Sibel Hodge is back with second
gluten free cookbook, and I give it two enthusiastic, GLUTEN FREE, thumbs up! We all get stuck in ruts with dinner ideas,
right? I’ve found that especially true
since my Celiac Disease diagnosis in 2004.
Sibel doesn’t want you to reinvent the wheel, nor does she want you to
track down rare ingredients. She gives
you a fresh way to use what you might already have in your pantry, and will never be
farther than your local grocer. I hope
you’ll discover some new takes on old favorites, and take a chance and make
some delicious new-to-you ones as well.
Bon Appétit!  |
| Mmm... |
About A Gluten Free Soup Opera:
Whether you’re looking for a
tasty starter, a light lunch, or a hearty dinner, there’s nothing quite like a
nutritious bowl of soup. In the second book from Sibel Hodge’s gluten free
cookbook series, A Gluten Free Soup Opera takes you on an international
culinary journey, bringing you a delicious bowl of goodness for any occasion.
All of the 30 recipes included are gluten and wheat free, and most also have
dairy free and vegetarian/vegan options included.
Looking for a Christmas Day starter? Try Festive Chestnut Soup. If
you’re running low on time, Butter Bean and Pancetta Soup or Greek Pork and
Lemon Soup will take 20 minutes to cook. For a filling dinner, Rustic Leek and
Potato or Hearty Lamb and Green Bean Soup fits the bill. African Peanut Soup,
Moroccan Sweet and Sour Soup, or Chili Bean Soup are the ultimate in winter
warmers. Pistachio Soup and Seafood Soup will impress your guests at a dinner
party. And for a light lunch, choose Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup or Broccoli
and Parmesan Soup.
A Gluten free diet doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. Today it
can be eclectic, vibrant, and adventurous. After cooking for her coeliac
husband for over a decade, author Sibel Hodge gives you the ultimate in
mouth-watering and healthy recipes, which can easily be prepared using
ingredients from your store cupboard or local supermarket.
Who says gluten free cooking has to be boring?
Experiment. Eat. Enjoy!
Sibel's message for you:
Hello! A big Soup Opera welcome to
you…
For those who don’t know me, let me
tell you a little bit about how this book was born. Well, for starters, I’ve
been cooking since I was about ten years old. Under the watchful eye of my nan,
who was a fabulous chef, I developed a love of food that has lasted…let’s
see…ahem, at least eleven years (yes, I can still be twenty-one in my head),
and she taught me how to make mouth-watering meals from scratch. Now I want to
pass that knowledge on to you.
I’m the
author of thirteen other fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children,
and in my spare time, I’m Wonder Woman. When I’m not writing or saving the
world from dastardly demons, you can find me in the kitchen, cooking up a
storm.
Being
half Turkish Cypriot and half British, I was introduced to exciting culinary
delights from an early age. When the rest of my mates were eating plain
meat-and-two-veg dinners, I was tucking into Mediterranean delights of mousaka,
meze, and pilavs.
Turkish
people love to eat, therefore they love to cook! In the first cookbook in my
gluten free/wheat free series, A Gluten
Free Taste of Turkey, I combine my knowledge of tasty, easy-to-cook recipes
with nutritious and scrummy Turkish food.
My love
of Mediterranean food and the healthy Mediterranean Diet went on to spark my
interest into a vast wealth of international dishes. Increasing your recipe
bank means you can travel all over the world, and sample all kinds of cuisine,
without ever needing your passport!
I’m also
a qualified health and fitness professional, with a special interest in
nutrition. We all live busy lives these days, don’t we? But that doesn’t mean
we have to swap healthy, easy-to-cook, delicious meals for junky fast food. We
are what we eat, and if we put rubbish in, it won’t be long before we’re
feeling rubbish, too. I firmly believe that our ever-increasing health
problems, diseases, and allergies are due to the chemicals, pesticides, and
hormones that are pumped into our food and environment. I want to show you that
healthy meals can taste great and be
easily prepared.
I’ve
been cooking gluten/wheat free since I met my hubby over a decade ago. When he
first told me he was coeliac, I had a panic attack. I’d never heard the word
before, and my first thought was that it meant he had some peculiar sexual
quirk that I wasn’t going to like very much. When I finally discovered it meant
he couldn’t eat gluten, which is found in barley, oats, wheat, and rye, I had
an even bigger panic attack. Trying to find something in the supermarkets back
then that didn’t include those ingredients was a nightmare. As well as being
blatantly advertised, it’s often cunningly disguised as “thickener”,
“stabilizing agent”, “shortening”, and “Ricin”. OK, I made the last one up, but
gluten can have severe side effects for people who are coeliac or
intolerant/allergic to it.
Maybe
now would be a good time to let you into my little secret (stands up and
coughs)… I have a serious soup fetish! There, I confessed! Whether it’s summer,
winter, or spring, you’ll find me eating the stuff (sometimes in secret). I’m a
regular soup-a-holic, and I know that I’m not alone in this little culinary
foible. I mean, how can you not love a little bowl of goodness that’s so
versatile? Whether you’re looking for a simple starter, a light lunch, or a
hearty dinner, soup is the perfect dish every time.
So will
you need any specialist ingredients or equipment for this recipe book? No!
There’s nothing worse than buying a cookbook, reading through the recipes, and
then banging your head against the kitchen worktop because you’ve discovered
you need a particular blend of this, or an obscure jar of that, and you just
can’t get hold of it. You’ll probably find most of the ingredients used in this
cookbook already lurking in your store cupboard or, failing that, your local
supermarket. Unlike when I first started cooking gluten free all those years
ago, you can now find so much choice in gluten/wheat free products in the shops
that you shouldn’t have any trouble getting hold of everything you need to create
my tasty, international delights. The only thing you may need to pick up (if
you don’t already have one) is a hand blender, and these are both easily
available and cheap.
If
you’re not coeliac, or sensitive to gluten/wheat, should you eat a gluten free
diet? Well, many people are turning to a gluten free/wheat free diet because it
can have many health benefits, including an increase in energy, better
digestion and elimination, improving cholesterol levels and auto-immune
disorders, controlling weight and bloating, and making you super attractive to
the opposite sex (yes, I made the last one up again – just checking you were
still awake). Whereas twenty years ago, a gluten free diet would be bland and
boring, today it can be eclectic, vibrant, and delicious, and these are the
dishes that I wanted to share with you in A
Gluten Free Soup Opera.
The
recipes included in this book should be used as a guideline because you know
your taste buds better than anyone else does. If you want to substitute one
ingredient for another that you like more, then go for it. This is how great
recipes are born, and it’s all about making the food work for you. Wherever you
can, please try to use organic ingredients. It’s kinder to the environment and
animals, and it’s healthier for you.
The most
important thing in cooking is to have fun with it, so experiment, eat, and
enjoy!
Sibel XX
Recipe from A Gluten Free Soup Opera
Moroccan Sweet and Sour Soup
This recipe does exactly what is says
on the tin – it’s sweet, it’s spicy, it’s sour, and it’s fun! Moroccan food is
all about flavour and colour, and this dish is an explosion of both.
I’m using dried apricots here, and
whenever possible try and get apricots that are naturally air dried, rather
than those dried using sulphur or sulphur dioxide, which can cause allergies in
some people. They will probably be darker in colour than the usual apricots,
but the taste is the same and they’re healthier for you.
Did you know that as well has being a
great source of dietary fibre and protein, chickpeas are also rich in folate,
calcium, and manganese, plus they’re also low in fat, which is always a bonus!
But if you don’t like chickpeas, substitute them for a can of beans like
cannellini, borlotti, kidney, or black-eyed.
Ingredients:
· 1 onion – chopped
· 1
carrot – diced
· 1
red pepper – diced
· 1
green pepper – diced
· 8
– 10 dried apricots – chopped
· 4
cloves of garlic – crushed and chopped
· 2
inch piece of fresh root ginger – peeled and chopped finely
· 400
gr can of chopped tomatoes
· 400
gr can of chickpeas – drained and rinsed
· Juice
of half a lemon
· 2
– 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
· 1
pint (approx. 2 ½ cups) of chicken stock/vegetable stock/water
· ¼
teaspoon of dried cinnamon
· 1
tablespoon of ground coriander
· 1
teaspoon of ground cumin
· ¼
teaspoon of nutmeg
· 1
tablespoon of tumeric
· 1
tablespoon of paprika
· ¼
– ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
· ¼
teaspoon of black pepper
· Salt
to taste
· Olive
oil for frying
Method:
1. Fry the onions and peppers until soft.
2. Add
the other ingredients, except for the fresh coriander, and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 35 – 45 minutes.
3. Stir
in the fresh coriander and serve.
Serves 4 – 6
* Vegetarian/Vegan Options – Use vegetable stock
* Dairy Free
Thank you for sharing, Sibel! I love to love you!
Thank you, oh fab readers, for stopping by, and I just love you all to bits.
XOXO
Jen
Link to Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Opera-Wheat-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00BMR6356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362211266&sr=8-1&keywords=a+gluten+free+soup+opera
Link to Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gluten-Opera-Wheat-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00BMR6356/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1362211317&sr=1-1
Link to Apple:
Link to Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291558
Link to elsewhere:
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sibel-Hodge-Author-of-romantic-comedy-and-comedy-mystery-books/246194485016
Author Twitter: http://www.sibelhodge.com/
Author Website/blog: http://www.sibelhodge.com/
Goodreads author/book page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3517050.Sibel_Hodge
