Delicious brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs.

For the past two months we’ve been running our Sunday Brunch series. We’re wrapping it up this weekend to leave room for a new series – keep an eye out for it next weekend – but we wanted to celebrate by recapping all of the great recipes and food blogs that we have featured over the last eight weeks. We’re pretty sure that if you made all eight of them this weekend you would be hosting the best brunch party ever.

Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Coffee Cakes

Not only will you get a delicious dish out of this recipe from Turntable Kitchen, but it comes with a hand selected playlist too.

Mascarpone, Nutella and Fresh Berry Toasts

Food Blogga loves Nutella as much as we do and these toasts are the perfect way to justify eating it on an early Sunday morning.

Triple Cheese and Spinach Strata

From the vaults of food magazine Honest Cooking, this Triple Cheese and Spinach Strata will serve a crowd.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

Have a few gluten sensitive friends coming over? Not to worry. Just put a batch of these cinnamon rolls from Gluten Free Girl in the oven and you’ll have nothing to fret over.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Big Girls Small Kitchen puts pumpkin to good use in these hearty pancakes that will soon be a regular brunch favorite.

Almond Ginger Granola With Blueberries

A bowl of this granola from So Good and Tasty, and you’ll wonder why you ever ate the store bought stuff.

French Choquettes

Kerry of  French Revolution has this easy recipe that’s simple to make but will certainly impress your guests.

Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks

From Herbivoracious, here’s a dish that puts a fresh spin on an old classic.

Bon appetit!

Image: xiux5

A delicious and creative brunch dish that’s perfect for the vegetarian crowd.

Sometimes you need a new spin on culinary classic, and this recipe for Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks happens to be vegetarian and gluten free, perfect for when you have tired of the bacon and bread combination that is the darling of every breakfast joint du jour.

This week’s Sunday Brunch recipe comes to us from Herbivoracious, an excellent food blog run by Michael Natkin that is committed to intriguing vegetarian recipes. Natkin is also coming out with a new cookbook this spring, and if you’re looking for another addition to your brunch table, you might also want to try out his One-Bowl Banana Muffins.

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Breakfast for dinner doesn’t have to be just pancakes or eggs and toast. I grew up in the South, and was always appalled to watch folks mix together waffles, bacon, maple syrup and everything else on their plate. Thirty years later, I think that mixing sweet, savory and salty flavors is pure genius.

Today’s dish explores that idea, with creamy grits, crispy fried leeks, a leek jus with Morita peppers and honey, cilantro-Epazote pesto, an egg, sunny side up, and a bit of queso fresco. This would be more of a Southwestern spin on that Southern idea.

Grits are one of the great breakfast foods. If you have made polenta before, you’ve also made grits – there is no real difference, unless you are talking lye-processed hominy grits, which are much less common. Some folks argue about whether or one is coarser or finer, white or yellow but mainly it is a distinction without a definitive difference. Cornmeal is simply whisked into lots of boiling water, and then simmered until smooth, soft and creamy. If you like, you can replace some of the water with milk, and/or add cheese to enrich.

I handled the leeks in an interesting way here. We fry up a big batch of them until crispy. Some are reserved for the final dish, and the rest are then simmered with morita peppers, extracting all of that caramelized flavor to make the jus. I just recently learned about Moritas – they are smoked and dried red jalapenos. So basically chipotles, but not packed in adobo. You get the opportunity to get all the pepper flavor and smoke without the extraneous tomatoey flavors in the canned sauce. And let me tell you, breathing in deep from a bag of Morita peppers is a transporting experience. Wow.

The cilantro-Epazote pesto was a pure experiment. I thought maybe the Epazote flavor would be overpowering, and I would only be able to use a tiny bit as an accent. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. It was present and very appetizing, but not over the top.

Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks, Leek Jus, and Cilantro-Epazote Pesto
Vegetarian and gluten-free; not vegan
Serves 2

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup stone-ground grits
• 2 tablespoons pepitas, toasted
• 1 handful cilantro leaves, cleaned
• 4 Epazote leaves
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3 leeks, white parts only, halved lengthwise, cleaned thoroughly, sliced thinly
• 2 Morita peppers or other smoked pepper of your choice, briefly toasted in a dry skillet
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 organic eggs
• 2 ounces queso fresco or other cheese of your choice

Bring the 3 cups of water and 1 cup of milk to a boil. Whisk in the grits in a thin stream, stirring continuously. Add a couple big pinches of salt. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will notice a distinct change where they go from being “gritty” to creamy.  Add more water as necessary if they are getting dry before that happens. Anytime after they turn creamy, they are ready to serve. Taste and add salt as needed.

Meanwhile, combine the pepitas, cilantro, Epazote, 2 tablespoons of canola oil and a pinch of salt in a mini food processor, and process until it forms a coarse, pesto-like consistency. You might need a little more oil. Taste and adjust salt.

Heat a very large, preferably cast-iron skilet over a high flame. Add 1/4 cup of oil and heat for a moment. Add the leeks and a big pinch of salt and fry, turning only very occasionally, until they are mostly deep brown. Remove about two tablespoons of them two paper towels and season with salt. As they cool, the should become crisp.

Return the pan to a medium flame (with the rest of the leeks still in it), and deglaze the pan with 1 cup of water, scraping well to get all the flavorful bits. Add the Morita peppers and the honey and whisk. Reduce heat to a bare simmer and cook five minutes, adding more water if needed.

Using a fine sieve and pressing well, transfer the liquid to a very small saucepan and keep warm. Dispose of the solids. Reduce or add liquid as necessary to produce a thin jus with just a hint of body. Taste and adjust seasoning. We’d like a balance of savory from the leeks, salt, smoke and heat, and sweetness from the honey.

In the original skillet, add a little more oil and fry off two eggs. Cover so that the whites cook while the yolk remains runny. Or you could use poached eggs.

To serve, put a helping of the grits in each bowl and make a well. Fill the well with the poached egg. Top with the crispy leeks and pour a couple tablespoons of the jus around the edge. Add a tablespoon or so of the pesto and a small piece of queso fresco.

Sunday Brunch is an ongoing series featuring brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs around the web. New recipes every Sunday, so that you’re ensured a gourmet weekend. Bon appetit!

Image: Herbivoracious

A healthier version of a classic batch of cookies.

It’s January. You’re cold, you need comfort food, and wouldn’t it be nice if the kitchen smelled good, too?

If you have been finding yourself in the mood to hunker down with a plate of something sweet and fatty, you’re not alone. As Evelyn Tribole, RD says, “It’s a survival mechanism. You don’t want to kill for a piece of broccoli, but you’d kill for a piece of bread.”

But the better part of you really wants to be craving broccoli, because you know better than to succumb to the urge of eating an entire chocolate cake. Tempting, but there are better options. Like gluten free Buckwheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies.

No, you cannot eat an entire plate of them – and you will be tempted – but the sugar content is minimal, they have healthy flours and your kitchen will smell good. Winter problems solved. Start baking.

Buckwheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 2 cups rolled oats (certified GF if you need them to be)
• 1 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (organic of course!)
• 1/4 cup currants
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add in egg and pumpkin.

Mix together flour, xantham gum, baking soda, baking powder and spices.

Combine with pumpkin batter then stir in oats, currants and chocolate chips.

Roll into small balls and place on greased baking sheets.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

You can always eat broccoli tomorrow.

Image: Anna Brones

Whip up these delicious gluten-free versions of the traditional cinnamon roll. 

Many of us have a Christmas morning tradition, and for one of our favorite food bloggers, Shauna James Ahern of Gluten Free Girl, it’s cinnamon rolls. These rolls happen to be 100% gluten free and are sure to please a hungry holiday crowd. Enjoy!

Ahern: For Christmas, I want cinnamon rolls. To tell the truth, I have made them every Christmas for the past four years. The first year’s were awful: gnarled at the edges, a bit burnt, and dry as insulation. The second were from a mix. The third year…Did I make them the third Christmas? I was eight weeks pregnant, sleeping and sick most of the time. It’s a bit of a blur.

Last year, Danny and I proudly carried in the cinnamon rolls we had created for the first draft of our cookbook. And they were….good. I mean, really good. But they still didn’t match the image I had in my mind of what a good cinnamon roll should be.

I want a soft, pliable dough, one that tastes good on its own. Yes, I love plump golden raisins, brown sugar almost melting, the ooze of cinnamon-scented butter on the edges, and cream cheese frosting. Really, how could you not love cream cheese frosting? Most of all, I want a cinnamon roll that stands up to the rush of Christmas morning, with a few stragglers left until the afternoon when we pick at the caramelized edges to stave off the hunger pains until dinner begins.

I want the cinnamon roll you see above. And I need it to be gluten-free.

A few days ago, I finally baked it.

There are smarter ways to get your fiber.

Is there any food in the world more celebrated than bread? It’s been a daily staple in the human diet for thousands of years, and it’s been drilled into our heads that a meal isn’t complete without it. The words “fiber” and “wheat bran” are practically interchangeable. You know you need fiber for good health, so bring on the bread, right? The fact is, the mass of gluten you’ve got clutched in hand is not the best source of fiber at all. In fact, it’s a bad source. Here are some reasons why, along with some healthier high-fiber alternatives.

In America, we wear our love of wheat in mid-western farm fields and on our supermarket shelves. But most of the wheat grown here is only of two or three varieties that have been crossbred and hybridized over decades to become high-yield plants. This lack of diversity – known as monoculture – means that wheat requires more chemical treatment in the form of fertilizers and pesticides.

White bread products are among the junkiest foods you can put in your body, full of empty calories and practically bereft of nutrition. Worse, the chemicals used to whiten flour so that bread will look fluffy and appealing can include carcinogens like benzoyl peroxide and chlorine dioxide. Even wheat bread usually contains bromide, a dough conditioner that disrupts the endocrine system and actually slows down metabolism. The UK banned bromide in bread in 1990, and Canada did the same in 1994, but it’s still present in nearly all flour and bread products sold in the United States.

For many people, bread is difficult to digest, and for those with gluten sensitivities, it’s literally poison, causing a severe immune response. Even if you aren’t gluten intolerant, bread can have negative impacts on your health. Bread is a high-glycemic food, meaning it causes your blood sugar to spike. According to Dr. William Davis, a preventive cardiologist in Milwaukee, two slices of wheat bread increase blood sugar more than a candy bar. This results in a sugar crash, leaving you feeling shaky, foggy and hungrier than ever two hours later.

Ultimately, the most important point is that bread doesn’t have nearly as much fiber as you think it does. Refined white bread might have a single gram per serving, while even the most robust whole-grain varieties usually don’t top 4 grams. Per calorie, bread is one of the most inefficient ways to get your fiber. Does that mean bread is totally bad for you and you shouldn’t eat it? Not necessarily, but you definitely shouldn’t rely on it for your fiber needs, especially because there are so many other foods that kick bread’s ass in the fiber arena.

The World’s Healthiest Foods’ website notes that for pure fiber-packing power, nothing beats beans. Navy beans are the best, with 76.4% out of 255 calories coming from fiber. Dried peas, lentils, pinto beans, black beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans and soybeans have similar nutritional value. Barley rates as high as many of these beans, which isn’t surprising given that it’s a grain. But did you know that cinnamon, turnip greens, eggplant, collard greens and raspberries are among the healthiest high-fiber foods? Other surprising sources of fiber include figs, raisins, avocado, papaya, broccoli, green peas, pears and sweet potatoes. And of course, whole grains that haven’t been processed to death are still a smart choice.

As with anything, eat bread in moderation. A diet rich with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as minimally processed whole grains, is the key to making sure you’re getting the real fiber you need.

Photo: goblinbox

ColumnSuddenly, sweet potato fries don’t seem so bad.

Heard of butternut squash? Of course you have. I don’t know how one couldn’t, what with it being whipped into some not-your-average-squash creation in every organic, hipster and farm-to-table restaurant these days. Fitzgerald, were he around today, would have surely noted this celebrated starch; the butternut even has its own website.

It’s ravioli. It’s risotto. It’s sauce. It’s bread. It’s pie. It’s fries. It’s roasted, toasted, baked, braised, glazed, and available conveniently cubed at the grocer. Somewhere, someone has named her offspring after this thing that is not a yam. I don’t know if it’s made it into candles and body scrubs because I haven’t been to the beauty aisle in a while – what with being busy tracking down squash recipes and all – but I can only imagine what’s going on over there given what’s going on online.

Last week, I walked over to grab coffee at one of my favorite bakeries when I saw it: a gluten-free, vegan, butternut squash cupcake.

I momentarily paused before whipping out my phone to document this disaster in proper 2.0 style – I do hate to be that girl, but hey, I was already in a vegan gluten-free bakery. I snapped a semi-blurry photo and shared it with the world. Foodies, there’s a new cupcake in town, and it’s called butternut squash. The ubiquitous squash is precariously close to verging into beet, goat cheese and walnut salad territory. Or sliders. Or olive oil in desserts.

What about the acorn? Why aren’t we seeing roasted acorn squash fries on every brew pub menu? Or delicata? Even the name is refined – “I’ll take a glass of bubbly and some delicata, please” – and the cooking opportunities are equally endless.

Butternut is delicious, and totally versatile, which is wonderful, but we foodies may wish to observe a moment of gustatory introspection (as opposed to the more standard routines of navel-gazing, porn, and drool-tweets) and remind ourselves that we’re talking about a squash. A squash.

On that note, I’m off to eat lunch, with a nice bowl of one of my favorite dishes from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking, Chunky Lentil Soup, full of healthy lentils and two whole cups of diced…butternut squash.

You just can’t win them all.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: theilr, Anna Brones

In L.A., Fōnuts are replacing donuts.

Fōnuts have nothing to do with phones. Or nuts. Instead, these mostly vegan, gluten-free donut alternatives are shaking up Los Angelenos with their similarity to those lovely fried rings of dough we all know and love. But unlike regular donuts, Fōnuts are baked, transforming it from a once-in-a-while treat into something we can actually feel good about eating every morning.

Don’t go looking for a maple Long John, powdered or jelly-filled here. Owners Waylynn Lucas and Nancy Truman have created a menu rife with exotic flavors, including rosemary olive oil, rum and chorizo cheddar. Need some joe to wash it all down? Try the Fo-Shaken, Lucas and Truman’s take on iced coffee, a reportedly decadent combination of condensed milk, regular milk and multiple shots of espresso.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Image: LadyDucayne

Oh, he’s just so smug.

And no, I’m not jealous of his abs, or the fact that Old Spice’s the Man Your Man Could Smell Like (née Isaiah Mustafa) has led something of a charmed life: The Tennessee Titans signed him to their practice squad, then sent him to play football in Barcelona; he owned a restaurant on Melrose; and he accidentally won $47,000 on The Weakest Link from a question where he mixed up Dr. Viktor Frankenstein and the comic book character Dr. Doom to fortuitous results. Then he got the Old Spice gig. And now he’s popping up everywhere, extolling his plants-only diet.

Mustafa is a vegan, you see, which means I feel even worse about myself. A few days ago, he appeared on the Tonight Show and shared his special diet with Jay Leno (which meant that I was annoyed by both the guest and the host for a change, rather than irritated solely by “Big Jaw”).

“I’m lucky to workout with Tony Horton of P90x fame,” said Mustafa. “He’s got me on this diet right now that’s absolutely ridiculous. There are five things you can’t do.” (Insert eye roll.) “There’s no alcohol; no caffeine; no processed sugars; nothing with a face – no animals or animal byproducts.” Life is so hard.

Oh yes, he goes on.

“But here’s the tough one: no gluten.”

The tough one? Who are you trying to impress, Isaiah? I know gluten’s hard to avoid and all, but to dismiss booze, coffee and meat like they’re tertiary characters in a daily diet is pretentious beyond belief. Also, every vegan I’ve ever met looks like the Crypt Keeper; so how does this fella pull off the beefcake bit without consuming, well, beef and cake?

Bring back Bruce Campbell’s avant-garde Old Spice spots. Now that’s a guy we can look up to.

In other news, Zooey Deschanel’s no longer a vegan, citing food allergies. I’ll take her word before Mustafa’s:

“Sometimes you just need a little something, a little meat.”

Yes, ma’am.

In the relatively short amount of time I have been on a gluten free diet, the wheat free and gluten free marketplace has become a booming business. It’s not surprising, since Celiac Disease affects 1 out of 133 people. But, what is surprising is that 97 percent of people with Celiac Disease go undiagnosed. And according to the Mayo Clinic, “young people today are more than four times as likely to have Celiac Disease than was the case 60 years ago.”

Celiac Disease should not be mistaken with a food or wheat allergy. It is an autoimmune disease and digestive disorder based on the severe intolerance of gluten found in all forms of wheat. And once you start looking, wheat is in everything – from less obvious foods like soups, soy sauce, licorice, ice cream and salad dressings, to obvious foods like bread, cereal and crackers.

While four years ago I scratched my head in bewilderment wondering what in the world I was going to eat, now I am able to find an ample amount of pre-made foods, companies, grocery stores and personal care products that cater to those with wheat and gluten intolerance. I had no idea (nor did a slew of specialists I visited in my search for the answer to my woes) that the culprit of my intense health maladies was an unsuspecting grain that looks so carefree blowing in the breeze. Turns out, I’m not alone. Most people with Celiac Disease as well as wheat allergy sufferers are clueless as to why they are in ill health.

Some symptoms of Celiac Disease, which may appear at any time in a person’s life, include: recurring bloating, gas or abdominal pain, migraine headaches, nausea, and fatigue, weakness or lack of energy, among many others. Celiac Disease/wheat allergies are often confused with IBS or food poisoning.

The complex structure of wheat makes it very difficult to digest. If you have been suffering from unexplainable symptoms, you might consider talking to your doctor or nutritionist about trying a wheat free diet to see if your health improves.

A word to the wise: the blood test administered to determine whether you have Celiac Disease does not always produce an accurate result. Go with your gut… literally. If you feel better not eating wheat, avoid it! Doing so will take research and education, but it’s getting easier and easier to forgo the grain.

Image: Vox Humana

If you haven’t heard, fancy-shmancy cupcakes are stealing the hearts of America as we downsize our celebrations with treats that fill us up, not out.

For a growing number of sweet teeth, four bites and one candle do the trick as we replace the wasteful sheet cake of old with an indulgent Red Velvet vegan confection made to order at your chic neighborhood cupcake boutique.

Call it theater in the round for the bakery hound!

The new stars are the vegan assortments  introduced by bakers such as Yummy Cupcakes in Los Angeles, which sells from its healthy alternative menu three days a week at its shops in Burbank and Santa Monica.

Yummy’s flavors include Almond, Blood Orange, Chocolate Chili,  Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and my favorite, the Arnold Palmer – black iced tea and lemonade.  They sell for around $3.25 a pop for the classic size and $1.50 to $1.65 for the mini size. Of course, you can buy them by the dozen, as well.

Tiffani Soforenko, one of the three partners at Yummy, says the vegan menu was  inspired by an offer to prepare cupcakes for talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and her crew. “We knew Ellen was a vegan and hadn’t done vegan recipes yet, and figured it was the perfect time to figure out how to do it,” she recalls. “We brought the red velvets for her and her staff and they were a huge hit.”

It took off from there. “We thought if we can make that, what else can we make? Our normal menu is 156 flavors and we do 43 as vegan,” says Soforenko.

What sets them apart? No animal-based products, eggs or butter or egg replacers. They are also topped with raw sugar instead of colored sprinkles. People with food and dairy allergies are gobbling them up!

Another gourmet vendor, Kara’s Cupcakes in San Francisco (with four Bay Area locations) proudly boasts it is “green” on its web page, from its sustainable local and organic ingredients to environmentally-friendly recyclable and compostable packaging to its bakeries built with green certification standards. It even uses green cleaning products and delivers its treats in ultra low emission vehicles. Plus, the cupcakes are to die for, from Kara’s Karrot on Halloween night to Raspberry Dazzle and Milk Chocolate Ganache.  They look good and are filled with good stuff. What else would you expect from the daughter of a dentist?

While pure ingredients are naturally in high demand in buff California, the notion of a greener cupcake is just now making its way to glitzy Miami, where the founders of Cupcake Nouveau – Cristina Valdes and Shayrin Badillo – are getting in the groove.

“We are in the process of developing new recipes that are sugar, gluten and dairy free,” shares Valdes, who says her South Beach clientele is all about glamor and chic. These skilled bakers are known for the artistic detail they add to their specialized cupcakes for weddings and fundraisers, such as pearls and roses adorning the Vanilla Bean Madagascar creations. You grow, girls!

Rather bake em yourself? Many of these gourmet cupcake companies offer cupcake party baking kits for around $42 that ensure hours of fun and a terrible mess for moms as the guests go crazy stirring, blending, frosting and decorating their visions. Either way, the naturally beautiful end result seems to be taking the cake.

Main Image: Cupcakes Nouveau

Image One: Yummy Cupcakes

Image Two: Cupcakes Nouveau

Image Three: Luanne Bradley