Category Archives: gluten free meals

Vegan Gluten Free Banh Mi

Don’t call it a comeback. I had to share. Mat and I went to Buffalo recently and picked up some Sub Sandwich Rolls from a company called Schar.

Banh mi sandwich close up - Lidia Le François

They offer a lot of different gluten free bread. At first I really didn’t have high hopes. I mean, sure they look fantastic, but what will they taste like? Naturally, I had to test them out by making a Banh Mi. What is this you ask? Here’s the Wiki explanation: the term bánh mì only means bread without any fillings, the term is used to refer to a type of meat-filled sandwich found in Vietnamese bakeries abroad, especially in US, Canadian, Australian, and French communities with substantial Vietnamese immigrant communities.

Before I became vegan I must admit I did eat a few of these when in Chinatown. They were incredibly cheap and being a student that was appealing enough. Now that my viewpoint has changed, considerably, I knew this is what I wanted to make.

How to veganize this sandwich?

Ingredients:
1 tbsp Vegenaise (or enough to cover the top/bottom of the sandwich) I added 1/4 tsp of minced garlic to the mayo for a kick
1/4 cucumber then sliced horizontally (I used a mandolin)
1 medium carrot spiralized or thinly sliced
2″ of a daikon radish spiralized or thinly sliced
1/4 cup cilantro
2 strips of tempeh
2 tbsp mushroom pate
1/2 tbsp lime juice

I followed the recipe for pickling the carrots/daikon and mushroom pate from The Chubby Vegetarian.  The carrots/daikon have to be made in advance, but IT IS WORTH IT. Seriously. I cannot express the joy, the dancing around the kitchen joy that I felt when biting into this sandwich. The bread baked up so nicely and we assembled everything so quickly it was still warm and DELICIOUS! Yes, this requires caps. If you have been waiting for a gluten free bread that will not disappoint I highly suggest you try this one. I wish I worked for these people because I’m going to be buying a lot of this product. Even if you’re not gluten free, this bread is incredibly tasty and you don’t miss a thing, it’s the same consistency and delivers an amazing crunch.

 

Banh mi sandwich open face - Lidia Le François

As this wouldn’t be a true Air Eater post without nutritional information here you are:

Bread Ingredients:
Water, corn starch, sourdough (rice flour), rice flour, psyllium seed husks (vegetable fiber), rice syrup, rice starch, sunflower oil, yeast, soy protein, sugar, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, saltBread Nutrition Facts:
Serv. Size: 1 roll (75g), Servings per container: 2.
Calories: 160, Calories from Fat: 20, Protein: 2g, Total Carbs: 34g (12% DV), Dietary Fiber: 5g (20% DV), Sugars: 2g, Total Fat: 2g (4% DV), Saturated Fat: 0g (0% DV), Trans Fat: 0g, Sodium: 380mg (16% DV), Cholesterol: 0g (0% DV), Calcium 4% DV, Iron 4% DV, Vitamin A : 0% DV, Vitamin C: 0% DV, Riboflavin: 0% DV, Thiamin: 0% DV, Niacin: 0% DV.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

The company has assured me, “All of our pasta, all of our breads, our breadsticks, table crackers, and crispbread are vegan. We hope this helps.”

There you have it – the sandwich that made me come out of hiatus.

PS, the planning for the Vegan Bloggers Unite! Conference is going very well with a few changes. We’ve had to change the date and remove the vendors. It’s a long story. I’ll explain it to you when you’re at the show.

Happy eating!

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Filed under Asian gluten free vegan, gluten free, gluten free meals, Meals, vegetarian gluten free

Vegan Gluten Free Lentil Loaf

What a few weeks it’s been! Vegan MoFo gave me a lot to do on top of keeping up with Vegan Bloggers Unite! (running the blog and planning for the conference). Plus being the host site as VBU! for Virtual Vegan Potluck, and the other things I do (Concept Branding), I’ve been run a bit ragged. Safe to say, I will not be participating in Vegan MoFo next year, I don’t think I can keep up with it.

During the Canadian Thanksgiving I made a few things that I will be adding to my dinner table on an on-going basis. One of those lovely dishes is a recipe from Tasty-yummies.com. I made Beth’s Lentil “meatloaf”.  Please do check out her site, she has many vegan/gluten free recipes. This is not a paid endorsement – I just think she is neat. I believe she is not completely vegan, but still a good resources for recipe that can be converted.

The first picture is the loaf uncooked. Here’s how my loaf turned out:

Lidia Le François, vegan, gluten free, aireater lentil loaf Continue reading

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Vegan MoFo 2012!! Raw Pizza Theme: Day 1

It’s here, it’s here, the month of vegan food blogging. Isn’t that every day you ask? Yes and no. Some blogs, like Air Eater aren’t strict food blogs and host give aways or product reviews. Vegan MoFo is all food all the time. I can’t wait to see the lovely photographs of people who take better pictures than me. Seriously! I just about die when I see how well the shots are taken and the food is presented. So pretty!

Last year I tried to do an all Bento Japanese theme. This year I am doing raw pizza! Who doesn’t love pizza? So many ways to make it, so many toppings, just delicious all around.

Here’s my first post. What I did was make the same crust three different ways, so I’ll be blogging about each pizza per day.

The components are as follows:

1. Crust
2. Cheese
3. Toppings

1. Crust
I used a tomato bread recipe I adapted from the fantastic Gena of Choosing Raw. Here’s the link from the original time I made the bread. I tend to add a lot of Italian Seasonings, plus dehydrated onion, sometimes a touch of agave; depends on my mood. I like my bread a bit thicker than a cracker, I find this recipe is incredibly tasty and packs a punch.

Day 1 Vegan MoFo raw pizza, Lidia Le François, vegan, raw, gluten free

Day 1 Vegan MoFo raw pizza, Lidia Le François, vegan, raw, gluten free

As you can see the crust darkened and I chose to flip it so the bottom was the face because I liked how the edges curved and formed a little cusp to keep the cheese in.

 

2. Cheese

I kept the cheese simple:

1/4 cup of soaked cashews
3 tbsp Nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 lemon

Day 1 Vegan MoFo raw pizza, Lidia Le François, vegan, raw, gluten free

3. Toppings:
1/2 cup sun dried tomato
1 medium carrot grated
Dehydrated zucchini chips
Massaged kale
Sliced red pepper

I thought by some miracle that blending sun dried tomatos and carrots would make a paste. No, it just makes some kind of mush that isn’t bad at all, but not what I expected. I figured for my first post I’d do something traditional and go from there. One pizza down, just another 14 to go. I intend on doing Wordless Wednesdays and posting videos of raw pizza recipes for Fridays.

Hope your Vegan MoFo is going well so far and thanks for dropping by! If you make the pizza, let me know, I’m always curious how people make out with it.

Happy eating!

 

 

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Filed under gluten free, gluten free meals, Meals, raw, vegan, Vegan Mofo, vegetarian gluten free

Air Eater eating vegan in Montreal

This past week was lovely. Mat and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary and escaped to Montreal where we could not get enough of Crudessence. I really don’t know what I’d do if they ever come to Toronto. We basically ate our way through a few days while walking around and enjoyed the random art installations etc.

We couldn’t find a gluten free vegan poutine, but I had to give in and try a vegan poutine.

We walked around a lot even though we drove, it was a great way to see the city and I just adore the architecture, wish Toronto had more historical buildings.

I felt like a taco, and called Burritoville, asked them if they were vegan gluten free. They were incredibly nice and they did offer a corn tortilla, but they cooked it on the same grill as the flour one. Sad that Mat couldn’t eat it, he didn’t want to risk it, I don’t blame him. They are taking steps to learn more about the needs of a celiac/gluten intolerant diet. This is great, I hope so because not to rub it in, but it was delicious and for $4!

This is the inside of Crudessence. I love how clean and simple it is, this is just one of the three locations.

We ordered the raw sushi appetizer:

This is the Om Burger:
It was freaking delicious and I could eat this every day. I have to learn how to make that aioli sauce, because it was finger licking good. Mat had the tacos, which were also incredible, and the side salad consisted of: mixed greens, sprouts, shredded carrots, beets/cauliflower, coleslaw with a curry flavour and sweet coleslaw and kale.

The next day I had the “egg” wrap:

Mat had the quinoa wrap, he enjoyed it quite a bit and I believe that was the only cooked item on the menu (other than the rice wraps that hold together the wraps themselves).

The little crackers on the side were delightful and I was incredibly full with this meal, but you know, I had to try the tiramisu, I couldn’t imagine how they could have made this raw, but oh did they ever.

 I would love to go back in a minute. We really enjoyed the raw food we had and bought the Crudessence cookbook. You better believe I will be making recipes from that book and blogging about it.

Happy eating!

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Spaghetti and Wildwood Foods “Meatballs”

We were at Organic Garage this weekend and a package of Wildwood Meatballs caught my eye. Most of the time vegan meatballs are made with flour and what really impressed me was this product was vegan AND gluten free. Amazing. Had to try it at home and what better than the traditional spaghetti and ‘meatballs’.

So, what’s in these things you ask?

Here are the ingredients: Continue reading

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Veggie Swiss Chard wrap with “cheese” sauce

During the summer I find I want food on the go and something light is usually best. I know my taste buds and that I heartily enjoy a good cashew cheese spread.

Cashew cheesy spread: Continue reading

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Fresh Jackfruit Vegan “Pulled Pork”

I’ve heard so much about Jackfruit and how it’s supposed to be awesome. I went in search of fresh Jackfruit. I wasn’t sure what the ingredients were like in the can versions (in brine) and if it was gluten free. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with making things myself and thus avoiding chemicals and gluten.

What is a Jackfruit? According to Wikipedia:

“The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)[1] is a species of tree in the Artocarpusgenus of the mulberry family (Moraceae).”

Here’s what it looks like growing on the tree:
Image: Wikipedia

I went to T&T, Galleria and Foody’s, but to no avail. Instead, I found the elusive Jackfruit right on Spadina, north of Dundas on the west side in a small fruit mart. It was $14/lb, rather expensive really, but I had to see what the talk was all about.

We took it home and chopped it up:

fresh jackfruit, Lidia Le François, Aireater

fresh jackfruit, Lidia Le François, Aireater

fresh jackfruit, Lidia Le François, Aireater

I peeled away the lighter colour parts and only left the bright yellow ‘flesh’. I removed the seeds, though I read they could be cooked like beans after. I suppose I could have saved them, but there’s always next time. I don’t think you can eat the flesh raw. It had an incredibly sticky feeling. Kind of like a dry mango/banana thing. Yes, so descriptive. I set about making the most delicious tomato based marinating sauce you’ve ever tried.

Marinating sauce: Continue reading

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So, what are you eating re: raw food?

Let me preface this by saying, I am not 100% raw, I just have been adding more raw food into my diet. I’m also not a nutritionist, this is just what I’m doing and I thought I’d share.

That said, I am LOVING the effects of feeling energetic and lively. I can’t say I feel this way eating cooked foods and I almost feel depressed eating something cooked. Mind you, I have a hard time saying no to a serving of Daiya filled lasagne, so there are some cooked foods I enjoy immensely.

I’ve been asked, so what are you eating exactly?

Here’s a run down:

Breakfast smoothie:
1 scoop of Vanilla Sun Warrior
1 1/2 cups Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla milk
1 cup strawberries
1 tbsp organic natural peanut butter
1 tbsp organic hemp heart
1/2 tbsp organic chia seed (black)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Continue reading

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Blissful Bites: Pineapple Not So Fried Rice Air Eater style

The kind people of Benbella Books sent me  Blissful Bites Vegan Meals That Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet  By Christy Morgan.

 

I really enjoyed Christy’s organized approach to cooking. The book is organized by seasonal recipes and is colour coded. Nothing more I like than colour coding! Okay, a few other things, but it’s up there. The beginning of the book explains pantry and utensil staples. This really helps in terms of being prepared to start cooking.

There are suggested menu items for all four seasons, this is smart because you’re not searching for exotic items during the wrong season and thus saving money by using what is currently available. Sometimes you really just have to be logical about cooking, and Christy does just that.

All her recipes are easy, comfort foods that would satisfy any picky palate.  I made the Pineapple Not So Fried Rice recipe and added a few things. I added a home made sun dried tomato and zucchini chips. I also tried to pipe avocado and Dijon mustard along the bottom of the rice circle with raw avocado on top. It provided a lovely addition in texture and taste. As per the recipe I garnished the rice with sesame seeds, I added toasted as well as plain.

Here’s how I interpreted the recipe: Continue reading

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How to Make Easy Vegan Lasagne

Since I’ve been eating raw the idea of an ooey gooey warm lasagne appealed to me. Though, I’ve been pretty happy with my raw meals, I haven’t committed 100% to being a total raw vegan. I get sucked back into the deliciousness that is pasta carbs.

I made this lasagne pretty quick and the key is to get your fillings assembled while the pasta is cooking and have it in the order you want each layer. I had the cooked pasta to my right with the toppings above the dish I was using from left to right. Felt like I was a type writer going across and then back again.

Ingredients:
1 box of Tinkyada pasta lasagne (cooked)
1 bottle of Marinelli’s Tomato & Basil
1/2 bag of Daiya Pepperjack
1/2 bag of Daiya Cheddar
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 1/2 cups of frozen organic vegetable mix
1 cup of fresh broccoli cut up in small florets

I used a Corningware white ceramic dish  1-1/2-qt Oval Covered Casserole. I was given this as a housewarming gift when I first moved out by my mother’s best friend. I love this dish, it works well and it’s a great size for small meals.

First, Continue reading

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