Delicious Garlic-Herb Shrimp

This recipe isn't for the faint at heart.  You have to like two things: garlic and shrimp.  If you do, you're in luck!  I've made this a few times and it's delicious fresh or after it's rested overnight allowing the flavors to really mesh together.  You could serve it over salad or in a sandwich.  It was a perfect post-Thanksgiving meal. Enjoy!

Shrimp served alongside a spinach salad for a flavorful, light lunch. 

Delicious Garlic-Herb Shrimp

Mix together:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil
~6-7 cloves garlic, minced (about 3/4 of a bulb)
1-2 Tbsp fresh dill, minced
1-2 Tbsp fresh chives, minced
dash turmeric
dash salt and pepper
juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
dash of Tabasco (optional)

Mix in 2 lbs cooked jumbo shrimp (peeled, deveined, tails off).

Refrigerate 1-2 hours, then serve!  Enjoy! 

Red Potato Salad with fresh herbs

This lovely potato salad is packed with fresh herbs, making it a flavorful addition to any summer meal.  I particularly love it when served alongside something like pan-fried haddock or cod or a nice baked or barbecued salmon.   The salad shown here was served at a book club luncheon and was a perfect accompaniment to rolled up ham and cheese sandwiches and a garden salad.  Enjoy!

Freshly prepared red potato salad with fresh herbs, ready to eat!

Red Potato Salad w/ Fresh Herbs

Rinse & dice ~2 lbs baby red potatoes into large bite-size pieces.  Place in a pot of cold water, enough to cover the potatoes by about 1".  Add a dash of salt.

Bring pot to a boil. Boil uncovered for ~10-12 minutes, until potatoes are soft when poked with a fork (just soft enough for the fork to go through, not mushy. You want them to keep their shape).   Drain and run under cold water to cool.

In a large bowl, mix together:
cooked red potatoes, from above
1/3 cup mayonnaise
3 Tbsp fresh dill, minced
5-6 green onions, sliced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/2 - 1 tsp garlic powder OR 2-3 Tbsp chopped roasted garlic cloves
salt & pepper, to taste (I usually start with 1/4 tsp of each and add more as desired)

You can serve this immediately or chill and serve.   I find it's nice to make it a day in advance so the flavors really blend together.  Enjoy!

Delicious Greek Salad with Homemade Dressing

A delicious, and incredibly easy to whip together Greek salad with homemade dressing.  We've made it many times, and I've even had others whip it together with my notes, and it turned out just perfectly.   You can adjust the vegetables around to have more/less of the ones that are your favorite.  The great thing about this Greek salad is the there are no large olives floating around, rather a few are chopped finely and incorporated into the dressing. Yum! It's a perfect accompaniment to salmon (to be posted soon.) Enjoy!

Our new favorite Greek salad, ready to serve! 

Delicious Greek Salad

In a large bowl, mix:
1/2 - 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced & diced
5-10 cherry tomatoes (or 2 romas) diced into bite-size pieces
large handful romaine lettuce, sliced
large handful spinach, sliced

Mix together the following dressing in a small bowl:
3 Tbsp olive oil 
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
3/4 - 1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
dash salt & pepper
5-6 Calamata olives, diced
3 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese

Toss dressing with vegetables. Serve!  It's my favorite fresh, but still tastes great the next day, too, when all the flavors have melded together a bit more.  Enjoy!

Curry Chicken Salad

Curried chicken salad has grown on me over the years, although (sorry mom), I still despise ones with grapes in them.  I find this version hits the spot with a nice mix of spicy, sweet, crunchy and smooth.  Funny story: We have all enjoyed this salad so much, I thought I'd whip some up for dinner when we had a couple guests.  After all, it is a favorite.  In my hurry to prepare things, I mistook the metal canister of Old Bay Seasoning for Curry Powder, using half Old Bay with half of another container of curry powder (Do Not make this mistake).  Oops!  It was so ridiculously salty with the added Old Bay.  Thankfully, we all had a good laugh.   If you make it properly, using curry powder (which should have no added salt), you'll be good to go!  Enjoy!

Delicious curry chicken salad - great on sandwiches, on top of salads, or with easy to make homemade focaccia bread.

Curry Chicken Salad

Mix together:
1/3 - 1/2 cup dill pickles, diced (fermented dill pickles are wonderful, if you can find them)
1/4 - 1/3 cup green onions, sliced
1 apple, diced
2-3 cups cooked chicken, diced
1/4 - 1/3 cup mayonnaise
~4 tsp curry powder (add 1 tsp at a time, to taste)
~3/4 tsp ground pepper, more/less to taste

Serve the tasty curry chicken salad with toast or crackers, homemade bread, homemade focaccia bread and/or a side salad.  Enjoy!

Light & Delicious Spring Salad

Recently, we've discovered pea shoots and how very much we all love them.  They're one of the few salad-type greens that all three of my kids love and devour without complaint!  They eat them plain like they'd eat sugar snap peas. We've been finding fresh pea shoots and alfalfa sprouts (and other sprouts!) at the local farmer's market for the past month or so, although I think we may have to try growing some ourselves sometime soon.  Everything in this salad except the avocado was grown locally!  Such a delicious blend of early summer goodness with a dash of flavorful balsamic & olive oil on top.  Enjoy!

Spring Salad packed with pea shoots and alfalfa sprouts! 

Light & Delicious Spring Salad

Prepare salad with the following: (feel free to add other ingredients, if desired)
baby spinach
pea shoots, rinsed & dried
alfalfa sprouts, rinsed & dried
avocado, diced
yellow tomatoes, diced
green peppers, diced
herb goat cheese, crumbled

Drizzle overtop, or mix together in a small bowl and then drizzle overtop:
ginger-blackberry balsamic vinegar*
olive oil

If desired, you could add fresh or dried fruits like pear, apple, or cranberries.  Pecan nuts would taste nice with this salad.  You could also add grilled shrimp, grilled chicken, or black beans on top for extra protein.

Enjoy!

*Flavor-infused balsamic vinegar & olive oil are becoming more widely available.  I found mine locally at Liquid Gold olive oils & vinegars in downtown Charlottetown. 

Easy Green Tomato Salad Dressing

The blend of green tomato (or any color), dill and feta make this a wonderfully tasty salad dressing.  And, it's so easy to whip together.  You could easily play around with other herbs at your disposal, too! Enjoy!

Lovely fresh greens, kale, and purple carrots topped with fresh green tomato, dill and feta salad dressing.

Easy Green Tomato Salad Dressing
makes ~ 1/2 - 3/4 cup dressing

Blend together with a stick blender or other blender:
2 Tbsp cranberry-pear vinegar (white wine vinegar, or similar pale-colored vinegar will work)
2 tsp maple syrup
1 small/medium green tomato, de-seeded
3 - 4 Tbsp olive oil
3 - 4 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese
1 - 2 Tbsp fresh dill
salt & pepper, to taste

Serve over any salad for a lovely flavor, filled with fresh herbs, tomatoes and cheese!

Tasty GF Green Tomato Salad Dressing on fresh greens, kale & purple carrots.

Tasty Early Summer Salad

Summertime brings with it lots of fresh local vegetables. We're lucky to be able to get local organic veggies each week from Heartbeet Organics (they have the most amazing salad green mixes).  If you check out their site, you can see all the great information they've put together about how to best store and serve the wide variety of vegetables they grow.  This salad was a delicious start to the summer - packed with fresh local veggies and an easy, tasty sauce.  We served it alongside baked salmon fillets with a dijon glaze (my herb-crusted salmon recipe here which is a similar type dish). Enjoy!

Fresh organic veggies with a homemade dressing

Tasty Early Summer Salad
Serves 4

Toss in a medium bowl:
2-3 cups purple kale, rip or cut into bite-size pieces
2-3 cups mixed fresh salad greens
handful sugar snap peas, diced
handful cherry tomatoes, sliced 
2-3 radishes, finely diced
1/3 avocado, diced

In a small bowl, combine:
1 Tbsp coriander (cilantro) puree
2 Tbsp GF ranch dressing
2-3 Tbsp diced roasted bell pepper

Easy and quick homemade dressing - adds a little extra to the ordinary ranch dressing

Pour dressing on salad mix and toss gently.
Serve and enjoy! 

Purple Cabbage Salad/Slaw with Poppyseed Dressing

I'm typically not a coleslaw person. In fact, I go out of my way to avoid coleslaw in general.  However, I find a nice, homemade slaw w/ dressing to be a nice addition to a meal in lieu of a salad now and then - particularly one which is so fun and colorful. (My 3 year old loved the idea of eating something bright purple) If you're making this for a typical dinner salad, use only 1/4 - 1/2 of a cabbage head, since a little goes a long way with coleslaw.  This dish is great because it's so versatile! You can add all sorts of other types of veggies into the dish, too - some are suggested below.  The dressing is easy to whip together, and you could use it on a regular salad, too - like a normal poppyseed dressing.  Enjoy!

Lots of purple in this meal - purple cabbage, purple cauliflower, zucchini, fish.  Yum!

Purple Cabbage Salad/Slaw with Poppyseed Dressing
Serves 8-10

Slice into small, long pieces:
1 small head red cabbage (remove outer leaves & stem areas before slicing)
2 large carrots
Plus any other veggies you like, sliced nice and thinly (green cabbage, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, peeled apples)

Mix in a small bowl:
1/4 - 1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp honey
1/2 - 1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Toss with cabbage & carrots and serve!
Enjoy!

My kitchen helper - who can't smile properly because she has salad/slaw in her mouth. She was thrilled we were eating purple veggies. 

This summer, we've got a plethora of wonderful, organic veggies coming our way from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program with Heartbeet Organics here on Prince Edward Island.  It only seemed proper to put the beautiful purple kale, spinach and green onions/scallions from this week to use in a tasty summer dish! While homemade pesto is wonderful, the basil plants they gave me aren't quite big enough to make pesto yet, so I find it's easier to use the ready-made kind in order to whip together delicious meals, or BBQ side-dishes like this one.  (Don't worry mom, we'll make some nut-free pesto this summer for you when you visit!)   We like this salad plain, but since I live in PEI, land of lobster, it seemed appropriate to put some fresh cooked lobster meat on top of this salad. You can serve it with shrimp as well.  Sprinkled with a few dashes of tabasco sauce, and it was fabulous! Enjoy!

We had it the next day topped with lobster & a few dashes of tabasco sauce. Delicious!

A yummy pesto salad made with increased amount of of pesto/mayo, as suggested below and using celery instead of peas.  Delicious served immediately while warm, or you can chill before serving. 

Pesto Pasta Salad (w/ Lobster or Shrimp)

Serves 6-8

Cook ~700 g gluten-free fusilli pasta in salted water, as directed on package (I used 2 packages of 340g Catelli GF Fusilli Pasta).  I recommend tasting a noodle to make sure it's to your desired taste.  I find gluten-free pasta often needs extra cook time.  Drain, rinsing with cold water.

Mix pasta with:
3 Tbsp lemon-infused olive oil (OR 1 Tbsp lemon juice & 3 Tbsp olive oil)
2-3 Tbsp green pesto

While pasta is cooking you can prep the following:

In a small bowl, mix together: (* This amount makes a lighter sauce on the pasta, double, triple or quadruple this if you want a creamier salad)
3-4 Tbsp green pesto
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp mayonnaise
3/4 tsp fresh ground salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Have ready to mix into the pasta:
1 - 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed OR 1 - 1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 cup fresh spinach, stems removed & chopped
1 cup fresh purple kale, stems removed & chopped
1 - 2 Tbsp finely diced scallions/green onions

Gently toss pasta together with veggies & sauce.  Add additional salt/pepper, as desired.  You can serve this plain OR top with one of the following:

Fresh cooked lobster meat, chopped coarsely
OR
Fresh shrimp (shell-off), brushed with lemon-infused olive oil and BBQ'd until pink

Sprinkle with a few dashes of tabasco sauce, to serve.  Enjoy!

Ready to serve!  This is great b/c since you've already run the GF noodles under cold water, you don't need to wait for your dish to chill before serving. 

Pesto Pasta Salad (with Lobster or Shrimp) by Successfully Gluten Free!

Fresh Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad

Wow, my 100th post!  I hope this blog has given you a chance to enjoy your gluten-free food as much as we have been doing here. This tomato, mozzarella and basil salad is a simple dish, but it compliments any barbequing you might be doing. It's a wonderfully easy, perfect summer salad.  I am posting a picture of the beautiful arrangement my  mom and brother, Ben, arranged.  All you need are a few fresh ingredients to create this lovely addition to your summertime meal.  Enjoy!

Layer on a plate:
Fresh tomatoes, sliced
Fresh mozzarella, sliced (you want to make sure it's the soft, fresh cheese)

Sprinkle over top:
Fresh basil leaves, sliced (if desired)

Drizzle with olive oil (flavoured oils work well here).
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Voila!  A lovely summer dish you can make in small or large quantities, as needed. You can also layer your basil leaves directly with your tomato and mozzarella slices rather than sprinkling on top.
Enjoy!