Nowadays there are all sorts of dietary requirements to meet due to allergies, intolerances, ethical choices or diet plans.
This January, hundreds of people across social media were taking part in #veganuary, sharing their recipes and ideas of how to get involved. There are many other days/weeks/months in the year dedicated to various dietary plans and things but the one I am focusing on today is a day that is fast approaching-
National Grain-free day, Feb 21st.
Gluten intolerance and allergies have been on the rise the last few years, some people choose the gluten free life style too so the availability of such foods has had to increase in accordance to the increased demand.
I have several friends who are vegetarians or vegans, who are allergic to eggs, nuts, dairy, gluten, bananas, tomato, citrus… (if they all came over for a meal at the same time I’m not sure I could cope). If you have the same kind of scenario this post will hopefully help with some of it.
To celebrate this National Grain-Free day I thought I would try out some recipes, test how easy/difficult they are and pass them on to you in the hopes of inspiring some dinner plan variations for you.
Without further ado then, here is my attempt at one of the recipes I found by a simple Google search for ‘grain free recipes’:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spanish-meatball-butter-bean-stew
I will admit that I only used 1 pepper, caster sugar instead of golden caster sugar and used beef mince rather than pork mince because it’s what I had in my cupboard. I also didn’t use fresh parsley but I did my version of this recipe…
This was the first time in years that I’ve made my own meatballs and they did not retain their shape for long at all, a few survived but most collapsed, will still taste the same though so oh well. It is a very simple recipe, it all gets chucked in together you just have to do it in the right order.
After simmering for 10 mins I added the sugar, beans and some more parsley then did the final simmer. It smelled amazing! Looks pretty good too, even if I do say so myself.
I also managed to get four portions out of it as well so means a few days I won’t have to cook which is a bonus!
The taste of it wasn’t as flavoursome as the spaghetti bolognese or chilli con carne I make but this may be due to it being my first attempt at this recipe and the fact I had several variations to the recipes instructions. Next time I make this dish I will add more seasoning, extra garlic and maybe some extra herbs and spices, was still pretty tasty though and as it is so similar to a spag bol/chilli it would go well with rice, spaghetti, pasta or on it’s own (which is how I ate it).
Desert
If you want to have a sweet treat to follow on from the stew why not give a grain-free pudding a go. I kind of cheated with this one as I was tempted by the gluten free packet of brownie mix I found in Asda so I made those. Very simple, you just need egg, water and margarine. I only had butter not marge in the fridge so that had to do.
While mixing I realised the 1 medium egg I had used (packet said 1 large but medium was all I had) and the recommended 1 tbsp of water wasn’t enough so I added a 2nd egg and a bit more water to get the mix to the consistency I was after.
It says to grease a specific sized tin, I did not have this sized tin (and now can’t remember the size it stated) but I lined the large tin I had available with greaseproof paper and plonked the mixture in the middle, spread it out and popped it into the oven.
I must admit these brownies taste a lot better than the pictures make it look… they are a little drier than other brownies I’ve made but that might have been because my oven is so temperamental. They go down well with a cup of tea at the end of a long work day or with ice cream/custard for pudding so they have been a welcome treat 🙂
Use #NationalGrainFreeDay to share yours on social media
Until next time, TTFN
Do you have a gluten allergy/intolerance? What’s your go to grain-free recipe? What recipes would you recommend I try out? Let me know in the comments.
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