Ingredients

• 1 cup of raw almonds
• 4 cups of water
• Agave nectar (optional)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

Preparation

• Cover almonds in water and soak overnight.
• Put the soaked almonds in a blender, and add 4 cups of water.
• Blend on a high setting.
• Add 1 tbsp of vanilla extract, and/or some agave nectar to sweeten it to taste.
• Blend a few minutes on highest setting until completely smooth.
• Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.
• Squeeze as much milk as you can from the almonds. To do this, using a cheese cloth is probably better than a sieve, but whatever you have available or prefer working with will work fine to extract the almond milk from the mixture.
• Pour the fresh almond milk in a glass container and refrigerate. The almond milk can be kept in the fridge for up to 5-6 days.

Tip: the left over almond pulp can be used to make cookies, cake, bread, or added to sauces!

A few slices from the gluten-free buckwheat bread I baked using this recipe

I’ve already posted a recipe for a delicious gluten free bread, but when I almost ran out of rice flour the other day, and still had lots and lots of buckwheat flour, I developed a brand new gluten-free bread recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk.
• 4 eggs
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp apple cidar vinegar
• 2 Tbsp of maple syrup
• 4 Cups buckwheat flour
• 3/4 Cups rice flour
• 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
• 1 Tbsp quick rise yeast

Instructions if using a breadmaker

Add all ingredients in the order presented above into the breadmaker pan.

Select a rapid white or regular white course. These ingredients will make roughly a 1.5 lb. loaf, and most breadmakers will have an option to select the size of your bread.

If your breadmaker does not have a gluten-free course, you can select rapid white (this works on my breadmaker, which also does not have a gluten-free option in the menu). If it is underbaked, you can always finish baking in your regular oven.

Instructions for baking gluten-free the old fashioned way

Beat the eggs first, then add in the milk and other wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the flour and finish with the yeast. If you are making a yeast free bread, just follow all the same instructions but omit the yeast altogether.

Kneed the dough well, and leave it for about 30 minutes to rise. Kneed it again.

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Bake for about 70 to 80 minutes.

Whether you use an oven or a breadmaker, always let the gluten free bread cool completely before cutting it.

A few notes: I’ve made gluten free bread before without using Xanthan gum. It comes out tasting the exact same, and it can be omitted if you have no access to this ingredient. However, the Xanthan gum makes your bread far less crumbly! Gluten free bread is more often than not a bit on the crumbly side, and since I’ve added xanthan gum that has changed dramatically. I am thoroughly impressed with the consistency of this last bread I made using this ingredient. I found it in the health food section of my local major supermarket. But you can also order it online.

This is one of the most simple cake recipes you will ever come across! I never used to have the courage to bake a cake from scatch, but this is more fool proof than your run-of-the-mill cake mix.

There is no flour involved in this almond cake recipe at all, and does not include any other ingredients that contain gluten. If you’re looking for an easy source of healthy almonds, this recipe is perfect. I’ve topped this cake with some jam or butter for a great bread alternative. Go low on the agave nectar or maple syrup for a hearty cake.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole natural almonds (about 6 ounces)
• Egg whites from 4 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
• 3 tbsp Agave nectar or maple syrup

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Use a food processor to grind almonds into a fine mixture. It shouldn’t take more than 15-20 seconds.
• Using an electic mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
• Mix vanilla extract and agave nectar or maple syrup in with the ground almond.
• Gently fold almond mixture in with the egg whites.
• Pour batter into a loaf pan, or a 9-inch springform pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in pan.

Modifications:

You can add in raisins, pecans, almond pieces, cranberries… anything you fancy! Make sure not to bake the cake too long or it might be a bit on the dry side. This delicious flour-less, gluten-free almond cake is meant to be moist.

If you love almonds, check out this almond cookie recipe as well.

A simple meal that takes all of five minutes to prepare (provided you’ve already prepped some peanut sauce beforehand). Great if you are in a hurry.

I recently found little bundles of pasta made of yam-flour at my local asian market. The yam pasta is 100% gluten free, comes in little bundles floating in water. Because the packaging doesn’t have a lot more than the ingredients translated into English, I cannot tell how long “officially” the packaging suggests they need to cook. From my experience so far, these gluten-free goodies seem to be ready to eat and just require a quick reheating. Yams are high in fiber and nutrients, and these yam-flour pasta bundles are a fantastic alternative to my regular favorite (rice pasta).

To make this scrumptious gluten free meal you’ll need the following:

Ingredients

• Gluten Free Yam flour pasta bundles
• Peeled, cooked shrimp
• Gluten Free Peanut Sauce

Preparation

If you have peeled cooked shrimp ready to go, great. If not, use frozen or fresh shrimp and fry them up quickly on the stove.

Drain the water from the yam-flour pasta package and rinse the yam pasta two or three times.

Arrange pasta on a plate place cooked shrimp and peanut sauce overtop and heat in the microwave for about 1 minute.

If you are adverse to using a microwave, place the yam pasta in a small pot with boiling water. Boil for 2-3 minutes, remove and drain. When shrimp are cooked, add the peanut sauce for 1-2 minutes in the frying pan to heat up the sauce. Pour shrimp and peanut sauce mix overtop the yam pasta.

I love peanut sauce. Especially over chicken over shrimp dishes. It also makes a fabulous dipping sauce! I’ve had many unsuccessful attempts making sugar free, dairy free, peanut sauce, until I finally got it right with this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of unsweetened peanut butter (find the peanut butter with peanuts as the only ingredient, ideally).
• 2 Tsp soy sauce (low sodium)
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
• 1/4 cup of water
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
• red chili flakes, to taste or 1 clove crushed garlic

Preparation

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend at medium speed for a minute or two, or until smooth. Depending on how stiff your peanut butter is, you may need to add more water to blend the mixture properly. If necessary, add an additional 1/4 cup of water. Transfer the sauce to a small pan and heat over medium heat until the sauce thickens and bubbles.

I can’t stand the gluten free breads you can find at the grocery store, if you’re even lucky enough to live close to a store that carries an assortment of gluten free products. Although I live in a major metropolitan area, it is still a reasonable hike for me to get to a whole foods or health food shop for my dose of overpriced cardboard-like bread. I suppose I’m being awefully mean about the commercially available gluten free breads out there, but I am just yet to find one that tastes good, and is reasonably priced, and is not just made with refined white rice flour.

Obvious solution to the problem? Make my own bread of course. A good friend of mine gifted me a breadmaker last Christmas, and boy does that come in handy! This recipe would work just fine without a breadmaker as well, but you need to allow for some time to let the dough rise. If you use a breadmaker, even if the breadmaker doesn’t have a setting for gluten free bread, the time it takes to rise is already programmed.

This bread recipe is very simple, and can be used by those of us who are lactose intolerant as well. The recipe does call for three eggs, but you could easily replace the eggs with either a commercial egg replacer, or by using this egg replacer recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk (or soy milk, or water). Almond milk adds something subtle to the taste.
• 3 large eggs (or egg replacer)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp apple cidar vinegar
• 2 Tbsp of maple syrup or agave nectar (optional)
• 3 Cups brown rice flour
• 1 3/4 Cups buckwheat flour
• 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
• 1 Tbsp quick rise yeast

Preparation

If you are using a breadmaker, add all ingredients in the order presented above into the breadmaker pan. Select a rapid white or regular white course. These ingredients will make roughly a 1.5 lb. loaf, and most breadmakers will have an option to select the size of your bread.

My current breadmaker does not have a gluten free course, but I selected the rapid white (hoping it would be done soon enough for a BBQ dinner, but alas it wasn’t) and it turned out fantastic. You may need to fiddle with the settings on your breadmaker, but once you find one that works you can stick to it! Unless you can add more baking time manually (with my machine you unfortunately cannot), I recommend rather underbaking than overbaking. I’ve previously selected whole wheat settings to bake my gluten free bread, and the bread was a bit too dry and crumbly when it came out. If it is underbaked, you can always finish baking in your regular oven.

Enough said about breadmakers. If you are doing this the old fashioned way:

Beat the eggs first, then add in the milk and other wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the flour and finish with the yeast. If you are making a yeast free bread, just follow all the same instructions but omit the yeast altogether.

Kneed the dough well, and leave it for about 30 minutes to rise. Kneed it again.

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Bake for about 70 to 80 minutes.

Whether you use an oven or a breadmaker, always let the gluten free bread cool completely before cutting it.

A few notes: I’ve made gluten free bread before without using Xanthan gum. It comes out tasting the exact same, and it can be omitted if you have no access to this ingredient. However, the Xanthan gum makes your bread far less crumbly! Gluten free bread is more often than not a bit on the crumbly side, and since I’ve added xanthan gum that has changed dramatically. I am thoroughly impressed with the consistency of this last bread I made using this ingredient. I found it in the health food section of my local major supermarket. But you can also order it online.

This recipe replaces two eggs in any of your baking needs:

Ingredients:

• Flax meal
• Water

Preparation:

Use two tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal. Add 1/2 cup of water to the flaxseed meal in a large microwaveable container.

Stir the contents together.

Microwave until the egg replacer mixture bubbles and gets slightly thick. This takes about 3 minutes.

Place the mixture in your freezer to cool it, and wait until it thickens even more.

Use an electric hand mixer to blend the egg replacer mixture, until it gets a slight cream color and froths.

Now add it to your baking recipes whenever eggs are called for!

Here’s my take on this spaghetti dish.

Ingredients

• 8 oz dry whole-grain rice spaghetti
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like it)
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped (1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp unsalted pine nuts, toasted

Preparation

Cook the rice pasta according to the instructions on the package. When done, drain pasta and set aside.

Using a small pan, combine broth, lemon juice, and sun dried tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 3/4 cup. Combine spaghetti, mixture, lemon zest, and pepper flakes in a large bowl or pan. Garnish with parsley and pine nuts.

Serves 4.

Hands-on time: 15 minutes.
Total time: 30 minutes.

I came across a phenomenal gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe today. It is flourless, so wheat and gluten free. It is also completely dairy free and sugar free. In short, it meets all the dietary requirements and they taste fabulous!

The recipe calls for almond flour, which is a great alternative to wheat and low carb. These cookies don’t only taste great, they are great for you

Here is the original video explaining the recipe and how to make these flour-less chocolate chip cookies:

For this recipe, I recommend:

Here are the details:
Acrobat Lounge Salsa night on Friday
2464 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 489-1105

Cover: $10 for guys, free for girls before 10pm.
Salsa lesson at 9pm (cost: $10, level: beginner and intermediate)
Coat check: $2 (From what I saw this week, you are not allowed to bring in your coat. Makes sense, but keep it in mind. In the summer it’s a non issue, and in the winter just use the coat check).

Additional bonus: Free tap water with ice! Salsa makes you thirsty, so this is a really good feature. Most other salsa clubs I’ve been to sell water ranging anywhere from $1-$3 per bottle. Acrobat Lounge also sells bottled water, but you can get the stuff from the tap for free. Alcohol is reasonably priced with beers around $5-$7 and a generous glass of red wine costs $7. For Toronto, that’s really quite affordable.

Acrobat lounge often has some performances throughout the evening, which adds a fun flavor to the experience. You will also see a number of really experienced salsa dancers, and perhaps if you can keep up you can learn a few moves from watching them. Acrobat Lounge has a great atmosphere where you can come to dance or just hang out. If you do dance, the dance floor is well polished and smooth (but not too slippery), which was pleasantly surprising. It is by far one of the best floors I’ve danced on in Toronto salsa clubs, and that really reflected in my performance as well.