Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Stew

Hearty and tasty gluten-free slow cooker stew.

Here's a bright and delicious slow cooker stew recipe with sausages - and it's tasty using any sausage you choose, from free-range roaming buffalo to furry-friendly vegan. Scrumptious. Seriously. Make it for the Big Game. You know, the one with a pigskin ball and helmeted men in shiny tights. Throw all the ingredients in a Crock Pot and go root for your favorite tight end. Make a hot artichoke dip and grab some gluten-free chips. Game on.

Go Cubs!

Continue reading

Gluten-Free Chicken Soup for Body and Soul

A gluten-free chicken soup to cure all ills...

We've been living on soup since Sunday. No, not turkey leftovers soup. Jewish penicillin soup. You see, Steve- that ordinarily upbeat and tenacious husband of mine- has been feeling a tad under the weather these past few days. In truth, more than a tad. He's caught a nasty cold. The kind of cold where you ache all over and do nothing but lay in bed watching a marathon of Lost on your laptop because to even zombie-walk to the sofa loveseat too-small-to-lay-on requires functional navigation skills and balance beyond your sinus-throbbing capacity.

Poor guy.

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading

New Mexican Stew with Ground Turkey + Green Chiles

Slurp worthy green chile stew with turkey.

Looking for a simple but truly fabulous slow cooker recipe to warm you up? Here is one my favorites. A New Mexican style stew with budget-friendly ground turkey spiked with roasted green chiles, lime, and cilantro. Make it as mild or as spicy as your taste buds prefer. It's perfect comfort food for any time of year.

Need more slow cooker inspiration? Check out the tasty gluten-free cookbook Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by fellow food blogger Stephanie O'Dea.


Continue reading

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.

Continue reading

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

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.

Continue reading

Roasted Winter Vegetable Ragout with Shaved Parmesan

A simple warming recipe for oven-roasted stew or ragout. 

After an odd and uncharacteristic nod to spring the temperature has dipped again into chilly territory. The bird baths are frozen. No snow, but the moonlit sky was sharp last night in a brittle way it hasn't been for weeks.

We went to an extraordinary film late yesterday- one not to miss (though I fear it's circulating out of theaters already). Terrence Mallick's The New World. It's hard to put into words, because the experience of it is so, well, non-verbal. Like all of his other films it is visual poetry- lyrical, intuitive, non-linear, experiential. The Jungian in me can only say it beautifully evokes the Divine Feminine, the Heroine's Journey. Don't miss it.

Continue reading