Basic Yam (Sweet Potato) Puff

This is a simpler (and closer to the original) version of the Spiced Sweet Potato Puff recipe I posted previously.

4 large yams (sweet potatoes, the dark orange kind)

¼ cup butter

2 well-beaten eggs

⅓ cup sugar

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Pare potatoes and boil until tender, then drain--or, for a richer flavor, bake them in the skins and then peel them. Mash and add remaining ingredients. Beat well and transfer to buttered casserole. Dot with additional butter and bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30-40 minutes.

Crustless Sweet Potato Pie

One 15-oz. can or 2 cups pureed sweet potatoes (the more orange ones often called yams)
1/2 cup honey
Scant 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
1 cup milk or milk substitute (I used whole goat milk, but coconut milk would probably also work very well in this recipe)
4 eggs, beaten

Mix ingredients together, pour into oiled pie pan or baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 35-45 minutes. Best if cooled before eating.

Sweet and Savory Lentil Soup

Small amount of oil (I used olive oil)
1 onion (medium to large), diced
2 to 4 cloves garlic
3 to 5 carrots, washed and sliced thin
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized chunks (1/2" to 1" or so)
Other vegetables as desired (I added 1/4 head of green cabbage, sliced)
2 cups lentils, rinsed and drained
About 10 cups water
Large pot

Saute onion and garlic in oil in the bottom of the pot until beginning to get soft and brown (carmelized). Add carrots and cauliflower, stirring and cooking slightly. Add water and lentils, bring to a boil, and simmer over medium to low heat until lentils are tender, about an hour.

Depending on what other vegetables you add, you may wish to add them when you add the lentils, or wait until closer to the end of cooking. I added cabbage about halfway through cooking.

If desired, add up to 1 lb. sausage about halfway through cooking also. (I buy a safe uncured sausage made with just meat and fresh herbs at a local butcher shop [Butcher Boys' ground Italian or Breakfast sausage], or there are a few safe brands of chicken sausage available commercially) If you leave out the sausage, this is a vegan recipe. Carmelizing the onions and garlic until they are brown makes the flavor and color much richer, and the carmelized onions and carrots give the soup a sweet flavor.

Just before stirring, add salt and pepper to taste if desired. With the sausage, I found we didn't need any further salt or spices.

This recipe is grain-free and nightshade-free, as long as you are careful about sausage ingredients. The cauliflower gives the starchy, mild flavor that takes the place of rice, noodles or potatoes in this recipe.

If you leave out the sausage, it's vegan. We get sausage with no additives other than herbs and spices at a local butcher shop or natural-food store. Our sausage contained ground chicken, salt, fennel seed, caraway seed, coriander, black pepper, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. For even more flavor, you could use vegetable broth or bone broth in place of all or part of the water.

Spiced Sweet Potato Puff

This is an old family recipe with some modifications--I doubled the eggs, used 1/4 cup honey instead of the original 1/3 cup sugar, and added pumpkin pie-type spices. I think I actually prefer it without the spices, or with just the cinnamon, but it's good both ways. I use whipped cream instead of the traditional marshmallow topping, or it's good with no topping at all.

It turns out quite fluffy.

4 large sweet potatoes (the darker, sweet deep orange kind often called yams or garnet yams in U.S. markets), cooked and mashed (drain water if boiled)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
4 eggs, thoroughly beaten
1 tsp salt (I put in slightly less)
2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Scant 1/2 tsp ginger (optional)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract or maple syrup(optional)

Butter large baking dish (I used 9" x 13" x 2")

If mashed sweet potatoes are still warm, stir butter in and allow to melt. Add honey, and eggs and mix well. Add dry ingredients (either mix together or add baking powder last), beat until well-blended, and pour into baking dish. Dot with butter if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm or cold, topped with whipped cream if desired.

Roasted Vegetables or Tubers

Thanks to some commenters on the Purple Puzzle Place blog, I've discovered a new favorite way to cook many kinds of vegetables: roasting.

Roasting works well for cauliflower and for just about any kind of root vegetable. So far I've tried it with potatoes, carrots, jicama, and lotus root, as well as our favorite cauliflower. Yams, taro, turnips, squash, parsnips, cassave (yuca) roots, and many other vegetables should work just as well.

The basic recipe is pretty simple:

Preheat the oven to about 475 degrees.

Cut your vegetable(s) of choice into approximately 1 inch chunks. Put them into a plastic bag and drizzle your favorite healthy oil over them. Just shake and squish the bag to evenly distribute the oil.

I use about 1/4 cup of olive oil for a whole cauliflower or 6 potatoes--you want just enough to coat the vegetables.

Spread the oiled vegetables in an uncovered baking dish. I usually use a 9 x 13 glass dish. If you can get the vegetables in a single layer they will cook a little better, but if not just spread them as thinly as possible and stir a little more frequently while cooking.

Bake at 475 for about 15 minutes, then stir. Bake for another 15-30 minutes (depending on the vegetable) or until the vegetables are getting tender and browning on the edges. Stir every 10 minutes or so.

Some vegetables I like to cook until they're getting almost black on the tips and edges, but you can adjust this to your taste. Cauliflower is particularly good this way, as it carmelizes and develops a savory rich flavor with hints of sweetness. Even my family members who "hate" cauliflower will eat it roasted this way.

For extra flavor, you can add some leeks or onion, a clove or two of minced garlic, herbs, spices or salt and pepper. I like to mix various vegetables and flavorings for variety, and just sprinkle with sea salt to taste.

You can chop the vegetables and coat them with oil ahead of time. I've done this with olive oil, garlic and dill on potatoes and carrots. The oil coating kept the potatoes from browning and they absorbed the flavors well. I cut up a big batch and refrigerated half to bake later, and it tasted just as good baked two days later as it had originally.

Non-Dairy Clam Chowder (or Not-Potato Soup)

New-England style clam chowder. It was one of those foods I thought I'd never enjoy again, at least for a very long time.

But, thanks to The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook: The Foods You've Always Loved Without the Ingredients You Can't Have, bought for me by DH, the impossible is happening fairly frequently around here.

This clam chowder is dairy, gluten, soy and nightshade free. It can be made without the clams for you vegans out there, too. (In that case, it's not clam chowder; it's mock potato soup.)

With no dairy and no nightshades, you can finally eat clam chowder again.

#####################

Clam Chowder (From The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, by Marilyn Gioannini)

1 hour * 4 servings

This classic New England style clam chowder, thick with "potatoes", onion, and "cream", tastes exactly like the real thing. The "potato" is yuca (cassava) root, available in most supermarkets; the "cream" is cashew milk.
Absolutely delicious!

About 1 lb. yuca root
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/3 cup raw cashews
1 (6 1/2 oz) can minced clams with juice (check labels when shopping--some have preservatives)
salt and pepper

Peel yuca root and dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Cover generously with water, add salt, and bring to a boil in a medium saucepan. Simmer, covered, 30 to 40 minuts, or until very soft. Stir occasionally. While the yuca is cooking, heat vegetable oil in a medium skillet. Add chopped onion and saute until soft. Add the onion to the saucepan with the yuca root.

Put cashews into blender container. Blend briefly until they are broken up. Aded 1 1/2 cups of water and blend on high until cashews are completely pulverized, about 3 minutes. When the yuca is soft, add clams to the saucepan. Add cashew milk and heat just until hot. Serve immediately. Add salt and pepper to the bowl to taste, and serve with toast.

The book gives several variations on the recipe, including using other milk substitutes. I think next time I'll use a bit less onion, but I really enjoyed the soup.

I think I almost prefer the taste of cassava to that of a regular potato. It has a very similar taste and texture, but just slightly sweet and without that sort of sour flavor that potatoes sometimes have. It is, however, much tougher to cut up and takes longer to cook, and you have to be sure to remove all the little woody bits.

I like this food allergy cookbook. Rather than just giving recipes (although it has lots of those, too) the goal is to teach you to substitute and improvise so that you can alter existing recipes to meet your dietary needs. I highly recommend the book.

The information is truly helpful and fairly exhaustive, and almost every recipe I've tried so far has become one to add to the oft-repeated stash of favorites. There's also some helpful information about identifying and coping with food allergies in general.

The book tells you how to cook without the things you may need to avoid--including preservatives, animal products, dairy, eggs, soy, gluten, corn and other grains, sugar, nightshade plants, and even chocolate. The only area I noticed in which it is really lacking is that of tree nut and legume allergies; several of the recipes require either soy or some kind of tree nut (none call for peanuts), and cooking without tree nuts is not particularly discussed.

This cookbook has quickly become my most often-used cookbook. Especially the recipe for Universal Muffins--my kids and I love that one, and it's so very flexible. I make it sometimes several times a week.

Root Vegetable Chips

These non-potato chips are nightshade free and can be made free of any allergen by adjusting the type of root vegetable, oil and seasoning used. They are remarkably easy, and have a satisfying crunch and nice flavor.

You can use just about any root vegetable--parsnip, taro, and yam are some I've seen used. One I haven't seen used before is lotus root. It works very well, and as an added bonus the chips are very pretty to look at also.

I made some chips last night out of baked taro and raw lotus root, sliced thinly. The taro didn't work as well--perhaps because I sliced the chips too thickly and cooked them at too high a heat. Or possibly because I had baked the taro previously for fear of undercooking (taro root is not edible if not fully cooked, and can irritate hands and mouths if not handled raw).



The lotus chips turned out beautifully. I peeled the lotus root and sliced it thinly. Then I heated about 1/4 inch of grapeseed oil in a stainless steel pan and fried the slices on both sides just until golden brown.

I started out with too high of a temperature initially, and they got a little too brown.



With the second batch I turned the heat down to about 4 on a scale of 1-10. They cooked more slowly, but ended up nicely crispy without getting burnt.

I forked them out onto a paper towel, which absorbed some of the extra grease. Then I sprinkled them with salt and we ate them.

Next time I think I'll try lightly coating them with oil and baking them in the oven.

Lotus Root

I've discovered a new food Baby E will eat and seems to tolerate well: lotus root.

########

It's the root of a flower, and the taste and texture are something akin to a cross between potato and water chestnut.



I think Baby E likes it because it has little holes to stick her fingers through.



It's a pretty vegetable, and interestingly different. So far I've tried adding it to a mixed stir-fry and simmering it in water.



The stir-fry was more successful. I think it needs to be mixed with other flavors and textures to really shine.

Taro root can also be eaten raw in salads, but none of us were crazy about the taste and texture of it raw.

The only place I've found it so far is at Whole Foods.