Creative Cooking

I've always been a fairly creative person.  I choose an artistic field for my profession, and I always favored art classes in school.  Never would I have imagined using creativity in this way!

Cooking without specific ingredients can either leave you with a crumbly mess, or force you to think out of the box.

After spending the morning concocting a Hawaiian Sweet Bread, and a Mango Cake with out milk, butter, flour, eggs, corn (corn is also in baking powder), soy (or bean flour), vegetable oil, shortening, .....ect ect ect.... I've decided to share my most successful discoveries with you!

Milk and cream-  Soy milk is a no-no for us.  So is Almond milk.  If you can use either of those, I hear they work great.  Rice milk has proven to be a bit too runny.  The most successful substitute I've used for milk is coconut milk.  Coconut milk is a mixture of coconut water and pureed meat.  It is think and creamy.  Even in pasta sauces, you would guess its from a fruit!  The coconut flavor is very mild, and easily disguised by other ingredients.

Butter-When avoiding corn milk and soy, it can be impossible to find a margarine that is safe.  For a while, I used Spectrum Organic all natural vegetable shortening.  It is made from pressed palm oil.  This shortening is pricey, but works well when recipes call for butter or shortening.  My favorite substitute is coconut oil.  Coconut oil is a natural superfood with hundreds of uses and health benefits.  It's loaded with fatty acids, and amino acids (great for someone who cant take fish oil!) Coconut oil is a solid at room temperature, so it serves as a great butter substitute.  It melts at 80 degrees.  For baking, this can cause some runny-ness.  I use coconut oil whenever possible.  It, too, can be very pricey.  I think it is well worth the expense!

Egg- I've faced the facts.  nothing, nothing substitutes an egg.  Somethings get close, but nothing will whip like an egg white, that for sure.  In baking, I have 2 go to egg replacers.  One is Flax seed.  Miz flax seed (also, huge for health benefits!) with enough water to make a paste.  With in minutes, this will turn into a gel that works well as an 'egg'.  Flax seed has a nutty, fibery taste.  I love to use it in breads, and when flouring meat.  For cakes and pastries I prefer Ener-G egg replacer.  It is the only egg replacer that I've found in stores that does not contain another ingredient that we must avoid.  It is a powder that is mixed with water.  It is tasteless.  Both of these substitutes will leave batters and doughs looking runny.  Don't worry, they will still bake into a solid cake!  I have that applesauce works well, personally, I do not prefer it.  

Baking Powder-Hain gluten feee baking powder is the only that I've found that doesn't contain corn. For years, I tried to skip the baking powder and it left recipes flat and dense.  I found this at Nugget, and Whole Foods.

Flour-  I use EVERYTHING!  Before Gabriel had to avoid beans, I loved to use bean flours.  For now, we use tapioca flour, tapioca starch, rice flour, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, sourgum flour, potato flour, and potato starch. These can be very pricey.  I've learned that the nearest Asian grocery store sells these for 1/4 of the price of anyone else.  I have the most success mixing the flours together.  Rice flour is a bit too heavy, potato flour is extremely light and dusty.  The best recipes and textures have come from combinations of all the flours.  In making sauces and roux I use potato starch, in breading for frying, I  prefer rice. In baking, I always mix!  Use the different textures and densities two your advantage!

Honey-Agave syrup, and brown rice syrup.  I prefer agave syrup (extracted from cactus), but it, too, is pricey.  Also, Agave syrup is a touch runnier than honey.  Gabriel loves in on top of his 'pancakes.'  Anything that can be topped with honey I splurge on!  If  I am baking, I use brown rice syrup.  It's very sweet, and super sticky.  Try diluting it until you get the right consistency.

bread crumbs- Corn flakes work great!  If you, like us, must avoid corn try this:  Rice Chex!  The cereal has about 4 ingredients, so it's safe of all common allergens.  Crush it up (if you prefer fine- or  chucky, crush it to your preference).  Chex are mild in flavor, so you can salt or season it when your recipe calls for flavored bread crumbs.

Tomato- Depending on the recipe I use both tomatillo, and pumpkin! Believe it or not, tomatillos are most closely related to gooseberry (not tomato!).  IN sauces, salsas, and soups, it works well.  It is a bit tangier than tomato, so sometimes it requires additional sweetener.  Pumpkin on the other hand, is a bit sweeter than tomato.  I add a bit on vinegar to make it most similar to the classic marinara sauce.  I have used pumpkin to make BBQ sauce, Ketchup, marinara, meatloaf, goulash, chili, and anything that typically calls for the red fruit!  I've fed lots of the concoctions to unsuspecting friends and family- and they had no idea that they were eating a Gabriel safe dish!

I've been playing in the kitchen for the last 5 years, and I hope that some of my horrible mistakes, can help save you from making them :)

Email me at Raquellauren@yahoo.com for other substitutes not mentioned here .