Category: Tutorials

How to Make your own cashew flour - a step by step guide to making your own cashew meal for gluten free baking from knowgluten.me

How to Make Your Own Cashew Flour for Gluten Free Baking

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A number of gluten free recipes call for cashew meal or almond meal. But how do I make my own cashew or almond flour? It’s actually so amazingly simple. I’ve outlined the steps below using cashews, but you can use almonds or any other nut. I’ve even made some recipes with peanut flour made in this way.  Continue reading →
How to make Loaded Baked Potatoes - a step by step guide from knowgluten.me

How to Make Loaded Baked Potatoes – A Step By Step Guide from Knowgluten.me

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There’s something really amazing about a baked potato. Not a microwaved potato, but a hot, fresh from the oven, wrapped in crispy skin, filled with butter and sour cream baked potato.  Continue reading →

How to make Polenta

We started eating polenta when we moved back to the United States from Malawi, Africa. In Malawi we ate a corn mush called Nsima with a sauce made of fresh tomatoes and onions. Nsima flour is hard (but not impossible) to find in North America, but Polenta is in almost every grocery store. Even though polenta has a grainier texture than nsima it is an excellent taste substitute.

Polenta is also a great pasta substitute, especially if you use pasta simply as a vessel to transport sauce to your mouth. It’s amazingly easy to make, keeps well, and is even better fried in oil the next day.

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How to make Polenta, a step by step guide from knowgluten.me Follow Me on Pinterest

Basic Polenta

Click HERE for a printable recipe: Basic Polenta

Ingredients

  • 3 cups water
  • 1 cup polenta
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt

Directions

  1. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil
  2. Reduce heat and whisk in polenta
  3. Continue stirring with the whisk until polenta thickens (this takes about 5 minutes)
  4. Pour into greased or Pam-sprayed 9″ round cake pan or pie plate
  5. Let set 10 minutes, polenta will become firm enough to cut slices
  6. Serve with your favorite pasta sauce or as a side to fried eggs
1 cup dry polenta Follow Me on Pinterest

1 cup dry polenta

Reduce heat and whisk in polenta Follow Me on Pinterest

Reduce heat and whisk in polenta

It's not quite thick enough Follow Me on Pinterest

Polenta, starting to thicken. Not quite ready.

that's the ticket Follow Me on Pinterest

Polenta, finally thick enough!

Polenta in a pie plate Follow Me on Pinterest

Pour polenta into a cake pan. Let it sit at least 10 minutes. It will set as it sits.

Polenta, all that's missing is your favorite sauce. Follow Me on Pinterest

The polenta is set, serve and enjoy! I like mine in a bowl so I can spoon on LOTS of sauce.

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How to Make Quinoa

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Here’s a quick easy tutorial on making Quinoa. I’m not a huge fan of plain quinoa, but I cook it ahead and use it in other recipes with !FLAVOR! as a side dish or a breakfast cereal.

Basic Quinoa

  1. Measure out quinoa and place in a strainer. You will cook it in twice as much water. (1 cup raw quinoa, 2 cups water makes 3 cups of cooked quinoa).
  2. Rinse the quinoa in a fine strainer. This removes naturally occurring bitter soapy stuff that the plant produces.
  3. Place quinoa and water into a sauce pan.
  4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  5. Quinoa is done when the balls are translucent and the half moon shaped husks have separated. It will still have some chew, like al dente pasta, and the balls will pop in your teeth.
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I use a really fine metal strainer so it doesn't fall through the holes.

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Here I have 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup water

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    Cooked Quinoa