[Sca-cooks] Looking for a "gluten-free, plant-based (no, animal protein or fat) and low/no fat" recipe ideas

[Ursula Georges]

Brighid wrote:

> It's certainly not period, but how about a flavorful salad with
> gluten-free grains and beans?

This was my first thought, as well.  My mother makes a salad with white 
beans, pomegranate seeds, green onions, and a lemon juice/olive oil 
dressing that is very festive; last year, when we had a pomegranate 
tree, I lived off this salad half the winter.  If you want a period 
recipe and can keep food warm, I like the apples, onions, and fava beans 
recipe that's in Medieval Kitchen (I think); you can swap in chickpeas 
or lentils or another medieval bean if you've got it around.  Apples and 
onions are very tasty!  Cariadoc also has some lentil salad-ish recipes 
in his Miscellany.

In general, it's going to be easier to find gluten-free recipes if you 
think about culinary traditions that aren't Western European.  South 
American or Asian recipes are more likely to depend on corn, rice, or 
other grains.  What's your favorite non-European cuisine?

The easiest of all would be chips and dip.  Make a good fresh salsa and 
some guacamole, buy some tortilla chips (read the labels, but you should 
be able to find all-corn chips) and make some carrot or jicama sticks 
for the fat-haters.  Hummus and veggies to dip might also work (I know 
we've talked about medieval hummus recipes on this list in the past); I 
think there are some Persian dips with lentils and pomegranate molasses, 
too.

Other random thoughts:

* Make your own veggie sushi.
* Make some sort of Southwestern pot pie with a vegetarian chili or 
mushroom & squash base, and top it with cornbread.
* Make Vietnamese salad rolls with rice paper wrappers; fill with 
stir-fried mushrooms.

--Ursula Georges.