Hearty Bean & Barley Soup

Over the last several years I've gotten into a routine of making soup at least once a week. This has been driven more by practical reasons than a sudden love for soup. With young children just learning to eat solids, soup is an easy meal solution. You can blend individual portions of the finished soup to whatever consistency your child can eat while the adults in the family can continue to eat the soup as is. Everybody's fed, everybody's happy.

However, practical benefits aside, I have to say that this weekly soup routine has caused me to develop a much greater appreciation for soup than I previously possessed. Soup is warm, comforting, and surprisingly satisfying, often a meal on its own. The following soup is no exception. It's a dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free soup comprised of a hearty combination of beans, barley, diced tomatoes, spinach and some other aromatic vegetables. It has good flavor and is quite nutritious as well.

RECIPE for Hearty Bean and Barley Soup by Cooking Light

Recipe Notes:

• Omit parmesan cheese to make this dairy free
  
  
• To save time, I've skipped the initial step of boiling and straining the first several ingredients. Instead, I will add minced garlic while sauteeing the other aromatic veggies (carrot, onion, celery), add rosemary directly into the soup, and simply omit the crushed red pepper.
  

Quick & Tasty Chicken Tagine

If you're in the mood for something just a teensy bit more exotic, try this tasty dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free chicken tagine recipe from Rachel Ray. A tagine, as I recently learned, is traditionally a slow-cooked dish originating from North Africa. I believe this particular dish has Moroccan flavors and it also happens to be one of Rachel Ray's "30-minute-meals", so no slow-cooking going on here (which is fine by me). By using chicken breast, this dish can be cooked in a short amount of time and it holds onto all the aromatic spices quite well.

This is a very flavorful dish that works well with the couscous that is also part of the recipe. It's aromatic with some subtle sweetness coming from the dried fruit ingredients. If you have the spices on hand (cumin, coriander, sweet paprika, tumeric, cinnamon) I'd definitely give this recipe a try. And even if you don't, consider making this at a later point in time. It's fast and it adds variety to the regular meal rotation.

RECIPE for Quick Tagine-Style Chicken by Rachel Ray

Recipe Notes:

• Don't get too caught up in having all the ingredients called for. I didn't have dried prunes or raisins on hand, and ended up using dried cranberries. I also didn't use any of the condiments. Many recipe reviewers also used different types of dried fruit or didn't use any at all and still enjoyed the dish.
  
  
• Taking a cue from several reviews, I added just a touch more spices to ensure optimal flavor.
  
  
• Vegetarian/Vegan Version: As noted in the recipe, eggplant or tofu may be used in place of the chicken. Vegetable broth can be substituted for the chicken broth.
  

Super Healthy 17 Bean & Barley Soup

Here's a relatively new product that is being sold at Trader Joe's. It's their 17 Bean & Barley Mix which can be made into a very hearty soup if you follow the recipe printed on the back of the package. I've never been a huge bean person before, but I've discovered that many bean-based dishes also happen to meet my dairy-free, nut-free, and egg-free food requirements. I've also learned over time to appreciate nutrient-rich foods, such as beans, and in general try to eat as healthily as possible.

When it comes to healthy, this bean mixture certainly delivers. One quarter-cup serving includes 13g of fiber, 13g of protein, and 20% of the daily recommended allowance for iron. To make the soup, you will also need vegetable broth, onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper, canned tomatoes, garlic and a variety of spices. It's pretty hearty so it definitely qualifies as one of those soups that is a meal in itself. To make this easier for kids to eat, you can take a portion of the soup and blend it roughly with an immersion blender. This has turned into a great meal solution for me since everyone down to my one-year-old enjoys eating it and I can feel good knowing that we all managed to get something healthy in us for the day.

Ratatouille Recipe (& Film) Earns Top Marks

In honor of Ratatouille, the movie, winning the Oscar for best animated film yesterday, I thought posting a recipe for ratatouille, the dish, would be fitting. Anyone who has seen the movie will recall at the end when a beautifully plated morsel of ratatouille is served to a harsh food critic. As the plate is presented before this critic, it seems as though you can almost smell the wonderful aromas emanating from the screen. Watching this scene was great except for one thing, I didn't have a clue what ratatouille was so I didn't know what I was supposed to be smelling. So, as I'm sure many people ended up doing after watching the movie, I immediately set out to discover what ratatouille was. Here's what I found:

Ratatouille is a classic French Provençal vegetable stew which can be served either as an appetizer, a side dish or a meal on its own. According to Wikipedia, "Ratatouille comes from "touiller," which means to toss food. ... It was originally a poor farmer's dish, prepared in the summer with fresh summer vegetables. The original Ratatouille Niçoise used only courgettes (zucchini), tomatoes, green and red peppers (bell peppers), onion, and garlic. The dish known today as ratatouille adds aubergine (eggplant) to that mixture."

Most importantly, however, given that I'm writing about this on this blog, is that ratatouille, in its basic form, is dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free. If you like eggplant, you will probably like ratatouille. Below is a well-reviewed ratatouille recipe from Epicurious that is intended to be a meal on its own. In this version, the vegetables are roasted in stages and then tossed with cooked penne pasta. I made this recently and thought it was quite good despite the fact that I wasn't using peak summer vegetables or fresh herbs. I imagine this would be even better if I did use the freshest of ingredients. I've also included a link to a basic recipe for ratatouille by Everyday Food. I haven't tried this one yet, but it looks simple and promising. Please let me know how it is if you decide to make it.


RECIPE: Ratatouille with Penne* from Epicurious

*Recipe Note: To make this dairy-free, simply omit the grated cheese accompaniment.


RECIPE: Ratatouille from Everyday Food

Giada's One Pot Chicken Stew

I'm a recent Giada De Laurentiis fan. You may be able to tell given that this is my third Giada (yes, we're on a first name basis now) recipe post in a short amount of time. I've never really paid much attention to her before because she specializes in Italian cooking and when I think of Italian food I think of cheese. However, in my continuous search for flavorful, allergy-friendly meals to cook, I've actually found that she does have some no cheese, non-dairy recipes (or cheese-optional recipes) and they have all been consistently good.

Here's another one of those recipes I've tried. It's great because it's hearty, nutritious, and you can cook it all in one pot. Perfect for a cold day or when you just want some warm, comforting food.


RECIPE by Giada De Laurentiis

A Hot Bowl of Udon in Minutes

Living with food allergies means that you are preparing almost every meal from scratch. Conveniences like outsourcing pre-prepared foods from grocery stores or getting take-out from restaurants are rare. The continuous daily thought process behind meal planning can be quite tiring. So when you come across an allergy-safe packaged food item that also happens to be tasty, reasonably healthy, and quick to prepare, it's quite thrilling.

Annie Chun's Udon Noodle Soup bowl has become for us a great option for a quick, easy meal. It's microwaveable and literally takes about 3 minutes to prepare from start to finish (the packaging says 2 minutes, but you still need to do some minor preparations before putting it in the microwave for 2 minutes). My food allergic daughter really enjoys this noodle soup as does the rest of the family. To supplement the meal, we often add chunks of tofu and/or pre-cooked vegetables into the soup.

My Go-To Beef Stew Recipe

Here is a very hearty, very satisfying beef stew recipe that is also fairly nutritious. You can alter the ingredient list a bit according to your taste. I like to reduce or omit the potatoes in favor of more carrots. I've also omitted the pearl onions if I didn't have them available.

RECIPE from Cooking Light

Lentil Soup Can Actually Be Good(and it's good for you too)

I would never have considered myself a lentil person before. Somehow I had formed an impression that they were tasteless, mealy fare. While watching the Food Network one day, I saw Giada De Laurentiis whip up this lentil soup. It looked simple, fresh, and surprisingly good so I thought I'd give it a try. I followed the recipe, excluding only the parmesan cheese. My entire family, kids and all, loved it. It's now become a staple in our family. Serve it with some nice crusty fresh bread and you have a nice light meal.

Nutritional Notes:
Lentils pack quite a nutritional punch. They are rich in dietary fiber, protein and iron. And they contain more folic acid than any other unfortified food - a one cup serving contains 90% of the recommended daily allowance!

RECIPE by Giada De Laurentiis

Allergy-Friendly Tweaks & Other Recipe Notes:

• Dairy-Free Tweak: Omit parmesan cheese
• Vegetarian/Vegan Tweak: Replace chicken broth with vegetable broth
• For a slightly thicker consistency, puree roughly 1/4 of the soup prior to adding the elbow pasta
• Try this soup using French green lentils (pictured above) if you can find them since they don't break apart as easily, otherwise brown lentils work out fine