Ada Vandermay’s Rhubarb Crunch

15 May 2013

Rhubarb Crunch When we moved to our new house, I was surprised to find 5 rhubarb plants growing in the back corner of the yard. I was even more surprised to find the one random lone plant growing right in the middle of the yard. As in, smack dab in the middle of the grass. The placement of these plants make me think that no one in their right mind would have planted them where they are located. Maybe a squirrel dug up the bulbs from somewhere and then stored them away for safekeeping later on? Or maybe the owner was drunk when she decided to plant them? Either way, they were not high on my excitement list when I realized what they were. The big patch of established chives? Thrilling. (Just watch for my plans for the chive blossoms soon). The potted container of mint? Yes please! But the rhubarb? Yuck. Since trying strawberry rhubarb pie years ago, I swore off rhubarb as the devil’s weed. Really, that’s how much I disliked it. Rhubarb topping However, because I’m not someone who can let free food go to waste, I felt obligated to pick the rhubarb as it was ready. It took some internet research since I had no idea what I was doing (remember, devil’s weed), but I learned that wiggling the stalk to ease it out of its holding place was the best method for harvesting. And then of course cutting off the poisonous leaves was a necessity too. But then what? Being overwhelmed at the thought of having to do something with the rhubarb, I chopped up all the stalks and threw them in the freezer for the day I felt like I could handle making something with them. Rhubarb Then the fateful second harvest came. I threw the bounty on my back steps and bemoaned that I had to deal with even more. It seemed only fitting to take a picture and post it on Facebook detailing my plight. I got some good response from people of what I should do with it. Cakes and pies seemed to be the prevailing theme. Then I got a message from one of my professors, Kay Price, who taught several classes I was in when I was going through my Special Education major in college. (Let’s be honest, she was one of my favorite professors I ever had.) She offered to send me her mom’s recipe for Rhubarb Crunch. Having no idea what on earth that was, the only logical response was a resounding yes, please do send it on over. Unbaked rhubarb crunch When I saw the recipe, I was excited. One of my favorite things to do with a fruit is to turn it into a crisp with the crunchy oatmeal/brown sugar/butter topping. However, this recipe takes it to the next level and puts that same topping on both the top and the bottom of the dish. Pure. Utter. Genius. (I would make a comment about how this genius could only be expected from a dutchwoman from the same small dutch town my parents grew up in, but it’s well known that dutch people are too humble to brag, so I’ll refrain.)

A couple of things to note about the recipe… My rhubarb crunch was a wee bit on the juicy side. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing when it’s lovely pink buttery sauce that goes well with ice cream. And once it sat for a while it thickened as it cooled. However, I think two factors contributed to the extra juicyness– I used frozen chopped rhubarb and I also used gluten free flour. This recipe was written for normal all purpose flour but I converted it simply by using my standard gluten free flour mix. Next time I make this (which happens to be in a few days when I have my parents over for dinner), I will add some additional tablespoons of flour to the filling to help it thicken more. If you have arrowroot starch on hand instead, substituting that for the flour in the filling would be a great thickener.

Ada Vandermay’s Rhubarb Crunch
Recipe generously shared by Kay (Vandermay) Price

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked rolled oats (make sure they are certified gluten free)
½ cup gluten free flour
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup butter
3 cups diced unpeeled rhubarb (mixed with 1T gluten free flour, ¾ cups
sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. salt)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Lightly grease (or use cooking spray) 8 X 8 X 2 pan
3. Mix oats, flour, brown sugar with 2 knives (or hands) and
cut in butter.
4. Put ½ of the mixture in pan and cover with rhubarb mix
5. Put second ½ on top of the rhubarb mix
6. Bake for 45 minutes.
7. Serve hot with ice cream

Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie Bars

13 May 2013

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I didn’t know until recently just how awesome pecans were. Sure, I’ve had them in pies and things before and they were good, but for some reason I have lately started to really like them. A lot. Pralines are what started my love affair, and maybe one day I’ll post the recipe for you, but for now we’re going to talk about these bars. These bars that are portable hand held flaky gooey goodness. They’re better than pecan pie, people. They are definitely not healthy by any means and can be quite rich, so feel free to cut them into smaller pieces and store some in the freezer.

I highly recommend lining the baking dish with parchment paper. It lets you lift everything out and easily cut it into bars. No wrestling with a spatula trying to pry them out of the pan. With gluten free flour being more delicate than normal flour, it does make a difference.

Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie Bars

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cups (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

For the topping:

3 large eggs
3/4 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup chocolate chunks, either from a bag or chopped by hand
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Either grease a 9×13 baking pan or line with parchment paper.
Mix together the crust ingredients until it is a crumbling mixture. Press into the bottom of the pan and bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly brown. I actually found that I needed more time to get the crust lightly browned, but your oven could vary.
For the filling, whisk together the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in the pecans and chocolate chunks. Pour evenly over the baked crust and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until set.
Let cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack. Once cool, I recommend sticking it in the refrigerator for at least an additional hour to let the chocolate harden. If you don’t do this step, the chocolate will smear when you cut into it. If you used parchment paper, pull the bars out of the pan and cut into pieces with a large knife.
These store best in the refrigerator to ensure they stay firm and don’t melt. If your house is consistently cold, feel free to store at room temperature.

Way Better Snacks Product Review

28 April 2013

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In general I don’t really do product reviews. However, I happened to win a case of 12 bags of Way Better Snacks from Be Free For Me, and really enjoyed them so I wanted to share with you. I am really lucky when it comes to winning things, so I’m picky about what I enter to win since I don’t want to get something useless. I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s true. I was interested in trying these chips since they are made from sprouted seeds. I thought that surely the taste wasn’t going to be that great, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were really really good. Even the no salt Naked Blues pictured in the first picture were good. They were the last to go since neither Corey nor I thought they would be good without the salt, but we were happy to taste that they were better than we anticipated. Way Better Snacks comes in 6 different flavors, are gluten- and soy- free, and I think all were equally delicious.

Healthy Broccoli Salad

28 April 2013

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Broccoli Salad Because of all the things I can’t eat, when Corey and I go on vacation, we always get a vacation rental so we can cook in the kitchen instead of eating meals out. However, we ARE on vacation, which means we don’t necessarily feel like cooking a whole bunch. To make it easier on us, I made a few healthy salads before we left for our latest trip. It was nice to be able to just pull them out of the fridge when we got hungry instead of having to cook something every time we wanted to eat. I based this recipe on one from Healthful Pursuit. I like her idea of starting with cooked broccoli– too often broccoli salads use the vegetable raw, but it messes with my stomach something fierce so I was happy to try it cooked. I can tell you that this version was much gentler on my digestive system, and I am happy that I used it.

One important thing to remember, however, is that when you boil or steam broccoli, it captures a lot of water in its frilly tops. To keep my salad from getting soggy, I drained the broccoli and then let it sit in a single layer on top of a drying rack in a cookie sheet for 5-10ish minutes so that more water could both drain and steam off. Healthy Broccoli Salad

The original salad calls for sunflower seeds (which I didn’t have), currants (which I don’t like on principle of it being a dried fruit– gross), and sun dried tomatoes (which I didn’t have). I altered it slightly due to this, but you could certainly add those back in. It would also be lovely with some cilantro instead of parsley, or you could add in some shredded carrots for bright color.

Salad

6 cups broccoli florets
7 strips bacon
1/4 slivered or chopped almonds, toasted if you aren’t feeling lazy
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
handful of chopped parsley

Dressing

1/4 cup fat free plain yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use a soy- & egg-free version)
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Steam or boil (the method I used) the broccoli for 3-4 minutes until it is crisp tender. You don’t want it fully cooked or mushy because the salad would turn into an unappetizing mess. Drain, then place on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet to let the excess water steam or drain off.

Cook the bacon until it is crisp. You can use whatever method you prefer, but I find it easiest to put it on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler. Make sure to keep a good eye on it if you do that so that it doesn’t burn. Depending on the type of bacon you have, you may have to turn it over half way so the other side gets cooked as well. Drain on paper towels and crumble or chop into pieces.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by putting all of the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisking until everything is incorporated. Taste, and adjust as needed. I tend to tinker and add a bit more of any of the ingredients until it tastes just right to me.

Place all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl and pour the dressing over top. Toss lightly to combine. You can serve at room temperature or place it in the refrigerator for several hours to cool. We found that it lasts for approximately a week in the refrigerator.

Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce

21 April 2013

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First of all, in case you’re wondering at my radio silence over the past month, we were in the middle of packing and moving and my kitchen was one of the first things to be boxed up. I wasn’t really into trying to create anything other than survival food during that time, so this blog got ignored. However, I can’t even begin to tell you how unbelievably amazing this new kitchen is. There is a lot of natural light and custom cupboards that are i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. Mega swoon-worthy for my cooking loving self.

I will have to show you pictures of the swing out spice rack sometime. In the meantime…

I am in love with sweet chili sauce. I would eat it with everything if I could, but unfortunately when it’s commercially prepared, it has xanthan gum in it and that makes me sick. I have been searching for a way to make it at home and had to make a dud of a recipe before I happened on this one. The original version I made was the one that is all over the internet. I do not understand why, but everyone makes this version. The reason for my bafflement? It uses cornstarch as a thickener, so when you refrigerate it after cooking, the solids separate into a jelly mass and the liquid floats on top. Completely unappetizing. Why on earth people think this is a good thing is beyond me. It also wasn’t quite sweet enough for me– it’s called sweet chili sauce for a reason people.

I searched high and low through pages of a Google inquiry because I just KNEW there had to be a better version that would cook down sugar as a thickener instead of using cornstarch. I finally found my inspiration here, and I took the recipe and ran.

After making the sauce, I instantly knew that THIS was the one. The holy grail of sweet chili sauces. Try it, I promise it won’t disappoint.

Sweet Chili Sauce

If you have a tough time finding some of these ingredients, I have had great luck with Uwajimaya, or even Winco.

Ingredients:

250 grams red bell peppers, roughly choped
2 long red chilies (I used 2 red jalapenos, seeds removed to cut down on heat, but you could certainly leave them in to make it spicier), roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp chopped lemongrass (it really does give great flavor so don’t leave it out if you can. If you want to see a video on how to chop it, this one is very informative.)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on the heat you want)
stalks from one bunch of cilantro
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
2 cups water
1 1/4 cup sugar

Combine all ingredients except sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve, and bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat to a high simmer, stirring occasionally, for approximately 25 minutes until it is thoroughly cooked through and slightly reduced into a syrupy mixture. Remove from the heat and use an immersion blender to blend the sauce together. Alternately, you could also use a food processor or counter top blender. Pour into jars and seal.

This will keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks (maybe even a month?), but we haven’t let it sit there that long because it’s like crack. You will use it on everything, trust me.

Gluten Free Flour Mix

9 March 2013

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Unlike normal baked goods that use all purpose flour made only from wheat, most gluten free bakers use a mix of flours to get a good texture and consistency in their baked goods. For a long time I used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Flour because it was easy. Really easy. I tried a lot of different pre-made flour mixes on the market, and none of them were as great as King Arthur’s. However, after a while, I decided I wanted to try to make my own mix to save money and to be able to control exactly what was in it.

In most gluten free baking, xanthan gum is added along with the flour to mimic the stretch of wheat and to hold the baked goods together. Because I need to avoid xanthan gum due to bad reactions when I eat it, I needed to come up with a solution that would help me bake without it.

Shortly after I began exploring making my own gluten free flour mix, Shauna at Gluten Free Girl put up a post detailing out exactly how to do it. I started experimenting, and now solely make my own mix. This is going to be an abbreviated version of what Shauna says, but please, by all means do go read her posts on making a Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix (contains a video too) and Gluten Free Whole-Grain Flour Mix. They will shed even more light on the subject. I do NOT take any credit for the following information, it’s all things I’ve learned from her.

Essentially, wheat flour is made up of a specific ratio of proteins and starches. If you can get your gluten free mix to have the same ratio of proteins and starches as wheat, you get a flour that acts a lot like it. This is a good thing, because your baked goods will come out a lot more similar to what you are used to.

When measuring out your individual flours, you need to weigh them. There is no way to be accurate if you’re using a measuring cup because there can be a vast difference in the amount of flour packed into it.

To make your mix:

Pick if you want all purpose or whole grain
Measure out the appropriate amount of at least one of the proteins and one of the starches. You can add multiple kinds of each, just make sure to keep the measurements within the same ratio
Dump everything in a bowl and whisk until it is an even color OR put in a big container and shake it up. I don’t have a container big enough to do that, so I whisk in a bowl instead.
If you use it frequently, you can just store it in the cupboard, but if you double or triple the batch and don’t use it fast, feel free to throw some of it in the freezer for later so that the flours don’t spoil. I often keep my batch in my cupboard but keep all of the extra individual bags of flour in my freezer since I know I won’t go through those quickly.

The following is based on a 1000 gram flour mix.

All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix
40% Whole Grain (Protein) = 400 grams
60% White Flours (Starches) = 600 grams

Whole Grain Gluten Free Flour Mix
70% Whole Grain (Protein) = 700 grams
30% White Flours (Starches) = 300 grams

You can pick and choose which of these flours you would like to use. You can use just one of each, or you can use multiple of each category, as long as they add up to the correct number of grams for that category.

** = flours that I use in my blends with frequency

Whole Grain Flours

brown rice flour**
buckwheat flour
corn flour
mesquite flour
millet flour**
oat flour
quinoa flour
sorghum flour**
sweet potato flour
teff flour

White Flours/ Starches

arrowroot flour
cornstarch**
potato flour
potato starch**
sweet rice flour**
tapioca flour**
white rice flour**

Nut Flours (which can be used with or in place of whole grain flours, but do remember that they add additional fats, so they may throw off your baked goods)

almond flour
chestnut flour
coconut flour
hazelnut flour

Bean Flours (which I just plain do not like, but you can use in place of whole grain again)

fava bean flour
garbanzo bean flour
kinako (soy bean) flour

Make sure that the flours you use are certified gluten free. My favorite safe flours are the ones from Bob’s Red Mill. Just make sure you pick up their gluten free ones– sometimes they’ll have a gluten free and a non-gluten free version. I get them in large quantities on Amazon for much cheaper and then store them in my freezer until I’m ready to use them. A few months ago I kind of went overboard and bought 6 different flours with 4 bags each, totaling 36 pounds. Yeah, you could say my freezer is a little full… these bags you see are just the front line, there are additional ones behind it. You can totally make fun of me, I can take it.

So that you can understand what I’m talking about, below are some examples of mixes you could come up with yourself.

All Purpose Examples

200 grams millet flour (protein)
200 grams sorghum flour (protein)
300 grams sweet white rice flour (starch)
300 grams potato starch (starch)

400 grams sorghum flour (protein)
600 grams sweet white rice flour (starch)

Whole Grain Examples

350 grams millet flour (protein)
350 grams sorghum flour (protein)
150 grams sweet white rice flour (starch)
150 grams potato starch (starch)

700 grams sorghum flour (protein)
300 grams sweet white rice flour (starch)

After you are done mixing together the flour, put it in a container and you’re ready to go. The container above holds the 1000 grams perfectly. Use the flour like you would in any recipe, and don’t feel the need to stick to gluten free recipes. I actually rarely follow a gluten free recipe– I just convert my favorite normal ones using this flour. I’ll talk in a future post about what I do to avoid the xanthan gum that is so prevalent in gluten free baked goods.

Homemade Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce

17 February 2013

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I am a very blessed woman because my husband makes me breakfast every single morning. He is incredibly good to me. A few days before Valentine’s Day, which is a holiday we both love, we were planning how we wanted to celebrate. Corey looked sideways at me and said he wished he could make me waffles for breakfast that morning, but then he would have to learn how to make them. I had to laugh at his not-so-subtle hint and offered to make them instead.

I decided that since it was Valentine’s Day, I needed to make the waffles a little sexier than normal so the idea of using chocolate sauce instead of syrup was born. I googled for a recipe, and as happens more often than not, David Lebovitz had the perfect one for me. I kid you not, it’s like his website knows what I want and manufacturers each post when I search.

This chocolate sauce is pretty awesome both cold and hot. It’s the grown up version of the ubiquitous Hershey’s Syrup, and I like that I can control the ingredients. I can’t eat xanthan gum, which is unfortunately in the packaged syrup. This is going to be my go-to recipe from now on. In addition to being great on waffles, it would be excellent over ice cream or any dessert, really. Or if you’re like me, you will eat it by the spoonful straight from the fridge.

Homemade Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce
Adapted from The Best Chocolate Sauce by David Lebovitz

1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 unsweetened cocoa powder (ironically I used the Hershey’s brand)
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I use Enjoy Life’s gluten- and soy- free chocolate chips instead)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the water, sugar, corn syrup, and cocoa powder.

Bring to a boil. Once it has just started to bubble, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the chocolate pieces until melted.

Let the sauce sit for a few hours to thicken and then it’s ready to serve. You can heat it to get a thinner runny sauce or use it cold for a thicker version.

Caramel Corn

16 December 2012

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Last night we had some friends over for dinner and then went to a movie, so I thought caramel corn would be a perfect dessert for us to bring to the theater. Not that we broke the rules and brought outside food into the movie or anything. Ahem. Anyway, this really is a lovely sweet snack, and perfect for gifting if you’re so inclined. However, you probably won’t be able to stop eating it once you start, so be warned.

Caramel Corn

1 cup popcorn kernels, popped (yields 5-6 quarts popcorn)
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick liners or parchment paper. Spread the popped popcorn on top, dividing evenly between the two sheets. Place them in the oven to stay warm and crisp.

In a large saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Turn the heat to medium, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Keep stirring until it reaches a boil. Let boil for 5 minutes without stirring.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Be careful because it will foam.

Remove the pans of popcorn from the oven and carefully pour the caramel in a thin stream over the popcorn, dividing evenly between the trays. We find it easiest to use a ladle, but feel free to pour straight from the pot. Stir the popcorn to coat all pieces with the caramel.

Place both pans in the oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to scrape up the caramel from the bottom of the pan and redistribute it to the popcorn. Once you remove the popcorn from the oven, let it cool and eat immediately or store in a sealed container for a week.

Mushroom Ragu

16 December 2012

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I am a huge fan of Stonesoup and the super simple recipes Jules posts there. This mushroom ragu came from the cooking school portion of her site, and I have made it several times over the last year. It is a rich and satisfying meal when you serve it over polenta or pasta. I promise that you won’t miss meat in your meal because the braised mushrooms really are quite meaty. This is most definitely a dish to make for the weekend since it takes around 2 hours in your oven, but it’s ridiculously easy to make. A note of warning to those of you who want to convert this to a slow cooker recipe– just don’t. The mushroom texture gets weird, so I highly recommend using the oven method in the recipe.

Mushroom Ragu
Serves 4, when paired with polenta or pasta

2 lbs mushrooms– I use a mix of cremini and portobello
1 14 oz can of tomatoes, including the liquid
6-8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 Tbsp butter
Any woody herb additions that you feel like: a few sprigs of thyme, a couple bay leaves, terragon, etc.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Throw everything in a dutch oven, stir, cover, and place in the oven for 1 hour.

Stir again after the hour is up and place back into the oven for an additional hour until the mushrooms are golden and the sauce is reduced. If it’s starting to look dry during the cooking process, feel free to add some water to prevent burning, starting with 1/4 cup. If you think it’s drying out, check on it every 20-30 minutes or so to make sure it stays moist. If the mushrooms don’t quite feel done at the end of this hour, you can place it back in the oven for 30 minutes more.

Taste and add salt if necessary, but I have never found that it needed it. Remove any of the herb stems or leaves and serve over a puddle of polenta or a pile of pasta.

Delicata Squash and Red Cabbage Salad

4 December 2012

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Last weekend I realized that I had eight squashes laying around my home. I’m not sure how I managed that feat, but I knew it was time to get rid of some of them. In other words, eat. I also happened to have a head of red cabbage just languishing in my fridge, being of absolutely no use. It was time to put it to work too. I remembered reading about a salad somewhere where they broiled the red cabbage to soften it but not cook it in entirety so that it retained a wee bit of it’s crunch. I decided to play on that and add the squash to be a lovely counterpoint in color, texture, and taste. Oh, and there’s no need to peel the squash since you can eat the peel when cooked and it provides some lovely color as well. A sprinkling of roasted pecans added a needed rich crunch, and the bit of goat cheese added tang and softness. It was finished with a lovely lime and maple syrup dressing, which as I type I realize sounds kind of funny, but trust me here that the sweetness and acidity balance the salad entirely well.

As a warning, this is a bit of an involved recipe since all of the ingredients have to be prepped separately, but it’s well worth the end result. The salad is best served at room temperature, which makes it ideal for taking for a meal with friends. However, I’m sure this would be equally welcomed warm or cold too. One last thing to note is that there is zero salt in this entire recipe. There is so much flavor in the cabbage and dressing that I liked it without salt, but feel free to sprinkle in some sea salt or kosher salt if you feel it needs it. Believe me, I’m just as aghast as you are that I didn’t use salt.

Delicata Squash Salad

Delicata Squash and Red Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

2 delicata squash, or really any squash that is good for roasting in chunks, like butternut
1/2 medium head red cabbage
olive oil
1 cup of pecans, or other tasty nut like almond or walnut
3 oz goat cheese, or more or less to taste
2 Tbsp maple syrup
juice from 1/2 lime, about 2 Tbsp

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the delicata squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and discard. Cut each half into half lengthwise again, and chop each of those pieces into small half moons, roughly 1/2″ thick. Put pieces in a bowl and toss with a drizzle of olive oil until the squash is coated. Spread out on an oiled cookie sheet and place in the oven. Because the pieces are small and I didn’t care about getting them all browned, I didn’t mind them stacking on top of each other, so one tray was enough room for all of the squash. Cook for approximately 30-40 minutes until soft when speared with a fork, making sure to flip half way through to ensure even cooking.

At any point while you are cooking the squash, you can roast your pecans. Place them on a dry cookie sheet and put in the oven with the squash. Check after 5 minutes to see if they are roasted to your liking. If not, keep in for an additional few minutes until they are a deeper brown (but not burned), and are golden when you cut into them. Remove from the oven when finished and set to the side to cool. When cool enough to handle, place on a cutting board and roughly chop the pecans to break them up and set to the side.

Meanwhile, prepare your red cabbage. Cut the cabbage in half, going through the stem end. Cut around the core (triangle shape of white) in the half you are using and discard. Place the cabbage half with the cut side down on a cutting board and thinly slice the cabbage. And I mean thin. Alternately, you can do what I did and use your food processor with the slicing blade, NOT the shredding blade. I accidentally used the shredding blade for the first batch and got teeny tiny pieces of cabbage. Toss the cabbage with a drizzle of olive oil and spread out over a cookie sheet and set to the side.

Once the squash has fully cooked, remove it from the oven and set to the side. Place one of your oven racks on the top most position and turn on your broiler. Place the tray of cabbage under the broiler and stir every five minutes, until the cabbage has softened. It took me roughly 15 minutes under the broiler, but the timing will depend on how big you cut the cabbage pieces and what your particular oven quirks are. Once softened, remove and set to the side.

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice and the maple syrup and whisk with a fork.

To assemble the salad, place all of the cabbage and 1/2 of the squash in a large bowl. Dizzle the dressing over top, and toss to combine. Taste and see if it needs more dressing or some salt. Adjust as necessary. Pour the salad onto a serving platter, and arrange more of the squash pieces on top so that you can see them still. Just tuck them into the cabbage so that it looks pretty. Sprinkle the nuts on, and then pinch pieces of goat cheese off and put on top of the salad. You are ready to serve now.

Free To Bake

Delicious recipes that happen to be gluten free and soy free.

Ada Vandermay’s Rhubarb Crunch

Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie Bars

Way Better Snacks Product Review

Healthy Broccoli Salad

Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce

Gluten Free Flour Mix

Homemade Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce

Caramel Corn

Mushroom Ragu

Delicata Squash and Red Cabbage Salad

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