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Legumotti Salad with Caramelised Tropea onion

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Salads are a perfect solution for summer and this Legumotti salad mixed in a smooth, velvety Swiss chard cream, completed by sweet caramelised Tropea onions will give you the pleasure of a great gourmet dish.

The recipe is naturally gluten free and is rich in vegetable protein and fibre, suitable to be eaten at lunch or dinner, warm or cold; it is perfect as a main course if eaten in a large portion, or as an appetiser or first course if served in smaller quantities.

The Swiss chard cream will be a real surprise that you can use for so many other preparations: use it as an accompanying sauce for flans and fresh stuffed pasta, roast meat, mixed salads and, of course, as a sauce for pasta dishes (gnocchi with this cream are delicious).

Caramelised Tropea onions don’t need to be introduced. The only attention we have to pay is to the sugar they contain, either naturally or by adding brown sugar to caramelise them. In fact, onions behave like some other vegetables (e.g. carrots and peppers) which, when cooked, considerably increase the amount of carbohydrates per 100g: the raw onion contains 5.7g/100g, whereas once cooked, the value rises to 23.6g/100g.

For this reason, I have given you the carbohydrate value of caramelised onions separately so you can better calculate the carb count when adding them to your dish or preparing them for many other applications. Oh yes, because once you have prepared the caramelised Tropea onion, you can use it to season a pasta dish, fill a sandwich or focaccia, accompany a meat or fish main course, or even to complete a spoon dessert that I happened to taste on one of my culinary adventures.

Insalata di Legumotti con cipolla di Tropea caramellata

Legumotti salad with Swiss chard cream, caramelised Tropea onion and topped with grated salted ricotta

Legumotti Salad with Caramelised Tropea onion

24.52g carbohydrates per 100g cooked Legumotti pasta with Swiss chard cream

47.62g carbohydrates per 100g caramelised Tropea onion

 

Ingredients for the Legumotti and Swiss chard cream

  • 250g Barilla Legumotti*
  • 300g fresh Swiss chard already cleaned (without the harder white ribs)
  • 80g spring onion
  • 20g extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • salted ricotta
  • marjoram
  • salt and pepper

Ingredients for caramelised onion

  • 450g Tropea onions
  • 30g apple vinegar
  • 20g extra virgin olive oil
  • 20g brown sugar
  • salt and pepper

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

Preparation

  1. Start with the caramelised onions, which are the most time-consuming preparation. Cut the onions in half and slice each half into fan shapes. Wilt them in a non-stick pan with extra virgin olive oil on low heat and with the lid on; after 10 minutes, add the apple vinegar and brown sugar; season with salt and pepper and cook for a further 10 minutes, leaving the pan uncovered in case there is liquid on the bottom. Put the onions aside.
  2. Wash and clean the Swiss chard. Put a pot of lightly salted water on the stove and when it boils, blanch the Swiss chard for a minute, drain it and throw it into cold water. Pour it into a colander so that it drains well.
  3. Chop the leek and put it in a non-stick pan with the extra virgin olive oil and the clove of garlic; add the lightly wrung Swiss chard; season with salt and pepper, a pinch of marjoram and leave to gain flavour for about ten minutes. Remove the garlic, transfer the vegetables to a food processor and blend them to a smooth, homogeneous cream.
  4. Put a pan of water on the stove, add salt and when it comes to the boil, cook the Legumotti for 9 minutes. Drain them and put them in a bowl. Dress them with the Swiss chard cream and serve them on individual plates. Complete with caramelised onions and a grating of salted ricotta cheese. You can eat Legumotti warm or cold as you like: I love them in all preparations, so here is another recipe that may interest you, Legumotti with vegetables.

Version with gluten

The recipe is naturally gluten-free, so no adaptation is required

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Quinoa surprises

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Quinoa surprises are a way for me to use vegetables, definitely my favourite ingredients! For each season, we have a great variety of them, allowing us to indulge in their preparation. Yet, sometimes there is a lack of ideas for preparing something tasty in front of which the kids do not turn up their noses.

Round courgettes are loved by young and old alike because they are perfect for filling with anything we like, so mine is just one of hundreds of possible filling solutions.

The version prepared with quinoa, one of Latin America’s super foods (see its history) also popular in our country due to its high protein, Omega 6 and Omega 3 content, makes the recipe a perfect one-course meal for both lunch and dinner. Personally, I prepared the recipe in a vegan version, i.e. without adding melted cheese, and offered it for dinner to my hungry family members, and Gaia’s blood sugar behaved very well throughout the night, which made us enjoy the dish even more.

Quinoa surprises   

carbohydrates 6.2g per 100g

Ingredients

  • 4 large round courgettes (total weight when emptied 1kg)
  • 300g tomato sauce
  • 120g celery
  • 90g carrots
  • 80g quinoa (cooked in 240g water)
  • 70g shallot
  • 1 clove garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • chili
  • cheese cubes melting (optional)

Preparation

  1. Put quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer, rinse it thoroughly, then pour it in a small pan with three times its own weight of water. Slightly salt the water, put everything on the heat and cook the quinoa for about 15 minutes with the lid on until it has completely absorbed the water. Remove from the heat and let it cool down.
  2. Take the round courgettes, cut off the top part so that the courgettes are divided into 2 parts: a small one at the top and the large part underneath from which you will remove the pulp (you can use this to make vegetable soups). Sprinkle the inside of the courgettes with salt, place them with their tops on the side on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15 minutes. Once taken out of the oven, remove the water that will have formed inside the courgettes, then set them aside while you prepare the filling.
  3. Slice the shallot, put it in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil together with the garlic clove, then add the tomato sauce and cook for 10 minutes.
  4. Put a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and sauté the diced celery and carrot; season with salt and pepper. Now season the quinoa with the tomato sauce and sautéed vegetables; season with salt, pepper and chilli.
  5. Fill the courgettes with the quinoa, pressing it lightly into them. If you like, you can put a few cubes of cheese melting on top of the quinoa before covering each courgette with its own cap (personally, I did not add anything because I did not want to add cheese to this meal), then bake in a hot oven at 200°C for about ten minutes or for 5 minutes under the grill.
  6. Serve the courgettes hot with a drizzle of olive oil.
Le zucchine ripiene di verdure e quinoa

Courgettes stuffed with vegetables and quinoa

Version with gluten of Quinoa surprises

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

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Basmati rice with curry, tuna and peppers

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Even though the air is still cool, I have now entered the mood of summer and colours and I can’t go back to grey, neither with my clothes nor with my food! Basmati rice with curry, tuna and peppers fully expresses this feeling.

And it is nature that helps us to be colourful, because going shopping at the greengrocer’s is a real feast for the eyes with all the vegetables in season. Peppers always make me very happy, not to mention the first cherry tomatoes from the south of Italy.

So I decided to add another splash of colour to the vegetable palette: curry, a spice that everyone in the family loves and that I buy from some Indian friends when they return from their country.

The carbohydrates in the dish come almost exclusively from basmati rice (remember that the cooked peppers are also counted in the preparation as they have 24.3g carbohydrates per 100g of product once cooked), a long-grain rice with an intense aroma and a slightly lower glycaemic index than the types of rice more suitable for risottos… not surprisingly, it does not release the starch that is essential to give creaminess to Italian risotto.

Have fun preparing this one-course meal, a kind of rice salad, a perfect summer recipe that will brighten up your table, your palate and certainly your well-being too. If you like curry, also try the Cous cous with prawn and courgette curry.

Riso basmati al curry con tonno e peperoni

Riso basmati al curry con tonno e peperoni

Basmati rice with curry, tuna and peppers

12.92g carbohydrates per 100g


Ingredients 

  • 300g tuna in oil
  • 300g vegetable stock
  • 220g yellow pepper
  • 220g green pepper
  • 200g Basmati rice
  • 200g peeled tomatoes
  • 15g spring onion
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder*
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

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

Preparation

  1. Cut the peeled tomatoes, remove the seeds and cut the rest into cubes, which you place in a bowl with the chopped tuna, sliced spring onion, a pinch of salt and 20g of oil. Wash the peppers, cut them, remove the seeds and white filaments and dice them, setting them aside.
  2. In a saucepan, heat 20g oil, toast the rice for a few minutes, add the curry, stir well, then add the hot stock, put the lid on and leave to cook for 5 minutes. Add the peppers without stirring, put the lid back on and cook (another 5 minutes or so until the liquid has been completely absorbed).
  3. Divide the rice into 4 single-serving bowls, let it cool and top with the tomato and tuna mixture.

 

Version with gluten of Basmati rice with curry, tuna and peppers

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

 

 

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Pink chickpea hummus

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We finally have a chance to get out of the house and enjoy nature, the temperatures have risen and the colours around us charge us with energy, so the plates get coloured too: Pink chickpea hummus with chickpea Sfogliette.

This is the effect that colours have on me. Chickpea hummus turns pink to accompany a gift from Sarchio: delicious chickpea Sfogliette that have only good qualities as they are organic, gluten free, baked in the oven and with just the right amount of carbohydrates for a snack or a nice aperitif with friends.

I barely finished taking the photos after recording the video recipe before the family gathered around the small bowls to fill the little crispy sheets with creamy hummus, impatiently waiting for dinner.

Remember also that you can indulge in ‘colouring’ the hummus with your favourite flavours by using vegetables or spices to make it even tastier.

 

Pink chickpea hummus with chickpea Sfogliette

10.64g carbohydrates per 100g

67g carbohydrates per 100g Sarchio chickpea Sfogliette


Ingredients 

  • 230g cooked or canned chickpeas
  • 60g water
  • 40g tahini (sesame seed cream)*
  • 30g extra virgin olive oil
  • 20g red beet
  • 20g lemon juice
  • chives, optional
  • salt and pepper
  • Sarchio chickpea Sfogliette*

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

Preparation

  1. Take the red beet and cook it in boiling water for about 40 minutes or until soft when pierced with the tines of a fork. Take a small amount for this preparation, while keeping the other to use as a side dish to season with oil, vinegar and salt.
  2. Put the chickpeas in a blender with all the other ingredients and blend until smooth and even.
  3. Complement this beautiful and colourful hummus with chives or other spices to taste.
  4. It is ideal to serve as a dip or topping for croutons and Bruschetta.
Il colore brillante dell'hummus di ceci

Il colore brillante dell’hummus di ceci

Version with gluten of Pink chickpea hummus with chickpea Sfogliette

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

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Soft potato focaccias

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Soft potato focaccias for me are indelibly linked to my paternal grandmother. In fact, for many years, the tradition in our house was to make bread once a week, in large quantities, to be baked in the wood-fired oven on the farm.

The thing I remember most pleasantly is the time when we could eat ‘Torta del forno‘, a version of soft potato focaccias that my grandmother prepared by adding a boiled and mashed potato, extra virgin olive oil and salt to a loaf of bread. The new small dough (or sometimes large dough for everyone’s desire to eat this amazing food) was rolled out with a rolling pin, cut into strips of about 15x7cm and thrown onto the bricks of the wood-fired oven to test its temperature. Indeed, our wood-burning oven never had a thermometer, so based on the colour of the surface of the bread strips we could tell if the oven was too hot, and so we had to wait to bake the bread, or was not hot enough, and so we had to burn more wood inside.

These scones are a tribute to that flavour, although baking in a wood-fired oven certainly gives different aromas and flavours. However, I can assure you that my grandmother really liked this version.

Soft potato focaccias

43.66g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 400g water
  • 300g potatoes
  • 220g gluten free multi-purpose flour mix, brand Massimo Zero**
  • 170g flour mix for bread, brand Caputo Fioreglut**
  • 60g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 30g buckwheat flour*
  • 40g extra virgin olive oil
  • 16g yeast
  • salt, oregano, cherry tomatoes, olives, rice flour for shaping

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Boil the potatoes, peel, mash and let them cool.
  2. Knead the remaining ingredients, form a dough ball, brush it with a little oil, cover it with cling film and let it rise for 1.5 hours or until doubled in volume.
  3. Knead again with the planetary mixer adding the mashed potatoes, mix quickly well, then take spoonfuls of the mixture, roll it out first with your hands, then with a rolling pin using plenty of rice flour, and with a pastry cutter cut out discs about 2 cm thick and 10 cm in diameter. Place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper and let them rise again for about 30 minutes.
  4. Brush the surface with a little oil and season to taste with oregano, olives, tomatoes, etc.
  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 40 minutes.
  6. To watch the video recipe, click here

Version with cluten of Soft potato focaccias

Replace the Massimo Zero and Caputo flours with wheat flour and reduce the amount of water to 300g.

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Crispy bread in casserole

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Do you know the irresistible texture of bread baked in a wood-fired oven? When the crust, under the blade of the serrated knife, makes that unmistakable sound that already gives you a foretaste of the pleasure of the taste of bread? Crispy bread in casserole is a gift for the senses: it is for the sight, because the colour of the bread is just right golden; it is for the smell, because the fragrance has the irresistible fragrance of bread; it is for the taste, because in addition to the flavour, the crunchy texture of the crust and the softness of the crumb are simply perfect. And everything is gluten-free!

If we want to find some faults, well, we cannot deny that it requires a lot of resting time, even though we can easily knead it the day before and ‘forget’ it in the refrigerator, and moreover, baking it requires a little more energy than bread baked in the usual way. Yet, if you have a cast-iron casserole dish, my advice is to try it right away because it is a bread that has nothing to envy the products of the best bakers in our towns.

Crispy bread in casserole

46.55g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 500g water
  • 450g flour mix for bread, brand Nutrifree**
  • 50g buckwheat flour*
  • 20g extra virgin olive oil
  • 5g brewer’s yeast
  • 5g salt
  • rice flour* for dusting and extra virgin olive oil for brushing

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water; place the Nutrifree mix and buckwheat flour in the planetary mixer and start mixing the flours together, then gradually add the water with the yeast while continuing to knead. After kneading for at least 5 minutes, add the salt and extra virgin olive oil and mix for a few more minutes. Transfer the dough into a bowl, brush with a little oil, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 15 hours.
  2. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a cutting board dusted with rice flour. Again using rice flour, fold the dough 5-6 times at least, then give it the round shape of a loaf and leave it to rise for about 2 hours covered with a cloth.
  3. Bring the oven to 230°C with a cast-iron casserole inside (I use my Le Creuset casserole) with a lid. When the oven has reached the set temperature, remove the casserole from the oven by placing it on a trivet because of the very high temperature. You can cut a cross on the surface of the loaf and drop it, literally, into the casserole to avoid burning yourself.
  4. Place the casserole in the oven closed with its lid and bake for 45 minutes.
  5. After this time, take out the casserole from the oven, open it with the help of an oven glove or potholders and turn the loaf upside down. Put the whole thing back in the oven and bake at 210°C for another 30 minutes.
  6. Remove the casserole from the oven and take out the bread; if you feel that the bread is still slightly heavy, place it in the oven without the container for another 10 minutes. Let it cool and enjoy it while listening to the sound of the crust under your teeth!

Version with gluten of Crispy bread in casserole

Replace the Nutrifree bread mix with wheat flour, but mix it with about 300g water.

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Gluten-free Colomba Pasquale

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For ten years I have invariably cooked traditional dishes on the celebration days of our Catholic culture, but this is the first time that a large-sized leavened dessert has satisfied me 100 per cent! I have never tasted a soft and fragrant gluten-free Colomba Pasquale like this one, prepared with simple (albeit numerous!) ingredients and a mix containing only naturally gluten-free ingredients.

You can imagine the joy of seeing the dough rise without any hesitation inside the warm oven: you know what that means for those who have to deal with flours that are always a bit temperamental like gluten free ones.

The other advantage of this Colomba is that it stays good for several days, although to fully enjoy the softness after the first day, it is best to heat the slices for a few seconds in the microwave or in a conventional oven for a few minutes.

Do you know what the only flaw is? That it has to rise at least six hours and therefore it takes a whole day with its waiting… but maybe that’s good because otherwise I think I would bake one every week.

I wish you a very happy Easter that we will certainly remember for the events that have changed our lives without warning, but I hope you will also remember it a little for my Colomba. And in the video recipe you can follow how to prepare Colomba step by step.

Colomba pasquale

49g carbohydrates per 100g

 Ingredients for the poolish

  • 75g unsweetened almond milk or soya drink*
  • 50g gluten-free multi-purpose flour mix, Massimo Zero**
  • 25g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 10g acacia honey
  • 10g brewer’s yeast

Ingredients for the dough

  • 100g gluten-free multi-purpose flour mix, Massimo Zero**
  • 95g sugar
  • 95g butter
  • 85g sultanas or candied fruit
  • 4 eggs
  • 35g tapioca starch*
  • 30g rice starch*
  • 25g rice flour
  • 25g acacia honey
  • 20g liqueur to moisten the raisins
  • 2g guar gum
  • 1g xanthan gum
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • orange flower water (optional)
  • tonka bean (optional)
  • salt

Ingredients for the icing

  • 40g egg white (corresponding to 1 egg white)
  • 30g icing sugar
  • 30g almond flour
  • 10g corn starch
  • 10g granulated sugar
  • almonds in their skins

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Mix the flours for the poolish in a planetary mixer with the honey and warm milk in which the brewer’s yeast has been dissolved. You will obtain a soft dough that you will have to put to rise at room temperature for about 3 hours covered with cling film.
  2. After 3 hours, put the poolish in the planetary mixer, add the Massimo Zero mix, starches, rice flour, sugar, guar and xanthan gum. Knead by adding the eggs, one at a time, then add the very soft butter gradually so that it is absorbed. To knead in the planetary mixer, you can use the dough hook or the leaf mixer and when the dough starts to stick to the hook, it is ready to be put to rise.
  3. Let the dough rise directly in the bowl of the planetary mixer in the oven set on proving  function for 1 hour.
  4. Soak the raisins in liqueur.
  5. Put the planetary mixer bowl back in place with the hook and add the last ingredients: grated lemon zest, vanilla bean, grated Tonka bean, orange flower water and finally honey and a pinch of salt. Stir the whole mixture and complete by adding the soaked raisins and the soaking liquid.
  6. Pour the mixture into a 500g Colomba mould and put it to rise in the oven at 30°C for at least another 2 hours.
  7. Meanwhile, prepare the icing. Whip the egg whites until stiff by adding the icing sugar, then add the almond flour and corn starch. Stir well and when Colomba is ready to be baked, sprinkle the icing over the surface of the cake and top with whole almonds with the peel and granulated sugar.
  8. Heat the static oven to 165°C and bake Colomba for 1 hour and 15 minutes (depending on the oven, it may be ready even 10 minutes earlier), preferably with the cake placed in the lower part of the oven. You can add a small pan of water in the oven to keep it slightly moist. After the first 15 minutes, cover the surface of the cake with tin foil to prevent it from browning too much.
  9. Once removed from the oven, place the Colomba upside down by poking it with two Chinese food sticks and let it cool for 1 hour.
  10. Once completely cold, store the Colomba in a well-sealed plastic bag.

colomba-pasquale

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Gluten-free from the world: Dominican salad

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I promised you that I would return from my Caribbean holiday with some new recipes! Here is the Dominican Salad, a gluten free proposal from another part of the world. In fact, our holiday diet relied almost exclusively on vegetables and fruit, perfect companions in high temperatures, and the ‘winter ingredients’ in hot countries are much more similar to the produce we can get in summer here in Italy.

In this Dominican Salad (which I prepared several times in the kitchens that hosted us on our trip to the Dominican Republic), the ingredients are available practically all year round even in Italy, except for the cherry tomatoes that I bought out of season even though they come from the greenhouses of our Sicily.

One aspect that struck me in Dominican salads was the presence in large quantities of red onion , and I was especially surprised that it was very sweet and did not leave the characteristic smell in the mouth that we are familiar with and which is certainly a deterrent to its consumption when raw, at least for those who, like me, love it in all ways.

Here, then, is a way to eat the onion almost raw, but treated in such a way as to remove the essential oils that cause the smell to remain once eaten: blanch it three times in boiling water, each time clean water, for a few seconds and you’re done. Of course, you will taste the intensity of its flavour a bit less, but you will be able to enjoy it without worrying too much about social life!

Furthermore, in our suitcase we still had a packet of gluten-free taco shells purchased from one of the rare supermarkets we found on the way on our travels, which was an invaluable accompaniment to the salad that nicely solved a fog-shrouded dinner with a touch of nostalgia for the turquoise colour.

Dominican salad

9.3g carbohydrates per 100g

without taco shells

Ingredients

  • 500g already cooked chickpeas
  • 300g avocado
  • 300g cherry tomatoes
  • 80g onions
  • ½ lemon
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • taco shells or tacos**

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Take the onion and cut it into slices about half a centimetre thick. Put a small saucepan on the stove with a little water so that it can quickly come to the boil. When the water boils, throw in the onion slices and leave them for about ten seconds, then drain them. Throw away the water from the saucepan and put clean water back in; bring it back to the boil and blanch the onion again for 10 seconds. Repeat the operation a third time, then drop the onion into cold water for one minute and finally drain it.
  2. Drain the chickpeas and place them in a bowl, add the peeled and chopped avocado and the cherry tomatoes cut into 4 pieces; drizzle with the juice of half a lemon, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and finish with the well separated onion rings.
  3. Serve the salad with corn tacos, tortillas or simply home-made bread.

And if you like salads, try my Chickpea and octopus salad with balsamic vinegar.

L'insalata dominicana pronta per essere gustata

The Dominican salad ready to be enjoyed

Version with gluten of Dominican salad

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

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Turmeric and lemon chicken tajine

What to do with a free-range chicken if you have a Tajine pot in your kitchen equipment? A naturally gluten free dish to bring diabetes and celiac disease together: Turmeric and lemon chicken tajine.

Looking out of the kitchen window, a picture that changes daily according to the colours the sky takes on has been accompanying me for weeks. This is the maple tree that has lived with us since we moved in our current place, and every year in autumn it gives us palettes of colour that turn on and off depending on how the sun’s rays or the rain hit its leaves.

It was the colours of these leaves that made me think of the orange of turmeric and the yellow of lemon. Add to that the fact that my parents gave me some free-range chickens directly from the farm where they live, well, I couldn’t help but prepare a dish that is as simple as I like, but absolutely unforgettable.

And you know what? Although the colours are those of autumn, this chicken is a delight at any time of the year and with whatever side dish you are comfortable preparing.

Turmeric and lemon chicken tajine

carbohydrates per 100g negliglible

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 3-4 chicken legs (depending on size)
  • approx. 200g stock
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander
  • 1 lemon
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

  1. Heat the oil in the Tajine or in a saucepan. Gently fry the thinly sliced onion and the clove of garlic for 3-4 minutes without browning them. Add the chicken pieces and brown them evenly, turning the pieces often and adjusting the heat.
  2. Add turmeric, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or coriander, stock, lemon peel (only the yellow part) in large pieces, salt and pepper, then simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours (cooking times depend on the chicken!).
  3. If necessary, remove the lid, turn up the heat and allow the cooking juices to thicken slightly.
  4. Serve accompanying the meat with a side dish of seasonal vegetables to taste or even these Cauliflower patties.
I colori della Tajine di pollo alla curcuma e limone

The colours of the Turmeric and lemon chicken tajine

Version with gluten of Turmeric and lemon chicken Tajine

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients.

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Chicken with peppers and goji berries

This is the second recipe dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the National Carmagnola Pepper Fair and is one of our favourites when we are very hungry, have little time and want something tasty and light: Chicken with peppers and goji berries, naturally gluten free and with very few carbohydrates. If you want to look at the first recipe again, here it is: Gazpacho of yellow tomatoes, peppers and crispy prosciutto.

Pepper is a typical summer vegetable, particularly popular in hot countries, although it is now cultivated all over the world. Its versatility in cooking is extraordinary, and from a nutritional point of view it is rich in vitamin C, even richer than oranges, which are often considered the champions in ‘this speciality’.

Well, by combining peppers with goji berries, which by the way belong to the same family, we can enjoy their countless health benefits. Goji berries are to be consumed with caution for those with diabetes because they have a high carbohydrate content, as much as 64g per 100g of product, and also calories, but at the same time are rich in protein, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, lipids such as omega 3 and omega 6, magnesium, chromium, vitamins C, E and B1, carotene, amino acids, fibre, lutein and germanium.

Eating a dish like this one that is a joy for the eyes, for the palate and for our well-being seems to me the best way to celebrate a very respectable birthday!

Chicken with peppers and goji berries

3.49g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4-6 servings

  • 700g chicken breast
  • 380g yellow, red and green peppers
  • 80g leek
  • 30g goji berries
  • 1 sachet of saffron
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt

Preparation

  1. Soak the goji berries in lukewarm water for 30 minutes.
  2. Cut the chicken into strips, mix with the saffron and leave to season for about 30 minutes.
  3. Cut the leeks into thin rounds and the peppers into strips for sautéing. Heat a wok, pour in a few tablespoons of oil and sauté the leek alone first, then add the peppers; season with salt and cook over a high flame for 5 minutes, stirring often. Set them aside.
  4. Put another 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in the wok and stir-fry the chicken for 5-6 minutes, then add the goji berries, season with salt and continue cooking for 1 minute.
  5. Remove the chicken from the heat, mix it with the peppers and serve hot or lukewarm accompanied by a mixed salad.

 

Version with gluten of Chicken with peppers and goji berries

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

 

This recipe was submitted to the Contest ‘Carmagnola Pepper: 70 years in 70 recipes’

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