Secret non-dairy & soyless cheese

I've been on an endless search for a way to make my kids a real pizza -- you know, something that looks and tastes like the real thing, or as close as possible. So, first, the problem was making a gluten-free crust. That took a while. Now, I've finally developed a crust recipe that's actually very good. It's a variation of Noah's Recipe.

Then, it was the sauce. That wasn't so hard. I use a very basic pizza sauce, based on Hunt's tomato paste, which is GF.

The toppings really aren't that difficult either. Choose any you want that you know is GF and CF. I buy a GF brand of pepperoni. It's perfect.

The problem, of course, is the cheese, especially if you can't eat soy, which is what most "fake" cheeses are made from. Even so, most soy cheese tastes horrible.

And in my kids' cases, the cheese doesn't have to taste great, it's more of the appearance of real cheese that's important to them. We just can't have something that tastes bad -- like the soy.

So, I've finally found a solution: polenta.

Yes, polenta, for those who don't know, is corn meal that's been boiled into a solid cakelike substance. It's often sold in tubes and some brands clearly are marked gluten-free. You also can make this at home fairly easily. (If you can't eat corn, don't worry, you can make polenta out of nearly any grain, like millet, for example, or teff).

So, I took the polenta and grated it, like I would cheese. Say, about a cup. Toss it into a bowl. Then, add 1 tsp olive oil. And, add 1/2 tsp sea salt. Stir. This is the cheese topping. The polenta will cook, but not melt. The oil keeps it from drying out. The salt adds some flavor.

Trust me, this works.

I'll post the entire pizza recipe -- crust, sauce and cheese -- later this week. For now, go find some polenta and experiment. I'll also share some other polenta recipes using different grains.

Spicy rice - a GFCF dish

Don't think I'm weird for posting this recipe. It's super easy, but if you read this blog, you know that I like super easy recipes. I've dubbed this "spicy rice" because that's what got my oldest to eat rice. My youngest can't eat rice -- food intolerance. But, I really wanted my oldest to try something other than her favorite potato dish -- Dutch Potatoes (really just steamed potatoes). But, she wouldn't eat the rice I'd make her. No brown rice. No white rice. I figured it was a no go.

One day about two weeks ago, I was in a bind. I was running late, didn't have time to cook, but had a bowl of leftover brown rice in the fridge. I made the following recipe in 5 mins and she ate it. What was missing (to her) -- the spice. She likes her foods spicy, both in appearance and taste. So, now we have "spicy rice."

Ingredients
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Brown or white rice, cooked
Oil -- I use canola. Olive would be fine.
Sea salt.
Black pepper
Or any other favorite spice -- paprika, chili powder, cumin, ground red pepper, oregano, etc.

In a stove top pan, heat oil for a minute, about 1 tbsp. Scoop out 2-3 cups of the pre-cooked rice and place in the pan. Use a utensil to separate the rice and mix it well with the oil. Add 1 tsp sea salt and a few dashes of the pepper or any other spice you think might work. My kids like all of them, so I'll mix it up day to day on their foods. Just heat this up, tossing it around a few times to make sure it's coated and the spice is mixed well.

You only have to heat this a few minutes. Then serve.

I buy long grain brown or white rice, the kids like white best and I know Lundberg sells this, because it's healthier. It's just raw. I make big batches in a rice cooker each week and the put it in the fridge. I use it all week long. We found an affordable rice cooker at a local store. Very handy. If you buy rice in bulk, like 10 lb., 25 lb. or 50 lb. bags, you save a ton of money.

I know rice is going up in price right now, and I'm watching those prices carefully. If it comes to the point that it's too expensive, I'll post some options that I've researched.

For now, enjoy this recipe.

More Amy's pizza -- GFCF spinach

Ok -- here's another Amy's review. And, it's another pizza. I'm very impressed with the taste of Amy's Kitchen pizzas so far. This time, we tried the Rice Crust Spinach Pizza. This is a whole frozen pizza, perfect for two to share for a meal, or four kids at snack time. Not too spinachy. Not too gluten-free-ey and again, very good soy cheese flavor. Like the last pizza, this has soy. So, obviously, if you're avoiding so, this isn't for you. And, again, with the rice crust, anyone avoiding rice should stay away. Overall, this tastes like a real pizza. Very tasty. I'd recommend this. The pizza is GFCF, Vegan and Kosher. It contains soy and rice and also has some potato in it.

Amy's gluten-free, dairy-free pizza

Ok -- so this is the first in a handful of product reviews that I'll post. Amy's Kitchen has supplied a few items with no strings attached. If I offer a poor review, they likely won't do it again. I agreed to this because I thought it might help readers looking for good pre-made products to grab in the store.

The first item is called the "Single Serve Non-Dairy Rice Crust Cheeze Pizza."

The first bite of Amy's gluten-free, casein-free pizza surprised me because it lacked the cardboardy taste of soy cheese.

The folks at Amy's somehow found a fake, soy mozzarella that really passed my taste test. I forgot I was eating a GFCF pizza.

Pizza is a tough issue in GFCF land. First is replicating the crust, which is not easy using GF flours. Second is how to replace the cheese. The options aren't great. Some skip it altogether (I'm among those since I can't stand soy cheese). Others suffer through the bad taste of soy cheese.

Many GFCF folks also cannot handle soy, leaving them little option. For those people (my kids included), this product is not for you. There's definitely soy in here.

If you can handle the soy, this pizza offered a very nice experience.

I'm impressed with the cheese replacement and equally impressed with the simplicity of the rice flour crust and the taste of the crust. Many GF bread products smell GFy from store aisles away. This didn't. It was good.

This is a personal-sized pizza that would be great to split for a lunch or snack. It might not be enough for a dinner -- if you split it. I would hesitate to serve the entire pizza to my child because of the fat (28g) and carb content (46g).

My wife and I split this pizza for an evening snack and we both enjoyed it.

As for allergens, Amy's is great about listing ingredients on their products and offers a tremendous website that notes allergen issues. This item is listed as gluten-free, dairy and lactose free, vegan, corn-free and kosher.

Other highlights worth noting are that the product has no trans fat, no added MSG and no preservatives.

Other notes from the ingredient list:

- the flour used is rice and tapioca.

- tomato is used for the sauce.

- oils used are safflower, sunflower and olive.

- the crust contains yeast.

- potatoes are listed.

I would recommend this product. Very tasty.

Amy's Kitchen review coming

I'll be reviewing some GFCF foods from Amy's Kitchen in the next few days and I'll post my review for you to read. You might already be familiar with Amy's, but if not, the company makes quality vegetarian and organic foods. Many are GFCF and the company's website offers easy-to-use guides for allergens like soy.

A GFCF TVP burger

OK -- this recipe won't be for everyone, especially if you're avoiding soy. If you can eat soy, this would be an interesting experiment. I've tinkered with TVP lately -- that's textured vegetable protein. It's really dry chunks of soy that you can reconstitute with water quickly and make meat substitutes, like burgers, nuggets, chili, etc. I'm using it for myself -- trying to lose some weight. The TVP is high in protein and has some carbs. It's a good way to get protein food without the high cholesterol in regular beef. I posted this recently on the SparkPeople website -- a health site.

Basic TVP burger

Ingredients
1 cup dry TVP -- you can find this at a health store. It's inexpensive.
1/2 onion for 1/4 cup
Shredded carrot for 1/2 cup
Corn/tapioca starch 1/2 cup
Olive or canola oil 2 tbsp
1/2 cup fat free chicken broth
1/4 cup water
spices

Boil broth and water, add spices -- I use soul seasoning, pepper, salt. After boiling, pour over dry TVP. Sit 10 mins.
Add chopped onion, shredded carrot and starch. Stir together.
Heat half the oil in a pan on medium high. Mold a 1/2 cup of the mix into a burger shape and brown on each side -- two burgers at a time.

Number of Servings: 6

Nutritional Info
Fat: 4.5g
Carbohydrates: 20.6g
Calories:193.8
Protein: 16.2g

Patience

Thanks folks. The issues seem to be worked out. You still may find a missing photo here or there in the old posts. If so, feel free to let me know so I can fix them.