People who suffer from celiac disease find it particularly difficult to come up with quick, nutritious meals after a busy day. Ready-made, store-bought and restaurant meals often have unsafe or hidden ingredients.
These simple gluten-free ideas for the slow cooker can be thrown together in the morning and are easy to finish up in time for dinner. The recipes were prepared in a 3 quart cooker, but can be adjusted for larger or smaller pots.
These two recipes are particularly great during the winter months when the family has been braving the cold all day.
Gluten-free Lentil Soup Slow Cooker Recipe
Ingredients:- 7 cups water
- 2 cups frozen chopped vegetables (soup or stew mix)
- 1/2 cup organic lentils (mixture of red and green used here)
- 1/2 cup organic brown rice
- 1/2 tsp parsley
- 1/2 tsp chives
- salt (to taste)
Steps:
- The lentils and rice are rinsed well before adding.
- The water, vegetables, lentils, and rice are added at a time in the morning that will allow for 8 hours of uninterrupted cooking on the LOW setting.
- One half hour before serving time, the parsley, chives, and salt are added. All of the ingredients are stirred together. The setting is turned up to HIGH.
- All ingredients are allowed to cook for 1/2 hour more.
Gluten-free Vegetable Stew Slow Cooker Recipe
Ingredients:7-8 cups of coarsely chopped and rinsed vegetables are added to the slow cooker. These vegetables include:
- carrots
- potato (white or red)
- sweet potato
- turnip (rutabaga)
- green beans
- 2 small onions for flavor, left whole (The onions are left whole because many people are not fond of eating them and they can be easily removed after cooking.)
- 4 cups of water are added to the vegetables.
- 1/4 tsp of sea salt is also added at the beginning to keep the potato from turning black.
NOTE: The vegetables can be prepared the night before and stored in a container of cold water in the refrigerator. Other vegetable combinations can be used according to individual taste.
Steps:
- All of the above ingredients are added at a time in the morning to allow for 8 hours of uninterrupted cooking time on the LOW setting.
- One half hour before serving time, 1/2 tsp of parsley, 1/4 tsp of basil, pepper to taste, and a pinch of cayenne pepper are added.
- At this time a thickening of 1 tbsp gluten-free flour mixed well in 1/2 cup water is also added.
- All of the ingredients are left to cook for 1/2 hour longer on the HIGH setting.
NOTE: For both recipes, it is very important that the lid of the pot remain on for the initial 8 hours of cooking.
An important crock-pot tip is to only add crushed or ground herbs or spices toward the end of cooking time. The flavor of these seems to diminish during the long cooking time. Whole, fresh herbs and spices, on the other hand, can be added at the beginning of cooking time because they take longer to release their flavor.
Both of these recipes can be served with gluten-free garlic bread to make a complete meal.
Gluten-free Cheese Garlic Bread and Garlic Butter
Prepare the garlic butter by mixing 1 clove crushed garlic and 1 tsp chives with ½ cup of margarine or butter. The ingredients can be increased as preferred.It is best to use a familiar and preferred gluten-free bread. It should be lightly toasted and then spread with the garlic butter.
Shredded goat's cheese (or another preferred kind) can be sprinkled on top of the toast. The toast can be broiled for a short time to melt the cheese. Again, this recipe can be changed to vegetarian by leaving the cheese out.
Gluten-free bread is best served warm because it is dry and tends to harden quickly.
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