Karina's Irish Beef Stew

Beef Stew. Who knew?

This recipe is a surprise- even to me. Beef stew? You wouldn't expect a life-long Vegetarian Goddess to create and fall in love with an Irish beef stew recipe, but that is precisely what happened this weekend. 

Shocking? 

Tell me about it.

Just when you think you've got your life all figured out, and your tastes and preferences arranged in a tidy packet of self-identification and veggie piety- all Hades breaks loose. Celiac. Food allergies. Broken hip.

Suddenly, your food-world view is quite literally flipped on its leafy little head.

So, after my orthopedic surgeon's instructions to "eat lots of animal protein" to support the healing of my hip fracture, my husband and I decided to try our collective hands at making our very first Irish beef stew together.

The first beef stew of our marriage.

And what did I do as I spooned the first taste into my hesitant, quivering lips? Gentle Reader, I swooned like a virgin in a bodice ripper. I sighed. I grew faint with pleasure. I slurped. Oh my! I murmured through one spoonful after another. Wow, said my partner in crime. This is mighty damn tasty.

You could have knocked us over with a feather.

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Karina's Roasted Hatch Chile Stew

Karina's Santa Fe Inspired Stew

If you are lucky enough to live in enchanted New Mexico (as we were- a few years back), chances are you worship at the Sacred Temple of the Holy Chile Pepper. During the all-too-short chile harvest season you can smell the intoxicating smoky-sweet scent of roasting chiles everywhere you go. Teasing. Tantalizing. Infusing your daydreams with green chile fantasies.

The devotion to roasted chile runs deep in these parts and yes, it's with an e never with an i; if you call chile chili in these parts you may as well kiss your white bread tuchas good-bye, pendajo, because you'll be laughed out of the state. Shunned. Scorned. These folks get very serious about their autumn roasted chile. Don't mess with 'em. It's harvest time.

If you're up to roasting your own chiles, you can do it on the grill or even over an open flame like Elise does at Simply Recipes; here's her How to Roast Chile Peppers Over a Gas Flame. After roasting, cool and peel; then stem, seed and chop.

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Mulligatawny Detox Soup - Karina Style

Need to detox for the New Year? Make some mulligatawny soup.

Soup to the Rescue

Did you over indulge (just a little)? Are you craving something fresh and light and nourishing? Or simply feeling a tad under the weather with the mid-January blues? Don't worry, Darling. I've got a body and soul soothing cure.

Mulligatawny detox soup.

It's chock full of antioxidant vegetable goodness with detoxing spices to boot. Cook it on the stove top or in a Crock Pot and let it simmer for the afternoon, filling your kitchen with a comforting aroma that feels like one big hug.

Mulligatawny is one of my all-time favorite soup recipes. But this version is not the traditional mulligatawny recipe with chicken. Nope. It's meat-free and dairy-free, gluten-free and sugar-free. The spices help promote detoxing and healing.

But best of all? You won't feel deprived doing what's good for your body. This mulligatawny is a mouth crush of flavors sweet and savory, creamy, spicy and tangy- all at once. A gluten-free diet never tasted so good.


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Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Stew with Sausage

Stirring the Pot

Here's a bright and delicious slow cooker stew recipe with sausages - and it's tasty using any sausage you choose, from free-range roaming buffalo to furry-friendly vegan. Scrumptious. Seriously. Make it for the Big Game. You know, the one with a pigskin ball and helmeted men in shiny tights. Throw all the ingredients in a Crock Pot and go root for your favorite tight end. Make a hot artichoke dip and grab some gluten-free chips. Game on.

Go Cubs!

Okay I confess. I'm not watching the game. Game fever is something utterly, totally beyond me. Apparently I lack a few mirror neurons. Sports? Yawn. I dare you to make me comprehend football. Go ahead. Try. Many have tread that tortuous path and failed, my friend. Great minds have worked tirelessly to convey the rules, to communicate the strategy. The triumph. The back field in motion and the blitz.

But what they don't realize? Deep down inside my private tiny girl heart- my neurons don't CARE. They really don't. And I know you think that if only I let you explain The Game to me I would finally, miraculously, ecstatically get it! And paint my face red and blue, but. It's never going to happen. 

It's a non-conforming neuron issue.

So, the Patriots? Are they the soccer team Mel Gibson coaches? 

Excuse me while I alphabetize my spice rack.

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Carrot Soup with Pan Toasted Croutons

Easy carrot soup topped with cornbread croutons.

Vegan Comfort in a Bowl

What I love about slow cookers? The obvious. It's a no-brainer. (Such an odd expression. I mean, if I had no brain would I care about soup?) Wait. Are zombies no-brainers? If so, I can relate. Totally. I've been feeling zombie-ish again, assaulted by the second wave of pollinating hostile trees here in my hip little hamlet of Santa Monica by the sea. Excuse me while I honk.

The dreaded oak. My nemesis.

In spite of hopeful neti pot usage I am brainless once again. Shambling. Screwing up paintings. Too tipsy for kettle-bells (I visualize my zombie-pitiful grip during a swing, letting the kettlebell fly out my fifth floor apartment window like a missile and knocking out some poor soul in the street below; if you read about a kettle-bell incident in the news, I swear I'm innocent).

And craving comfort food in a big way.

That is, easy comfort food. Not complicated comfort food. Who wants to stand at a stove right before dinnertime, chopping and stirring and simmering, when you can chop and toss in the morning and let a Crockpot do the work for you? Zip. Boom. Bonjour! The slow cooker must have been invented by a woman, right? Or maybe a zombie who had better things to do than sauté.

Free time. It's a gift.

Ask any zombie.

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Gluten-Free Turkey Soup Recipe

An easy, homemade turkey soup simmered in a Crock Pot. 

A Cure to Slurp

A certain soup slurping and prickly individual (we won't name names, to protect the innocent) has been feeling under the weather for so long now the sensation is in danger of becoming a habit. Yes, the tree pollen onslaught continues. Blessed by a wet winter, Southern California trees are celebrating with copious amounts of pollen, and who can blame them? 

Hence, your intrepid gluten-free goddess has been up to no good, stumbling and mumbling around her freshly painted apartment in a Snuffleupagus stupor, thick-nosed and unable to string two coherent sentences together, never mind invent a new recipe for her lovely and devoted readers (that would be, You). Ears and sinuses filled with unspeakable things do not a creative, exhuberant cook make.

This is when a Slow Cooker can save your life.

And, yes. A Neti Pot, too [this borderline woo-woo apparatus once scared the delicate Princess and the Pea pants off me, I admit; but now we are well acquainted and are certain to be BFFL. I mean, when you can conjure instant relief without expensive (and apparently short term memory killing) antihistamines, you gotta give it a go, right?].

So here's what I have been living on- in between setting up a studio and getting up close and personal with my new pal, Neti. A simple homemade turkey soup that is chock full of garlic and cozy, soothing vegetables to ease the transition from winter into spring. May it bring you some relief if  and when your own local deciduous fellows get a wee bit rambunctious with their annual pollen fest.

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Gluten-Free Chili - Our Favorite Recipe

Our favorite gluten-free chili- hearty winter comfort.

 
FADE IN:

INT. 5TH FLOOR APARTMENT - DAY


A chilly winter light slices into a SANTA MONICA apartment and illuminates every cobweb. (Obviously, a certain individual has been neglecting house work again). Said individual sighs audibly. Glances sideways into the mirror hanging above the kitchen sink cluttered with coffee spoons, grilled cornbread crumbs and half-filled tea mugs. She could never pass for Martha Stewart. Not in a million years. 

DISHEVELED GLUTEN-FREE GODDESS

Good gravy. Look at all the dust balls. 

STEVE (HUSBAND)

So what. What's a dust bunny or two? 

(glancing up from his laptop)

I’ll vacuum later. Or next Tuesday.

DISHEVELED GLUTEN-FREE GODDESS

My hero.


(dragging out the Crock Pot from under the sink)

This calls for chili.

FADE TO BLACK

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Big Easy Chili with Andouille

Big Easy chili with beans and spicy sausage.

Big Easy Chili

I'm back from our jaunt to Los Angeles- an impromptu trip that was over far too quickly (where does time fly to, by the way? They say time flies but I always want to know, where?). I have a handful of juicy details to report, and I will, in an upcoming post, but today is apparently sort of a big deal. There's some sort of super ball game goin' on? And rumor has it, today's a big chili day.

So I am reprising my Big Easy chili recipe with Andouille sausage.

And me?

I'll be doing laundry. Lots of laundry.

About the recipe... I made this recipe in the Crock Pot- which makes it perfect for a party or an informal get-together- but you could also toss it all in a heavy soup pot, cover and simmer for a hour (you know, to let all the sexy spices and flavors co-mingle). 

Then pass out the spoons and banana cornbread.

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Karina's New Mexican Stew with Ground Turkey + Green Chiles

Dust off the slow cooker.

Looking for a simple but truly fabulous slow cooker stew recipe to warm you up? Here is one my all time faves. A New Mexican style stew with budget-friendly ground turkey spiked with roasted green chiles, lime, and cilantro. Butternut squash and potatoes round out the spicier flavors. Make it as mild or as spicy as your taste buds prefer. It's perfect comfort food for any time of year. We serve it with my favorite gluten-free corn muffin recipe.

Need more slow cooker inspiration? Check out the tasty gluten-free cookbook Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by fellow food blogger Stephanie O'Dea.


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African Peanut + Sweet Potato Soup

FLAVOR!

Happy New Year, Gentle Reader. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. And it's time for a black-eyed pea recipe. One of my favorites, with African inspired flavors. Serving black-eyed peas and beans at the start of a freshly birthed year is serious good mojo in some circles.

At least that's what they tell me.

Why eating a plate of legumes on New Year's Day brings luck I've no idea, but someone somewhere decided these humble little nuggets of vegan protein were a good and fortunate culinary choice. So why not?

Rather than rummage through cookbooks searching for Southern Hoppin' John recipes or Italian white bean escarole stews I turned instead to the sun drenched flavors of West and North Africa and reprised a stew that is spicy and hearty and peanutty. If you cannot use peanut butter try sunflower seed butter. It is no less fabulous.

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Karina's Cranberry Pot Roast Stew

Warm Your Body (& Celiac Soul)

What could be more comforting as we face the chilly New Year than a slow roasted one-dish supper? Not to mention, easier. Especially after all the hustle and bustle of last week's holiday celebrations. All the sugar. And latkes. And eggnog. And hoopla. I'm exhausted just imagining it. So I'll stop. And share a recipe instead- a tasty little number I tossed together in my trusty Crock Pot over the weekend- a cranberry laced pot roast stew that cooked its sweet 'n savory heart out while I walked in snowy woods.

So, Happy Monday, Dear Heart. It's a brand new week. And I offer up this warming flavorful stew to help you recover from holiday stress and travel and whatever kind of wacky, weird or wonderful family stuff you dealt with over the big collective craziness we call Christmas.

Take a deep breath. 

Slide on your toasty new slippers.

And slow cook a bowl of spoon-licking winter goodness.

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Moroccan Coconut & Chick Pea Soup

A delicious gluten-free soup with Moroccan flavors

The Best Exotic Soup Recipe- Evah?

On a whim I threw together this North African inspired fusion of flavors led by cravings and intuition. We slurped it down and scraped our bowls. Turns out that sweet potatoes, chick peas, roasted green chiles and coconut milk make for one scrumptious soup. I think you'll love it.

Dairy-free never tasted so good.

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Roasted Corn Chowder with Lime

View toward Abiquiu, New Mexico.

Roasted Corn Chowder with Lime

A young rattlesnake curled on a flat warm stone by the laundry room door yesterday. So easy to miss, I almost walked right by him as I carried a basket of rolled clean socks and sleeve-tucked tee shirts. He was next to invisible, pristine and silent, his distinctive pattern dovetailed into pinon-filtered sunlight.

It was pure animal instinct to turn my gaze left and spot him. One sharpened second out of my usual preoccupied saunter. I backed away and sprinted (with a moment of rare agility) into the casita to fetch Steve.

I think you should see this! I blurted, interrupting his work at the laptop. My husband didn't hesitate. He's found the Save key before I can deposit my dryer warmed cargo on the bed. He knows the desert gives up unexpected gifts. He doesn't want to miss a trick.

We stared in tandem at the tiny threat for three minutes until the youngster uncurled and nosed himself back into the rock embankment.

After all the excitement, I settled in with a mug of tea and searched through blogs, looking for some indefinable solace or connection. One moment of relief from my isolation. Looking for others navigating the serpentine process named the incomprehensible name of peri-menopause.

What I found instead was one veiled advertisement after another. Chatter about soy and phyto-estrogen creams. Herbal remedies promising relief. A litany of symptoms and wallet emptying cures.

But no wild wisdom.

The perky Remember, it’s natural! doesn’t help me much through this intricate, sweaty mess, Darling. It does nothing to quell my dizzying, racing heart. We seem a generation without much guidance in these feminine arts beyond denial. We really have no ample bosomed baudy comfort. No grinning painted shaman. At least I don't. Every woman before me in my extended family had hysterectomies. Cutting out the sickened uterus. Circumventing hysteria (the root word and meta implication after all). Then came the HRT they swallowed with promises of eternal youth conquering the cruelty of Nature via horse urine.

When I was new in this process, oh yeah. I tried the yam creams. The vitamin E. The herbal teas. The yoga poses. After awhile you begin to weigh the cost and benefit of all this focused energy. You get tired of fighting. Fighting It. Cajoling It. It's exhausting, and I exhausted and bored myself with all the research and reading. What I spent on menopause books and yam cream could have bought several cases of organic dark chocolate.

Twelve years into it now, I just feel ridiculous.

How many hot flashes does it take? How many sweaty necks and palms and damp upper lips- as you stand in the bank lobby listening to a mortgage broker discuss the local art scene (and it is all you can do not to claw your way to the door)? How many sleepless two A.M.'s, lying in the dark listening to your husband's even breathing? How many bumps of acne, and broom hair that pulls out in fragile nests when you brush it, standing in front of the mirror noticing, with a startle, there is a stranger looking back?

A creature other than yourself. Some tired woman with an eggshell smile. Longing to feel engaged. Ravished.

Visible.

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Pork Roast with Mushrooms and Brown Sugar Apricot-Pomegranate Sauce

Slow cooker pork roast with apricot jam.

My first pork roast recipe- ever. And it's a home run. I apologize for the sports metaphor but I've been sitting at my desk for an hour. And not a single sentence has been birthed. Even after one hot mother of a mug of coffee (and a decaf peppermint green tea that really doesn't count because, well, it's tea), I'm still in a post Sunday fog today, basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent with friends. We ate and drank our way through six hours of non-stop conversation. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. And I'm more than a little tempted to wax poetic about friendship and how we choose our true family and what a head banging blue-in-the-face relief it is to sit at a table with soulful people who wrestle with big questions and hunger for authenticity and integrity while also making you laugh out loud without covering your teeth and feel proud of your mayo-free potato salad.

But I won't. I'll tell you about my first pork roast instead.

I'll say it up front. It took decades to get me here- to ease into a place in my life where I might actually, finally, consider buying a hunk of pork and roasting it. I started off slowly, slyly, trying turkey bacon ten years ago. Then I graduated to the real deal roughly six years ago. Organic Sunday smoked bacon. Nitrate-free, of course. And when my body did not protest and the world as I knew it did not go up in a hellish ball of blistering flames, I decided to move on to the hard stuff. I was ready.

It was finally time to roast a pork loin. And Dear Reader- was I intimidated. You know it. In fact yours truly was almost quaking in her Rocket Dogs. Well, maybe not quaking. More like, shivery-nervous. So I decided two things.

First- that I would use my trusty slow cooker. Simple. Familiar. Not too much to screw up. Second- that I would make a sauce with pomegranate juice and a jar of apricot jam. It just seemed like a good fit.

And guess what? Tender, juicy, tangy-sweet deliciousness ensued.

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Purple Cabbage & Sunbutter Soup

Alex in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

The visit with Alex and his girlfriend was thick with conversation, food for the eyes, and dreams for the soul. As always, in the wake of my son's absence I am struck dumb by the restless silence of the desert, finding it difficult to steady my post-maternal footing. It's not the letting go thing. Letting go of your children is the easy part. Their beauty is astonishing and too big to keep for yourself. You miss them, yes.

But the space between you is precious, too.

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Potato Soup for the Sensitive Soul

Potato Soup to the Rescue

When I want a recipe for comfort food I reach for potatoes first. And when I need a soup recipe in a hurry, this creamy potato comfort always hits the spot.

Decades ago (yes, decades- how scary is that?) while I was still in art school, living in my boxy white washed one-bedroom off Dupont Circle, I would make potato soup in a blender (no crankin' Cuisinart or snappy immersion wands back then) and serve it chilled in Asian blue and white bowls (Pier One Imports, 99 cents apiece) with a sprinkle of bright green chives. Art student friends would scrape their bowls clean and ask for more. And I would gladly oblige. (They were easily impressed, because they were, well, not exactly starving, but used to living on instant ramen noodles, pizza and beer.)

The thing is- what's not to love about potatoes and butter and cream? How can you go wrong? In fact, when you can cook with butter and cream, you're bound to stumble upon something that tastes pretty darn good. Notice I'm not mentioning gluten. That's only because there's no gluten in this potato soup (I never thickened mine with flour). And then, Dear Reader, there's cheese. If you can cook with cheese, you can kick up any recipe's taste without breaking a sweat.

But what if you can't? Cook with butter, cream and cheese, that is.

Welcome to the world of those of us living not only gluten-free, but dairy-free. Call us GF/CF if you like (for gluten-free/casein-free). The truth is- 50% of celiacs are allergic to milk proteins. Did you know that? Half of celiacs need to be not only gluten-free, but casein-free as well. [This is not a lactose issue; this an immune response issue; if you react to dairy, don't assume it's a lactose problem, get a food allergy blood test.]

Many additional sensitive souls (celiac or not) react neurologically to the proteins in gluten and dairy- proteins that have an addictive, opioid effect on the brain chemistry of those of us who may not be exactly neurotypical. (I, for one, have noticed a positive change in my overall sense of well being since going dairy-free last June; after living gluten-free for over five years, going GF/CF nudged me to a deeper level of healing and managing my usual ups and downs in mood, energy and focus.)

Which brings me back to soup.

How can I recreate my favorite potato soup without butter and cream?

With some New Mexican inspired flavors, of course.

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Gluten-Free Soup, Stew and Chili Recipes

Our Favorite

Gluten-Free Soup, Stew and Chili Recipes

Here is a collection of my favorite gluten-free soups, stews and chili recipes here on Gluten-Free Goddess®. Warm up body and soul with one of these hearty slurp-worthy bowls of comfort. There's nothing like soup. And from a can doesn't count.

Many of these favorites are made in a slow cooker for easy, year round cooking.

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Butternut Chili Spicy 'n Sweet

Sweet 'n Spicy Chili in a Bowl

New Year's Day is almost upon us. Rather than wax nostalgic and dreamy about the bumpy (and enlightening) year I've had, I'd rather post a simple recipe I know you'll love. Making a pot of bean soup or chili to welcome in a freshly minted year is a tradition as old as the hills. From Italian Pasta Fagioli to homestyle southern Hoppin' John, beans somehow acquired the favorable reputation of attracting good luck.

Why? I haven't a clue.

But I do know this. Beans paired with cubes of winter squash make for one sweet and tasty chili.

That, Dear Reader, you can take to the bank.

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Crock Pot Curry with Coconut Milk

A delicious slow cooked curry simmered in the Crock Pot

Easy Does It - Curry Style

Certain individuals at Casa Allrich use their Crock Pot year round. Yes, even in the summer. It keeps the kitchen cool and uses no more energy than a humble light bulb. So when you crave a creamy spicy curry stirred with coconut milk and don't feel like sweating over a hot stove when the Kokopelli thermometer hanging under the portal reads 98 degrees F in the shade, consider the old school slow cooker. 

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Fresh Vegetable Soup with Lime

Here's an easy fresh vegetable soup recipe you'll love.

It's still soup weather here in northern New Mexico, so certain individuals lugged out their Crock Pot this week and pondered the gentle, slow art of vegetarian potage. This new soup recipe is fresh tasting and full of flavor, kicked up with spicy green chiles a generous squeeze of lime.

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