Naturopathic Control: celiac disease

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Vegan Gluten Free Christmas Cake

Although I do not celebrate Christmas, I found myself making a last minute decision to use whatever ingredients were already in the kitchen to bake this gluten-free, vegan cake. I thought I'd share the recipe since I like the results and will definitely repeat this recipe because the taste is comparable with that of the original version of the traditional West Indian fruit cake, used for Caribbean weddings and Christmas gatherings.

Things you need to make vegan gluten-free Christmas cake

3/4 cups fruit. I only had raisins on hand and came up with the idea for 2 other 'fruity' ingredients. I chopped up the rind of a few organic tangerines I had bought locally. I crudely grated about 1/2 cup of partly cooked beet root.

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1/4 cup rum. Aged brown rum is ideal because it imparts flavor and character. However, I only had left over white rum that I had bought for a tincture. Surprisingly, it worked fine but still not my first choice.
1/2 cup fat. I use oil, preferably virgin coconut oil if it is available and suits you health wise. Coconut oil is very healthful in most cases. However, I used sunflower oil because, this unplanned baking session caught me without coconut oil. Besides, one companion who will eat the cake has blood type B (for which coconut oil is not advisable).
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup nuts or nutty ingredients. I used the crunchy version of Smucker's natural crunchy peanut butter. I mix peanut or any other type of butter with the wet ingredients. When I want to avoid nuts as a consideration for people with nut allergies, I use roast and crudely chop sunflower seeds. They actually taste like peanuts. I mix the sunflower seeds with the dry ingredients.
Egg substitute equivalent to 2 eggs. I nickname this ingredient 'vegg'. I used my flaxseed recipe. However, this time, I chose not to strain off the whole flaxseeds. It just so happened that I baked yesterday and after straining off the cooked flaxseeds I used for making a thick gel, I placed the seeds in the refrigerator. To my pleasant surprise, the seeds are chewable with a nice crunch. So I've decided to re-use those flaxseeds to make a new batch of egg substitute along with the whole seeds for their crunchy texture.
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup oatmeal as a gluten-free substitute for wheat flour
1/4 cup rum. This is additional rum to pour over the cake after it has cooled from the oven. If you have a limited amount of good aged rum, reserve it for post-baking
baking pan
6 tbsp browning
baking pan. I doubled this recipe and found a square 8 by 2 inch pan worked perfectly

Steps for making vegan gluten-free Christmas cake

Soak the fruit in the 1st of the 2 batches of rum for at least 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to roughly 300 degrees F
Grease the baking pan
Combine the fat, sugar, vegg and other wet ingredients
Combine the dry ingredients as homogenuously as possible
Bake in the preheated over for roughly 45 minutes
Allow to cool
Spread the balance of the rum over the cake

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Videos: Versión en Español

RELATED CONTENT

Corn Tortillas: Simple Gluten Free Bread Substitute

Corn tortillas are a round and flexible corn-based bread that is highly economical and fast to prepare. Some health benefits include the fact that corn tortillas are free of gluten and cholesterol. Although it is typically used to wrap Latin foods like spinach stir fries (like zorrillo, etc), grounded beans with culantro and chunks of avocado, they may also be used for many creative dishes (like rolling my papaya salad).

How to make corn tortilla - gluten free bread recipe

Corn Tortillas: Quick & Simple Gluten Free Bread Substitute

To make corn tortillas at home as a gluten free bread substitute, you will need:

A mixing bowl (If you are using a pot as a press, use the pot as a mixing bowl to use fewer kitchen wares)
Masa de maiz cascado (crushed corn flour. The label of this flour may speak of the flour being ideal for tamal / tamale, a steamed dish). You may use either the white or yellow type. However, the taste and texture differ slightly. The white type is more pliable while and tastes more like regular wheat flour while the yellow corn flour is more gritty.
Pinch of salt or to taste
Water -- --
Spoon (for mixing)
A surface that is firm and flat
A plastic bag with one or both side(s) slit completely open as shown in the images below OR 2 pieces of plastic
a tortilla press OR a saucepan
flat non-stock cookware Oil (for frying)
cotton ball for spreading the oil on the cookware
A tiny saucer to hold a little oil for coating the pan between tortillas
a heat source from the bottom (like a stove top)
spatula (for flipping the tortilla)

How to make corn tortillas as a gluten free bread substitute at home:

Pour the masa de maiz cascado to a bowl
Alternate between gradually adding (more) water to the masa de maiz cascado and thoroughly mixing (with a spoon). Continue mixing until all the water is absorbed into the masa de maiz cascado into a soft ball. The ball should feel like a ball of mashed potatoes.
Create discs that are roughly 0.5 inches thick and 2 inches wide
Place a disc onto one sheet of plastic onto the flat surface (like a kitchen counter or the inside of a tortilla press) and cover it with the next so that the 2 sheets of plastic sandwich the disc
Gently press on top of the top sheet of plastic with the saucepan until the tortilla spreads out to a diameter of roughly 4 inches
Press down on the tortilla dough with your fingers to flatten the tortilla further. This will improve its ability to fold without splitting.
Soak the cotton ball with oil and use the cotton ball to spread a thin layer of oil over the inner surface of the cooking ware. -- --

Turn on the fire to a low to medium setting

Corn Tortillas: Simple Gluten Free Bread Substitute

The heat is so low in this photo that it is hard to see the flame. For a pan that does not have a non-stick surface, heat the pan very well before applying the oil. The tortillas will not stick if the pan and oil are very hot.

Peel away the top sheet of plastic.
Place the raw corn tortilla into the palm of your dominant hand.
With the non-dominant hand, gently peel away the other sheet of plastic from the tortilla (so that the tortilla is in the palm of your hand).
In a quick movement, slap the tortilla onto the hot cooking surface
Within a few seconds, shift the corn tortilla around within the pan (to prevent it from sticking)
Flip the tortilla a few times when it holds together and assumes a slightly drier look. In some cases, a few dark spots may occur on one or both sides where the tortilla got extra heat. Stack the tortillas onto a plate
To store, place the tortillas in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to roughly 3 days.
To heat cold tortillas, cook in a microwave oven for a few seconds, roughly 20 seconds or until warm

RELATED TO CORN TORTILLAS AS A SIMPLE GLUTEN FREE BREAD SUBSTITUTE

Speedup digestion

Fermented foods

Sauerkraut (full instructions)
Fermented vegetables
Vegan ceviche
Fermented garlic in honey
Ginger bug
Fermented drinks (ginger ale, fermented lemonade, etc)
Cheong: sweet fermented syrup
High protein yogurt with chickpeas
Extra creamy yogurt with oats
DIY chickpea yogurt
Oat yogurt

Vegan milks and other drinks

Tofu

Chickpea tofu

Breakfast or snacks

Other

Vegan eggs
Topping (guacamole inspired)
Papaya salad to improve enzyme activity and improve digestive health
Sprouts (lentils)
Ghee (not vegan)
Agar agar (medicinal superfood great for making vegan flan with vegan milks)

Vegan & Gluten-Free Pizza Recipe

If you have been following my blogs (including my blog on Tropical Organic Gardening), you may know that I spent the last 3 months traveling. My stops included a stay in a very rural tropical countryside with a middle aged couple. The lifestyle was nearly as simple as I believe it ought to be and I loved it. In fact, I consider 'simplicity' a luxury. That is the real good life (but that's another discussion).

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza & Tropical Guacamole Topping for Dinner. Yummy!

Anyway, the food was no exception; it was phenomenal. So I wish to share this simple but very tasty vegan and gluten free pizza recipe from that visit. Although this vegan pizza recipe sufficed with its own vegan 'cheese' topping, we were decadent by smearing the top with an exotic but so simple guacamole.

As a child, I meditated on favourite dishes and delivered a secret prayer. It went like this. 'Dear God, please have this dish in heaven!' No kidding! I no longer do that. However, if I did, I would have placed a similar order for this gluten free and vegan pizza recipe.

In reality, my host never followed fixed recipes. It was always unique because she reinvented her vegan pizza recipe every time by tossing in what was available in her tropical organic garden and pantry. In the end, her pizza was always phenomenal. Consequently, this pizza recipe below is what I noted one day. Please be kind and suggest variations to the ingredients.

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Crust:
Mix the following vegan & gluten free pizza crust ingredients until you achieve a dough ball. The ingredients for the vegan & gluten free pizza crust are garbanzo bean flour; spices; water and oil. Other vegan pizza topping ideas include broccoli, eggplant and sweet peppers. Please offer alternatives for vegan, gluten free crust. My host combined all the ingredients except the oil. In her case, she used olive oil. She then smeared a generous layer of oil over the crust. Since coconut oil has a higher smoking point and is consequently among the best oil for heating foods, coconut oil is my personal preference for this baking recipe. In reality, my host's dough did not hold together very firmly well. In fact, we needed to handle slices by cutting each slice into tiny squares with knives and forks. To hold together the dough better, consider using grounded flaxseed, a vegan egg substitute.

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Crust

Grease the bottom of the pizza pan.
Evenly flatten your vegan, gluten free pizza dough into the bottom of the pizza dish.

As mentioned previously, generously cover the smooth dough with oil (coconut oil or olive oil). I find that either a large spoon or spatula is useful.

Bake the gluten free pizza crust until it needs as much remaining cooking time as the toppings will need to cook.

Remove your vegan, gluten free pizza crust from the oven and spread the vegan pizza toppings over the partially baked pizza crust in the following order (before returning the pizza to the oven).

Basil leaves, fresh and chopped. Other greens and vegetables may go on this layer

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Toppings

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Basil is one of the Toppings

Tomatoes, sliced

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Tomatoes are among the Toppings
~~Cheese, shredded for topping.~~ Unlike me, my hosts do not create vegan recipes. As you may also know, while traveling, I often eat vegetarian foods. You can make a quick vegan cheese pizza topping by making a paste with nutritional yeast (NOT regular baker's yeast), water and coconut milk. Another quick vegan pizza cheese substitute is this exotic guacamole topping.

Video: How to Make Vegan, Gluten Free Pizza

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Related to Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe:

Vegan yogurts

Vegan milks

Creamy rice milk

Tofu

Chickpea tofu

Breakfast or snacks

Other

Vegan eggs
Topping (guacamole inspired)

Vegan & Gluten Free Recipes by Naturopathic Control (Video Playlist)

Pink Pancakes - Blood type B recipe

I will share a beetroot and oatmeal pancake recipe we created for my friend's blood type B diet. (See her story on why eating for your blood type might matter.) It makes roughly 17 3-inch pink beetroot pancakes that children enjoy. Additionally, the recipe is vegan and, depending on your oat source, gluten free.

One of our Blood Type B Recipes: Pink Pancakes

Blood type B recipe: pink pancakes with beetroot and oatmeal

Blood type B recipe: beetroot & oatmeal pancakes that are vegan and gluten free

Ingredients for this blood type B recipe: Pink Pancakes

1/4 cup Beetroot, peeled and puréed (highly beneficial for blood type B)

1 1/4 cup Oat, grounded (highly beneficial for blood type B)

1/2 tsp Nutmeg powder (neutral for blood type B)

1 tsp Essence (Almond essence is neutral for blood type B)

Sweetener: Brown sugar and or Fructose to taste (both neutral for blood type B) - Optional

2 tsp Baking Powder (aluminum free)

3 cups Water

2 tbsp Flaxseed meal (neutral for blood type B)

Ingredients to Make Syrup for this blood type B recipe (Pink Pancakes)

Prune purée as a topping (neutral for blood type B)

If you only have pitted prunes, soak overnight and blend roughly 8 prunes with 1/3 cup water. Gradually add the water, preparing yourself to stop at this recommended amount or exceeding it to achieve the consistency you like.

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Instructions for this blood type B recipe: Pink Pancakes

1. Combine all pancake ingredients. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. This will allow the flaxseeds to activate its mucilaginous properties that make is a great egg substitute. See how to use flaxseed as an egg substitute.