Tag Archive for: recipes with carb count

Easter is getting close, so here is a great traditional classic your family lunch: Easter pie.
Let’s say that it is also the perfect solution to get children to eat vegetables without boring them. Our version does not include egg in the filling as a blending ingredient, as it is used hard boiled to be seen when slices are cut.

Easter pie

19.37g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 510 g brisée pastry** (corresponding to almost 2 rolls of ready made gluten free Buitoni Brisée Pastry)
  • 500g mixed leafy greens
  • 310g ricotta cheese
  • 150g baby spinach
  • 130g string beans
  • 100g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • 30g pine nuts
  • 20g extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 hard boiled eggs
  • salt and egg for brushing

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Blanch the greens and spinach in two non-stick frying pans with a little oil and just the water remaining after washing the vegetables. Allow the water to evaporate well or remove it before chopping the vegetables.
  2. Boil the string beans in salted water, drain and cut into pieces.
    Place chopped greens and spinach in a bowl, add the string beans, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts; finally, season with salt.
  3. Roll out a thin disc of dough on a sheet of parchment paper to cover a 24cm diameter tin, leaving a few centimetres of dough around the edge. Pour in some of the filling and place the 4 peeled hard-boiled eggs in the shape of an X, staying 3-4 cm from the centre (think about how the slices will be cut so that the whole egg can be seen), cover with the remaining filling and try to lightly level everything out; then cover with a second disc then, with the help of a fork, fold the edges, seal them and pierce the surface.
  4. Brush with a little beaten egg.
    Bake the Easter pie in a static oven preheated to 200°C for about 20 minutes until the surface is golden brown.

torta-pasqualina-gluten-free-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Easter pie

Replace gluten-free brisée with standard brisée.

But how pleasant is it to breathe in the aroma of freshly baked bread? It gives your home that extra touch of enveloping warmth that soothes. That we like bread a lot is a well-known fact by now, but today we have chosen to share with you an alternative and tasty version to be enjoyed slice by slice: Olive bread braid.

Ready to work? Also try Vegetable buns.

Olive bread braid

45.58g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 450g water
  • 450g flour mix for bread, brand Nutrifree**
  • 70g pitted olives
  • 50g buckwheat flour*
  • 20g extra virgin olive oil
  • 20g sprouted buckwheat flour* (optional)
  • 12g brewer’s yeast
  • 5g salt
  • oil to brush the surface, flour* for dusting the board

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the water to the flours, in a bowl or a planetary mixer, and mix. Add the oil, salt and chopped olives and continue to knead until smooth and homogeneous. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour.

treccia-di-pane-alle-olive-senza-glutine-uno-chef-per-gaia

  1. Divide it into three equal parts, form three cylinders and twist them together to form a braid. Place the braid on a baking tin covered with parchment paper and leave it to rise for about 1 hour or until nice and swollen.

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  1. Bake in a static oven preheated to 190°C for about 30 minutes.

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Baccalà mantecato, i.e. creamy salt cod, is a dish with an enveloping taste that is present in many Italian gastronomic traditions. From Vicenza to Trieste, every cuisine has its secrets for making this speciality a tasty main course.

Perfect with a slice of toast, it is also an extraordinary condiment for pasta or rice: try my Salt Cod Risotto.

Here is today’s recipe!

Baccalà mantecato

negligible carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 400g salt cod already soaked with salt removed
  • 80g extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 sprig of parsley
  • 1 clove garlic
  • water, milk, salt

Preparation

  1. Cook the cod in a pot covered with water and milk, with the addition of a clove of garlic for about 20 minutes.
  2. Remove the skin, garlic and any bones, then place the cod in a blender with the washed parsley leaves. Start blending by adding the oil in a trickle, exactly as you do with mayonnaise.

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ricetta-baccala-mantecato-uno-chef-per-gaia

  1. Add salt if necessary and adjust the creaminess by adding a dash of milk.
  2. You can serve it on its own, with croutons or roasted polenta.

ricetta-baccala-mantecato-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Baccalà mantecato

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

 

How to get children to eat vegetables? Simple, try using them as the main ingredient to prepare tasty Cauliflower patties. Because we know that patties are always very popular with children, so they won’t be able to say no to this vegetarian version.

The only challenge is to handle these patties gently because they are softer than their meat-based sisters, which you can still use to hide other vegetables, as is the case with my Spinach meatballs.

Cauliflower patties

7.79g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 400g cauliflower
  • 60g Pecorino cheese, grated
  • 40g breadcrumbs**
  • 30g capers
  • 30g extra virgin olive oil
  • 20g parsley
  • 1 egg
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • salt, pepper and olive oil

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until soft. Drain and sauté it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and garlic. Let it cool, then remove the garlic and blend the cauliflower in a food processor with capers and parsley. Add egg, Pecorino and Parmesan cheese to obtain a rather firm mixture.

polpette-di-cavolfiore-senza-glutine-uno-chef-per-gaia

  1. Put a few tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan, form patties, roll them in breadcrumbs and brown them on both sides.

polpette-di-cavolfiore-senza-glutine-uno-chef-per-gaia

They are excellent served both hot and cold.

polpette-di-cavolfiore-senza-glutine-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Cauliflower patties

Replace the gluten-free breadcrumbs with standard breadcrumbs.

The New Year has arrived and with it the cold that has brought us to enjoy the warmth of home these days, perhaps snuggled up on the sofa in front of a good film. And you know that for us cold temperatures equate to tasty, wholesome soups, to be enjoyed perhaps accompanied by croutons and a good glass of wine, just like the Broccoli and cauliflower velouté.

Today, we recommend a recipe that is light, easy to prepare and perfect for delighting children and adults alike with healthy seasonal vegetables.

If you like soups, you can also try my Pulse and vegetable soup.

Here’s what you need to prepare it!

Broccoli and cauliflower velouté

4.41g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 400g cauliflower
  • 400g broccoli
  • 400g potatoes
  • 200g onions
  • 1.2 litres of water
  • extra virgin olive oil and salt as needed

Preparation

  1. Put the sliced onion in a pan with oil, add the broccoli and cauliflower florets, the diced potatoes and finally cover with water.
  2. Bring to the boil and cook for 40 minutes until the vegetables have become soft. Blend everything, adjust salt and serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and possibly some croutons.
  3. Simple, isn’t it? 🙂

vellutata-di-broccoli-e-cavolfiore-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Broccoli and cauliflower velouté

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

Today we have come up with a dish that can become a light main course or a perfect side dish to enrich a meal. Simple, genuine, tasty and ideal for any palate: one ingredient and herbs and you’re done, Mint flavoured beans.

Here’s how to prepare them for a fresh, healthy, naturally gluten-free and diabetes-friendly dish, perhaps accompanied by seasonal vegetables. I chose Borlotti beans that are very common in northern Italy, but feel free to pick your favourite beans for this salad.

And if you want an idea for another fresh and tasty salad, try this irresistible Swordfish salad.

Mint flavoured beans

18.56g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 160g dried borlotti or white beans (soaked for 12 hours)
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 1 clove garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil, mint, salt and black or pink pepper

Preparation

  1. Boil the beans in water with celery and garlic; once cooked, remove the latter and drain the beans.
  2. Let the beans cool and season them with fresh mint leaves, a good extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper: it is a very simple dish, but really rich in flavour and aroma.

fagioli alla menta

Version with gluten of Mint flavoured beans

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

As the cold weather arrives, the best thing to do is to pamper yourself with food that will warm even the coldest of days, providing the right amount of nutrients without forgetting taste, and for this there is nothing better than a steaming Lentil soup.

Well, the season of soups, the main dish for winter evenings, has begun again. The protagonists of our recipe are pulses and, more precisely, lentils. If you like lentils, discover Rascino lentils and how to cook them to prepare a Pulse pasta with Rascino lentils.

So, ready to prepare it?

Lentil Soup

12.26g carbohydrates per 100g soup without pasta

Ingredients

  • 200 g lentils
  • 100g carrots
  • 90g onions
  • 50g celery
  • gluten-free Ditalini rigati pasta** (optional)
  • water, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Cover the lentils with water in a large saucepan, add the carrot, celery, a small bunch of parsley and the onion in large pieces and cook without salt.

zuppa-di-lenticchie-uno-chef-per-gaia

  1. Once the lentils are ready, drain them but keep the cooking water and remove the parsley.
    Put the carrot, celery and onion (if you do not like onion, you can remove it) and possibly some of the lentils in a food processor with a few tablespoons of cooking water and blend to form a cream.
  2. At this point, you can decide whether to complete the soup with or without pasta. In case you decide to prepare it with pasta, cook some Ditalini rigati in the cooking water of the lentils and, only at the end of cooking, pour the cooked lentils and the vegetable cream in the pan with pasta. If, on the other hand, you do not want to use pasta, assemble the soup by mixing the cooked lentils with the vegetable cream and the amount of cooking water necessary to reach the desired density.
  3. Then serve the soup hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

zuppa-di-lenticchie-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Lentil soup

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten. If you add pasta, replace gluten-free pasta with standard pasta.

 

Today’s recipe is vegetarian and very, very tasty: Quinoa pies with avocado, a dish I tasted, in a more American version, on one of my overseas business trips and wanted to adapt it to a more ‘Italian’ taste.

Simple, healthy ingredients for a dish that is perfect as an appetiser, focusing on lightness without sacrificing taste. If you like quinoa, try also Quinoa surprises.

Get ready!

Quinoa pies with avocado

carbohydrates 14.84g per 100g without mozzarella and mustard chutney

 Ingredients

  • 95g avocado pulp (approx. ½ avocado)
  • 75g quinoa
  • 50g spring onion
  • 1 mint leaf
  • 1 sprig of parsley
  • extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, buffalo mozzarella, apricot mustard chutney*, valerian

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Cook the quinoa for about 15 minutes in lightly salted water (usually twice its weight), then leave to cool.
  2. Meanwhile, in a non-stick pan, soften the finely chopped spring onion on low heat. In a bowl, mash the avocado pulp with a fork and add chopped mint and parsley. Season the cooked quinoa with the avocado cream, add the cooked spring onion and, finally, season with salt and pepper.
  3. Using a pastry cutter, form a disc of quinoa directly on the serving dish; accompany the flan with sliced buffalo mozzarella, a pinch of apricot mustard chutney and a few valerian leaves as decoration.

tortini-di-quinoa-allavocado-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Quinoa pies with avocado

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

You know, we love trying out new recipes by mixing ingredients and experimenting with different cooking methods and tasty combinations: the Pan-fried potato pie is a perfect example.

Today’s idea is a great one-dish meal because it is hearty and perfect as a complete meal, but also ideal as a tasty main course.

So, let’s start preparing our Pan-fried potato pie, then decide on the best way to enjoy it, perhaps accompany it with Dominican salad.

Pan-fried potato pie

16.4g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 1kg potatoes
  • 100g non-smoked or smoked Scamorza cheese
  • 90g cooked ham*
  • 80g cooked spinach (or frozen and left to thaw)
  • 70g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • 2 eggs
  • butter, salt, pepper, oil

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Boil the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher, then season with a knob of butter, Parmesan cheese and eggs.

Tortino-di-patate-senza-glutine-ph-chiara-marando
2. Now lightly grease a sheet of baking paper with a little oil, then form a disk of mashed potatoes the size of the non-stick pan in which you want to cook the pie.

Tortino-di-patate-senza-glutine-ph-chiara-marando

  1. Cover the disc with the cooked ham, the thinly sliced Scamorza cheese and, finally, the lightly chopped spinach.
  2. Cover the filling with a layer of mashed potatoes so that the pie filling is completely closed. It is a good idea to grease the surface of the pie before placing it in the non-stick pan with the help of the parchment paper and a dish.

Tortino-di-patate-senza-glutine-ph-chiara-marando

  1. Cook over medium heat and, after about ten minutes, turn the whole thing over to the other side with the help of two flat lids, as wide as the pan. When the second side is also golden brown, serve the pie in slices accompanied by vegetables to taste.

Tortino-di-patate-senza-glutine-ph-chiara-marando

Tip: it is excellent also eaten cold.

Version with gluten of Pan-fried potato pie

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients so no adaptation is needed.

The recipe we are sharing today is from the family of a Greek friend, Vassilios, whom I asked to help me give my children a taste of this traditional Greek dish: Aubergine Mussakàs.

Mussakàs can be prepared with aubergines only, or by adding potatoes as well. For carbohydrate reasons, I chose to make it with aubergines only, but given the success of the dish, I think I will also try the mixed version soon.

Of course, we will also share it with you, as well as another recipe with an oriental flavour: Falafel.

The original recipe calls for aubergines to be fried in oil and, in some cases, a little butter. I preferred to grill the aubergines in the oven to make the dish lighter. I also took the liberty of doing the same with the béchamel in terms of both quantity and egg content.

But believe me, the result was very satisfying!

Aubergine Mussakàs 

5.5g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 1.5kg aubergines, preferably round
  • 750g minced meat (to taste, mixed is also fine)
  • 500g tomato sauce (or 750g fresh tomatoes in season)
  • 150g Roman pecorino cheese (kefalotyri in Greek), grated
  • 100g onions
  • 100g white wine
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
  • extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
  • optional cloves and/or cinnamon, to be added to the minced meat sauce (this is Vassilios’s mother’s secret)

Ingredients for the béchamel sauce

  • 600g milk
  • 60g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 30g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 5g salt
  • cinnamon and nutmeg

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation of Aubergine Mussakàs

  1. Put the minced meat in a pan with the onion and fry well with oil. Stir often so that the meat does not create lumps and does not stick; douse with the wine, then add tomato sauce, parsley, salt, pepper and possibly 2-4 cloves and/or ½ cinnamon stick to be removed at the end.
    Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 1.5 hours, until the sauce has thickened… almost like a meat sauce.
  2. Meanwhile, wash and dry the aubergines, cut them into thin slices and grill them in the oven at 180°C until cooked.
    Prepare the béchamel sauce. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then remove from the heat and add the rice flour to create a creamy mixture; gradually add the milk, continuing to stir with a whisk so that no lumps form, return to the heat adding salt and pepper and stir until the béchamel sauce is thick and almost starts to boil. At this point, remove the pan from the heat and add the already beaten eggs, mixing everything well. Sprinkle half of the grated Pecorino cheese into the meat sauce and mix well.
  3. Now let’s assemble the dish!

ricetta-Mussakàs-blog-uno-chef-per-gaia-ph-chiara-marando

Arrange the aubergines in parallel rows in the baking dish and cover them with a layer of minced meat; form a second layer of aubergines and cover them again with a layer of meat.

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  1. Finally, finish with a generous amount of béchamel sauce, the remaining cheese and a grating of nutmeg.

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  1. Bake the Mussakàs at 180°C for about 40 minutes.

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Version with gluten of Aubergine Mussakàs

The recipe given is naturally gluten-free, so no adaptation is needed for the version with gluten.