Food and menu planning TO SUIT: ALLERGIES, AVOIDS & VEGANS
Now my aim is to provide a mouthwatering array of healthy and nutritious recipes to create dishes that look and taste terrific, even if kilojoules and fats need to be cut down and all the junk is thrown out! Here are some new ideas for the food industry, taking all the fuss pots and avoids into account. Even people on the blood type diet can enjoy hearty, natural foods that really suit them. Health foods have come to stay, so let’s keep up with this latest growing trend and provide better options for customers who would otherwise have to break their diets or go home frustrated.
THE VERSATILE DRIED YELLOW PEA – A GOLDEN TREASURE!
Suitability: no animal ingredients, wheat & gluten free, suit all blood types. High in protein, low glycaemic index. Wow!
Split yellow peas can be cooked in advance and this pulp can be frozen for months or kept in the fridge for 4 days. It makes the most wonderful soup and can be used to make other soups more hearty and nutritious. For a quick alternative to humus: use yellow pea pulp. It makes a smoother, creamier dip or high protein topping and you can vary it, adding low fat options. It is also wonderful for stuffing into vegetables – like mushrooms, aubergines and green peppers with other tasty bits and pieces.
Yellow pea flour can be used in baking: for pizza and quiche bases, to make crispy crackers and to thicken soups and casseroles. It combines well with rice flour to satisfy wheat and gluten free specifications. There is no need to use wheat flour all the time, just because everyone else does.
ADVANCE PREPARATION:
1 COOKING PEA DHAL. Cook up about ½ kg split yellow peas. They are now available at Fruit & Veg City and from Health Shops and spice shops.
2 days before: soak the peas in water overnight. Drain and rinse.
Do not use salt during cooking or they will not soften. Cover in boiling eater to over 2cm in the pot and boil for about 1 hour on low.
When soft and mushy, remove the pot from the stove and allow to cool. In this form, they can be packed into containers and frozen or kept in the fridge for up to 4 days. When needed, leave out to reach room temperature (or microwave for 1 minute). Add 2 tablespoons of oil, some salt, cumin powder and 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice. Process with a stick blender till creamy. Place in an attractive container in the fridge to firm up before the party. Lovely as a spread or eaten on bread or crackers with the snacks and dips.Using curry powder and chillies is also an option.
Variation: Add a can of drained smoked mussels or oysters to a cup of the dhal.
SHORTBREAD SAVOURY DOUGH .
Suitability: free from: wheat, gluten, sugar, nuts dairy, egg and animal components. It suits all blood types.
This dough can be used for pastry linings for tarts and quiches, for mini pizza bases, for savoury crackers and tortilla strips (used with my black bean soup.)
Ingredients: (yield: 24 x small tarts or tortillas)
200ml rice flour
200ml yellow pea flour
15ml health baking powder ( cream of tartar, potassium bicarbonate & gluten free flour – from Health Connection)
5 ml Himalayan crystal salt
30 ml olive oil
30ml dark sesame oil
200ml boiling water
Making dough to keep:Mix the flour, baking powder and salt with the oil till crumbly, using a fork. Swirl in the hot water and knead into a ball of dough with the fingertips. This is the basic dough that can be kept in the fridge in a plastic bag. It can be rolled into 24 small balls and used as required.It is best used fresh and slightly warm. The dough can also be frozen.
Baking: the tarts and quiches take 15 minutes at 180 deg. C. (best to preheat to 200 deg. C then turn down)
Rolling out tortillas:
Place the dough ball between two sheets of plastic sheeting and rollout to 1-2mm thin x 10cm. Alternatively: squash down with a breadboard till flat and thin. Ideally you would use a tortilla press if you have one.
Peel each disc off the plastic sheet and transfer to another one to keep in fridge or freeze and use as needed.
Baking: place dough discs on a baking sheet and spray with olive oil. They can be cut into thin stripsfor garnishes or into halves and quarters to make tostadas, used in dips. Grill for 5-7 minutes or bake in a very hot oven for 5 mins.
Pizza tarts
Oil a patty pan tray and form each dough ball into a cavity, to make a hollow shell.
They can be baked empty at 180 deg C for 10 minutes and kept till needed. Grill 5 minutes with the filling.
The fillings can be added to the raw shells and baked for 15 minutes at the same temperature.
Pizza filling:
Tomato mixture of onion and sundried tomato dip. Top with grated cheese.
Quiche:
Fill each case with chopped onion combined with any of the following: mushroom, pepper dews,lentil sprouts, pumpkin seeds, grated cheese.
Pour on egg mixture: for 6 usBaking: the tarts and quiches take 15 minutes at 180 deg. C. (best topreheat to 200 deg. C then turn down)
e: 1 beaten egg with 30 ml rice flour and 50 ml milk or water.
BAKING SAVOURY BITES.
These little pastries are a real winner and one of the first items to disappear. They are gluten free, egg free and suitable for all blood types. Make a good load of them and vary the toppings or make them plain. They can be made a day in advance, but are best eaten a few hours after baking, or when warm – especially the cheese and tomato bites.
Preheat oven to 180 deg. C. Mix the dries together:
1 cup yellow pea flour
1 cup rice flour
1 cup millet flour
½ cup whey powder (use milk powder if you don’t have any)
Optional: ½ cup cheddar cheese powder.
½ cup oil
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
1 teaspoon salt with cumin seeds, curry spice or chilli powder or BBQ flavouring to your taste.
½ teaspoon citric acid or vitamin C powder . Or use a tablespoon of lemon juice.
Add 1 cup of finely chopped onion. Variants: add celery, leeks or spinach.
Blend all together and fold in about 2 cups of water or fruit juice till a soft sticky, but light muffin batter is achieved.
Spray the baking sheet and / or small muffin trays. This mixture will make about 24 tiny muffins, and the rest can be spooned onto a flat baking sheet for plain little bites to accompany dips.
For variants: spoon a heaped teaspoon of dough into each muffin cup. Take a teaspoon with a little tomato pasta sauce (Woolies or Ina Paarman) and wham it into a dent into the middle of the dough. Now pop in a small wedge of cheese – about 1 –2 cm long. A pitted olive can also be used, or ½ teaspoon of chopped onion.
Bake near the top of the oven and turn off the active grill element. Bake for 10 minutes. Then grill till they brown on top, watching carefully – for about 1 minute.
BAKING CORN TORTILLAS.
Although corn only agrees with blood type A-secretors, these tortillas or little round cakes are an excellent treat when you want to stray off the blood type diet occasionally. Alternatively, they can be made from a mixture of ½: rice and ½ millet flour – but no, they will never get the Mexican thumbs up!
The yield is: 48 x 7cm tortillas. You can make them bigger, or halve the mixture, but people really snap them up!
A few hours before:
Soak 3 cups of yellow polenta in 3 cups of boiling water . Pour just a little more water over the mixture, so it does not dry out. Cover the bowl.
When the corn has softened after a few hours, preheat the oven to 180 deg. C. spray one or 2 large flat baking sheets. Alternatively, spray sheets of foil that can be shifted onto baking sheets or shelves to cook alternatively.
Add 1.2 teaspoon salt
Add ½ cup fine glutinous rice powder.(Ask around – the Chinese shops have it. And it helps to bind. Or use sago flour or a suitable binding agent. Health Connection makes a lovely rice bread flour mix that can also be used here. )
Mix in ½ cup yellow pea flour – (or rye flour if there is not a gluten or blood type conflict.)
The dough should be quite wet, but must not ooze if spread onto the baking sheet. Spoon out blobs and flatten by spreading till a flat round disc is formed, a few millimetres thick.
Spray olive oil (from a can – now available at Pick ‘n Pay, etc.) over the completed tray with a sprinkle of salt before baking. Bake near the top of the oven for 10 minutes,with active grill turned off.
Then brown under the grill for a few minutes – but watch over them, till you see them turn brown and crispy.
Cool on a wire rack if you want them crispy. For a more bread like soft tortilla, wrap the pile of them in a clean cloth and then in a plastic bag, for a more authentic touch.
Variants:
For crispy nacho’s.leave them to get crispy in the oven, switched off for a few minutes.Cut with scissors into wedges. Use for dips, or spread out onto a plate.Drizzle over some tomato salsa and top with grated cheese. Grill for a few minutes and serve immediately.
They typical Mexican accompaniments to these tortillas are:
Gucacamole – avocado mush with chopped tomatoes and onions.
Toppings of sour cream or use yoghurt.
Grated cheddar cheese or a cheese that suits you.
Bean paste. See how to cook and serve black eyed beans in my other recipes.
Chilli sauce to the temperature you can best tolerate.