Living the Gluten Free Life

Autumn is here! I harvested my buttercup squash at the weekend:

That put me in the mood for Autumn food, keep reading for squash scone and (homegrown) apple crumble.

Today was a perfect example of how eating gluten free and vegan without making bad health choices is not that easy...you really do have to prepare.
Breakfast was my usual (starting to get a tad boring) plain puffed rice with frozen berries and soya yogurt, eaten in a rush as with most Mondays. I hadn't time to make lunch, there was nothing to hand to eat my hummus with, I hadn't time to cut up a salad. So lunch today was two fruit soya yogurts and a Cocoa Orange Nakd bar mixed in, and I snacked on little apples and a banana. Even though I was hungry, I didn't fix myself a quick dinner, instead I got prepping for the next few days. First I made Gena's sunshine burgers, replacing the brown rice with brown lentils and the carrot and celery with leek. I didn't shape the mix, just stuck it in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner. I also made her foolproof tofu burgers at the weekend; so quick to throw together, super tasty, nutritious, and easy to digest. Gena, you're the Burger Queen!

Next I made my pumpkin scone, for the first time gluten free.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Scone (adapted from Nigel Slater's Tender: Volume 1- an excellent cookbook)
All quantities are double the original to fit in my big frying pan
600g steamed pumpkin (I usually use butternut squash, this is roughly a whole one)
280g flour- I used 200g brown rice flour, 50g gram flour and 30g gluten free oats)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
50g sunflower oil (instead of butter or margarine)
1 tsp Orgran egg replacer
180g plain soya yogurt
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
lots of fresh black pepper
additions: 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
sunflower oil for the pan

Heat the oven to 200 degrees (180 for a fan oven).
Rub the sunflower oil into the flour, bicarb and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Mix the soya yogurt with the squash and the egg replacer. Mix the squash mixture into the flour, grind in plenty of pepper, add in the thyme and nutritional yeast.
Spoon the mix onto a hot, preheated lightly oiled frying plan that is oven safe. Cook on a moderate heat until the underside is golden, it usually takes ten minutes. Then, with the help of an oiled dinner plate, flip the scone over and cook the other side, it will probably take slightly less than the first side.
Put the scone in the oven for ten minutes to cook through.
Serve with greens, or it's good for lunch with a dollop of hummus and some salad.

A very poor photo of what's left for my lunch tomorrow:

Another good pumpkin recipe: Pure2Raw's pumpkin socca

Once the scone was in the oven, I decided to make some dessert. It is Monday after all:)
I sliced up four of the apples from my Dad's tree, layered them with cinnamon and demerara sugar, then made this topping:
60g almond flour
40g brown rice flour
30g oats
30g sunflower oil
30g brown sugar
25g toasted pumpkin seeds
Rub the flours and oats with the sunflower oil until it's like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and seeds, and top the apples. Bake at 160 degree fan for 45 minutes, until golden brown. The apples will be nice and mushy underneath.


We ate it with Alpro soya Caramel pudding.

Before I go, I tried Oats in a Jar for the first time yesterday. A good way of using up all the PB scraps that a knife can't budge. I topped mine with more PB (as there wasn't much left in the jar) and sugar free 'jam'.



I also enjoyed a new tea, one I bought in Toulouse way back in May. It's called Mon Cherry (cherry and chocolate black tea)


Look at the lovely colours! I had mine with a splash of vanilla soya milk.

Time to get back in the kitchen to make some coco banana gluten free granola!