Mulligatawny Detox Soup

Need to detox from the holiday? Make some mulligatawny soup.

Did you over indulge? Just a little? Don't worry, Darling. I've got a body and soul soothing cure. Mulligatawny detox soup. It's chock full of antioxidant vegetable goodness with detoxing spices to boot. Cook it on the stove top or in a Crock Pot and let it simmer for the afternoon, filling your kitchen with a comforting aroma that feels like one big hug.

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Curried Carrot Soup with Pan Toasted Cornbread Croutons

Easy carrot soup topped with cornbread croutons.

What I love about slow cookers? The obvious. It's a no-brainer. (Such an odd expression. I mean, if I had no brain would I care about soup?) Wait. Are zombies no-brainers? If so, I can relate. Totally. I've been feeling zombie-ish again, assaulted by the second wave of pollinating hostile trees here in my hip little hamlet of Santa Monica by the sea. Excuse me while I honk.

The dreaded oak. My nemesis.

In spite of hopeful neti pot usage I am brainless once again. Shambling. Screwing up paintings. Too tipsy for kettle-bells (I visualize my zombie-pitiful grip during a swing, letting the kettlebell fly out my fifth floor apartment window like a missile and knocking out some poor soul in the street below; if you read about a kettle-bell incident in the news, I swear I'm innocent).

And craving comfort food in a big way.

That is, easy comfort food. Not complicated comfort food. Who wants to stand at a stove right before dinnertime, chopping and stirring and simmering, when you can chop and toss in the morning and let a Crockpot do the work for you? Zip. Boom. Bonjour! The slow cooker must have been invented by a woman, right? Or maybe a zombie who had better things to do than sauté.

Free time. It's a gift.

Ask any zombie.

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Gluten-Free Turkey Soup Recipe

An easy, homemade turkey soup simmered in a Crock Pot. 

A certain soup slurping and prickly individual (we won't name names, to protect the innocent) has been feeling under the weather for so long now the sensation is in danger of becoming a habit. Yes, the tree pollen onslaught continues. Blessed by a wet winter, Southern California trees are celebrating with copious amounts of pollen, and who can blame them? 

Hence, your intrepid gluten-free goddess has been up to no good, stumbling and mumbling around her freshly painted apartment in a Snuffleupagus stupor, thick-nosed and unable to string two coherent sentences together, never mind invent a new recipe for her lovely and devoted readers (that would be, You). Ears and sinuses filled with unspeakable things do not a creative, exhuberant cook make.

This is when a Slow Cooker can save your life.

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Our Favorite Gluten-Free Chili

Our favorite gluten-free chili- hearty winter comfort.

 
FADE IN:

INT. 5TH FLOOR APARTMENT - DAY


A chilly winter light slices into a SANTA MONICA apartment and illuminates every cobweb. (Obviously, a certain individual has been neglecting house work again). Said individual sighs audibly. Glances sideways into the mirror hanging above the kitchen sink cluttered with coffee spoons, grilled cornbread crumbs and half-filled tea mugs. She could never pass for Martha Stewart. Not in a million years. 

DISHEVELED GLUTEN-FREE GODDESS

Good gravy. Look at all the dust balls. 

STEVE (HUSBAND)

So what. What's a dust bunny or two? 

(glancing up from his laptop)

I’ll vacuum later. Or next Tuesday.

DISHEVELED GLUTEN-FREE GODDESS

My hero.


(dragging out the Crock Pot from under the sink)

This calls for chili.

FADE TO BLACK

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Roasted Hatch Chile Stew Recipe with Sweet Potato, Corn + Lime

Scrumptious slow cooker stew with roasted chiles, sweet potato and lime

Ho-la! It's that time of year again. The annual roasted Hatch chile madness is upon us here in chile blessed New Mexico. You can smell the intoxicating smoky-sweet scent of roasting green chiles everywhere you go. Even Walmart. Seriously. There's a roaster out front in the baking hot Espanola Walmart parking lot as we speak, firing it up, doing his New Mexican green chile roasting thing, turning his dented blackened barrel over a fire. Wiping his brow. Slugging down his cola. People are lined up waiting for their batch. Inside the store's entrance stacks of crated fresh chiles dominate the floor space like so many Stanley Kubrick obelisks (cue music).

If you live in Nuevo Mexico, you worship at the Sacred Temple of the Holy Chile Pepper.

The devotion to roasted chile runs deep in these parts and yes, it's with an e never with an i; if you call chile chili in these parts you may as well kiss your white bread tuchas good-bye, pendajo, because you'll be laughed out of the state. Shunned. Scorned. These folks get very serious about their autumn roasted chile. Don't mess with 'em.

It's harvest time.

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Big Easy Chili- and some super recipes

Big easy soup with beans and spicy sausage.

I'm back from our jaunt to Los Angeles- an impromptu trip that was over far too quickly (where does time fly to, by the way? They say time flies but I always want to know, where?). I have a handful of juicy details to report, and I will, in an upcoming post, but today is apparently sort of a big deal.

There's a game goin' on? And rumor has it, today's a big chili day. So I am reprising a big easy chili recipe and sharing a link to Whole Foods- for healthy and tasty vegan and gluten-free menu ideas and recipes for pot lucks and Super Bowl parties. Me?

I'll be doing laundry. Lots of laundry.

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African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter, Black-Eyed Peas & Beans

A scrumptious peanut soup recipe - gluten and dairy-free.

Happy New Year, Gentle Reader. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. And it's time for a black-eyed pea recipe. One of my favorites, with African flavors. Serving black-eyed peas and beans at the start of a freshly birthed year is serious good mojo in some circles. At least that's what they tell me. Why eating a plate of legumes on New Year's Day brings luck I've no idea, but someone somewhere decided these humble little nuggets of vegan protein were a good and fortunate culinary choice. So why not?

Rather than rummage through cookbooks searching for Southern Hoppin' John recipes or Italian white bean escarole stews I turned instead to the sun drenched flavors of North Africa and reprised a stew that is spicy and hearty and peanutty. If you cannot use peanut butter try sunflower seed butter. It is no less fabulous.

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Cranberry Buffalo Roast Stew

A hearty gluten-free Crock Pot stew to warm your celiac soul.

What could be more comforting as we face the chilly New Year than a slow roasted one-dish supper? Not to mention, easier. Especially after all the hustle and bustle of last week's holiday celebrations. All the sugar. And latkes. And eggnog. And hoopla. I'm exhausted just imagining it. So I'll stop. And share a recipe instead- a tasty little number I tossed together in my trusty Crock Pot over the weekend- a cranberry laced stew that cooked its sweet 'n savory heart out while I worked on creating more print-friendly recipes for you.

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Moroccan Coconut & Chick Pea Soup

A delicious gluten-free soup with Moroccan flavors

On a whim I threw together this North African inspired fusion of flavors led by cravings and intuition. We slurped it down and scraped our bowls. Turns out that sweet potatoes, chick peas, roasted green chiles and coconut milk make for one scrumptious soup. I think you'll love it.

Dairy-free never tasted so good.

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Roasted Corn Chowder with Chicken, Lime + Cilantro

View toward Abiquiu, New Mexico.

A young rattlesnake curled on a flat warm stone by the laundry room door yesterday. So easy to miss, I almost walked right by him as I carried a basket of rolled clean socks and sleeve-tucked tee shirts. He was next to invisible, pristine and silent, his distinctive pattern dovetailed into pinon-filtered sunlight.

It was pure animal instinct to turn my gaze left and spot him. One sharpened second out of my usual preoccupied saunter. I backed away and sprinted (with a moment of rare agility) into the casita to fetch Steve.

I think you should see this! I blurted, interrupting his work at the laptop. My husband didn't hesitate. He's found the Save key before I can deposit my dryer warmed cargo on the bed. He knows the desert gives up unexpected gifts. He doesn't want to miss a trick.

We stared in tandem at the tiny threat for three minutes until the youngster uncurled and nosed himself back into the rock embankment.

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Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Recipes for Soups, Stews, Chili and Roasts

Here is my collection of gluten-free slow cooker recipes for the Crockpot. I love using a slow cooker year round. In the winter it warms the house with comforting spices and inviting aromas and in the summer it helps keep the kitchen cool- not to mention, it does all the work and frees up the day. Reader favorites include African Bean & Sweet Potato Soup, New Mexican Stew with Ground Turkey and Beef in Pomegranate Sauce.

Slow Cooker Soup and Stew Recipes

African Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
African Coconut Chick Pea Soup

Big Easy Soup with Andouille Sausage and Beans
Buffalo Sausage Stew
Butternut Chili

Crockpot Curry with Coconut Milk
Curried Butternut Soup
Curried Carrot Soup with Pan Toasted Cornbread Croutons

Karina's Beef Stew
Kicked Up Coconut Split Pea Soup

Mediterranean Chicken Soup for the Soul
Melted Peppers and Dags (yes dags)
Mexican Pumpkin Soup with Black Beans and Lime
New Mexican Stew with Ground Turkey

Potato Soup for the Sensitive Soul
Pumpkin-Sweet Potato Soup
Purple Cabbage and Sweet Potato Soup with Sunbutter

Roasted Corn Chowder with Chicken, Lime and Cilantro
Roasted Hatch Chile Stew with Sweet Potato
Roasted Tomato Soup

Santa Fe Pumpkin Chowder
Sneaky Tomato Soup
Spicy Vegetable Soup with Lime

Turkey Soup

Vegetarian Mulligatawny with Coconut Milk

Slow Cooker Chili Recipes

Santa Fe Chicken Chili
Two Artists Chili

Slow Cooker Roast and Meat Recipes

Beef and Potatoes au Chocolat
Beef in Pomegranate Sauce
Pork Roast in Brown Sugar Apricot Mushroom Sauce

Pork Roast with Mushrooms and Brown Sugar Apricot-Pomegranate Sauce

Slow cooker pork roast with apricot jam.

My first pork roast recipe- ever. And it's a home run. I apologize for the sports metaphor but I've been sitting at my desk for an hour. And not a single sentence has been birthed. Even after one hot mother of a mug of coffee (and a decaf peppermint green tea that really doesn't count because, well, it's tea), I'm still in a post Sunday fog today, basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent with friends. We ate and drank our way through six hours of non-stop conversation. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. And I'm more than a little tempted to wax poetic about friendship and how we choose our true family and what a head banging blue-in-the-face relief it is to sit at a table with soulful people who wrestle with big questions and hunger for authenticity and integrity while also making you laugh out loud without covering your teeth and feel proud of your mayo-free potato salad.

But I won't. I'll tell you about my first pork roast instead.

I'll say it up front. It took decades to get me here- to ease into a place in my life where I might actually, finally, consider buying a hunk of pork and roasting it. I started off slowly, slyly, trying turkey bacon ten years ago. Then I graduated to the real deal roughly six years ago. Organic Sunday smoked bacon. Nitrate-free, of course. And when my body did not protest and the world as I knew it did not go up in a hellish ball of blistering flames, I decided to move on to the hard stuff. I was ready.

It was finally time to roast a pork loin. And Dear Reader- was I intimidated. You know it. In fact yours truly was almost quaking in her Rocket Dogs. Well, maybe not quaking. More like, shivery-nervous. So I decided two things.

First- that I would use my trusty slow cooker. Simple. Familiar. Not too much to screw up. Second- that I would make a sauce with pomegranate juice and a jar of apricot jam. It just seemed like a good fit.

And guess what? Tender, juicy, tangy-sweet deliciousness ensued.

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Purple Cabbage & Sunbutter Soup

Alex in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

The visit with Alex and his girlfriend was thick with conversation, food for the eyes, and dreams for the soul. As always, in the wake of my son's absence I am struck dumb by the restless silence of the desert, finding it difficult to steady my post-maternal footing. It's not the letting go thing. Letting go of your children is the easy part. Their beauty is astonishing and too big to keep for yourself. You miss them, yes.

But the space between you is precious, too.

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Golden Potato Soup for the Sensitive Soul

A lovely creamy potato soup- gluten and dairy free.

When I want a recipe for comfort food I reach for potatoes first. And when I need a soup recipe in a hurry, this creamy potato comfort always hits the spot.

Decades ago (yes, decades- how scary is that?) while I was still in art school, living in my boxy white washed one-bedroom off Dupont Circle, I would make potato soup in a blender (no crankin' Cuisinart or snappy immersion wands back then) and serve it chilled in Asian blue and white bowls (Pier One Imports, 99 cents apiece) with a sprinkle of bright green chives. Art student friends would scrape their bowls clean and ask for more. And I would gladly oblige. (They were easily impressed, because they were, well, not exactly starving, but used to living on instant ramen noodles, pizza and beer.)

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Butternut Chili - Spicy 'n Sweet

Here's one of my favorite chili recipes, featuring cubes of 

butternut squash. Sweet and spicy. 

New Year's Day is almost upon us. Rather than wax nostalgic and dreamy about the bumpy (and enlightening) year I've had, I'd rather post a simple recipe I know you'll love. Making a pot of bean soup or chili to welcome in a freshly minted year is a tradition as old as the hills. From Italian Pasta Fagioli to homestyle southern Hoppin' John, beans somehow acquired the favorable reputation of attracting good luck.

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Beef Stew

A gluten-free beef stew recipe to warm your bones.

This recipe is a surprise- even to me. Beef stew? You wouldn't expect a Vegetarian Goddess to create and fall in love with a beef stew recipe, but that is precisely what happened this weekend. Shocking? 

Tell me about it.

Just when you think you've got your life all figured out, and your tastes and preferences arranged in a tidy packet of self-identification and veggie piety- all Hades breaks loose. Celiac. Food allergies. Broken hip.

Suddenly, your food-world view is quite literally flipped on its leafy little head. No whole wheat pasta or legumes for protein. No soy. No more savory white bean ragout, and- worst of all- no peanut butter, which means no more African Sweet Potato & Bean Soup.

So, after my orthopedic surgeon's instructions to "eat lots of  animal protein" to support the healing of my hip fracture, my husband and I decided to try our collective hands at making our very first beef stew.

The first beef stew of our marriage.

And what did I do as I spooned the first taste into my nervous, quivering mouth? Gentle Reader, I swooned like a virgin in a bodice ripper. I sighed. I slurped. Oh my! I murmured through one spoonful after another.

Wow, said my partner in crime as he smacked his lips, This is mighty damn tasty.

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Crock Pot Curry with Coconut Milk

A delicious slow cooked curry simmered in the Crock Pot

Certain individuals at Casa Allrich use their Crock Pot year round. Yes, even in the summer. It keeps the kitchen cool and uses no more energy than a humble light bulb. So when you crave a creamy spicy curry stirred with coconut milk and don't feel like sweating over a hot stove when the Kokopelli thermometer hanging under the portal reads 98 degrees F in the shade, consider the old school slow cooker. 

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Fresh Vegetable Soup with Lime

Here's an easy fresh vegetable soup recipe you'll love.

It's still soup weather here in northern New Mexico, so certain individuals lugged out their Crock Pot this week and pondered the gentle, slow art of vegetarian potage. This new soup recipe is fresh tasting and full of flavor, kicked up with spicy green chiles a generous squeeze of lime.

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