing (recipe follows)
• 3 slices cucumber, halved (or cut into julienne)
• 2 tsp chopped raw peanuts
• 2 tbsp Fresh Salad Topper (recipe follows)
• 1⁄4 lime
• Cilantro to taste

Peanut Lime Dressing

• 1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3⁄4 tsp sambal oelek (a South Asian chili sauce)
• 2 tbsp cilantro, densely packed
• 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 2 tbsp plus 2 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp plus 1⁄2 tsp tamari (a type of soy sauce)
• 1-1⁄2 tsp organic sugar
• 2 tsp coconut milk
• 3⁄4 tsp sesame oil
• 1⁄2 cup sunflower oil (or extra virgin olive oil)

Fresh Salad Topper

• 1 cup puffed quinoa (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup goji berries
• 1⁄4 cup currants (optional)
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds
• 2 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped
• 2 tbsp pistachios, chopped
• 1⁄4 tsp sea salt

Panko Crusted Tofu

• ½ block of tofu (about 225 g)
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ cup Japanese panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp coconut or peanut oil

Instructions

Peanut Lime Dressing

1. In a blender, purée all but sunflower oil. With blender running, add oil in a thin stream.
2. Makes 1 cup, enough for 4 salads

Here is the dressing with just some of the ingredients.  I made a double recipe of the dressing.

Fresh Salad Topper

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix.
2. Makes approx. 1-3/4 cups; refridgerate unused portion

Panko Crusted Tofu

1. Slice tofu into 1 inch rectangles or triangles.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Place cornstarch and breadcrumbs in two separate small bowls. Coat tofu pieces with cornstarch, and then press breadcrumbs into them.
4. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

Salad

1. Put cabbage into a large bowl and top with jicama. Pile the carrot and beet strands on top and drizzle with Peanut Lime Dressing.

 

2. Garnish with cucumber, peanuts, Fresh Salad Topper, lime and cilantro.

Verdict: 

The salad was delicious!  The dressing really makes it.  I wish I knew how to mix ingredients to create a blend like this without a recipe.  I need to do more experimenting.  The peanut butter was just one of many ingredients.  I  have also tried some on a spoon and loved the flavour.  But, I'll need to continue to try the peanut butter in other recipes!  

There were some bumps in the process of making the salad.  For one, it took quite a while to put together -- between getting the ingredients (I never did find jicama, so I substituted Asian pear) and all of the chopping.  Yet another reminder that I need to be more prepared.  Sometimes I over-estimate how productive I can be with a baby in tow.  Thankfully, E was happy to hang out on my back while I made dinner.  Yay for babywearing!

Another challenge was trying to puff quinoa.  I Googled what this meant.  But, really had no idea what I was doing.  I tried to keep shaking the pot, so as to avoid burnt quinoa.  But, I still ended up burning it.  Below is my dutch oven, sitting on my balcony to avoid the burnt smell from circulating in the house.