Within a month of going gluten-free, she reveled in how much her body improved because of the food she ate–and she decided to document it through writing and photography.
Being able to eat again…made me see. Food is so beautiful. The vivid oranges of baby carrots, the fuzzy hair on a soft peach, the little white rings on red quinoa in a skillet, the crumbling flakes of dark chocolate on a cutting boardeverything attracted my eye, Ahern wrote on her blog.
Around a year later she met her future husband, Danielthe chef. They began creating recipes together, which inspired Ahern to write her first book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back , followed by multiple cookbooks with her husband. The latest is Gluten-Free Girl: American Classics Reinvented .
The pair have made names for themselves with ingenious, delicious substitutes and alternatives that not only work well for gluten-free eaters, but vegetarians and vegans.
Still, their Thanksgiving sides like cranberry chutney, wild rice salad with chanterelles, sour cherries and cashew sour cream, and curried sweet potato au gratin can please any guest.
Cranberry Chutney
Ingredients
2 large navel oranges, zested and juiced cup sugar Cinnamon stick 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced 1 large Bartlett pear, peeled, cored, and diced teaspoon grated nutmeg 6 cups cranberries (fresh are best but frozen are fine)
Instructions
Set a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour in the orange juice and sugar. Cook, stirring frequently, until the juice comes to a boil and the sugar dissolves.
Add the cinnamon stick, apple, pear, nutmeg, and cranberries to the sugary orange juice. Reduce the heat to low and let the mixture simmer, stirring pretty frequently. (Remember that the sugar means you might burn the chutney. No good.) About 10 minutes in, the cranberries will start to pop and release their juices. (Call the kids over. This parts cool.) Keep stirring, but a little less frequently now. About 30 minutes in, all the cranberries will have popped and the juiced started to reduce.
Turn off the heat. Add the orange zest. Stir it all together.
Pour the hot chutney into a large, wide bowl or sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Let it cool completely. Put it in an airtight container, ready for the big day.
Feeds 8.
Wild Rice Salad with Chantrelles, Sour Cherries, and Cashew Sour Cream
Wild Rice Salad
Ingredients:
2 cups wild rice 1 teaspoon kosher salt 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups chanterelles 4 tablespoons fine-diced shallots 1/2 cup dried sour cherries 4 teaspoons fine-diced tarragon 1 cup toasted cashews
Instructions:
Cooking the wild rice: Put the wild rice into a large saucepan and cover with 6 cups hot water. Add the salt and stir. Set the pan over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat until the water stays at a medium-hard boil. Cook the rice, watching to make sure the water does not evaporate, until the rice is tender to the teeth, about 20 minutes. (You can also reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly, about 45 to 50 minutes.) Drain and set aside.
Sauting the salad. Set a large saut pan over high heat. Let the pan grow really hot. Add the oil.
When it swirls in the pan, toss in the chanterelles and cook, stirring, for a few moments. Add the shallots and cook them both, stirring. Toss in the tarragon and cook until it releases its fragrance, about 2 minutes. Add the cherries and toasted cashews. Cook for a moment, stirring. Add the wild rice and cook until it is heated.
Serve the salad warm with cashew sour cream (recipe below)
Cashew Sour Cream
Ingredients:
1 cups raw cashews teaspoon salt 2 ounces fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon) about cup water
Instructions:
Cover the cashews with water and let them soak overnight.
In the morning, drain the water from the softened cashews. Put them into a food processor, along with the salt and lemon juice. (We liked this lemony. If you want to mask the taste more, use less lemon juice.) Twirl it all up, pouring in the fresh water until the cream has reached your desired consistency. Refrigerate it for a few hours to let it thicken even more.
Curried Sweet Potato Gratin
2 tablespoons Madras curry powder teaspoon ground turmeric 1 bay leaf 2 cloves garlic bunch fresh fine-chopped cilantro 4 large sweet potatoes 2 egg whites 2 cups Parmesan cup toasted almond pieces
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a 3-quart casserole pan.
Bring the cream, curry powder, turmeric, bay leaf, and garlic to boil in a small saucepan. Set aside and let the flavors steep for hour.
Strain the bay leaf and garlic from the cream. Add the cilantro into the cream.
Peel the sweet potatoes. Slice them -inch thick.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Toss the sweet potatoes into the egg whites, along with the salt and pepper, and mix.
Put a layer of the sweet potatoes in the casserole pan. Sprinkle the layer with Parmesan cheese.
Repeat until you are out of potatoes.
Pour the flavored cream over the potatoes until it is all gone and evenly distributed.
Finish the casserole with the remaining Parmesan cheese and the almonds.
Cover the dish with tin foil.
Bake in the oven until the casserole is golden brown and bubbly, about 30 to 45 minutes.
Serve hot.
Feeds 8 to 10.
Gluten Free Girl and the Chef also offers a vegan version of this dish:
Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil 1/2 cup Ahern All-Purpose flour mix 4 cups soy milk 2 tablespoons Madras curry powder teaspoon ground turmeric 1 bay leaf 2 cloves garlic bunch fresh fine-chopped cilantro 4 large sweet potatoes cup toasted almond pieces 1 teaspoon kosher salt and cracked black pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375. Oil a 3-quart casserole pan.
Heat the canola oil in a saut pan over medium-high heat. Pour in the flour mix and stir vigorously until the flour forms a ball. Cook until you have a thick paste, which is called a roux, about another 2 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and set it on the back burner.
Set a saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour in the soy milk. Add the curry powder, turmeric, bay leaf, and garlic to the soy milk. Once the milk has turned hot and begins to boil lightly, add a bit of the roux (about 2 tablespoons) at a time. Whisk the roux into the milk and let the milk simmer for a few minutes.
Repeat this process, 2 tablespoons at a time, until you have reached your desired consistency. (We used all the roux to create a sauce with the consistency of thick, heavy cream.) You just made a vegan Bchamel.
Strain the Bchamel of the bay leaf and garlic. Add the cilantro.
Peel the sweet potatoes. Slice them -inch thick. Layer the sweet potatoes in the casserole pan until you have used all the slices. Pour the Bchamel over the sweet potato slices. Toss the sweet potatoes with a spoon to make sure the Bchamel is coating all the sweet potato slices.
Finish the casserole with the almonds.
Cover the dish with tin foil.
Bake in the oven until the casserole is golden brown and bubbly, about 30 to 45 minutes.
Serve hot.
Feeds 8 to 10.
Big Girls Small Kitchen
Big Girls Small Kitchen earned accolades for tackling a problem nearly all young urbanites with a cooking addiction face: How does one create culinary meals in an itty-bitty apartment kitchen?
Billing itself as a guide to quarter-life cooking, Big Girls Small Kitchen began as the brainchild of friends Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine in 2008 as they navigated post-college life in New York City.
They released In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes From Our Year of Cooking in the Real World in 2011.
Today, Eisenpress manages the site on her own while also working as a food journalist. Big Girls Small Kitchen offers recipes for confined cooking of every type, but we especially love its recipe for a day-after Thanksgiving brunch.
If eating pumpkin pie for breakfast is too crass for you (not that it should be), try pumpkin pancakes with honey-nutmeg better.
Pumpkin Pancakes with Honey-Nutmeg Butter
1 tablespoon baking powder teaspoon salt teaspoon cinnamon teaspoon nutmeg 2 tablespoons brown sugar cup pumpkin puree 1 egg 1 cup milk teaspoon vanilla
Instructions:
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
In a separate small bowl, combine the pumpkin and the egg and whisk to combine. Add the milk, vanilla, and cooled melted butter, and whisk again to make a smooth mixture.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and fold until they are only just combineda few lumps remaining are fine.
Heat a cast iron skillet or frying pan over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Using about cup of batter for each, cook the pancakes until golden brown, flipping once, about 2-3 minutes per side.
Remove to a plate and serve immediately with Honey-Nutmeg Butter (recipe below) and maple syrup.
Serves 2.
Honey-Nutmeg Butter Makes cup
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened 2 tablespoons honey teaspoon nutmeg pinch of cinnamon pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
Instructions:
Cream the butter with the honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon until slightly fluffy and even. Scrape into a small bowl and refrigerate until about 30 minutes before youre ready to use. Then, let it soften slightly.
Not only does Kitchen Konfidence show you how to create a Thanksgiving feast, it provides delectable recipes for recycling your leftovers.
Put your sides to good use and fuel up for Black Friday shopping with a post-Thanksgiving brunch dish, like Stuffing Baked Eggs.
Stuffing Baked Eggs
Ingredients:
Non-stick cooking spray About 4 cups leftover stuffing Chicken stock, if stuffing is on the dry side 6 eggs Freshly grated Parmesan cheese Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper Chopped parsley
For the instructions for this recipe, check out the rest of the steps at Kitchen Konfidence .