Tag: vegan

Hot or Cold Garlic Spinach

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Well, it’s hot. I am not a person who enjoys heat. I mean, you can always warm up, but it seems much more difficult to cool down. I suppose it’s because of where I live, all cool and inviting and rainy…and yes, that lack of sun does come with a corresponding vitamin D deficiency, but! I’m not overheated, and that’s a plus.

And, honestly, when the temperature rises outside, do any of us want to make the temperature go up inside? It just seems like a horrible idea that leads to sweat and hardship and dishes. (Okay, everything leads to dishes, but everything is harder when it’s hot!) That’s why I like hot weather recipes that don’t take a lot of time, that absolutely don’t involve the oven, and that I can eat hot or cold. Enter….Hot or Cold Garlic Spinach!

It’s easy, it’s delicious, and it doesn’t take a lot of a) time or b) ingredients. It’s perfect for summer or the unlooked-for heat snap!

You’ll need (serves 2 – 4):

4 cups spinach

4 tsps. olive oil

2 tsps. rice vinegar

1 tsp. mirin (optional)

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 tsp. sesame seeds

1/4 tsp. sesame oil (optional)

Salt

White Pepper

Get out a frying pan with high sides and heat the olive oil on medium-low. Thoroughly wash and shake out your spinach, and then dice the garlic. Add the spinach, garlic, salt and pepper to the pan, and stir to coat the vegetables in oil as they begin to wilt (about 5 – 10 minutes, depending on heat.) When you can smell the garlic and the spinach has turned malleable, add the rice vinegar and the mirin to the pan. Keep stirring until the steam goes away, and then drain any excess water. If you want to eat it hot, then serve immediately and top with the tiniest amount of sesame oil and the sesame seeds. If you want to eat it cold, toss on the sesame oil and seeds, and then stick it in the refrigerator to cool down and have as a salad!

Additional comments:

If you don’t want to cook the spinach in the pan, you can blanch it first in a pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. You’ll have to cook the garlic in the olive oil in the fry pan separately, then add the spinach, salt, and pepper. Then sauce as directed above!

Zucchini and Tomato Side Dish

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Okay, there’s some onion in there too, but I like alliums, sue me! One of the best things about summer is the vegetables, and one of the hardest things about eating vegetables when you’re allergic to certain foods is picking safe ones to eat. I can’t answer that for anyone but myself, really, I’m not a doctor of any sort, but I do know that right now we all have to be as mindful and careful with ourselves as possible.

So look on this meal as a starting point. The vegetables I can eat are inside it: zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and onions all from sources I can trust. If you have a garden, I suggest getting out your favorite squash and onions, slap on a tomato or two, and get to chopping. If you don’t have safe access to fresh foods, then frozen works just as well. The key here, as with all allergic cooking, is to do your research. Stick with brands you haven’t had a reaction to before, or email their information departments. I have had good luck with organic in my area (though corn-based farming aids can be just as rife in that area!) and this is always a good time to inquire about local CSAs, or places like that.

In any case, this is a quick, light dish meant for a satisfying side to chicken or pork, or as a mixer in your favorite pasta. It feels very summery to me, actually, hot and peppery, but also light and not overwhelming. I like this sometimes just on garlic toast!

You’ll Need (Serves 2 -4):

2 medium zucchini, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 – 2 tomatoes, chopped, or a handful of grape tomatoes

1 garlic clove, sliced

1 heavy pinch of thyme

Salt and black pepper

Olive oil

Heat the oven to 350F, and line a baking dish with aluminum foil. Wash and chopped all your ingredients and add them to the baking dish. Give it a stir to make sure the oil is evenly distributed, and that you add just a little more salt than you think you’ll need. These vegetables are watery, so they’ll make their own sauce, but it’s water…it needs a kick! Cook for about 20-30 minutes, or the tomatoes pop, and then serve.

Oh! And if you want a bit more flavor, add some red pepper flakes as well.

Quick Time Tomato Sauce

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Got thirty minutes and some tomatoes burning a hole in your fridge? I have a sauce for that!

Now, I will be honest, this isn’t a fancy sauce. It’s straight up tomato sauce meant to clear space in the fridge and create a quick, hearty meal with maybe three or four ingredients total (not counting the herbs). Which is to say, I think of this sauce as a base for any kind of vegetables or meat that I have leftover, or that maybe wouldn’t be great served on its own, but lets face it: Almost everything is better slapped onto pasta.

This sauce is great for a quick dinner solution. I have a weirdly hard time eating up raw tomatoes, but stick them in a salsa or a sauce and I can slurp it up like nobodies business. The way I make it is very simple, gluten-free, and vegan, but you could add anything you’d like to it to personalize this tomato sauce into your own special treat!

You’ll Need (serves 2 – 4):

1 lb grape tomatoes, or 4-5 medium tomatoes

Around 3 cups of water (or stock)

2 tsps salt (and then more to taste)

2 tsps pepper (and then more to taste)

2-4 cloves of garlic, or 2 tsps. garlic powder

1/4 cup chopped onions, or 2 tsps onion powder

1 carrot, finely shredded

2 tsps parsley

2 tsps oregano

2 tsps basil

Make sure all your vegetables are thoroughly rinsed! This is no time to be cavalier with hygiene, especially if you’ve got food allergies. I have been doing okay with store bought veggies, but stick with a brand you know you can eat safely, either from the store or a farm.

Get out a large saucepan and add your vegetables all in with the water, salt, and pepper. Be liberal with the salt at this stage, because you’ll want to be stingy afterward, and the salt in the water here will flavor your sauce. The water should be about level with the tops of the tomatoes. Turn the burner to medium or medium-low, and bring it up to a soft boil for about fifteen minutes, or whenever the tomatoes start to burst their skins. Take the saucepan off the heat, and let it cool down for a minute.

Toss the entire thing, veggies, water and all, into a blender, and blend it until smooth. If you have a small blender, like I do, just blend it in shifts until everything looks…well, until it looks like a sauce. I like it smooth, but if you want it a bit chunky, then I’m not gonna fault you!

Return the frothy sauce mix to the sauce pan and stir in the herbs. Remember that this is going to boil down by half, so when you taste it, don’t be alarmed if it’s not as flavorful as you might expect. Turn the burner on to about medium-low, and reduce by half, or when it reaches the kind of consistency you like in a tomato sauce, stirring occasionally. Taste it before serving to see if it needs any salt or pepper. It shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes or so, from start to finish!

I chose to pair this with pasta for a quick and filling dinner, but you could easily add this to bulk up a soup, or as a dip for garlic bread. I hope you like it!

Additional Comments:

  • If you are having difficulty sourcing safe food, and need to find a CSA in your area, the USDA has a directory here.
  • If you’re using stock, please make sure to decrease the amount of salt you use, or risk the entire sauce tasting like the ocean!
  • You’ll notice I don’t have any sugar in here. That’s because I’m hesitant to add sugar to savory foods. My workaround for cutting the acid in the tomatoes is the finely grated carrot, which adds a nice layer of sweetness and texture to the sauce. I grate it using my microplane, but you can also just use a regular grater, or chop it up and then blend it with the tomatoes. The choice is yours!
  • A note about sieving: This recipe leaves the tomato skins in, rather than taking them out. If that texture bothers you, and you have a little time, when the sauce is still in the blender, ladle the sauce back into the pan through a sieve. That will get rid of the skins, and will also smooth out the sauce even further.

Strawberry and Banana (and Mango!) Smoothie

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Got any fruit that needs a home, fast? Do what I do, and make a smoothie! It’s a good way to wake your stomach up if you need something light to start your day, or to have as a good snack. I’ve found it’s also a wonderful way to make certain fruit doesn’t waste away completely, which always makes me feel horrible to be honest.

I’m the sort of person who doesn’t like to bite into cold fruit, but I’m perfectly willing to chug it down in a smoothie or shake. I have no idea why, but that’s the way it is! So if you’re looking for something sweet, cold, and creamy to drink, I think I’ve got the smoothie for you! And if you don’t like it, I’ve got another smoothie recipe right here!

You’ll Need (Serves 1 large, or 2 small cups):

1 banana, kind of brown

1/4 cup mango, chopped and frozen

4 – 5 large or 6 – 9 small strawberries, sadly wilting

2 heaping tsps non-dairy yogurt

1 tsp maple syrup

1/3 cup cashew milk

1 tsp flax seed, ground

1/4 tsp ginger (optional)

Put the frozen items in the blender either first or last, depending on what kind of blender you own. I have a magic bullet, which means I put the frozen items in the cup first, so they’ll be blended last. It helps the consistency of the smoothie to have the frozen bits be blended at the end. Then add the flax seed and any spice you’re thinking of adding. It’s not necessary and the strawberry/banana combo by itself is delicious, but I like to add things spices like ginger because it makes it feel healthy to me. It’s entirely apocryphal, of course, but there you are!

Anyway, blend the whole shebang together in the blender (either using the mango to make it chilly and sweet, and with a few ice cubes instead). In the Magic Bullet I press down the cup three times to get it all…well, smooth, and then I pour it out and enjoy! I hope you do as well.

Cucumber Tomato Salad

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Sometimes what you need is a quick, bright splash of acid with a decent crunch, a salad to complement something fatty like lamb, or heavy like a red Thai curry. Also, sometimes you realize you have the end of one sad English cucumber and a box of cherry tomatoes you forgot about and it’s time to either fish or cut bait. And lo! A salad is born!

Winter is not my prime season for salads. If you live somewhere without the darkest days of the year (Say…California where it gets down to fifty and people reach for their woolens) you might not have the same urge to eschew all cold foods and sink into soups, stews, and baked sweet potatoes until you’re as fluffy as the mashed potatoes you just ate. I know they’re good for me, but they’re cold, and I’m cold; my core temperature is going to win out every time.

But when the weather starts warming up, my fickle eye turns towards fresh vegetables once more. This can be a bit tricky (when isn’t it when eating with food allergies?) because a lot of fertilizers or sprays that extend the life of fruits and vegetables can be derived from corn or soy. If you have a sensitive allergy, the produce section is always a minefield.

I don’t have a dedicated vegetable garden, so I rely on my local supermarkets. So far, it’s been without any incident. I’m always careful to go for foods that have some dirt on them, a sign that they probably haven’t been washed or sprayed with something to make them more attractive, and if there’s a rind I generally don’t eat it, even if it’s edible. Thus, I can still have apples and citrus fruits.

In regards to tomatoes and cucumbers, I’ve had good luck. I generally get tomatoes on the vine, though in this case we had a punnet of cherry tomatoes, and the cucumber came from Trader Joe’s so I felt a little better about my chances. As always, approach food from new places with caution until you’re sure you won’t be affected.

Back to the food, this salad has good sharp flavors that wake my tongue up from its winter slumber, and the acid from the rice wine vinegar makes a fantastic complement to the more subtle flavor of the cucumber. I like it with rice and curry, but you could also have it alongside a sweet potato and garlic spinach, or Lemon Paprika Chicken and rice stuffing. It punches up a heavy dinner or makes a great addition to a light lunch. I hope you like it!

You’ll Need (serves 2 -4):

1 English cucumber, diced

2-3 medium tomatoes or a good handful of cherry tomatoes, diced or sliced in half

2 – 3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. Rice Wine Vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced, or a good shake of garlic powder

1 green onion, diced (optional)

A good shake of sesame seeds (optional)

Salt and Pepper

Cut up your vegetables, and place them in a bowl or container with a tight lid. Add the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Close the lid on the bowl and give them a good shake so that everything mixes easily. Can be served immediately, or placed in the fridge to marinate. Lasts about a week, but I would recommend taking it out of the fridge a few minutes before serving, to allow the olive oil to become liquid again.

Orange Mango Ginger Smoothie

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I like smoothies. They tide me over as a snack when I’m not feeling hungry enough for lunch, but my blood sugar is tanking, and they’re a nice way to get a bunch of fruit in my diet. Unfortunately, when you have as many allergies as I do, the actual making of said treat can be a little work.

For instance, I can’t have a lot of commercially made juices, whether it’s because of their added vitamins and minerals, or however they process the juice to begin with. So, I’m often stuck making my own, which…arm exercises aside, can be a pain. So, if you’re wondering, the answer is yes, to make one smoothie, I juiced 7 tiny oranges in order to use them up before they went bad. It came out to be about 1 1/3 cup of orange juice and while it was, admittedly, delicious, if you can drink orange juice from a jar? Absolutely go for it! There is no shame in allergy eating, there’s only what you can eat, and what you can’t.

You’ll need (make 1 smoothie):

7 tiny mandarin oranges slowly gaining sentience on your counter

1 handful of mango

1 tsp ground flax seed

1 tsp leftover coconut pulp (optional)

2 Tbsp. cashew yogurt

Ground or minced ginger, to taste

1/2 tsp. honey

1 handful of ice

First off, juice your oranges. I used an ancient tupperware attachment that formerlu belonged to a pitcher (now lost to time) and a bowl, cut the oranges in half, and then just wrung them dry in the cereal bowl. I also then counted it as my exercise for the day, but remember there’s no judging! Anyway, I poured that into a liquid measuring cup every time the bowl got unwieldy. I had some chopped up mango leftover, and tossed that in the blender, before adding in the flax seed, ginger, yogurt, honey, coconut, and ice.

Then, using the orange juice instead of my usual water, I blitzed the entire thing in a blender, and poured it out into a cup. It tasted like summer in a glass, tart and not too heavy, with an underlying sweetness that I didn’t find too cloying. I always like to include ice in my drinks because…well, it may be raining like the dickens for three weeks straight here, but I still love cold drinks. I’m very basic, I know.

This made my grey day a little more bright, and I hope it does for your grey days as well!

Vegan Pesto Pasta: The Oregonian Treat

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All right, that isn’t a thing, and no one other than me probably remembers that Rice-A-Roni jingle, but the title made me laugh, so I’m using it. Ha!

I’m told traditional pesto has a great deal of cheese in it, and reading the labels of the little jars in the supermarket certainly bears that out. I’ll be honest, I bet it’s fabulous (my mother certainly agrees!) but since I can’t have it, I decided to come up with a version that would taste good to me and my family members whose bodies work properly. It’s been taste-tested numerous times as a quick, easy meal for a weekend lunch or dinner, when all anyone really wants to do is poke someone else until they’ll do the cooking. Got 10 minutes? You got a meal!

You’ll Need (serves 6):

1 bag of fresh spinach, washed and dried

1 big handful of fresh basil leave, washed and dried, or 2 Tbsps. dried basil

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, roasted in their own oil

1-2 large cloves of garlic

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon, or about 2 Tbsps.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive Oil (I tend to use 1/3 – 1/2 cup)

Put all the ingredients, except for the oil, into a food processor or blender, and turn the machine on to high. While it’s running, pour in olive oil. If the mixture begins to stick high up the sides, stop the machine, and push down the concoction so the blades can reach it. Turn it back onto high and keep adding olive oil until the whole thing looking like a sauce. Mine didn’t take more than five minutes (and quite possibly less!)

Turn off the machine and taste test it. Is it too sharp? Add more spinach. Does it need more salt? Add some. Sauces are really things that you have to make to your specific taste. I can’t add nutritional yeast to this, as people often do, because I get different answers to my allergy questions from within the same companies. That’s why I add lemon juice for brightness, but if you can eat nutritional yeast, then feel free to add a teaspoon or two for your own pleasure. Tell me how it tastes, I’ve always been curious!

To serve this, I made gluten free pasta. I drained it, and let the hot noodles cook the sauce a little to draw out the flavors. I didn’t reserve any of the pasta liquid, but if you’re eating traditional pasta, then you should absolute keep back a half a cup or so to meld the sauce with the starches.

I like this recipe. It’s got a wonderfully basil overtone, and I think the spinach gives it heft and body. The lemon and garlic give it an entirely unctuous quality, which I know sounds silly, but that’s how it tasted to me. Sometimes I’ll add shrimp if I’m quite hungry, but usually I just eat it plant-based, just as is. It’s lovely hot, or cold the next day.

Additional Comments:

Just to remind you, if you use bagged spinach, there’s a likelihood that you might accidentally have cross-contamination with a corn-based cleaning wash that they use on the loose leaves. If possible, try to get spinach that’s unbagged or from a brand you’ve used before and not reacted to. I also always thoroughly wash my vegetables, regardless if they say they’ve been pre-washed or not. I know it’s a hassle, but I always want people to be as safe as possible. If you have a very sensitive allergy, then this might not help you, but it works for me!

Citrus fruits can often have corn-based wax on their peels in order to lock in their freshness. I’m doing okay just peeling them and only having the juice or pulp. I never use lemon peel.

Hasselback Potatoes: When You Want Fries, but Cutting Them Up Seems Hard

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Sometimes I want fried potatoes, but a) can’t because deep frying terrifies me, and b) my lord, does it seem like a lot of work. When in doubt, and when I want to look fancy, but also feel a bit accomplished, I make “Hasselback Potatoes” which are a sort of crossover potato dish. They’re fancier than just plain ol’ baked potatoes, and the slices mean I can stuff just…so much more fake butter and salt than I should. And you can put anything you want on it! Make it vegan and plant-based! Make it paleo or vegetarian with all the cheese in the world. Add bacon and get your carnivore on! It’s your potato! So come with me, theoretical reader, as I show you have to make the one potato dish you’ll ever need for when company calls, or you want to treat yourself to a date for one.

Let me just get out here that I have no idea where this dish came from. Wikipedia has an unsourced accreditation to a Swedish chef (insert muppet here) in 1959, but I only remember hearing about it a couple of years ago…possibly on the Food Network. Regardless of however it came into my life, it is a potato dish, and thus, I will never let it go. I confess I hate the texture of baked potatoes, and love the brazen salt glut of a good pile of fries, and Hasselback potatoes hit me in the happy medium. Also, I made ketchup again, and I needed something to drench in it. (Pity me, it’s a disease!)

For people like me, with a corn allergy, root vegetables like potatoes can be dangerous. They soak up a lot of what’s in the ground, and so if the farmer grows them in the field with corn-based fertilizers or sprays them with corn-based chemicals for shipment, you can run into real trouble. When I buy potatoes in the grocery store, I buy loose potatoes–not bagged–and I try to aim for the dirtiest ones I can find.

I know it sounds weird, but it’s true! The more dirt is on a vegetable, the less likely you are to run into some kind of chemical you might be allergic to, like the sprout inhibitor some potatoes are sprayed with. Always be careful!

You’ll Need (Serves 1):

1 medium sized potato (I like russets or yukon golds)

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375F, and line a casserole pan with aluminum foil. Then wash and peel your potato, removing any dark spots or hardened eyes you uncover.

To make Hasselback potatoes, take a sharp, heavy knife, and carefully cut slices width-wise down the length of your potato. You want to make each slice approximately as big as teh other for each cooking, and you want to take the knife down almost but not quite cutting through the potato. Be very careful with your knife! I speak as one who has sawed through their thumbnail and lived to regret it.

Decrease the oven to 350F. Put the potato in the casserole dish and cover in oil, salt, and pepper. Cook until a fork can be pushed into the side of the potato easily and come out cleanly (about 45 minutes to an hour). Then add whatever toppings you want! I like salt, pepper, a lot of Miyoko’s fake butter, and a dollop of Forager’s unsweetened plain yogurt.

Coconut Cream Chocolate Cake

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You ever need a dessert that doesn’t take a lot of time and comes out looking presentable for company? I don’t often have that need, but I’m eating Christmas at someone else’s home this year, and one of the ways I like to contribute (and ensure that there’s a dessert I can eat!) is to volunteer myself to bring a cake, or some cookies, or a couple of sides, a chicken, and the left hand side of the menu.

Look, I get nervous when I eat out, okay? Two weeks ago, I had half a sandwich at Panera and wound up with a tight throat, three days’ worth of hives, and a depleted Benadryl stash. This is through no fault of the company of course! I had told the servers I have food allergies. This is just the risk I run when I eat outside my own kitchen, even when I’m eating foods I haven’t reacted poorly to before.

So to make myself feel better, and to help me gear up for the holiday cooking marathon, I decided to make a cake. A chocolate cake to be precise, using gluten free flours, and more cocoa powder than is probably good for me. It also let me test out an idea I had for a cake without all the fake butter, which I didn’t have in the fridge, and nut milk…which I had forgotten the night before.

But what makes a cake? The reason we use butter and milk is because we need liquid and fat to create something more unctuous than sugar and flour can provide; it’s the difference between cake and enriched bread. So I vaguely remembered a friend passing me a cake recipe without eggs, butter, or milk that only needed coconut cream (I have looked and looked, but I cannot find the recipe! So thank you, anonymous cake maker, and if I ever find that link again I will be including it here).  I needed to make one big enough to share, but not overwhelming and—since I had the idea that all that coconut would make it way to rich, be able to stand on its own without frosting.

Most cakes, especially gluten-free and plant-based cakes, are just as delicious as fully dairy, egg, and sugar cakes are. Unfortunately, none of those are guaranteed to be allergy-friendly, much less allergy-free!  Like many people, I can’t have baking powder or eggs, vanilla extract, or xanthan gum. But I can have coconut, and that’s all the delightfully fatty goodness I need to make a cake.

The result is a chocolatey delight, rich enough to satisfy anyone’s dessert cravings. It’s quite dense and rich because of the coconut cream, but I didn’t taste any coconut when I tried a piece. Or the morning after, when I tested it again. Or the day after that. Look, I ate a lot of it, and had no complaints.  I made three 5″ cakes, and popped one in the freezer (that’s what I do with practically everything) and it defrosted well. To make it fancy, I shook some powdered sugar over the top, but I think it holds up well on its own. Maybe next time I’ll add an edible flower or two?

You’ll Need (serves 6-10):

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 13oz. can coconut cream, shaken well and at room temperature

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. cold water

4 flax eggs

1 cup cocoa powder

1/3 brown rice powder

1/3 millet flour

1/3 sorghum flour

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

Preheat your over to 375F. 

Make your flax eggs fifteen minutes before starting your cake, and then mix all the ingredients except the flours and baking soda together. In a different bowl, stir the flours and the baking soda together, and then slowly add it into the wet mixture. Stir the cake together until there are no lumps and make sure you’re incorporating some air (try counting to 360 while stirring, if you’re doing it by hand).

Grease two 8”-9” pans, or three 5’ pans (like I did). Pour the cake batter up to a little over the halfway mark in each pan, and let them rest for about twenty to thirty minutes.

Decrease the temperature in the oven to 350F, and put your cake pans in!  Cook for about 30-40 minutes, or until a fork stuck in the middle of the cakes comes out cleanly.

Cool the cake in the pan for ten minutes, before turning the pan upside down on a cooling rack and letting it complete cool.

Additional Reminders:

  • Don’t be alarmed if your coconut cream had tiny white chucks floating in it! Those are okay.  If you open the can and the coconut cream is too hard to mix, spoon it into a microwave safe bowl and warm it up in the microwave for fifteen seconds.
  • If you’re making this cake with regular AP flour, then you don’t need to let the batter rest, and you can take out the eggs entirely. The flax eggs in the gluten free recipe are to provide structure for the GF flours.
  • If you’re in a rush, turn this into cupcakes! They’ll cook faster, and they’re more portable. After about twenty minutes, stick a fork in the center cupcake to test the doneness.

Building Block: Homemade Tomato Ketchup

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If you have an allergy, shopping at the supermarket can be a little more fraught with pitfalls than your average consumer, and you can’t always escape that desperate scroll through a laundry list of ingredients by going to a farmer’s market or signing on for a CSA. A lot can depend on how a food item is stored or processed, what it’s been sprayed with, and even what field the food is near (I’m looking at you, raw honey!). In short, finding food that’s safe for you and your family when there’s a food allergy in play can be a lot of ‘trial’ as well as the horrible frustration of a whole lot of ‘error.’

How this works out for me, is that there are many store-made foods I just can’t have, even when the ingredients list works in my favor. Soup stock, alternative milks, and many condiments are on this list, and even though I’m still trying to find some of these items, there is simply no guarantee that I’ll succeed.

Thus, I have brought to you today….a recipe for ketchup! No, I know! Actual ketchup! It’s a thing you can make!  I was also surprised. There are just some foods that you don’t think about cooking up until fate or craving sort of forces you into scouring your bookshelf for incredibly old recipes.

Many of those recipes resembled something more like the Brown Sauce you find in the UK, or like a thickened version of Worcestershire Sauce which wasn’t what I wanted at all. In my head, ketchup is a tomato-based delight, slightly sweet, but with an underlying tart saltiness and a smooth thickened texture. I wanted a sauce I could drag a fry through and have it come out clinging to the potato rather than drip off the side, if you know what I mean.

Finally, I settled on an approximation of all the recipes I had seen, only drastically reduced because if I failed at this recipe, I didn’t want to be saddled with cup after cup of some nasty tasting marinara. So I made some substitutions, did some highly suspect math, and complained endlessly to my friends via text that I was going to burn my ketchup like some city slicker who just arrived on the prairie. I could sense the ghosts of my ancestors rising up to judge me (my grandmother, in particular, just wanted me to keep trying with store-bought.)

Short story, I did not burn anything! (I did take about a ½ inch of skin off my ring finger, but that’s an unrelated incident). And the result was…ketchup! Actual, real-tasting, tried and true tomato ketchup! I felt so accomplished, I can’t even tell you.

But it also impressed upon me how much time and investment making ketchup is. A little over two pounds of tomatoes produced ½ cup of actual ketchup. All the recipes I found called for immense amounts of ingredients, at a cost today which most people (including me) might honestly find prohibitive, not just in money, but in time spent cooking. That’s the trade off with a lot of allergy-friendly products: what others can just pluck off the shelf, we have to devote time and thought and money to achieving.

So this is my admittedly delicious, but scaled down recipe for tomato ketchup. It’s easily adjusted to create more, but I honestly recommend creating a small batch of the stuff—as I did—to make sure you like the flavor and want to devote the time to making the product. I think making this recipe greatly increased my confidence in the kitchen (I made a condiment! Me!). It feels really good to know that I can still have something, even if all the store-bought varieties so far make me itch.

You’ll Need (serves 1):

~2 lbs. tomatoes

water, for boiling

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 large clove garlic

1 tsp. white sugar

¾ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. paprika

Wash your tomatoes and add them to a large pot with a lid. Pour in enough water to cover the tomatoes, and then bring them to boil on the stove top. Once the tomatoes have split, remove from the stove and drain the water.

Using a fine mesh strainer and a spoon, or a berry press, press the juice and pulp out of the tomatoes back into the pot you just used. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the strainer to get all the good stuff!  Add in all the rest of the ingredients, and then reduce the sauce on low to medium-low for three hours, or until the sauce resembles ketchup. It should be thick enough to part with a spoon and it should definitely stick to the back of said utensil. Stir frequently to make sure that the sugars don’t burn. Allow it to cool completely before putting it into the refrigerator.

Additional Comment:

Around 2 lbs. of tomatoes yielded ½ cup of ketchup.

If you’re scaling up this recipe, please remember that this is a heavily reduced condiment so all the flavors will be quite concentrated. Less is definitely more!  Also, if you’re worried about the amount of nutmeg, try substituting with mace instead.