Tag: Naturally Gluten Free

Mulligatawny Soup

The first time I tried mulligatawny was from the Harmons hot soup bar. Normally I’m not a fan of curry, but the soup was delicious, so I searched out a recipe from Food Network and found one from a restaurant owner in Massachusetts. I made a few modifications, like adding more chicken, potatoes, and curry powder. The additions make it more like a stew because it gets thicker, but I love it that way. And it’s even better if you serve it with naan and dip the naan in the soup.

This is naturally gluten free, and I’ve even made it dairy free before by using a can of coconut milk instead of cream (the picture below is made with coconut milk). You couldn’t taste coconut at all, probably because of the curry powder–I was delightfully surprised. And this freezes well in a gallon bag.

Make it a meal with:

Mulligatawny Soup

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Indian flavors in a hearty soup, perfect with naan.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Onion, diced
  • 4 – 6 Carrots, diced
  • 4 Celery stalks, diced
  • 4 Small Potatoes, diced
  • ½ c. Butter
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
  • 4 Tbsp. Curry Powder
  • 8 c. Chicken Stock
  • 2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and diced
  • 1/2 c. Uncooked rice (then cook)
  • 1 Rotisserie Chicken, broken down into bite size pieces
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 1/4 tsp. Dried Thyme
  • 1/2 tsp. Pepper
  • 1 c. Cream, hot (or 1 can of coconut milk)

Directions

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add the onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and butter. Cook until tender but do not burn. Stir in the cornstarch and curry powder, and cook for 3 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and let simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients except the cream. Let simmer for 15 minutes, then add the cream. Add more spices or liquid as needed. Serve with naan.


Mountain Man Breakfast

We usually made this in the Dutch oven while camping, but nowadays we often just make it in a pot in the oven. And it’s always delicious. You can have a pound of sausage and bacon, but we do find that it might be a little overwhelming and greasy with both. Also, you need lots of eggs. Otherwise, the eggs mostly just act like a binder. So if you can have more than 18, even better. *The one in the picture was made with 30 eggs, 8 oz. cheese, 2 gigantic potatoes, 1 lb. bacon, 1 onion, and ketchup on top. It definitely needed the ketchup, and it probably could’ve had a little less potato.

And hurray, this one is naturally gluten free!

Make it a meal with:

  • Fresh Fruit
  • Juice or Hot Chocolate

Mountain Man Breakfast

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: medium
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A hearty and filling breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. Sausage or Bacon (or both)
  • 1 pkg. frozen Hash Browns (about 4 c.) or sliced potatoes
  • 1 Onion, chopped (optional)
  • 18-30 Eggs, beaten with Milk (at least 2 eggs/person)
  • 1-2 c. Shredded Cheese (like cheddar)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

In 12” Dutch oven, brown sausage or bacon and crumble bacon into pieces. Add onion to cook. Add hash browns (or you can use potatoes O’Brien with onion and pepper already included). Cook until the potatoes are mostly done, so the rest will cook faster. Pour eggs beaten with milk over all (milk is optional). Top with cheese.

For cooking with charcoal: Dutchovendude.com says for a 12″ Dutch oven to be at 375°, place 20 coals on the lid and 6 under the oven. Don’t forget to rotate the oven every 10  minutes or so 1/4 turn. Cook 45 minutes–1 hour until set and slightly brown.

For conventional oven, bake at 350-375° for 45 minutes until set and slightly brown.


Lemon Chicken

This recipe came from Aunt LaRee, and it’s wonderful for grilling. You can also broil it in your oven if you don’t want to fire up the grill. Take note that the chicken needs to marinate for 4 hours, though.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Lemon Chicken

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Easy, flavorful, and great for grilling. Remember to marinate 4 hours.

Ingredients

  • ¾ c. Oil
  • ¾ c. Lemon Juice
  • 1 Tbsp. Garlic Salt
  • 2 tsp. Onion Powder
  • 2 tsp. Basil
  • Chicken Breasts or pieces

Directions

Mix all ingredients in gallon bag. Marinate 4 hours. Then place chicken on grill and heat until grill reaches 350°. Then reduce heat to low. Grill (or broil) for 3-6 minutes on each side (or more, depending on thickness of chicken) until internal temperature reaches 165°. 15-20 minutes for bone-in.


Kalua Pork

Michael got this recipe on his mission from a Hawaiian family, and we’ve made it a lot since then. It’s great and very easy for large gatherings, and your house smells delicious all day. Plus, pork shoulder is often on sale, even as low as 99 cents a pound. Kalua pork is a little greasy, though, so take note. We often serve it on rice, but it’s also great on hamburger buns or Hawaiian sweet rolls.

And good news, this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Kalua Pork

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Very easy and great for large gatherings.

Ingredients

  • 5-6 lb. Pork Shoulder/Butt (boneless if possible, but bone-in is fine)
  • 1 Tbsp.+ Sea Salt
  • 1 Tbsp. Liquid Smoke
  • 1 bottle Hawaiian BBQ Sauce (optional)

Directions

Combine ingredients and cook on low in oven at 200° or in crock pot on low for 14-20 hours. May season with more salt afterwards, if needed. After cooked, pull apart with fork and serve on rice with BBQ sauce (if desired). You can place the pork back in the crock pot to keep it warm, but remove most of the liquid or it will be very fatty.


Pesto Chicken

Man, I love pesto chicken SO much. It’s one of my very favorite meals. Garlic, basil, cheese, and tomato combine so well. You can make this as separate chicken breasts in a pan, or you can mix cubed chicken and cut up tomato with sauce in the pasta. Either way is delicious, but the separate chicken breasts in the pan seems a little more special for special occasions.

And good news, this one is naturally gluten free–just serve it with gluten free noodles.

Make it a meal with:

  • Pasta
  • Garlic Bread or Breadsticks
  • Corn or Green Beans
  • Fresh Fruit

Pesto Chicken

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Absolutely delicious, great for special occasions or weeknight dinners.

Ingredients

  • 3 large Chicken Breasts, fileted in half so they’re half the thickness (6 total pieces)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 10 oz. jar Basil Pesto
  • 2 large Tomatoes, sliced
  • Sliced or shredded Mozzarella
  • Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Place the fileted chicken breasts in a greased 9×13 pan and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the pesto over the chicken. Then cover each chicken with 1-2 tomato slices (salted and peppered), and top with cheese. (Optional: Sprinkle parmesan over all.) Cook at 375° for about 30-45 minutes or until the temperature reaches 165°. Also broil to melt the cheese until slightly golden brown at the end. Serve with pasta, and make sure to spoon the delicious liquid from the pan over the pasta.


Chicken Grape Cashew Salad

If you’re making a salad that will be eaten in one sitting, you can mix the mayo right in with everything. But generally we can’t finish the whole salad in one meal and need to make containers of leftovers, so I almost always leave out the mayo and mix it separately per serving. If you mix the mayo with the whole salad and then make leftovers after, it does tend to get slimy fairly quickly, FYI.

If you’re making this gluten free, it’s naturally gluten free as long as you use a new jar of mayo or one that’s dedicated gluten free (so you don’t get crumbs from previous sandwich making).

Make it a meal with:

Chicken Grape Cashew Salad

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Light and easy, but it does take a little time to cut and assemble everything.

Ingredients

  • 3 lb. Chicken Breasts, cubed and cooked (or 1 rotisserie chicken, pulled)
  • 1 bag Salad or Spinach
  • 1 bunch washed Grapes
  • 1-2 c. Cashews
  • 1-2 stalks fine-cut Celery
  • 2 sliced Green Onions
  • Mayonnaise (or new jar/dedicated gluten free jar)
  • Salt to taste

Directions

Cook cubed chicken, adding salt and pepper to taste. Combine rest of ingredients except mayonnaise in a bowl, generally keeping everything on top of the lettuce because everything will fall to the bottom otherwise. Add mayo separately per portion and mix in, to keep leftovers from getting slimy.


Berner Wuerstl

On my mission in Vienna, my companion and I discovered what we called “Heart Attack Wursts”, aka Berner Wuerstl. These bacon-wrapped, cheese-filled hot dogs were SO delicious, but we didn’t dare eat very many or we might actually die of a heart attack. Haha. They were sold in packages in the store in Vienna, but we don’t really have them readily available in stores near us; so I decided to make a substitute version for Oktoberfest. It’s really easy–the hardest part is wrapping the bacon around the hot dog so it doesn’t unravel. I try to tuck in the ends, and if I slightly stretch the bacon from side to side (not pulling on the ends but the sides), that it holds onto the hot dog easier.

You can either use nice cheese-filled hot dogs and wrap them in bacon, or stuff your own hot dogs with cheese.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Berner Wuerstl

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: medium
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A delicious, bacon-wrapped “heart attack wurst”.

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. good quality Hot Dogs
  • 1 brick White Cheese (like Muenster), thinly sliced to fit inside a hot dog
  • OR 1 pkg. Cheddar Hot Dogs
  • 1 pkg. uncooked Bacon

Directions

For the easiest version, buy cheddar hot dogs and simply wrap them with bacon. OR Slice hot dogs down middle, place cheese in middle, then wrap in bacon, making sure to tuck the ends so the bacon doesn’t unravel. Broil or grill on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side, turning halfway.


Bratwurst Splits

Bratwurst itself is great, but add extra cheddar and it’s amazing. I think my older brother had a version of this at a German restaurant when he went there with his German class in middle school. Ever since then, we’ve enjoyed having our Americanized version as part of Oktoberfest. You could eat it in a bun, but we generally just eat it straight up with a knife and fork.

Note that it is delicious but very greasy, especially if you use a national brand like Johnsonville. So you may not want to eat too many, for your digestive system. If you want one less greasy, you can use Harmons bratwurst, which has considerably less fat and is more authentic-tasting. But any brand is delicious.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Bratwurst Splits

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: medium
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A fun German-inspired Oktoberfest dish.

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. Bratwursts
  • Optional: Broth and chopped onion
  • 1 brick Cheddar Cheese, cut in long slices like string cheese

Directions

Boil bratwurst in pan of water or chicken broth with onion (for more flavor), about 10 minutes or until no longer pink. Then slice bratwurst down middle (not all the way through), place cheese in middle, then broil or grill until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown.


BBQ Country Ribs

These originally started as a Dutch oven recipe, but we’ve just been making it in the oven for the last several years. It’s fun for a big gathering–it does tend to be messier and greasier, FYI. Also, it’s pretty flavorful, so you may want a mild side dish with it, like white rice or rolls. And we usually serve it in a bowl so you get plenty of sauce.

As long as you get gluten free BBQ sauce (which basically all are), this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

BBQ Country Ribs

  • Servings: 6-8?
  • Difficulty: medium
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The secret to the sauce is Dr. Pepper, of course.

Ingredients

  • About 5 lbs. Pork Country Ribs, cut in pieces
  • Canadian Steak Seasoning
  • 1 large bottle Honey BBQ Sauce
  • 1 jar Orange Marmalade
  • 1 can Dr. Pepper
  • 1 Onion, chopped large

Directions

Place ribs in foil and sprinkle with steak seasoning. Seal up ribs in foil packet and bake in pan at 325° for 2 hours. Then combine remaining ingredients in pot and place ribs in sauce. Simmer (or replace in oven) for 1 hour. If you’re in a hurry, it doesn’t have to simmer for a whole hour.


BBQ Chicken

For juicier chicken, you may want to use chicken with bones. Plus, they’re cheaper than boneless skinless chicken breasts anyway. We usually have BBQ drumsticks every New Year’s Eve, and it makes the house smell amazing.

As long as you get a gluten free sauce (which most are), this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

  • Baked Potatoes, Potato Salad, or Rice
  • Green Beans or Corn
  • Fresh Fruit

BBQ Chicken

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Easy weeknight dinner or New Year’s Eve party food.

Ingredients

  • Chicken (breasts, legs, quarters, etc.)
  • Garlic Powder
  • Onion Powder
  • Italian Seasoning
  • BBQ Sauce (or gluten free sauce)

Directions

On a greased cookie sheet covered in foil, sprinkle chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, and then Italian seasoning. If boneless, cook for 30 minutes at 375°. For chicken with bones, cook for at least 45 minutes. With 15 minutes of cook time remaining, remove from oven, brush with BBQ sauce, and bake the remaining 15 minutes.