Gluten Free Dinners

That pretty much everyone eats.

Tacos. A big hit. The kids love these. We use gluten free taco shells or corn chips and they all help themselves making their own taco salads. Yum.

This is a vegetarian, slow cooker chili, one of Anisa's favorites. Ruhi doesn't mind it. Bayan merely tolerates it.

Cornflake crumbed fish, with salad, stir-fried string beans and mashed potato.

Sushi. Bayan only eats the rice and Maryam only eats the avocado but the girls are more adventurous with the tuna, egg and smoked salmon. Anisa even tried the wasabi. I love wasabi.
Anisa...not so much.The old stand-by. Khoresht-eh-sabzi (Persian lamb, herb and kidney bean stew) with rice and salad.Chinese honey-glazed chicken wings with rice or rice noodles, baby bok choy and salad. This is a current favorite, as are the chicken meatballs (not pictured) in a spinach and orange khoresht (stew). It sounds gross but the flavours are amazing. Even Bayan eats it - though not the yucky bits (aka spinach).

And what food post would be complete without at least one desert. I made this honey paoched quince and apple pie with an almond crumble topping and base. Mehran was super impressed (especially 'cause it tasted amazing and had no sugar.) Soheila just about died eating this thing. Truly. Sooo good. Well, maybe two desserts. This is a chocolate, coconut milk "cream" pie with a coconut flour shell, almond crumble topping and sliced bananas to boot. The kids preferred this to the quince. Personally I will have to taste more samples from both before I can make up my mind.

For Martha and anyone else who might be interested here is the recipe 4 Honey Poached Quince Pie. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Gluten free pie crust (adapted from Elana's pantry)

3 cups ground almonds

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

a little over 1/3 cup grapeseed oil

2 Tablespoons agave nectar (or honey)

1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon

Put dry ingredients into a medium bowl, add wet ingredients and stir to combine. Pat 1/2 of the mixture into a 9 inch glass pie dish and bake in a preheated oven at 150 C for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

For the filling (adapted from allrecipes) you need about 3 quinces and about 5 apples, depending on size (a little over a kilo of fruit that is peeled cored and sliced).

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 cups water

another 1/2 cup honey or agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons flour (I think I used arrowroot)

2 Tablespoons butter.

Combine quince, honey,and water in a pan. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 8 - 10 minutes. Strain the quince, reserving the liquid and set the quince aside to cool. Combine the reserved liquid with the honey or agave nectar, cinnamon, salt, flour and butter and bring to a boil. Reduce hat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens this should only take a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Layer the apples and quince in the pie shell and pour the liquid over the fruit. Crumble the remaining almond mixture over top and bake at 160 for approximately 45 minutes, or until the juices are bubbling and the crumble top is golden brown.

It goes great with tea or with a side of ice cream or freshly whipped cream...yummmm.