Dairy Free – Bountiful Baskets Blog

Kasundi… ketchup’s Indian cousin

I’m not a big fan of normal ketchup. I know, I’m weird but I don’t even keep it in my house. I just find that it is generally oversweet and can overpower the flavors of whatever you are putting it on.

With that being said, I think that Kasundi is fabulous and makes up for ketchup’s shortcomings. Katsundi is an Indian chutney that comes in a lot of different varieties. I like this hot tomato based kasundi. It combines tomato, vinegar and a lot of delicious spices into one flavor that is sweet, spicy and fun. I slather this on everything when I make a batch.

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Blood Orange Sorbet

Every now and then I make two much juice so that is when I turn to making sorbet. Sorbets are easy to make but take time to freeze unless you have a ice cream maker. Either way they are a wonderful treat. A few simple steps and you can turn any fruit into the perfect sorbet.

Blood Orange Sorbet

Ingredients

2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
small pinch salt
2 cups blood orange juice

Instructions

Bring sugar and water to a boil.
Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.
Stir in juice and salt.
Refrigerate 3 hours or over night.
Pour into ice cream maker and follow your ice cream makers instructions.
If you do not have a ice cream maker pour into shallow stainless steel pan and freeze for 3 hours.
Scrape frozen mixture and return to freeze.
Let freeze for 7-8 hours and then serve.

Notes

You can use any fruit you like to in this recipe. Try mixing a couple different types of fruit for a special blend.

Norwegian Sweet Soup– and family traditions!

One of my first Christmas memories with my then-new-boyfriend 10 years ago (now he’s my fabulous husband) was experiencing some of his deeply rooted family food traditions with his parents. Norweigan Sweet soup. Spritz cookies. Norwegian Krumkake. These foods have come to mean the holidays for me, and are things I look forward to eating every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, as do my children. Growing up, I had a couple of family recipes that got handed down, but there was not really something we ate and made every year that had historical significance, so these traditions from my husband’s family have come to be a treasured part of my holidays. What traditional foods do you eat around the holidays?

To start our Thanksgiving this year, we had Sweet Soup and Swedish pancakes for breakfast. The sweet fruity goodness of the soup warms me heart and my belly! Continue reading “Norwegian Sweet Soup– and family traditions!”

Oh My So Much Pumpkin

This year there are pumpkins everywhere. How I love the smell of pumpkin cooking and wish it would last throughout the year. Here is one way I get my pumpkin fix for the rest of the year. I make Pumpkin chips and pumpkin powder. My dehydrator is a good friend that I often use with my bountiful baskets produce. There is nothing easier than drying fruits and vegetables for later use. You don’t even need a dehydrator as the oven on its lowest setting works fine.
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Autumn Fennel Slaw

This week we received fennel, red pears and apples in our baskets. I decided to try a more autumnal version of fresh fennel slaw by making an apple cider vinaigrette to dress it. It came together rather quickly and only needed to rest for 30 minutes for the flavors to meld. I would imagine this would be a wonderful side dish to roasted pork loin, pork chop or to top a pulled pork sandwich.

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“Lick the Blender Clean” Hatch Chile Dressing

I keep a huge bowl of salad in my fridge at all times. I love to be able to serve my family a fresh and delicious salad with our dinners. Unfortunately the big kid (read: my significant other) isn’t an eager salad eater so I always keep a dressing on hand that will appease him. I just knew that if I could concoct a tasty hatch chile dressing, I would have a willing salad eater this week.
My 5 year old daughter and I put this together (she operated the blender and poured in the measured ingredients). Once it was done, she couldn’t get enough of it! After I poured the dressing into my snazzy dressing bottle, she licked the dressing out of the blender and I hope you will too (don’t worry, we won’t judge).

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Fennel, Tomato and Sausage Soup

I love to share my fennel recipes because fennel is one of those things that gets a lot of confused looks at pickup. I think that fennel is especially yummy in Italian recipes so I whipped up this soup on a recently fall evening. As soon as weather gets cooler AT ALL, I fully embrace it. Considering I live in Central Texas, these “fall days” are sparse but glorious. This came together really quickly, so it worked well at my house on a week night.

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Adventure into making raisins

The making of raisins is a wonderful journey. For me there is no better way to show my love for family and friends then by cooking for them. These raisins are just another way for me to do that. I first started by doing a vinegar water wash of the grapes with a good rinse and dry. Then let the grapes sit on the trays for a hour so they don’t add moisture to the dehydrator. The hardest part was making sure the little stems were removed on all of the grapes. What I did find is that after drying if you missed any they stood out and you could remove them at that time. Each dehydrator is different so times will be to. Mine took 48 hours on at 145 degrees and 14 hours at 125 degrees. Every few hours I rotated the trays and stirred around the grapes on each tray.
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Summer Asian Slaw

The Asian pack has always been one of my favorites! I love to make up large batches of egg rolls and wontons ( some fried and some raw to use for wonton soup) and stock my freezer. Who doesn’t love a wok full of colorful stir fry? Continue reading “Summer Asian Slaw”

Tangy Cran-Orange Coconut Chicken

When I was a small child, I would awake Christmas Eve morning to the smells of cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, oranges and cranberries that wafted around the clinking sounds of Grandma in the kitchen preparing everyone’s favorite dishes for our dinner later that day. Grandpa would be in the his chair humming Christmas Carols as he put on his shoes. I could see the glow of the Christmas tree lights dancing across the ceiling from where I lay snug in my bed, cozy and warm under the heavy handmade quilt. Continue reading “Tangy Cran-Orange Coconut Chicken”