Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Chowder--Dairy Free and Gluten Free

Today I made another batch of Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Chowder, just because it was so good that basically the whole pot of soup got eaten the other night when we had it!  I'm not sure how it happened since I dished out a bowl for each person and then went to the family room for a few moments of relative quiet. I didn't think it would be so liked that the kids would eat the rest of the pot when left on their own for a few moments.  ("Mom!  I ate 4 or 5 bowls all myself!!")  I guess that's a good thing, though, considering how my boys have been so picky with the dairy free attempts I have made in the past.  If they loved it enough to inhale it, they deserve to have as much as they want this one time after being dairy free and feeling deprived for so long.  Another good test is that my husband and brother-in-law couldn't tell the soup was dairy free, and they loved it, too.  I served the soup with cornbread muffins made using Bob's Red Mill GF Cornbread Mix.

I decided to put my soup to another test tonight before posting the recipe.  I took some to our friends' house for them to try.  Everyone loved it and couldn't tell it was dairy free until I told them.  Everyone who tried it said I should share the recipe, so I decided it was time to share:

Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Chowder
4 c. chicken stock
1/2 c. dry white wine*
5 russet potatoes, cubed
3 lbs. frozen or fresh california blend veggies, cut in bite-sized pieces
     (carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower)
1 onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 c. chopped, cooked chicken
4 c. almond milk + 1 c. for making slurry
1 pkg. original unsweetened MimicCreme
6 Tbs. GF nutritional yeast (nooch)
3 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. dried parsley
2 t. salt
2 t. herbamare
1/2 t. black pepper
1/4 t. ground celery seed
1/4 t. ground mustard
1/4 c. sweet rice flour

Pour the chicken stock and wine in a large pot.  Add the potato cubes and simmer.  As the potatoes are simmering, cut your other vegetables into bite-sized pieces, and chop your onion and garlic.  Add the veggies, onion, and garlic to the soup pot when the potatoes are almost tender.  If your vegetables are fresh (raw), then you will want to add the carrots at the same time as you add the potatoes, or perhaps even a minute or two before the potatoes, depending on how big your pieces are cut.  You will want to add fresh cauliflower and broccoli after the fresh carrots and potatoes have cooked for a little while, but before they are fully tender.  I used 1 lb. frozen carrots and 2 lbs. frozen California Blend veggies for convenience sake.  Add the 4 c. almond milk and the package of Mimiccreme.  Bring your soup to a simmer, cooking on medium heat and stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick.  Add the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and all the herbs and spices.  Add the chopped chicken.  Allow your soup to simmer until the potatoes and vegetables are tender.

While your soup simmers, make a slurry by thoroughly whisking the sweet rice flour with additional almond milk (or a little water if you don't have more almond milk).  I used about 3/4 c. almond milk to the 1/4 c. flour, though you could use a little more or less.  When the veggies are about tender, stir the slurry into the soup.  Continue stirring the soup until it has thickened and the rice flour has "cooked" into the soup--you don't want a rice flour taste or texture in your soup.  Remove from heat and enjoy!

*I used a dry honey wine from Montezuma Winery, though it appears that may not be available at this time.  Next time I make this, I will try a dry American Sauvignon Blanc as suggested here.  If you don't want to use wine, you might try a white wine vinegar, though I don't know how much you would use, and I believe the results would taste different than if you used actual wine. 



1/26/12--Update:  I just made this soup using the American Sauvignon Blanc, and it was just as delicious as with the honey wine.

"Cheeze" Sauce and Chicken and Broccoli Casserole (DF)

Breakfast this morning was a bowl of Mesa Sunrise flakes with vanilla almond milk, a dash or two of cinnamon, raisins, and some cut-up dried apple pieces.  It was so good.  The combination of cinnamon with the vanilla almond milk reminded me of those sugar-filled cinnamon cereals you buy in the store.  The kids also ate some fresh fruit.

This morning was a nice, relaxed morning for me.  I spent some time on the computer and just making sure the kids were on track with school.  Then I came up with some ideas for tonight's dish-to-pass dinner at Boy Scouts.  I always have a hard time deciding what to make for these things since I know that many people don't want to eat the foods that we eat, and I feel like I want to make something that everyone will like.  To make things even harder, we had to bring a main dish as well as a side dish, and I had to take Moriah to Girl Scouts for a couple of hours, leaving little time to be creative and cook something awesome afterward.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to make a casserole of some kind, and since I already had some cooked chicken breasts and some broccoli, I figured it was time for me to create a nice "cheeze" sauce that I could use to bring it all together with some rice into a chicken/broccoli casserole.  This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and have been putting off because I just didn't feel like I was at a point of knowing my dairy-free ingredients enough to create something delicious with them that would be a suitable substitute for cream soups and/or sauces.  However, I do feel confident now, and fully ready to embark on such a journey.  Let me tell you, my family is soooo glad I did!  This has got to be the best dairy-free cheezy saucy stuff I have ever had.  You can adjust the thickness and use it as a light sauce or a thicker sauce.  You can use it as a substitute for those canned cream soups in recipes.  You can flavor it with different herbs, garlic, etc.  You can use it to make cream of whatever soup.  This is going to be so versatile.  Tonight I used it to make Chicken and Broccoli Casserole, which I served with Honey Gingered Carrots.  Even Nathan loved it!  (My only thought of improvement with the casserole was to make sure I add enough of the sauce because the rice absorbs the liquid as it bakes, and I like my casseroles saucy.  I tried to make this adjustment in the recipe listed below, but you will have to gauge it for yourself, whether or not it's saucy enough for you.  Perhaps put a little less rice in it to begin with and then add more rice until it is the consistency you like.  It's very versatile for you to make changes as you see fit.)* 

Dessert was Gluten-Free Betty Crocker Brownies, which I made after we got home from the dinner.  Hey, I'm not perfect.  Sometimes I use mixes, like when it's 7:30 at night, and everyone around us at the dinner was eating chocolate cake and brownies, and I know I don't have time to bake brownies from scratch before the kids have to be in bed!

"Cheeze" Sauce 
1 (32 oz.) carton unsweetened MimicCreme*
5-7 Tbs. sweet rice flour (depending on how thick you want your sauce)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
5 Tbs. nutritional yeast
2 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1 Tbs. raw apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs. tahini
2 t. salt
1 t. curry
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 c. Earth Balance


Blend 1 cup of the MimicCreme with the garlic, onion, yeast, vinegar, tahini, salt, curry, and pepper until smooth.  Pour the rest of the MimicCreme in a medium saucepan.  Whisk the blender contents into the rest of the MimicCreme and continue to whisk over medium heat for about 10 minutes to thicken and get rid of the raw flour taste.  Stir or whisk in the Earth Balance until melted and well mixed.  Taste your sauce.  Does it need anything else?  What are you planning on putting it in?

*MimicCreme can be found at our local Down to Earth health food store.  Our Wegmans carries the sweetened version, but not the unsweetened.  The sweetened version can be used in place of cream in making homemade ice cream!  For those of you who don't live in my area, check your local health food stores and/or Wegmans.  Perhaps your Wegmans has the unsweetened MimicCreme.  Also, you can order it online or through your local food co-op.  I know it's cheaper through my food co-op than at the store.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole (DF)
4 chicken breast halves, cut in small, bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 lbs. broccoli florets
1 batch "Cheeze" Sauce

dashes of celery salt
1/4 - 1/2 c. blanched almond flour
3 c. uncooked brown rice, cooked in rice cooker with 1 bouillon cube and 5 1/2 c. water

Mix the chicken pieces, florets, rice*, and cheeze sauce in a big pan, then spread it in a cake pan or casserole dish.  Lightly dash some celery salt across the top, being careful not to use too much since it is strong.  Sprinkle blanched almond flour on top.  Cover and bake 30 minutes, then uncover and bake 5 more minutes.  Try putting together the ingredients and freeze it.  Thaw and bake it when you need it.

*Update 4/27/10--I will be making this casserole by keeping the rice separate from now on.  I will mix the sauce, chicken, and broccoli, baking them with the bread crumbs on top.  Then I will put rice on each individual plate, topping it off with the chicken and broccoli casserole.  This will prevent the rice from soaking up all of the sauce.
Note:  There are variables in this recipe, like the size of the chicken breast halves, if you are using frozen florets, if you use white rice instead of brown, etc.  You will have to gauge whether or not you have enough sauce for all the rice, broccoli, and chicken you intend to use.  You may want to set aside a couple of cups of the mixture before you add the sauce, and then just add as much of the reserved mix as you want.  You want the casserole to have enough sauce because as it bakes the rice will absorb some of it.  If you want to make a little more sauce, you could just add a little unsweetened rice milk and a little more sweet rice flour, but you might need to add a little more of the seasonings, as well.

                                           Mmmm.  Brownies!

Allergy-Free Eating on a Budget: Tip 3 and Quick and Easy Buffalo Chicken Wraps/Quesadillas

     Tip #3 is to know your prices. I frequent my local health food stores and the Nature's Marketplace section of Wegman's often enough to know where to buy different things. I pay attention to the prices in the co-op catalog each month. I occasionally check my local WalMart Superstore to see if they have added any GF or DF (dairy-free) products. I know that the Rice Dream rice milk is cheapest at WalMart. I have searched and cannot find it cheaper anywhere else. (I know Rice Dream says it's GF, and other people say it's not. Nathan doesn't seem to react to it, so I use it when I'm not making my own rice milk or nut milks, though I feel a little nauseous if I drink too much (usually just have it on cereal a couple times a week). I know that it's cheapest to make my own rice milk and nut milks, so I try to do that when I'm not too rushed for time. Our favorite DF milk is cashew milk, and it's the easiest to make. Raw nuts and seeds are definitely cheapest through the co-op for me, but some of you might have a Trader Joe's nearby where you may find it cheaper.  Homemade nut milk is more nutritious than homemade rice milk, too.
     Keep a record in your planner, purse, or wallet of prices from different stores and mail order companies (or co-ops) where you buy things.  Compare prices.  After awhile you will have a pretty good idea where you want to purchase which foods.  Some places might be kind of out of the way for me to go to in order to get the best price.  I might handle that by going there once in awhile and buying the 1 or 2 things I get from that store in bulk, decreasing the amount of times I will have to go there.  Or, I might take a loss and purchase what I need at whatever store I am at if I really need to and don't have time to go to the other store.  In that situation, I have to weigh which is more important to me, time or money, and whether or not the price of the extra gas to get there would make up for the savings I would be getting.  For instance, we buy a large amount of sweet rice flour from an Asian store that is about 1/2 hour away from us, in an area where we rarely ever go.  It's not worth going there if it's just for 1 small bag, so we buy at least 5-10 lbs. at a time which lasts me quite awhile.
     One thing I noticed is that Betty Crocker has come out with a line of cake, brownie, and cookie mixes that are GF.  Our local grocery stores have finally started carrying this line of boxed mixes, which excited me tremendously when they first brought them out.  However, I started comparing prices as I noticed all the stores starting to carry them.  I found