Category: Saucy

Gluten-Free White Sauce

Posted on by Trish

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I’ve been looking at a bag of brown rice flour in the cupboard for ages (with pauses to go to work, watch TV, go to sleep etc.)  and wondering if t would be possible to make a decent white sauce with it.  Having suffered the indignity of having to pretend to enjoy cauliflower cheese  made with dairy free cheese sauce mix (just because it’s fake, does it really have to taste like it?) and having half a cauliflower left, I thought about how much better I might be able to do.

Classic white sauce involves butter, flour and milk – this one follows the same principles but uses oil, rice flour and water, although if I was making it for someone else then I’d make it more creamy with soya or nut milk or nut cream.

  1. Heat up a tablespoon of oil and mix in a heaped tablespoon of brown rice flour
  2. Stir well over a medium heat till the flour is bubbling, cook for a few minutes taking care not to let it burn
  3. Pour on hot stock, a ladleful at a time (check the stock you’re using is also gluten-free)
  4. Bring to the boil then simmer, sauce should thicken – when it can coat the back of a spoon, it’s done

I’ve added fresh dill but for a cheesy sauce you could add ketchup, marmite and yeast flakes or vegan cheese to taste.
To make an onion sauce, start by frying onions in the flour then proceed with adding rice flour.

 

 

Pesto

Posted on by Trish

It’s been a long time since I ate any shop-bought pesto; there’s a jar of Florentino basil pesto in the cupboard but, I dunno, I just don’t trust it.  For pesto you need fresh basil leaves, good olive oil, flaked almonds* or whole almonds with their skins if you’re feeling worthy, plenty of garlic and a hand-held blender.  To make your pesto a bit cheesy you can add cheese of your choice; while hard cheeses like pecorino are traditional, soft goat cheese makes for a creamy pesto.  If, like me, you prefer no cheese at all, you can add some nutritional yeast to achieve a cheesier taste.

*you can use pine nuts if you prefer, but once I switched to almonds there was no turning back

How to make?

Rinse the basil leaves, chop the garlic, then everything in a blender (or use a hand-held blender)

Goes well with pasta or just about any other grain – alternatively use as topping for bruschetta