Hot Artichoke Dip Recipe - Gluten-Free + Vegan

This hot artichoke dip is worthy of a party. Gluten-free and vegan.

Party Worthy Dip

I wasn't sure I had another recipe post in me -- before the year of 2010 turns into a pumpkin and rolls backward into the past. I thought I was going out with a year-end Top Ten Gluten-Free Recipes post, catching up with all you gluten-free  lovelies again in 2011. I thought I was done. Spent. Empty as a pocket, to quote a certain singer-songwriter. So much for assumptions.

Turns out my fevered brain wasn't done with 2010. It spun off in party mode as soon as I heard that my oldest son was officially engaged. He popped the question with true romantic flare. On a wine train. In the rain. In Napa Valley. And she said yes. The ring fit. People on the train applauded. It doesn't get much better than this. To witness your son's heart. Blooming.

And so. The year closes. I make a mug of chamomile tea and reflect upon the deepest joys of motherhood, turning their myriad facets toward the window light above the kitchen sink stacked with breakfast plates, cups, and spoons. Learning to love with open arms and a tender opinion, unconditional. This floats to the top of all other joys. The thick cream of it. A layered, rich reward. To love a son expands your heart beyond measure. To see him love, and inspire love, is the most beautiful working of magic. 

Don't you think?


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Top Ten Gluten-Free Recipes for 2010: My Faves

From cake to quinoa - my year's best gluten-free recipes

The annual ritual of creating top ten lists has commenced. Critics are choosing their top ten movies, editors have picked their Top Ten Books. Fashionistas have declared the year's best and worst trends of 2010 (jeggings- love 'em or hate 'em?). Do I dare leap into the scuffle and pluck ten gluten-free recipes as the year's best? And if so -- just how, exactly -- does one choose the golden top ten? The best of the best. Do I do as I did last year and let stats decide? (Might seem rather lazy, to repeat that process.) Or do I rely on my personal and often quirky preferences? (Could be controversial, especially if I was honest and chose peanut butter on ryeless rye bread toast as my number one.) Perhaps I should make a game of it and draw names from a hat. Randomness is appealing, in a way. (Though unsatisfying.)

I'll just do it.

I'll be bold. I'll be opinionated. I'll pick my g-free favorites from this year's recipes. Perhaps I need to define my criteria, though. How do you choose a favorite among the dozens you've created in a year? I'm proud of each recipe. After all, I enjoyed them enough to photograph them in all their gluten-free glory (unless, sadly, they were not photogenic, and that, Dear Reader, is a loss to the blog). And every recipe I shared passed the family taste test or they wouldn't stand a chance of appearing on Gluten-Free Goddess. You don't hear about the runner-ups, or the flat out failures that left your intrepid goddess weeping and gnashing her teeth. [Not really. I'm not the weeping kind. I swear like a character in Deadwood and take deadly aim at the trash bin.]

My criteria, then? Simple. A favorite recipe would be a recipe I'd make again. And share with company.

So with that in mind, away we go.

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Gluten-Free Apple Cake with Cranberries

A gluten-free cranberry apple cake- with a sweet-tart kick.

Sweet and Tart 

No philosophy today. Instead, a cake. A beautiful gluten-free cake to bake for the holidays- or any day you feel like celebrating. So dust off your cake pan, Babycakes.

This is a moist and tender apple cake laced with a hint of cinnamon and studded with fresh tart berries. After seven eight nine years of baking various gluten-free incarnations of my tried and true Jewish apple cake recipe, this could be our favorite. Maybe it's the sweet-tart combo. The subtlety of flavors.

In a food culture obsessed with kicking up recipes with more for the sake of more (white chocolate peanut butter bacon swirled maple donut ice cream drizzled in dulche de leche coconut marshmallow syrup and dusted with sugared Meyer lemon zest and shaved cacao, anyone?) the clean and classic flavor contrast of apples and cranberries is somehow new again. Even, refreshing. 

I don't need dessert to taste like candy.

I like my cake to taste like cake. 

How about you?

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Gluten-Free Potato Latkes

Nothing beats golden, crispy, lacy latkes.

A gluten-free favorite from the archives- these tender, lacy latkes are easy to make. Serve with homemade applesauce and sour cream spiked with a hint of horseradish or chives. And PS: I just passed my 5th year blog anniversary! Five years blogging gluten-free recipes.

Delicious thanks to all of you- much love xox Karina

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Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf

Need some gluten-free inspiration for your Thanksgiving feast? Have I got some side dishes for you. From Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf to Pomegranate Glazed Green Beans, from Sweet Potato Cornbread to Cranberry Applesauce and more, I've gathered together my favorite gluten-free side dish recipes. One glance at these offerings should convince even the most die hard skeptics that living gluten-free can be more than delicious.

It can be beautiful.


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Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk

Smooth and silky vegan butternut squash soup with coconut milk.

Orange is the New Black

Halloween is creeping toward us. Soft and slow but deft on black cat paws. I wake to the dry scratch clatter of leaves spinning down the sidewalk from Santa Monica Boulevard, riding the wind downhill like a gaggle of flattened tumbleweeds. I yawn awake dreaming of soup, imagining my favorite wooden spoon stirring the humble beginnings of some jewel toned potage as the French like to call it. Or so I'm told.

I don't speak French.

I'm craving soup like a mad woman, you see. Like some Shakespearean witch in the wild woods of West Hollywood, I long to stir a little seasonal magic into a pot of silky, orange hued soul food. So this week I conjured cooked up a curried fall classic. Every October I make batches of this gorgeous, comforting soup. That just so happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan.

The secret is- use ripe flavorful squash. Choose a butternut squash with firm golden-tan skin. The squash should make a hollow ring when thumped.

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Gluten-Free Cranberry Crumble

Gluten-free cranberry peach crumble. Easy as pie. Wait. Easier.

Sweet and Tart

So I have a question for you. Albeit, rhetorical. Who doesn't love a warm-from-the-oven fruit crisp or crumble? Personally, I'm a big fan. Obviously. Here's why. Imagine tender, juicy melt-in-your mouth bites of sweet fruit. A kiss of brown sugar. A hint of cinnamon.

And Darling- best of all? Embarrassingly easy.

Think about it. No wrestling with stick-to-itself plastic wrap. No rolling out finicky fall-apart gluten-free pie dough that- I am sorry to tell you- never has the authentic tender flakiness of the real thing. My nose would be growing like a woody on a sixteen year old watching Angelina Jolie in Beowulf if I told you any gluten-free pie crust I ever ate was worthy of the filling.
And besides. Who needs the hassle? Honestly. And why pies? Whose bright idea was it to make pies the epitome of holiday baking perfection. The holidays are stressful enough. All the family mishigas. The drama.

I'm over it.

Easy and tasty is my kind of dessert. Hence my love for fruit crisps and crumbles. Sometimes I bake crisps in individual baking dishes. Sometimes I make fruit crumbles in a glass pie plate. This way, it even (sort of) resembles a pie. If you squint.

Or knocked back a vodka martini or two.

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Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Apple Cake

A lovely gluten-free apple cake with coconut flour.

Wheat-Free Apple Cake with Coconut Flour

The weather here has hula-hooped back into summer. I kid you not. It is ninety-seven degrees here in Little Russia, my West Hollywood neighborhood. As in 97. That's three shy of one hundred, Bubbe. In September. And what am I doing? Baking a cake. Heating up the kitchen. It figures.

As soon as I buy apples and start daydreaming about my favorite fall confections, imagining clear, cool evenings and Eva Cassidy's haunting rendition of Autumn Leaves, September turns sultry and sends me back into the closet, peeling off my straight legged jeans and Converse All Stars faster than Gordon Ramsay can mock sashimi.

So I may as well share my latest gluten-free cake recipe with you. I mean, I suffered extreme heat for it. I hot flashed till I was squishy for it. I panted and sweat until I resembled an over-ripe heirloom tomato. You know, dimpled and dented. Flabby. A little misshapen. And well. Squishy. Not a pretty sight.

Not that I'm trying to induce guilt or anything.

Not me.

So go ahead. Enjoy this new apple cake recipe. Share a slice or two amongst yourselves. Don't worry about me here in hot little WeHo. Really. Go. Bake. Discuss. Have some coffee.

And coffee tawk.

xox


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Favorite Autumn Recipes for a Gluten-Free Diet

It's that time of year again. Fall is for baking.

Gluten-Free Wheat-Free

Autumn Recipes

Welcome to my favorite Fall recipes- my collection of gluten-free comfort food for the golden, burnished season of Autumn. From harvest inspired appetizers to cinnamon laced baked goodies, from pumpkin soups to cozy casseroles, flavors are warm, homespun, and inviting- perfect for cool, clear days and early nightfall. Take your inner domestic goddess by the hand. Grab your apron. Rustle up your favorite gluten-free ingredients. Turn on your oven. Fill your kitchen with the comforting scents of apples and cinnamon, cranberry and pumpkin, butternut and maple, nutmeg and curry.

{For readers Down Under, here are my Favorite Spring recipes}

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Gluten-free chocolate cupcakes.

Cupcakes for the In Crowd...

Gluten-free cupcakes are hot. Or should I say, HAWT. Tack on vegan status, too, and you've got a trend worthy of the most BoHo WeHo GoGo. So I'm reprising this chocolate cupcake recipe to tempt you into baking this weekend.

These little beauties remind me of Devil's Food Cake. Dark, moist and chocolatey.

So grab your inner Domestic Goddess by the hand and stir up some trouble.

But before we get to (what happens to be my favorite) chocolate cupcake recipe from the archives, I want to share something. Maybe it's the waxing moon, that cyclic siren pulling us toward wholeness, to embracing our shadow, urging us to let go, shed the outworn for the sake of authenticity. Or maybe it's the fresh start of a new school year, possessing me with cravings for newly sharpened pencils and thick stacks of paper, clean as a cloud. Fall always wakes me up. It conjures images of new beginnings.

And yes, there will be baby pictures.

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Gluten-Free Banana Almond Bundt® Cake Recipe

Almond flour makes this banana Bundt® cake gluten-free gorgeous.

Almond Flour Cake Love

Baking weather has arrived. Are you feeling the urge? I am. It's Bundt® Cake time. Time for stirring up gluten-free cake batters with soft ripe bananas,  pumpkin puree, and applesauce, filling the kitchen with the warm sweet scent of cinnamon. Time to tie on your cute little apron and invoke your inner Domestic Goddess. Because the groovy-spooky Fall Equinox is right around the corner, I am sorry to tell you. Summer fun is fading fast, Sweetpea. Your tan lines are disappearing.

Your UGGs are calling.

So paw through your stash of rocket shaped Popsicle molds, drink umbrellas and pool party napkins. Get ready to retire the flamingo adorned lemonade pitcher (unless you happen to live in Boca Raton). Snake your way into the back dark corner of your kitchen closet.

Liberate the Bundt® pan you haven't used since Ground Hog Day.

It's dusty but it cleans up nice.


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Heirloom Potato Salad with Vegenaise®

A super easy potato salad with tasty heirloom spuds. Vegan and egg-free.

I snatched up a bag of those cute little potatoes at the market yesterday. You know the ones I'm talking about. Those baby sized spuds as cute as a button. In Easter egg colors like custard and purple and pink. So sweet and adorable you want to cradle the bag and speak in your talking-to-kittens voice. Heirloom root vegetable deliciousness. Yeah, you shell out a little extra cabbage for these pretty babies, true. But I say, live a little.

Indulge in excellent ingredients.

You only got one life. 

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Nectarine Ice Cream with Coconut Milk

Creamy and subtle coconut milk and nectarine ice cream.

Coconut Vegan Bliss

It's been hot and sultry here in West Hollywood. [One could argue, when is West Hollywood not hot and sultry, Babycakes?] We've been settling into our new apartment, hanging curtains (adios, vertical blinds), unpacking books, and doing laundry. So before I share the new coconut milk ice cream recipe I whipped up last night (after scarfing down vegan tacos like there was no tomorrow, which would be, today)...

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Mexican Hot Fudge Sauce - Dairy and Gluten-Free

Decadent dairy-free hot fudge sauce. Vegan and gluten-free.

Now that there are some super fabulous gluten-free vegan ice creams out there (have you tried the coconut milk and almond milk based ice creams?) and we don't have to settle for less than delicious, I thought I'd reprise this silky chocolate sauce recipe from the archives. Because, you know. You may have missed it. And life is too short to live without fudge sauce. In my book, anyway.

Happy last days of summer. Now go make a sundae.

Mexican Hot Fudge Sauce

Who can resist the combination of coffee and chocolate? This is a simple hot fudge sauce to drizzle over ice cream, flourless cake, or gluten-free brownies - you name it. It's lip-smacking sexy good.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut cream
2 tablespoons raw organic agave
5 ounces dark chocolate, in pieces
1/4 cup Kahlua (omit for alcohol-free)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract

Instructions:

In a saucepan, heat the cream until it starts to simmer. Remove from heat and add the agave, and pieces of dark chocolate; stir until melted. 

Stir in the Kahlua, cinnamon and vanilla. Taste test (the fun part). Adjust sweetness level to your liking. If not using right away, pour into a glass storage container and cover.

Store the covered sauce in the refrigerator. This sauce may be made ahead and reheated gently over low heat before serving.

Lovely for drizzling over cake wedges, brownies, ice cream and holiday treats.

This recipe makes about a cup of sauce. Adjust the ingredients to make it thinner/thicker, and less sweet/sweeter to your liking.

For a Mexican Hot Fudge Sundae

Chill four fancy stemmed glasses.

Drizzle the warm sauce over a scoop of coffee, espresso chip, or coconut vanilla ice cream and a thin wedge of Dark Goddess Cake or a small square of my favorite Dark Chocolate Brownies.

Vegan Cupcakes and Baking Tips

Before you bake these cupcakes, get an oven thermometer.

Oven Temps + GF Baking

I attempted my first baking recipe yesterday. In the new apartment, that is. The kitchen is new, not the baker. I've been around the block a time or two when it comes to batter and dough (so if you're new to the blog, Darling, don't panic- I've got armloads of gluten-free recipes waiting for your brilliance to coax them to life). See that sparkling little cupcake gem above? Try it's zesty orangeness on for size. Because the recipe I was developing for you... Well. 

It failed. 

What was it? you idly wonder. Zucchini bread. A bread that should have been moist and tender and bursting with juicy bits of zucchini. A perennial August favorite I haven't sunk my teeth into since going gluten-free nine years ago. So I was due.

What happened?

Here's the thing. The thing I have to share with you that could change your gluten-free baking life. The back story: the stove is new. As in brand spanking new. No gluten has ever darkened it's white enamel door (a psychological plus). And it's a gas stove (heats quickly, super efficient). So what I am about to tell you may surprise you.

The oven temperature was off. As in way off.

How do I know? I had an inkling. I bought an oven thermometer. I installed it. And I set the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. When the preheat light went off I opened the oven door. It read 400 cussing degrees.

What?

How can a brand new oven be off by 50 degrees? Turns out ovens can be off by all kinds of degrees, Babycakes. A little high. A little low. This is not uncommon. New or old, stoves can be persnickety. So if you're one of those readers who find my baking times too short or too long? Get an oven thermometer stat and take your oven's temperature. Play nurse to that Bad Boy. And find out exactly where you're at. Because the sunken loaves with gummy centers you felt guilty about? Might not be you at all, Darling. The burnt cookies that made you feel like a Martha Stewart failure? Could be your over zealous gas burner.

To test this out we set the oven  temp to 300 degrees. And guess what? The thermometer read 350 degrees. On the nose. 

So Steve rustled up some cookies to cheer me up in my zucchini bread grief. And not just any cookies. These Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies. Because a girl needs a dunk worthy cookie for breakfast.

And there will be zucchini bread in the near future. Oh yes.

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Sweet Potato Salad

Potato salad with no mayo- and sweet potatoes!

 A recipe winner from the archives you may have missed. Because I haven't been cooking. I've been packing. We're moving from our Santa Monica apartment to a sweet place in West Hollywood. Like, tomorrow. If it seems as if we live gypsy lives, it's true. We do (if packing up and moving six times in fourteen months counts). We're signing a lease today. Ostensibly for a year. I hope to settle in fast and start whipping up gluten-free recipes in the new kitchen- which is, I'm happy to report, new as in brand new. New everything. Hence, a gluten-free stove. Fridge. Dishwasher. The landlord remodeled, bless her generous heart. I'll post pics as soon as the dust settles. xox Karina PS: And yes, there's a window over the kitchen sink.

This is a colorful and lower carb potato salad recipe, a welcome change from the ordinary white spud con mayo and boiled egg offerings so ubiquitous at backyard get-togethers. Why? Beyond the no Hellman's and huevos part, it features sweet potatoes, Dude. Sweet potatoes.

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Karina's Vegan Coleslaw with Peanut Dressing

Crunchy cool vegan slaw with a light peanut dressing.

Cool + Easy

It's almost the end of July. How has your summer been? Moonlit and sultry? All Popsicles and kiddie pool? Or just plain flat out busy as a bee? If it's been busy, Sugar, I can relate. Here in our tiny corner of the world we've been too crazy to cook much. We've been living on salads and smoothies. We're apartment hunting. Spending hours in the car navigating the neighborhoods of West Hollywood, searching for the perfect place. Or rather, the quasi-perfect place because perfection is unattainable. I know this. I do. But I still (naively) make a top ten priority list.

If I find a unit with a window over the kitchen sink (high on my list) there's inevitably no dishwasher. If I tour one with a dishwasher, there's no  window, and no patio (I'd love some outside access to put a small table and plant a few pots by the door). Washer and dryer? Ha.

You know that saying, If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans? Well, if you want to hear the gods laugh even harder, make a wish list.

For an apartment in West Hollywood.

Meanwhile... I thought I'd share this light and sexy coleslaw recipe. I whipped it up last night when all we had in the fridge was a head of green cabbage, a slim wedge of purple cabbage and a bunch of fresh cilantro. Out of all the nut butters I have on hand I chose peanut butter for the base of my salad dressing, but this would also be scrumptious with cashew, almond or sunflower seed butter.

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Vegan Almond Salad Recipe

Not Starkist Salad. Eat groovy. Save a tuna.

The older I get the more I crave simple. You know what I'm talking about. Home cooking. Childhood classics- like tuna salad. Instead of getting all worldly and sophisticated and dabbling with truffle oil, with each new gray hair my taste is hula hooping into kid-friendly food faster than Marisa Tomei can waggle. Well, maybe not that fast. She is pretty nimble. But you get my drift. I'm whipping up peanut butter and banana sandwiches, not oysters Rockefeller. Actually, I wouldn't know an oyster Rockefeller if it bit me in the tuchas. Filet Mignon (would you believe I've never had it?) doesn't even tempt me, Darling. And Chicken Cordon Bleu vs Chicken Kiev? 

Okay. It is here where I confess  that I'm no Betty Crocker and I've never attempted either recipe. Most likely because I was never what you'd call a big meat eater. I went vegetarian at age thirteen. If I've dabbled at all in the culinary arts it's been because of Anna Thomas and not Julia Child. The first cookbook I ever bought was The Vegetarian Epicure. That was 1972- the first time I ever made soup from scratch, thanks to Anna.

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Five Ways To Chill

1. Creamy dark chocolate sorbet. It's dairy-free and vegan. Rich but not filling. Cool and dark as midnight jazz. A respite from the shimmer of summer heat. Spoon it into chilled glasses. Turn off the lights. Light a candle. Music: Melody Gardot

2. Quinoa salad with lime and fresh mint. Cook quinoa in a rice cooker and keep the kitchen cool. Toss with just squeezed lime juice, good olive oil and garden ripe tomatoes. Spike it with whatever your heart desires- scallions, red onion. Kick off your flip-flops. Music: Crowded House's new album Intriguer

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Blueberry Smoothie- Veganluscious

Blueberry smoothie- dairy-free gluten-free chill.

Wilting from the heat? I've got a deep blue chill for you. Dairy-free. Easy as pie. Cool as a blueberry. I'm emancipating this recipe from the archive depths because it's just too luscious to get lost in 2007, never to be slurped again.

What does a brave and spunky vegan girl do when she is suddenly famished and her Crowded House whistling husband is scrambling up some free-range eggs and cheese for brunch? I'll tell what you do.

You reach for your power tools.

You haul out the Vita-Mix and thank your twinkling stars you have a bag of organic frozen blueberries in the freezer. You grab the carton of organic almond milk. You dip into the Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder. You smile slyly. You sprinkle in some stevia. 

You switch the button to HIGH and sigh.

You froth with pleasure.

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