The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Turmeric-Carrot Muffins

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Despite my obsession with carrots, carrot cake and carrot muffins have never really done it for me. I’ve always placed them in the “oatmeal raisin” camp, which to me translates as not my jam. Maybe I’m just biased against desserts with raisins? But something about your run-of-the-mill carrot muffin is just not that appealing to me. Yet when the polar vortex hit the other day, so did the baking bug. And I’m now completely sold on carrot muffins.

But – big caveat – these are definitely not your ordinary carrot muffins. There’s no cinnamon and no raisins: instead, I went with fresh turmeric and ginger, a generous dose of sour cream, a hint of cardamom, and a subtle kick from some ground black pepper. They are also less sweet than a typical carrot muffin, making them a fantastic (and not so sugary) breakfast or snack that is delicious warm or cold. So let me rephrase my previous statement: I’m now completely sold on carrots in muffins – as long as there’s turmeric and sour cream in there too. These are definitely going into my muffin rotation!

In addition to the flavor profile, I’m also excited about these muffins because they are completely nut-free. While I normally depend on a small amount of almond flour to add moisture and tenderness to my baked goods, I wanted to create some muffin recipes that don’t use this somewhat polarizing (because of its cost and because not everyone can eat nuts) ingredient. Since it’s the high protein and fat content that makes almond flour such a great ingredient in gluten-free baked goods, those elements are taken care of by the sour cream, eggs, and butter in this recipe. High protein oat and sorghum flour seal the deal, and – along with a teaspoon of binding psyllium – help to create the perfect texture.

So – whether you are offended by or sympathetic to my stance on the “typical” carrot muffin, I do urge you to try this remix. You can even add in some raisins – if you must. (Just make sure to soak them first.)

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Cranberry & Ginger Cream Parfait

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This time of year, we are usually in Texas with my in-laws, making tamales and enjoying the warm weather. And last week, we would have been in Massachusetts with my side of the family, making latkes and trudging around the perimeter of the house in the snow looking at the brightly lit menorahs – each strategically placed in an outward facing window, the flickering candles punctuating our circular trek in the darkness, our voices giddy and festive.

This year, of course, we stayed put in New Jersey – the flicker of Zoom screens competing with the candles and the two of us eating enough latkes (traditional potato this year) for the whole family. (Seriously, we did not adjust the quantities at all and ended up eating latkes for four days! No complaints here, of course.)

While we still managed to have a festive time (and some pretty sweet Christmas Day plans – involving tons of two-player board games and a full coffee pot – are in the works), staying put for the holidays has definitely made it seem extra important to mark the occasion in any way we can. While I didn’t get it together to put up a Chanukah-specific recipe this year, I wanted to celebrate the holiday season with a winter-inspired, simple dessert that wouldn’t take too much effort but which would scream “holidays!” I also decided to err on the healthier side of things since I tend to end up eating way too many sweets this time of year. (Don’t worry, this still tastes sweet and decadent  – I’m just calling it “healthier” because it also contains yogurt and fruit :-))

Okay, so let’s talk about it already! Cranberries and apples are cooked down with wintery spices like cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom into a deliciously tart and lightly spiced fruit layer. That gets sandwiched by a simple ginger cream that almost didn’t make it into the glass because I just wanted to eat it by itself. Basically, you’ll make your own ginger-infused simple syrup with sugar, water, and powdered ginger, pour it into some super thick greek yogurt, and stir in some finely chopped candied ginger pieces for good measure. Once everything is layered together, you’ll garnish it with some extra candied ginger and .. voilá! Time to get a spoon.

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Unbelievable Salted Caramel Almond Shake (Vegan, Sugar-Free)

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If you were to blindfold me and give me something to eat or drink, I’m fairly confident in my ability to tell you what it is and what’s in it. Similarly, when I whip up this concoction or that one, I don’t usually run into too many surprises when it comes to the final product. It generally tastes about how I expected it would – sometimes a little bit better, of course, and sometimes a little bit worse. But when I took my first sip of this shake, I was shocked. Like, actually shocked. It may sound hyperbolic, but I believe this is one of the best shakes I’ve ever had and I was expecting it to be one of the worst. I’m calling it “unbelievable” because I definitely wouldn’t believe you if you gave me a glass of this and then told me the ingredient list.

Why would I purposefully create a shake that I thought would be mediocre? Pure laziness. My blender was in the fridge because I had made a miso-sesame dressing and was still working on using up the leftovers. And I wanted a banana shake. The thought of scraping all that dressing out, cleaning the blender, making the shake, and then re-cleaning the blender was, shall we say, a bit too much. But I really wanted that shake.

Now, I do know that culinary creations like miso caramel – even miso ice-cream – exist and are enjoyed. But this dressing also contained capers, black pepper, and olive oil. There was no way it would work in a shake. I resigned myself to maybe having some kind of half sweet, half savory concoction because that sounded better than cleaning the blender. In went 1 1/2 very ripe, frozen bananas, a dollop of salted almond butter (oh god, did I really want to add more salt?) and a hefty dose of unsweetened almond milk. I whirred it all up, anxiously awaiting what I was fairly certain would be a regrettable decision. And then I took a sip.

It was….it was…it was like going to one of those super gourmet, trendy ice-cream parlors that always have lines out the door and it actually meeting all the hype. I mean, it tasted like a dairy-laden, sugar-laden, salted caramel ice-cream shake with a hint of sesame and almond! And it was actually just bananas, a very healthy hippy-style miso dressing, and almond milk. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? The almond butter and sesame flavors played perfectly with the front-and-center caramel flavor, and the whole thing was just the best sweet, cold, creamy, nutty, nuanced concoction I’ve had the pleasure of tasting in a while.

Ironically, I was originally going to post the miso-sesame dressing, but then figured – eh. Everyone and their mother has a miso dressing. Sure, it’s an enjoyable way to eat a salad, a lettuce wrap, or a grain bowl. But is it blog-worthy? Meh. This shake, however, (which requires first making the standard miso-dressing) is most assuredly blog worthy. And drinking worthy. My enjoyment of it was a little bit tinged by anxiety about whether I would be able to recreate it – after all, I just used a blender containing some dressing – I didn’t measure amounts at all! I’m happy to report, however, that I was. The recipe is below. Be prepared to be shocked.

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Banana Spice Muffins

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I didn’t plan to bake today. But sometimes, inspiration just strikes and the mixing bowls have to come out. Of course, knowing your baking triggers can be helpful when it comes to acceptance. Here are mine:

-Rain or snow

-The remnants of rain or snow (snow-covered trees, clouds of fog, etc.)

-Waking up early without an alarm

-A clean kitchen

Today, waking up at 7 to a light dusting of very pretty snow and realizing that I had the morning free set my internal baking clock to “Go.” And why fight that? Especially when it resulted in these surprisingly healthy (you wouldn’t know it from the taste) banana spice muffins that happen to be gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar free. Yum!

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Cranberry Cookies with White Chocolate and Ginger

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Unless you are super Type A or enjoy making shared family spreadsheets (and does anyone really enjoy that?), chances are there will be some oversights or duplications in your Thanksgiving shopping. Especially when multiple people are bringing ingredients/food. Last year, for example, I somehow ended up with four bags of organic cranberries and only eight people to feed. Despite having multiple cranberry sauce fanatics at the table,  nobody is going to eat quite that much of it, especially with all the Thanksgiving standards to load up on. So I decided not to use all four bags.

But then I had a new problem – what could I do with so many cranberries? Cut to a few days post Thanksgiving, when the last slice of pie had been eaten and the glorious array of leftovers was almost gone. I wasn’t ready to give up having a kitchen stocked full of treats just yet, so I decided to make some cookies. (I mean, I needed to use those cranberries, anyway, so this was really the responsible choice, right?) Okay, maybe responsible is a bit of a stretch, but the decisions was definitely a good one. It yielded these cookies! And I’ve been waiting a whole year to share them with you.

Perfect for including at your Thanksgiving table or for munching on after the fact (people with extra cranberries, I’m looking at you!), these cookies have such a holiday flair. The tartness of the cranberries goes perfectly with the sweetness of the white chocolate and the lovely chunks of candied ginger. I’ve used finger millet flour for these, which is a darker variety of millet flour that helps temper all the sugar a bit and lends a lovely earthy quality that is perfect for the cold weather. That said, if you are unable to find finger millet flour (I order it online from Pure India Foods), you can use regular white millet flour (actually pictured above) and the cookies will still turn out. If you go this route, I would suggest cutting the sugar slightly (try a scant ½ cup) as the white variety turned out much sweeter.

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Rugelach Carrots

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Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) begins tonight, and my family has already started celebrating. Our traditional Rosh Hashanah hike happened yesterday; tashlich and apple-picking happened today. When asked which night we wanted to do the “big” dinner, Raf (the youngest of us) responded, “I was hoping both would be a decent size.” And so we’re doing two Rosh Hashanah dinners, both complete with plenty of sweet flavors to encourage sweetness in the year ahead.

Traditionally, I’ve made cake-like desserts for Rosh Hashanah, like this Chocolate-Hazelnut Cake, Apples and Honey Cake, and Apple-Ricotta Tart. However, this year, I wanted something a bit simpler and more veggie centric. I also wanted to embrace the fall theme, since the leaves are just starting to change and some of my happiest moments have been seeing these bits of color floating through the air and landing gracefully on the grass, where I know they will soon be crunched underfoot, raked, and potentially jumped in. Oh, how I love fall!

So carrots it was. Isn’t it always carrots? The lovely yellow, purple, and orange medley of rainbow carrots reminded me of the changing leaves and the luscious foliage that is right around the corner. I roasted them whole, until very tender, and then topped them with what I’ve termed “essence of rugelach” – walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar. (What is rugelach, you ask? It’s a very traditional Jewish cookie often eaten at Rosh Hashanah, with a cream cheese dough rolled around the aforementioned walnut mixture.) While I initially confused my parents quite a bit – they apparently thought I was making rugelach OUT of carrots (maybe next year, guys), they came around in the end and agreed that the dessert did have a rugelach feeling to it. I hope you concur!

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Mesquite Caramel

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Have you heard of mesquite powder? It’s made from the ground pods of mesquite trees and has a wonderfully sweet – yet complex – flavor that is somewhere between vanilla, caramel, and malted milk balls. Delicious in smoothies, hot drinks, ice-creams, and baked goods, mesquite powder is great to have on hand!

A few years back, I decided to try making a caramel using just mesquite and water. The results were exciting. While it wasn’t as sticky as a typical caramel, it was thick and syrupy enough to hit the “caramel neurons” in my brain. (By the way, this is yet to be confirmed by an MRI, but I may have more “caramel neurons” than average.) Plus, this mesquite caramel had two advantages: it was both simpler to make and healthier to eat than a butter and sugar-laden variety.

Before we get too excited, let me just clarify that – while there is no added sugar in mesquite powder since it’s literally just ground up mesquite pods – chemical analysis of the powder does show it to be about 40 percent sucrose. As such, I probably can’t say that this caramel is entirely “sugar-free.” I can say that it is definitely significantly lower in sucrose than your typical table-sugar caramels, however, and has a more unique flavor, to boot. Its high fiber content may also be helpful in preventing blood sugar spikes, though – according to the website linked earlier – more research is needed.

This is the easiest caramel you’ll ever make. You just need mesquite powder, water, a small saucepan, and a spoon. Once the mixture starts to bubble, it’ll be ready in about five minutes. Drizzle it over ice-cream (I know, kind of negates the low sugar aspect), over your morning porridge (one of my favorite ways to eat oatmeal) or enjoy with stewed or baked apples. It’s also a wonderful way to dress up a bowl of cold cereal! Plus, it’ll keep for several days in the fridge and doesn’t harden or solidify, meaning it’s always drizzle-ready.

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Coconut-Cacao Cookies

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So due to this frigid January, my oven is getting a serious workout. You’d think the three batches of cornbread I made last week would have been enough to slow the baking roll, but apparently I can’t help whipping up cookies, biscuits, and blini rolls left and right. Have I been procastibaking? I’d like to say no, but that could just be denial.  (And yet, who’s to say that using up a little over a tablespoon of the two bags of cacao nibs I found in the cabinet recently isn’t the most productive use of my time?)

Speaking of cacao nibs, those nutrient-packed, antioxidant-rich morsels are just part of what makes this cookie perfect for an energy-boosting snack. High in protein and fiber – think rolled oats, almond flour, flax, and quinoa – eating just one is a filling and delicious way to fuel up while out and about. And with no refined sugar, you don’t have to feel too bad for eating more than one, should you decide to. The batter is super easy and can be made in one bowl (plus a small pot for melting the butter) and there is no shaping required  – simply drop them onto your sheet trays and they’ll be good to go. So, recovering procrastibakers: don’t worry. This recipe won’t keep you off task for long and may actually prove beneficial for task-accomplishment, given the cognition-boosting properties of the cacao nibs. (Uh oh, is justification/rationalization using half-read scholarly articles  an impediment to recovery?) Meh, who cares, go make some cookies!

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Jalapeño Cornbread

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Is there anything more comforting than chili and cornbread on a cold winter night? And is there anything more disappointing than buying a beautiful slice of cornbread somewhere and then having it be dry, crumbly, and generally lacking? Disappointed with the cornbread offerings near me, I decided to create a moist, cakier version of the classic – with jalapeños thrown in for spice, of course. Try it with my easy vegetarian chili for a simple, satisfying dinner.

I’m actually up to my ears in this cornbread right now, because I decided to make three batches: one with dairy and eggs, one with dairy but no eggs, and one completely vegan. I’m happy to report that all three were enjoyable in their own right, but I’ve decided to keep working on the vegan version before posting it. The other two batches came out great, though, with the egg-free one just a little bit cakier than the batch with egg. I actually preferred it, though my husband liked the breadier texture better.

This cornbread is absolutely delicious warm out of the oven or cold from the fridge. It’s extremely flavorful – tender and buttery with wonderful jalapeño notes. While it’s fabulous on its own, I can’t help but fantasize about some delicious pairing ideas. In addition to the aforementioned bowl of chili, here are some of the ways I’ll be enjoying the three batches of cornbread I have on my hands:

  • With collard greens and lentils
  • As a sandwich – with cheddar and tomato
  • By itself, cold from the fridge
  • Warm, with butter or ghee
  • Topped with avocado (growing up, my best friend and I were OBSESSED with cornbread & avocado)
  • With tomato soup
  • With Mexican-style black beans and sour cream
  • “Loaded” – topped with beans, cilantro, tomato, avocado, cheddar, and salsa/sour cream
  • With cajun-style tempeh or tofu and kale

I could keep going, but I don’t want to make you too hungry… [Read more…]

Strawberry & Cream Blini Rolls (Grain-free!)

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Hibernation is one of the coolest things about the winter. I don’t know about you, but I always feel at least a small twinge of envy imagining all manner of creatures –  from bears to bats to turtles – hiding out until the sun comes out and the world is a warm and happy place again. Turns out I missed the hibernation memo, though, because I’m emerging from my cave smack dab in the middle of winter and spent most of a mild autumn outside of my daily routine. Of course, my hibernation period was also a little less envy-producing;  my cave was filled with work and school and dwelling in it throughout the autumn season meant a longer than usual break from blogging. So I’m super excited to rejoin the world, even if I have to do so from beneath a few pounds of outerwear.

And what better way to bring some brightness to this cloudy January than with these delicious blini rolls! For those who aren’t familiar with blinis, they are Russian pancakes that vary in thickness and can be served sweet or savory. My grain-free version is a little thicker than a crepe but much thinner than your standard American pancake. It is filled with strawberry preservers and a delectable sweet cream, then rolled and sliced into elegant little spirals for your eating pleasure. These guys are fairly simple to make – the blinis have just three ingredients and come together in the blender and the filling is even easier. And, provided you let everything cool completely, unmolding them from the parchment paper, rolling, and slicing is really no big deal. In fact, the most difficult part of this recipe is probably separating your eggs! (But don’t worry, I have plenty of ways for you to use up those yolks – see notes below.)

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