The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Leche de Tamarindo

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I don’t know about you, but when late August hits, I start to get a little sad. Summer is quickly waning, and if you’re me, you still haven’t made time to do all of the summery stuff you’d planned! In the New York City area, that means taking advantage of the free outdoor concerts, movies, boat rides, etc. It means braving a long public transit ride to get to something that vaguely resembles a beach. And to many it means getting out of the metro area all together – planning that one, glorious, summer vacation.

This post is a tribute to the vacations I planned, but didn’t take.

In fact, this summer was stacking up to be incredible. One of our friends was getting married in India, another was getting married in Mexico. India and Mexico in one summer? Hell yeah! Unfortunately, the timing of the two weddings was identical. Add  in a new apartment for both of us and a new job for one of us, and we quickly realized a big vacation just wasn’t in the cards this summer. I’m hoping we’ll brave that long public transit ride and get to one of the super crowded beaches New Yorkers flock to before the summer ends. But for now, I’ve decided to channel the tropics whenever I can. And what better way to start than with a fruit that happens to be pretty ubiquitous in both India and Mexico?

Tamarind is a pod-shaped fruit with a tangy flavor that is grown in most tropical areas of the world. If you’ve ever had tamarind chutney (the brown, sweet chutney often served in Indian restaurants), you are already somewhat familiar with its unique taste. Tamarind is thought to have many health benefits, including anti-inflammatory compounds, antioxidants, iron and B vitamins, and dietary fiber to improve your digestive system!

Leche de Tamarindo translates to — quite literally — tamarind milk. Sounds better in Spanish, right? Be that as it may, it tastes amazing whatever language you may happen to speak and wherever you may happen to be spending your summer.

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5-Ingredient Miracle Cookies (Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, and Vegan!)

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A gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free cookie that contains only five ingredients and comes together in minutes? Now that’s a small miracle. Please don’t be skeptical – while I tend to shy away from baked goods with too many x-free, y-free qualifications (because what the heck is in them to make them taste good?) I promise you these cookies are utterly delicious. And no nasty sugar substitutes, either. These cookies are 100% date-sweetened.

There is nothing like baking your first batch of cookies in a new apartment (I moved this weekend!) to really scream “home.” That priceless cookie aroma wafting around my kitchen was just the thing to banish any lingering new-apartment smell – aka paint – for good. And then looking at my new  (and dare I say perfectly organized??) kitchen with racks of cookies cooling on the counter, I felt perfectly relaxed and oh so content. Yes, there were – and still are – boxes all over the living room – but they faded into the background as I grabbed a nice cold glass of almond milk and let myself be transported to warm, gooey, peanut-butter heaven.

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Middle Eastern Shake

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When it comes to shakes, I’m a pretty picky eater … er… drinker? In my opinion, a good shake must be creamy, smooth, rich, luscious, full-bodied, sweet but not sweet enough to cause a sugar rush, and most importantly, NOT ICY. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve experienced severe buyer’s remorse after shelling out good $$ (shakes are expensive!!) only to realize my “cacao banana power shake” (or some variation thereof) is half ice and half store-bought almond milk with maybe a couple teaspoons of cocoa powder and a tiny piece of banana. Sadness! Anger! Ice! So. Much. Ice.

While I’ll occasionally throw one or two cubes of ice in a shake I make myself (usually because I have a cat shaped ice cube tray and the kitty ice cubes are so darn cute that I can put aside my ice hatred and remember that all things can be good in moderation) I generally find that if all my ingredients are cold, shakes do not need ice at all. And I much prefer them creamy and rich to cold and watery. This Middle Eastern Shake is no exception – it could probably be eaten as a pudding if you’re into that. Personally, I prefer to consume it in shake form (I mean, for one thing, you get more of it: it is so much more socially acceptable to consume a full glass of shake than a full glass of pudding.)  [Read more…]

Mystical Applesauce “Bran” Muffins

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My favorite thing about bran muffins is their nutty, whole-grain flavor. What I’m not such a fan of is that dense (and sometimes dry) texture you’ll sometimes experience in a less-than-perfect bran muffin. As such, trying to create a gluten-free “bran” muffin was a bit of a task, as dryness is something you have to be extra careful to avoid when there’s no sticky gluten involved!

After a couple tries (I was really muffined out for a while there),  I managed to create a delicious gluten-free muffin with a “bran” like flavor but with a texture that is lighter and cakier than a traditional bran muffin. They are so pleasantly light, and so wonderfully moist, in fact, that you can eat quite a few of these guys before realizing just how many you’ve eaten!

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Poppy Seed Bars

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Before going gluten-free, I used to bake all the time. I had my knock-’em-dead brownie recipe for those casual but chocolate-warranting events, my decadent layer cake recipe for birthdays and anniversaries, and the ultimate coffee cake recipe for those weirdos who don’t like chocolate.  These were all recipes I had collected due to my habit of reading (or should I say drooling over) any dessert cookbook I could get my hands on.  Since I was such an avid dessert cookbook reader, I quickly learned how to tell whether a recipe was worth making just by skimming the ingredients and procedure. (Hint: Look for copious amounts of chocolate and butter :p) But this was as far as I got with regards to bringing in my own creative process – I never created my own dessert recipes or experimented too much with the recipes I collected. It was only after going gluten-free that I started creating my own desserts, and it’s been a total blast.

My absolute favorite flour to bake with is almond flour. That’s because it makes gluten-free desserts taste like regular desserts – it’s moist, holds together well, has a great texture and flavor, and, as if that wasn’t enough, it’s also packed with protein! I’ve been seeking out almond-flour based dessert recipes for a couple years now, and in the last year or so, I’ve finally felt comfortable enough working with this miraculous substance to be able to play around with it on my own. It’s a great feeling to be able to easily whip up a dessert when the craving hits, with whatever you happen to have around the house!

And that’s exactly what I did a few weeks ago, when these poppy seed bars were born.

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