Light Shrimp Alfredo Pasta

This recipe is free of gluten and has a low lactose content.

I am a huuuge fan of alfredo. It's definitely my favourite sauce, hands down. However, classic alfredo sauce is pretty much just butter with a bit of garlic and seasoning, and most marketed alfredo sauces found in North America are loaded with heavy creams that would definitely twist my lactose-sensitive stomach. 

While I'm definitely not a calorie counter, putting half a cup of butter into my sauce is a bit much for me, same with heavy creams - even if I could tolerate them, just.. no. So, I decided to compromise and use a fraction of the butter called for in classic alfredo recipes, but use yogurt to get that creamy flavour us alfredo fans love so much! 

It was FANTASTIC. This was my first attempt at making alfredo from scratch, so I stuck to the basics and am so pleased with the results! Next time, I'll probably add some mushrooms and broccoli for that extra umph, but even on its own it was great. I also tested it on a few hungry men who seconded my enthusiasm. I highly recommend giving this spin on alfredo a shot!

Yield: Serves 3-4

1 11oz package pasta (I used gluten-free spaghetti, but you can use the more traditional fettuccine or penne)

28 large shrimp

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic cloves

1½ cups low-fat yogurt

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (parmesan) 

⅛ cup butter (quarter of a stick) + 1 tablespoon for boiling pasta

1 teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon oregano

Salt to taste

Pinch of nutmeg

Freshly ground black pepper

Boil pasta until tender in salted water with a tablespoon of butter.

Meanwhile, heat coconut oil in a large frying pan, then add garlic. Fry garlic until brown, then add the shrimp, cooking for 10 minutes on medium heat.

Once pasta is finished, drain water and transfer it back into the pot. The shrimp should be done by now, so add the shrimp and garlic with whatever oil is left in the pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients - except the pepper - stirring frequently until mixture is hot and cheese is melted.

Serve with a hearty dose of freshly ground black pepper on each plate.

Enjoy!

Post by McKayla

Creamy Cashew Chicken

This recipe is gluten free and low in lactose.

This is a delicious quick make if you're in a rush. I didn't have some of the sauces traditional cashew chicken calls for, so I improvised. I made it from scratch and tossed a few things together that I thought would be similar. It was deemed more delicious than the generic cashew chicken with pre-made sauces! If you're a fan of this dish, try my version and see if you agree.

Yield: 2 servings

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (or whatever you deem 2 servings to be)

2 handfuls cashews - note that I have ridiculously small hands

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon minced garlic cloves

2 tablespoons vinegar (I used apple cider because it's my fav, but you can use rice vinegar instead)

2 teaspoons gluten-free soya sauce

1 teaspoon Worcester sauce 

½ teaspoon paprika

1 cup yogurt

1¼ cups white rice 

3 green onion stalks

Olive oil for frying as well as for rice lube during boiling

A little sprinkle of salt to taste for the sauce, and ¾ teaspoon salt for the rice

Mix chicken, sugar, vinegar, soya sauce, Worcester sauce, salt (to taste), paprika and yogurt in a bowl. Leave to marinade in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat and toss in garlic cloves. Cook until the garlic starts to brown.

Meanwhile (this step is optional) break the cashews into tiny pieces. If you prefer whole, that's okay too! I put them in a bag and smashed them with a hammer. Fry the cashews with the garlic for 5-10 minutes, or until the cashews start to darken.

Add the chicken mixture. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

After you add the chicken, you'll want to start the rice. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the salt and a little bit of oil along with the rice. Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat to low and cover, stirring sparingly, for about 10 minutes. 

Now, when my chicken finished, I didn't like the amount of sauce. I'm a sauce lover, and this was inadequate sauce territory. So I mixed up another batch of the sauce ingredients above, and added it to the chicken and cooked it a bit longer. However, that's just me being a sauce freak, so what you have might be fine. Either way, add a bit of corn starch (or any kind of edible starch) to the sauce and thicken it to your liking. 

While your rice and chicken is cooling, chop up the green onions. Use it to garnish if you want to make it look pretty, or just mix it in with the chicken and rice if aesthetics isn't on the list of things you care about today. 

Enjoy!

Post by McKayla

Gluten-Free Yogurt Blueberry Lemon Scones

This recipe is free of gluten, nuts and has a low lactose content.

Scones are one of my favourite breakfast/snack foods. Their delicious biscuity texture has been sincerely missed since I had to drop gluten from my diet. I used to work in a coffee shop, and the smell of fresh scones would stab me in the heart every time. 

My first concern when trying to create a gluten-free scone recipe was the texture. As many of you gluten-freebies know, when baking gluten-free a lot of the time it comes at the price of texture... In this case, not so! These scones are exactly what I was hoping for; crumbly and not as flat as a pancake!

Yield: 8 scones

1½ cups rice flour

½ cup tapioca flour

¼ cup arrowroot starch

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

¾ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup cold butter, minus 2 tablespoons

1¼ cups fresh blueberries

½ lemon; zest

⅓ cup yogurt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Mix flours, arrowroot starch, sugar, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Cut butter into tiny pieces and mix into dry ingredients. Rub the butter and flour together until it's completely crumbled evenly into the mixture and you can no longer feel its sticky presence.

Stir in blueberries and lemon zest.

Mix yogurt, vanilla extract and eggs together in a separate bowl. Create a hole in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the wet mixture in.

Mix JUST until you get a dough, do NOT over mix. Dough will be sticky as gluten-free doughs usually are, and that's fine.

Transfer entire mixture onto a lightly floured surface and flatten out into a square about ½ inch - 1 inch thick. Cut this square into 4 smaller squares, and then half those squares into triangle shapes. Place onto a pan/pans lined with parchment paper, and brush a little bit of yogurt on top of each scone.

Put the pan(s) in the oven for 22 minutes. My oven goes a little cooler than most ovens so I put mine in for 25. I also used two pans for the scones, so keep that in mind when baking yours.

Remove and let cool.

Enjoy!

Post by McKayla

Herb and Yogurt Stuffed Salmon

Free of gluten and nuts.
Note: This recipe is not dairy free because it contains yogurt, but some lactose intolerant people such as myself can handle yogurt due to its slim-to-none lactose content, so this recipe still may be for you yet!

Happy Canada day everyone! I would've loved to come up with some fancy Canadian-esque recipe for the occasion, but honestly I couldn't really think of any Canadian food to make today so I ended up making an old favourite: herb and yogurt stuffed salmon. Really when I think of Canadian food all that comes to mind is poutine and maple syrup, which DON'T GET ME WRONG NOW is delicious as any Canadian knows but not exactly fitting for Pumpkin Bits. 

I love oven roasted salmon as it's a healthier alternative to frying or deep frying, and it of course involves less effort on my part. ;)  As a side, I roasted vegetable skewers in the oven with a honey and garlic sauce, and paired the two were absolutely delicious! 

I used all dried herbs for this recipe given all stores are closed today and my last-minute effort at a decent meal with fresh herbs was hijacked, but you can easily substitute any dried ingredients with fresh.

For the rub I used a spice called fish masala paired with tumeric, as honestly I can hardly cook anything anymore without adding a Middle Eastern twist to it... Their spice blends are just so much better! So if you're not feeling daring you can substitute the fish masala and tumeric with a more local fish spice blend. Fish masala can be obtained at any foreign food store (sometimes the Indian versions are way too spicy for me so I prefer to stick with the Arabs on this one) or you can click on one of the text links above to buy one off Amazon, or use one of my substitutes listed in the recipe below. 

Yield: 3-4 Salmon Fillets

Rub:

A few sprinkles of fish masala * You can substitute this with a) a local fish spice blend if you're not feeling the foreign spices today,  or b) sprinkle on a tiny bit of garam masala, an even tinier bit of cumin and some curry.

A few sprinkles of tumeric

Juice of one lemon

Stuffing:

1 cup yogurt

1½ tablespoons minced garlic

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon zaatar (it's a blend of thyme with toasted sesame seeds, so just thyme is a decent substitute)

½ teaspoon of basil

Preheat your oven to 450°F/230°C/Gas Mark 8.

Rub the salmon with your chosen spice mixture from the ingredients above. You can juice the salmon now, but I prefer to squeeze the lemon juice on at the very end.

Mix stuffing ingredients together in a bowl. 

Hold the salmon so that its width is facing up, and carefully cut an incision along the width as far down as you can get the knife without piercing the other side. 

Fill the incision with the stuffing and repeat for all fillets. If you can't seem to get your knife to make an incision without flaking the salmon or repeatedly tearing it from the top or bottom, your salmon sadly probably isn't thick enough and you need to work on your salmon selection skills.

Grease a pan and place the salmon carefully in the pan, careful not to squeeze out the stuffing. Squeeze a lemon over the fillets and finally sprinkle some salt and pepper to your taste. 

Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, or if you like your salmon well done leave it longer.

Enjoy!

Post by McKayla