The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Chinese-Style Broccoli with Brown Sauce and Crispy Ginger (Soy-Free & Sugar-Free!)

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One of my favorite things about cooking for people with dietary restrictions is developing personalized recipes. This sauce was born a couple years ago, when I used to cook for a client who was soy-free, sugar-free, grain-free, and dairy-free. Some people might conclude that your standard American-style Chinese food was out of the question, since it’s normally loaded with soy and sugar. But I had a feeling that wasn’t the case.

One week, the menu leant itself to an Asian-style glaze. I knew I could replace the soy component and some of the sugar with coconut aminos, which is not only a great soy-sauce substitute but also lends a nice sweetness to marinades and sauces. For the rest of the sugar, I decided to use just a little bit of mandarin orange juice. Next, I added a touch of toasted sesame oil and boiled those three simple ingredients together until…voila…I had a soy-free, sugar-free Asian-style glaze. And I couldn’t stop eating it…

This recipe uses a very similar procedure to yield the brown sauce, but instead of mandarin juice, I’ve used navel oranges. These have a lower sugar content than mandarins, so the glaze takes a bit longer to reduce and becomes more of a sauce (as opposed to a sticky glaze) once you toss it with your broccoli. (By the way, I’ve also chosen to roast the broccoli, which I find is one of the easiest ways to get perfectly cooked, crispy-but-not-oily, lovely little florets!)

Since this dish is so simple (you basically roast some broccoli – easy peasy – boil the three ingredients to make your brown sauce  – even easier – and toss the two components together), I decided you’ll definitely have the time and energy to make some awesome crispy ginger to really take this dish over the top. Believe me, it’s well worth the extra 5 minutes!

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Lapsang Souchong Carrots

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Lapsang Souchong is a deliciously rich and smoky Chinese black tea that is fantastic for both cooking and drinking. Since it’s a black tea, it also carries with it all those lovely black-tea health benefits – antioxidants, heart-healthy compounds, etc. – though, since the tea is smoked over pine leaves, I do find myself wondering whether the antioxidants survive. Tea experts, please chime in! My google searching has proved inconclusive (nobody is talking about this on the internet, apparently) and I’d love to know what affect the smoking process has on a tea’s health benefits.

In any case, I can say with certainty (albeit certainty subjective to my own taste preferences) that the smoking process has a beneficial affect on the taste of this tea. If you’ve never tried it, you really must – I playfully call it the Laphroaig of teas since its smoky, intense, complexity reminds me of a bacony scotch.

This makes it a perfect ingredient for sauces and marinades, as it lends this complexity of flavor to the simplest of dishes. Seriously – you’ll be amazed at how easy these carrots are to prepare. Simply mix a 5-ingredient marinade together, pour it over some carrots, and bake until tender. That’s it! Serve them over your favorite grain with a poached egg or some baked tofu for a simple, delicious meal or leave them as is for a lovely side dish. You really can’t go wrong.

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Spicy Tibetan-Style Potatoes & Spinach

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This dish is great because it’s so versatile. Can it be an stand-out veggie side? You betcha. How about a main dish? Yup – just serve it with your favorite grain, add in some lentils or chickpeas for protein, and maybe a drizzle of yogurt over your bowl of goodness for good measure! It also makes a fantastic stuffing: use it for cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers, inside my buckwheat kati roll wrappers, or as the filling for a fabulous fusion taco. (Add some chopped cilantro and potentially some mild feta, drizzle with yogurt and maybe some mint chutney and you are in taco fusion heaven!) It’s also fantastic for breakfast alongside some eggs. In fact, I really can’t think of a savory-meal situation where it couldn’t play a role!

Yesterday, my husband and I enjoyed this over millet with some Lapsang Souchang tea. And what a wonderful meal it was! As bite after bite of warming, spicy potatoes coated in a flavorful gravy of Indian spices like  turmeric, paprika, coriander, and garam masala hit my palate – along with crispy bits of scallion and serrano –  I was reminded of the potatoes our Tibetan housemate used to make when I was little. Granted, I will not go so far as to say these are “authentically” Tibetan. I’ve never studied Tibetan cooking and I was actually going for North Indian when I put this recipe together. However, they definitely have a Tibetan or Nepalese flair!

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Lime-Roasted Hakurei Turnips with Chimichurri and Smoked Salt

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I guess I haven’t been to the Greenmarket in a while because it’s suddenly changed – the spring produce is out in force! And these hakurei turnips were calling my name.

Have you heard of them? They look like radishes, and in fact – I almost passed them by altogether for this reason (I do love radishes, but they always manage to go bad before I can use them all up!) Then I realized they were about the cutest little turnips I’d ever seen. So I snatched them up.

Whenever I buy full-sized turnips, I always end up roasting them, so that’s what I decided to do. I’ve also recently become obsessed with this Alder smoked salt grinder (Frontier brand) which is the exact same type of smoky as Laphroaig whiskey – in other words, the type I like. (See more about my love-hate relationship with smoky flavors here.)  My original thought was to toss in some fresh-squeezed citrus – preferably orange – but I was out and too lazy to go to the store. Luckily, it’s a pretty quick cognitive leap from whiskey to tequila, which led me to the answer – lime and salt!

Well, I’m happy to say this was a complete home-run. The turnips are so tender you don’t even have to peel them; just wash them and cut them in half, toss them with some olive oil, lime juice, and smoked salt, and roast them for 20 minutes at 425°. The result will amaze you! They were so flavorful I was almost sorry I had made the chimichurri sauce – until I tasted them together, of course :p

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Chestnut Hummus

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Large quantities of chickpeas and garlic (two of my absolute favorite things!) are unfortunately prohibited on the Low FODMAP diet. For me, this meant going through some pretty severe hummus withdrawal.

Incredibly, I created a pretty darn good hummus substitute completely by accident, one lazy evening when I wanted pizza but had absolutely nothing in the way of typical sauce fixings. There were no tomatoes, no pesto-making herbs, and no olives for a tapenade. To make matters worse, the crust I had thrown together definitely did not lend itself to a white-pizza set-up, especially since I didn’t have any cheese. As I often do in these situations, I pulled out a blender and started throwing some random stuff inside, in the hopes I could come up with something spreadable and yummy. Lentils went in, then chestnuts, then some herbes de provence, olive oil, and spices. When I tasted the concoction, I was elated. It was a complete failure in terms of being a pizza sauce,  but it tasted remarkably similar to hummus!

After dancing around the kitchen for a good half hour rejoicing over having hummus back in my life again, I had one of the worst pizzas of my life for dinner (the absence of both cheese and sauce proved devastating) and promptly abandoned it in favor of some chips and chestnut “hummus.” Back to dancing – I could eat this stuff all day!

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Grilled Polenta with Tomatillos, Cilantro, and Feta

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What could be better than a fresh, spicy medley of feta, jalapeño, and tomatillo mounded on top of a slightly smoky grilled polenta disc with plenty of cilantro and freshly squeezed lime to boot? You got me. Actually, a bottomless supply of these perfect little bites, available for your eating pleasure on Cinco de Mayo – now that might take the cake.

Sadly, these polenta bites don’t come out of a fairytale (unlike this eggplant) so they won’t automatically replenish themselves; hence, making a bottomless supply would be pretty difficult. You can, however, make a finite supply (and trust me – these go fast, so their finiteness will be painfully obvious) for Cinco de Mayo, which is coming up this Friday! All you need to do is follow this recipe.

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Parsnip Mash

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Passover is coming up and I know one dish that will be on my table this year: parsnip mash. Have you ever made it? If not, you are definitely missing out!

Parsnip mash is quite similar to mashed potatoes, but much less fussy. The parsnip has a lovely sweetness that adds to the comfort-food factor and lends itself beautifully to fresh herbs like the rosemary and chives in this recipe. Parsnips also have a unique consistency that (if you follow the directions below) yields the loveliest of mashes:  as you dig into billows of light, fluffy,  pillowy goodness, you’ll be left wondering why potatoes still have a monopoly here.

In fact, they really shouldn’t. Here are three reasons why parsnips are actually a better fit for the infamous mash:

1. You can use your food processor. 

If you tried to make mashed potatoes in a food processor, you’d end up with a gluey, starchy, heavy mess. Not so with parsnips! Processing, in contrast, yields a mash that is  light, airy, and fluffy. No gluiness or starchiness at all.

2. Parsnip mash reheats beautifully.

Ever tried to reheat mashed potatoes the next day and failed miserably? They are a finicky food to reheat and tend to become grainy or otherwise unappealing after refrigeration. This parsnip mash, in contrast, can easily be reheated on the stovetop. You don’t even have to add liquid; just stir until hot!

3. You don’t need to add copious amounts of fat and liquid to get it right.

Mashed potatoes are not mashed potatoes without the addition of lots of butter or oil and a liquid like cream, non-dairy milk, or vegetable broth. You also have to add the fat before the liquid if you don’t want to end up with a grainy texture. All you need with this parsnip mash – though it might taste like it has a ton of butter in it – is a bit of olive oil and a little bit of the water the parsnips were cooked in. Nothing else!

Did I convince you? If so, let’s get to the recipe!

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Simple Citrus-Roasted Fennel

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We’ve been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster weather-wise lately, at least in New York City. Beautiful, warm days followed by raw, biting cold. If your moods are severely impacted by weather (as mine are), it can be hard to stay uplifted when the temperature plunges and the wind picks up.

But there is a mood lifter – food. Rejoice in the fact that you can leave your oven on for 45 minutes, which in the warmer months feels at best irresponsible (if you have AC) and at worst like death (if you don’t). Embrace hearty, umami-laden foods like fennel and let your senses feast on bright, vibrant citrus (winter’s best candy). You’ll be feeling better in no time.

This dish is extremely simple but tastes quite complex. Sliced fennel is drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper; then covered with orange slices. The fennel becomes tender and meaty when left in the oven and is made even more delicious with the addition of a citrus-glaze which takes almost no time at all to prepare and which really takes this dish to the next level. (Once you make this glaze, I guarantee you’ll want to use it on other veggies too!) When everything comes out of the oven, you’ll be ready to emerge from your pile of blankets, no matter how cold it is outside.

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Coconut-Peanut Collards with Fried Plantains

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Collard greens are one of my absolute favorite vegetables. They do take a bit of work to prepare properly (blanching is a must, IMO) but when you do so, they have a wonderful, sweet flavor that lends itself to all sorts of spice mixes and dishes.

If you’ve ever had Ethiopian food, you’ve probably had collards sautéed with copious amounts of garlic and ginger (delicious). They are also great with cumin, cayenne, paprika — all the strong, bold spices. After they’ve been spiced like there’s no tomorrow, I like to throw in a sweet vegetable or two like carrot or sweet potato. But most importantly, they are amazing with creamy, zesty, coconut-peanut sauces like this one.

This dish is uber satisfying: warming, nourishing, and flavor-packed. The creamy, nuttiness of the collards combined with the sweet, crisp, and wonderfully starchy fried plantains is divine. It can easily be an entree or a side – if you want to make it a heartier entree, throw in some chickpeas and/or serve it with your favorite grain (though I think the plantains provide the perfect grain-free starch element). Finally, it fits the bill for all kinds of diets: gluten-free, vegan, grain-free, and Low FODMAP. If you wanted to make it Paleo, I’m pretty sure you could just use almond butter in place of peanut and you’d be all set. Yay for deliciousness that almost everyone can eat!

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Cornmeal-Crusted Parsnips with Jalapeño-Feta Dip

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Uh-oh: it’s eating season again. We had January to recover from the Thanksgiving and winter-holiday pile of sweets and treats that followed us everywhere, but tomorrow is February 1st and detox time (if you managed to squeeze any in) is over already. The Super Bowl is this weekend, then Valentine’s Day, and then we’ve got St. Patty’s pretty soon after that.

Not that eating season is anything to complain about. We are lucky enough to live in a society where significant events (even those involving sports) are marked by food, which sure makes the Super Bowl more palatable for those of us who still haven’t managed to grasp the rules of football (1st down, 2nd down is referring to the number of chips I’m eating, right?) Just kidding …

In all seriousness, I wanted to share this Super Bowl recipe with you because it manages to feel like junk food while actually being pretty good for you. (Provided you don’t binge on the spicy jalapeño-feta dip, which could be a tall order, actually :p) But let’s focus on the parsnips, which feature a range of vitamins and minerals like folate, potassium, and vitamin C. They also have about 3 grams of dietary fiber (mostly soluble) per 1/2 cup cooked serving. Best part: when they are baked, they become wonderfully sweet and starchy, which makes covering them in a crunchy, savory cornmeal crust and dunking them in a spicy jalapeño-feta dip all the more satisfying. And there’s no deep-frying required to get that lovely golden color.

So are you ready? Let’s do this!

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