The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free is a monthly blog carnival that is run by Naomi of Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried.  However, each month the carnival is hosted by a different blogger.  June’s hostess is Zoe's of Z’s Cup of Tea.  There is still time to join this month’s carnival since Zoe extended the deadline to Sunday, June 27th.  Click on the link for more details.

Zoe’s theme for this month is Dairy-Free Delights.  That’s perfect for me since I recently began eating dairy free.  Ironically, I’m doing my first dairy challenge today, and I’m sitting here eating ice cream since it is almost 100 degrees outside.  However, I have been very strict since beginning my dairy-free diet over a month ago. I accidentally ate dairy twice in the first week or so, but since then I’ve been as careful as I am with gluten. I’m surprised I haven’t noticed a difference in how I feel, but there are a lot of things that play into that and I might have other food intolerances as well.  I’m doing this challenge because I’m curious to see how I’ll react.  However, I’m planning on staying dairy-free for a while.

I can’t wait to see what other dairy-free delights are submitted.  Though I was excited about the theme, I realized earlier this week that the deadline was almost here, and I didn’t have anything to submit.  That’s when I decided to make a dairy-free creamy pasta sauce.  The thing I don’t like about this recipe is that it requires using an ingredient that may not be readily available to most people.  Maybe it is, I just don’t know.  I found Mimiccreme cream substitute at my local health food store.  It is gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free, but it does contain nuts.  I used the unsweetened variety.

We were very impressed with this cream sauce.  My middle son who is not a big cheese fan said that he liked it much better than regular Alfredo sauce.  I found the Mimiccreme to be thinner than regular cream, and therefore I added some cornstarch to thicken it up.  This is a very simple and versatile recipe, and I hope you feel free to play around with it.

Dairy-Free Cream Sauce

• 3 Tb. coconut oil
• 3 Tb. olive oil
• 1 1/2 c. Mimiccreme (unsweetened)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 Tb. corn starch
• 3 Tb. cold water
• salt & pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil until melted.  Add the olive oil, Mimiccreme, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.  Heat and stir until hot.  In a small bowl or cup, stir together the corn starch and cold water.  Add to the skillet and stir to combine.  Heat and stir until bubbly and slightly thickened.  Stir in salt and pepper to taste.  Mine looked like this:


At this point, you can put it on pasta or whatever you like, or you can add more to it.  I added ground beef that I had cooked and frozen.  I added a lot for two reasons.  One, I was cleaning out my freezer and it needed to be used.  Two, my oldest son has a summer job where he is physically active and works long, hot hours.  He comes home very hungry and consumes large quantities of food.  So after adding meat, mine looked like this:



Afterwards, I wished I had not put so much meat in and just saved the extra for my son to add to his, but once it was in there I couldn’t do much about it.  I would like to make this sauce again and just enjoy the sauce by itself on pasta.  It really was good.

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This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.  Stop by for more fabulous food mad a little bit healthier.

Labels: other recipes