Gluten-free Tabbouleh Salad

2 cups of cooked quinoa

1/4 cup finely diced shallots

1 yellow pepper

3 cucumbers

12 cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Vegan Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Rice paper

Vermicelli noodles

Napa cabbage

Cilantro

Mini sweet bell peppers

Cucumbers

Carrots

Soak to the rice paper in warm water and place on a cutting board.  Layer your vegetables and other ingredients starting with the cilantro leaves, noodles, thinly chopped napa cabbage, match-stick cut cucumbers and bell peppers and topped with grated carrots.  Fold ends and then roll.  

Serve with gluten-free peanut sauce or chilli sauce.   

Pesto Chicken Soup II

I discovered a little Italian market in the neighbourhood that sold some lemon chicken sausage and oh-my-goodness is it ever good. I prefer the lemon chicken sausage over using chicken breasts in this soup. I was planning on adding white beans to the soup but someone beat me to the beans and I didn't have any spinach on hand to add to this version. Still a work in progress....

Lemon Chicken Sausage (casing removed and cut into pieces)

Chicken Stock

Diced Carrots

Diced Celery

Parmesan Cheese rinds

Lemon grass

Pesto

For a light lunch I added a simple cucumber and cherry tomato salad drizzled with some balsamic reduction.  

Happy Eating!  

Cold Soups

Cold soups are widely consumed in the southern European countries during the hot summer months. In Portugal, vegetable-based cold soup is referred to as Gaspacho. Here in North America, it is best know as a soup from Spain. Regardless, there are many versions of Gaspacho, or if you like Gazpacho.

Gaspacho is one of my all-time favourite soups and I could eat this anytime of the year, but right now there are cucumbers in the garden and this is the best time to take advantage of the produce at hand. I'm took a detour from the tradition European recipe to try twist on Alton Brown's version because of the addition of cumin and lime to the traditional recipe. Love these two flavours! I was lucky to have cucumbers, red onions, parsley and basil from the folk's garden for this recipe. Still waiting for tomatoes that are taking their sweet time getting here.

My Twist on Alton Brown's version:

2 cups of diced cucumbers
1/2 cup of diced red onions
3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
4 large fresh basil leaves chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 peeled and seeded tomato
1 cup of vegetable juice (or tomato juice)
1 tablespoon cumin
Juice of 2 limes
Freshly cracked sea salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of gluten-free worcestershire sauce

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, remove about 1 1/2 cups and process in the food processor, add back to the diced vegetables and chill.