The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

Subscribe

The recipes in this category are Low FODMAP at the proper serving sizes. Please note that I will occasionally link to other recipes that may not be Low FODMAP - when following linked recipes, be sure to check whether they have the Low FODMAP tag.

Kale Mac and Cheese (Plus a brief note about FODMAPs)

By Leave a Comment

Happy New Year everyone! I’m excited to be back from my blogging hiatus and absolutely ecstatic about this Kale Mac and Cheese. With all the craziness of the past few months (yes, I’m talking about the election and beyond) I, for one, have been craving comfort food: hearty, flavorful, cheesy goodness  to get us through the cold until the sun comes out again.

You may notice that, unlike 99.9 percent of my savory recipes, this one contains no onion or garlic (gasp!) You might also notice that that this recipe is tagged “Low FODMAP,” and if you were to check out the “By Diet” section of my blog, you’ll see that in addition to filtering recipes by vegan, dairy-free, grain-free, egg-free, etc., you can now search for recipes with this tag. So what does this all mean? And what the hell are FODMAPs?

I’ve waffled back and forth as to whether I wanted to share the reason for my blogging hiatus (Hint: it has to do with FODMAPs) and decided that I owe it to anyone who might be in a similar situation. So if you are struggling with SIBO or the Low FODMAP diet, or you just want to hear my musings on the topic, click here. I’ll explain what those terms mean, and talk a bit about my personal journey with them. For the rest of you, don’t worry: I triple promise that this Kale Mac and Cheese – and all of the recipes I share here – are NOT just intended for those on a special diet. They are packed with flavor and designed to appeal to anyone who enjoys deliciousness. In fact, many of the recipes I’ve shared here are already low FODMAP; I just hadn’t previously identified them as such.

Now let’s get to this Mac and Cheese.

[Read more…]

How to Cook Perfect Zucchini

By 2 Comments

Zucchini can be hard to get just right. It often cooks unevenly no matter how evenly you cut it – some pieces will start to get translucent while others are still closer to raw. And it can go from undercooked to overcooked in a matter of minutes; in fact, even if you manage to cook it perfectly, it  has a nasty habit of overcooking itself with residual heat after you take it out of the pan. To be clear, if you know your way around the kitchen at all, you are unlikely to overcook zucchini to the point where it’s unpleasant to consume; however, it’s quite easy for the flesh to end up more translucent than white all the way through, and in my book, that’s just a tad too far.

Why? Because when you hit that perfect zucchini doneness, it’s almost like a different vegetable all together. Tender yet crunchy, with a mild, creamy flavor – it has none of that unpleasant (can I call it squeaky?) texture that zucchini haters always cite when asked how they could dislike such a common vegetable.

So how do you do it? Three simple steps.

[Read more…]

Lemony Chive and Spinach Pesto (Vegan/Dairy-Free Option)

By Leave a Comment

Sometimes you gotta change it up a bit. Basil pesto is great – no argument here. But we’ve now reached the part of summer where it is HOT. And that means I need something a bit zingier – something with more freshness, more brightness. Because I’m sure as hell not going to find that in the swampland that is NYC right now.

Are you with me? Good. You should be. Because this pesto is yumtastic. Or yumtacular. Or whatever your favorite made-up compound superlative conveying deliciousness happens to be. Bright and grassy, it has a complexity of flavor that you don’t often get with a standard pesto, where everything hits you all at once. Taste  a spoonful of this, and your first impression will be fresh, lemony, and zingy – then the flavor will begin to evolve, giving way to something much fuller, richer, and creamier. If you are used to using raw garlic in your pestos, you’ll notice that the sautéed chives lend a flavor that is deeper, subtler, less abrasive, and more complex. Those delicious chives will begin to strut their stuff, and you’ll marvel at how such a small stalk  – when given the proper treatment – can bloom and blossom into a full-on umami symphony.

Or  – since not everyone is as food-obsessed as I am (you guys, I just typed the phrase “umami symphony”), you’ll just be like: “Mmm, this is yummy. I should put it on pasta.”

And indeed you should.

[Read more…]

Wine-Braised Carrots with Butter and Chives

By 4 Comments

This dish may look and sound simple – and as far as preparation goes, it is. But in terms of flavor, it’s anything but.

The first time I made this, I was in a food rut. I wanted to eat – badly – but nothing sounded remotely appealing. Finally, I realized I was craving one specific ingredient, and nothing else was going to cut it. That ingredient? Butter. I wanted that rich, soft, comforting, fatty, full-bodiedness that comes from butter and butter alone. (Red palm oil does come close, but it’s not quite the same.) In any case, once I figured out that my body wanted butter, I was home free (in terms of getting out of my food rut, that is.)

It’s a little-known fact that my favorite vegetable is the carrot – I absolutely love its versatility, sweetness, color, texture – everything. Plus it’s good for your vision and super easy to digest! So of course I found myself with a pound of carrots on my cutting board and a vegetable peeler in my right hand. I was originally planning to just sauté some carrots in butter and call it a day (in which case there would be no blog post for me to write today), but I happened to walk away from my pan shortly after plopping those carrots in, and I didn’t return until several minutes later when I found them a lovely shade of gold and also realized I’d better deglaze the pan before I had a clean-up nightmare on my hands. So I reached for the red wine.

And the rest is history. For when I popped one in my mouth, I realized these were the caviar of carrots – the quotidian transformed into the extravagant. These sumptuous golden nuggets had the complexity of flavor of a slow-braised pheasant stuffed with white truffles foraged from a secret mountainside somewhere in France (if I told you where, I’d have to kill you); drizzled with a sauce made from the roots of a thousand-year-old redwood and herbs from the aforementioned secret mountainside — simmered together by pure sunlight over a period of many months; and finished with a black sea salt only obtained by scraping a deep-sea creature’s tongue. (Okay, maybe not, but they were pretty damn delicious. And probably more delicious than the salt scraped from a deep-sea creature’s tongue, because that actually sounds fairly revolting.)

When I come out of a food rut, I come back hard. I suddenly wanted to eat everything! Well, everything containing these carrots, at least. I’d serve them with herbed quinoa and balsamic lentils, or white-bean croquettes, or…the possibilities were endless.

[Read more…]

Ginger-Turmeric Tonic

By Leave a Comment

The weather these past few days has been so lovely that it was particularly difficult to wake up this morning and realize February is back. Yup, it is cold, grey, and wet. I also woke up with a sore throat, which added insult to injury.

On days like this, I’m really glad I keep fresh ginger and turmeric in the house at all times – a bit of fiery, warming tonic was just what I needed to overcome the gloom, nip the sore throat in the bud, and look ahead to sunny skies and carefree days.

Whether you’ve been overdoing it on sugar and sweets as much as I have lately, or you just need a bit of extra immune support, or you are super duper healthy and feel amazing, I recommend this tonic to you. Ginger and turmeric are both extremely medicinal and can do wonders for your body! Both are anti-inflammatory (turmeric, especially, has an often-cited compound called curcumin that does everything from inhibiting cancer cell growth to relieving pain in people with joint issues), amazing for maintaining overall well-being and health, and great for your digestive system. If you are interested in learning more about the health benefits of turmeric and ginger, I definitely encourage you to do your own research – there are way too many different health benefits to do them all justice in this short post!

Besides doing wonders for your health, I also find this tonic to be incredibly delicious. It’s wonderfully warming and intensely spicy – if you’re the type who always asks for extra ginger in your chai or juice, this drink is for you. You will feel the Bern! (Er…burn. I meant burn. I am not in any way affiliated with Bernie Sanders’ campaign. I will be voting for him, though :p)

I should mention that if you aren’t a fan of ginger or spice, this drink is probably not for you. You may want to return to some green tea, despite its far inferior light green color. (This tonic has the most beautiful dark reddish tint to it!)

[Read more…]

Baked Tempeh Strips

By Leave a Comment

Let me start off by saying that I have never been a tempeh lover. In fact, I’ve pretty much always been a tempeh hater. Give me tofu any day, but tempeh…yuck! No matter how many different ways it was served to me, I  always found it to have a  very strong, pungent (and sometimes bitter) flavor which was offputting, to say the least.

That is, until I discovered the secret to great tempeh: cut it THINLY, cover it with a really flavorful marinade, and roast the hell out of it! It’s simple, easy, and very quick to prepare. You don’t need to let it sit in the marinade, because the flavor bakes into it during the roasting process. You don’t need to simmer it first (a technique we were taught in cooking school that was supposed to get rid of the bitterness – it didn’t). And you don’t need to bread it, or deep fry it, or sing to it, or curse it, or bless it – you just need to cut it thinly, people! There is nothing more revolting (in my humble opinion) than big, thick, scalloped chunks of tempeh. So why is it so often served that way?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do encourage any tempeh skeptics out there to try this method of preparation, if you haven’t yet. These strips are savory, salty, and satisfying. They are great on their own as a high-protein snack, or fantastic on a salad, sandwich, or lettuce wrap. I like to keep them in a ziplock bag in the fridge and munch on them whenever I feel the need for something protein-packed and delicious.

[Read more…]

Blueberry-Blue Corn Pancakes

By Leave a Comment

Waking up Saturday to the insane blizzard outside, I had one thing on my mind: pancakes. Snow days just scream for them! Unfortunately, my trusty cast iron pan (the absolute BEST type of pan to make pancakes in, IMO) had been out of commission for quite some time. It had started to flake, and was in desperate need of reseasoning, a task I of course put on the “To Do This Weekend” list almost every single weekend for a good year but never actually did.

The howling wind and relentless snow outside, however, gave me a new sense of purpose – THIS was the day. After all, pancakes awaited!  I am always a bit obsessive about any task I don’t yet have down to a science (reseasoning cast iron included) so after an hour of internet research that yielded a LOT of contradictory information about oven temp, oil type, face up or face down in the oven, time, etc., I finally just decided – for my own sanity – to follow The Kitchn’s instructions. Unfortunately, I ended up with a sticky cast iron pan – there were tar-like patches (probably from oil drippings) all over its surface! Luckily, after another 30 minutes of research, I found this extremely entertaining (and highly effective) Youtube video, which I more or less followed – minus the beer and cigarettes portion (you’ll understand if you ever happen to have a sticky cast iron issue and decide to watch the video).

Anyway, I hope that was helpful for anyone “in a similar situation,” as Arlo Guthrie would say. The long and short of it is … I finally ended up with a beautiful, non-flaky, non-sticky cast iron pan and a wonderful batch of blueberry-blue corn pancakes! They were perfect for a snowy morning (well…early afternoon at that point) and a lovely way to celebrate the resurgence of my cast iron pan.

[Read more…]