Cauliflower "Hot Wing" and Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Cauliflower "Hot Wing" and Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing {Gluten Free + Vegetarian + Low Carb}

I have been a vegetarian for a long, long time.  And, I have my Dad to thank for this--ever swift to point out inconsistencies between what people profess and how they behave.  My Dad, relatively early in my life, pointed out the disconnect between the way I vocalized my responsibilities toward animals and my actual behavior--namely, my propensity to eat them.  And, though it was a struggle early on to change eating habits, my vegetarianism has persisted into adulthood and I don't  imagine ever giving it up.

If anything, I'm thankful for my vegetarianism: it has made me creative.  I sort of have to be creative, because there are meaty things that I crave--foods that I used to enjoy very much--that I like the challenge of making anew.  I try to re-create them in vegetarian form.  And, this post is about one such attempt to re-create a beloved meat dish, the hot wing, to fit my vegetarian lifestyle.  And, it was a successful attempt!

Blending the hot wing sauce, blue cheese dressing, and celery traditional to the hot wing meal, my Cauliflower "Hot Wing" and Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing is an amazingly satisfying nod to the beloved hot wings of my carnivorous past.  

Recipe: Cauliflower "Hot Wing" and Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower, 1 head chopped into florets
• Hot Wing Sauce (I used a mix of Paula Deen's mild and hot hot wing sauces***); approx 1 cup
• Approx. 1/3c. Garbanzo Bean Flour (I use Bob's Red Mill brand)
• Approx. 1/3 Nutritional Yeast (I use Bob's Red Mill brand)
• Pepper, to taste
• Smoked Sea Salt, to taste
• Liquid Smoke, a dash or to taste
• Baby Spinach
• Celery, chopped
• Tomato, chopped (use to taste)
• Red Onion, diced (use to taste)
• Carrot, shredded (use to taste)
• Avocado, sliced (use to taste)
• Yogurt-based Blue Cheese Dressing
• Queso Fresco, cubed (optional)
  *** Paula Deen's wing sauces do not list wheat in their ingredients lists.  However, they are not clearly labeled Gluten Free.  If you have celiac disease or a strong wheat intolerance than you may consider searching out a brand that explicitly labels their hot wing sauce Gluten Free.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.; prepare baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Clean and chop cauliflower into florets.  Dip cauliflower into hot wing sauce combined with liquid smoke.
3. Coat dipped cauliflower in mixture of garbanzo bean flour, nutritional yeast, pepper and smoked sea salt.  
4. Place on baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. followed by an additional 3-5 minutes on broil.
5. Meanwhile, assemble salad fixings, including: spinach; tomato; celery; carrot; avocado; red onion; queso fresco (optional); Blue Cheese dressing
6. Remove Cauliflower "Hot Wings" from oven.  Let cool a few minutes before tossing in leftover hot sauce and placing on top of salad.  
7. Serve & enjoy!

Broccoli and Pea Soup with Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast {Gluten Free + Vegan + Low-Carb}

Broccoli and Pea Soup with Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast {Gluten Free + Vegan + Low Carb}

It's starting to get cold out there.  Not so much in Texas, but today it's a cool 63 degrees and not threatening to get too much warmer before the day is out.  It's a welcome downturn in temperatures in the midst of the record highs--in the 80's--that have been plaguing the state this year.  Apparently Texas didn't get the memo that Winter is just around the corner and Fall is already well settled-in.

Broccoli and Pea Soup with Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast

It's hard to legitimate cooking up a pot of hot soup when it's 80-degrees outside, but in the (relatively) cool 60's I felt it was an activity well worth the effort and not likely to overheat me!  So, I made myself some broccoli and pea soup using a product I've been wanting to use--but hadn't had the chance to use--for a while: Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast!  

What is Nutritional Yeast?

Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast.  It has a yellowish, flaky appearance slightly resembling corn meal.  I have to admit, it's not the most appetizing looking product at a first glance, but don't let the yellow coloring or flaky, dry texture fool you.  This is a tasty and nutritional product.

Nutritional Yeast is used frequently by vegetarian and vegan cooks to impart a nutty and cheesy taste while also lending whatever it's used in an added level of creaminess.  Nutritional Yeast is a complete protein (a sexy characteristic in the eyes of vegetarians and vegans!) and is high in vitamins, including the B-complex vitamins.  It is naturally Gluten Free and does not contain sugar or dairy.  

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Labeling

Nutritional yeast can be purchased at most specialty food stores, such as Whole Foods, or purchase directly from manufacturers online.  I like Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast because of it's certified Gluten Free.

What Can I Use Nutritional Yeast In?  Or, Why Would I Bother?

In Vegetarian and Vegan Gravies for the Holidays!:

With the holidays right around the corner, Nutritional Yeast is a good product to know about.  It's an ingredient called for in many vegan, vegetarian, and  GF gravies that you can find recipes for online (for example this one: Vegetarian/Vegan Nutritional Yeast Gravy which could be easily adapted to be Gluten Free by substituting GF soy sauce and your favorite GF flour alternative).  

Nutritional Yeast is not just a seasonal ingredient for vegetarians and vegans who want to be able to eat their mashed potatoes and gravy like everyone else, though.

To Produce a Thicker, Creamier Texture:

Nutritional Yeast can be used to flavor and thicken everything from sauces (a post on vegetable pot pies using Nutritional Yeast coming soon!) to soups.  It can be used in place of traditional wheat flour in Gluten Free gravies as a thickening component, as well as in other sauces that require flour as a thickener.  It would also serve as a good substitute for flour in a roux, used in traditional New Orleans cooking, including Gumbo!

In Place of Bread-Crumbs for Gluten Free and Low-Carb Eaters:

For those who are Gluten Free eaters or Low-Carb eaters, it can be used in place of bread crumbs as a binder in things like lentil or meat patties or as a bread-crumb replacement to use on top of casseroles.  Although I haven't tried it--YET--I think Nutritional Yeast combined with hemp hearts would make a truly fantastic, crunchy casserole topper! 

As a Cheese Alternative for Vegan and Lactose-Intolerant Eaters:

The vegan and lactose-intolerant folks out there should take note of the fact that Nutritional Yeast is an effective cheese alternative.  It can replace cheese in dishes ranging from cheesy-mashed potatoes to macaroni and cheese (no joke!  Nutritional Yeast Macaroni and Cheese).  

The uses above are only some of the many ways Nutritonal Yeast can be used in cooking.  A quick online search for recipes incorporating it will yield plenty more results.  It's versatile in addition to being awfully tasty--as I found out when I made myself some Gluten-Free, Vegan, and Low-Carb Broccoli and Cheese Soup.

Recipe: Broccoli and Pea Soup with Nutritional Yeast

Ingredients

1-1.5 head broccoli (steamed until cooked but still slightly firm)

2 bags organic frozen peas (thawed)

1 large onion (finely chopped)

4-6 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1.5-2 containers Vegetable Stock (depending on desired thickness)

1 Can Canellini Beans

Smoked Sea Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

3-4 Tablespoons Bob's Red Mill Nutritional Yeast, or to taste

1 tablespoon Olive Oil (or butter)

Directions

1. Cut broccoli head into florets and steam in large pot with steam basket until tender but still firm.  Remove from heat.  Meanwhile, thaw frozen peas.
2. Place chopped onion and garlic in large pot and cook in olive oil until onions are translucent.  
3. In a blender process broccoli and peas in batches adding vegetable stock to help liquefy the ingredients.  Add each liquefied batch to pot with onion and garlic.
4. When all of the broccoli and peas have been liquefied, add any remaining vegetable stock to the pot.  Add canellini beans.  
5. Season with smoked sea salt (or regular sea salt), pepper, and nutritional yeast.  Add as much seasoning as necessary and additional vegetable stock depending on the thickness you desire for your soup.
6. Bring to a simmer for 5-7 minutes.  Serve!

Pumpkin "Pie" Super Smoothie {Gluten Free + Vegetarian + Low-Carb}

Pumpkin "Pie" Super Smoothie: {Gluten Free + Vegetarian + Low-Carb}

The Fall is a magical time.  Beloved squashes come into season to festively line the produce section of grocery stores while, in other corners of the store, ghoulish Lady Gaga, Marilyn Monroe, Vampire, and Frankenstein Monster costumes haunt the shelves hoping for a chance for a great debut trick-or-treating on Halloween.  The Fall is crisp, and warm, and spicy.  It's like biting into a pumpkin pie, rich creamy and complex with warming nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and clove.

For the past week I've celebrated the coming on of Fall by drinking it up in the form of  a Pumpkin "Pie" Super Smoothie.  What a great way to indulge in Fall flavors every morning!  

Fall Squash

My Pumpkin "Pie" Super Smoothie is Gluten-Free, Vegetarian and Low-carb, and is made with organic pumpkin puree, 0% Plain Greek Yogurt, hydrated Chia Seeds, Almond Milk, a frozen banana, and those warming pumpkin pie spices I mentioned above, and Bob's Red Mill Hemp Protein Powder--a GREAT easily incorporated source of extra protein--that USED to be produced under Gluten Free certified conditions.

I'm sad to report that shortly after I got my batch of Hemp Protein Powder Bob's Red Mill issued a statement on their website saying that it is no longer going to be producing the product as Gluten Free.  While I give Bob's credit for posting the change in production quality, I'm disturbed by the switch from producing a Gluten Free certified product to a non-certified product and disconcerted that many potential consumers who've used the Gluten Free certified batches produced in the past won't have any easy way to learn about the change in the production standards.  

If you need an easy, Gluten-Free Hemp Protein replacement I've got you covered.  Try blending Hemp Hearts--easily available at specialty stores or online--into a powder and still enjoy that extra boost of protein and Hemp's nutty flavor.  This is going to be my new go-to solution for incorporating Hemp Protein into my diet.

[Recipe] Pumpkin "Pie" Super Smoothie

Bob's Red Mill Hemp
Protein Powder, formerly GF

Ingredients--

• 1/3C. Organic Pumpkin Puree
• 1/3C. 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
• 4TBsp Hemp Powder (if no GF Hemp powder is available, grind Hemp Hearts into a powder in your blender)
• 2-3TBsp Hydrated Chia Seeds
• 1 Frozen Banana, peeled and chopped into sections
• 1/4C. (approx) Almond Milk (I used vanilla, no-sugar-added variety)
• 3-4 Ice Cubes
• Pumpkin Pie Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove)
• Optional: Stevia or other sweetener

Directions--

1. Blend all ingredients together in blender until smoothie consistency is achieved.  Serve immediately and enjoy!