Warm yourself with a hearty bowl of authentic American-style gluten free chilli cooked in the slow cooker for 9 hours for a flavourful autumn meal!
 

Yield: 6 to 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 9 hours

Gluten-Free 9 Hour American Chilli

It seems the weather has suddenly turned frigid here in Manchester! I've swapped ballerina pumps for suede ankle boots and can't dare leave the house without a wrap or a throw. The leaves are changing on the trees and my Instagram feed (come join me on Instagram & get your fill of gluten-free food porn) is overrun with snaps of pumpkin spice lattes. And even though fall doesn't officially kick off until Friday, I've begun to indulge in it just a little bit early this year.

Autumn was made for hearty meals that cook themselves, leaving you plenty of time to watch the leaves change and curl up with a hot drink. And nothing says autumn in the American south quite like a bowl of hearty chilli, bursting with beans and packed with meat--this is a protein hit that you'll want to indulge in time and time again. Your family will absolutely love this easy gluten free American chilli recipe. Serve it up southwest style with crunchy tortilla chips for dipping and then use the leftovers to fill fluffy baked potatoes the day after; you'll get two meals from the effort of one!

Gluten-Free 20-Minute Beef Massaman Curry

This gently spiced gluten-free and dairy free curry is filled with succulent, fall-apart beef, hearty potatoes and roasted peanuts and comes together in 20 minutes!

 

Yield: 5-6 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

20 Minute Gluten-Free Beef Massaman Curry

A beef massaman curry is basically when pot roast meets curry. It's got many of the delicious elements of a classic Sunday pot roast dinner like wonderfully marbled beef that melts in your mouth and hearty whole potatoes and it has the essentials of a good curry like a thick gravy or sauce and an interesting flavour profile.

This classic gluten free shepherd's pie is bursting with seasonal vegetables, succulent steak mince and topped with luscious velvet twice-baked mashed potatoes!

 

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 90 minutes

Gluten Free Cottage Pie with Twice Baked Mash

A cottage pie is similar to a shepherd's pie but the main difference is in the type of mince used. Where a shepherd's pie uses lamb mince, a cottage pie uses beef mince or ground beef. This dish is classic comfort food and can be enjoyed year round, but is especially great this time of year when the produce is at its sweetest and ripest. To make it even more indulgent, I topped it with a downright decadent double baked mashed potato, giving it the creamiest, most velvety finish imaginable!

When I'm cooking for the blog, keeping the food hot long enough for me to take photos can be a real challenge. So I avoid having to nuke cooked food in the microwave and rest my dishes on stone tiles--they're perfect conductors of heat, and keep the dishes nice and warm! Stone tiles, like the Retro Marengo collection I used in these photos, also make perfect trays for serving hot food from. My tiles come from Sabbini, where they have a huge collection of the some of the most gorgeous stone tiles, I've ever seen!

8 Ways with Gluten Free Spaghetti

Take an ordinary packet of gluten free spaghetti and elevate it with these 8 clever variations!

 

When you have to eat gluten free, your meals are in danger of becoming repetitive. Whether you're recently diagnosed or a gluten-free veteran, here are 8 delicious and completely creative ways to have spaghetti. Throw out the bolognese sauce and fire up that boiler! You're just 10 minutes away from a truly delicious gluten free spaghetti dinner!

This creamy, gluten-free taco pasta is cooked in one pot and comes together in under 20 minutes, giving you your evenings back!

Yield: 6 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Gluten-Free One-Pot Taco Pasta

When I was pregnant, a lot of my food cravings were for textures more than actual foods. I may not have known exactly what I wanted to eat, but I always knew what I wanted the food to feel like and one of my big texture cravings was for something creamy and savoury. This pasta dish ticks that box. There's no heavy traditional pasta sauce here, instead, you use a nice guacamole as your sauce and thin it out with a bit of sour cream. I'm telling you now, you. will. swoon.

Seriously, the only thing better than cheesy, creamy comfort food is not having to spend hours in the kitchen preparing it. This whole meal is ready in less than 20 minutes--that's quicker than an episode of Paw Patrol, so by the time you've finished bribing your child with the show, dinner is on the table and cool enough for them to eat. Plus there's only one pot, so doing the washing up won't take ages. This is what we in the Mommahood call a win; win and this dish is definitely a weeknight winner!

Gluten Free Palm Sugared Cashew Beef Wok Noodles & a Happy Chinese New Year from Amoy

These gluten free palm sugared cashew beef wok noodles are the star of the show at my gluten free Chinese New Year banquet, sponsored by Amoy!

Yield: 2 to 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

A Gluten Free Chinese New Year Banquet

Chinese food has always been a big part of my life; it's one of my favourite cuisines whether I'm enjoying it in a tucked away, authentic Chinese restaurant in Manchester's Chinatown or am curled up on the couch with a takeaway and chopsticks. My love and respect for Chinese food has meant that I've steered clear of it in the kitchen, fearful of ruining it and slightly intimidated by the delicious complex flavours.

OXO's Kitchen Magician Cottage Pie with #HerbsandMore

Get your kids cooking with OXO's new Herbs & More Flavour Pots & this easy, classic cottage pie recipe!

Yield: 4 to 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Disclaimer: The OXO pots are not gluten free at the time of writing this post. 

Rosemary & Thyme Cottage Pie

Parents of toddlers and preschoolers know that their little monsters like nothing more than being a bossy boots. A dozen times a day, I must say to Callum, "Stop being a bossy boots!" or "Oy! Bossy boots; cool it!" or some other admonishment about his slightly overbearing need to be in control. The people at OXO must be all too aware of this phase of development, because their latest campaign, Kitchen Magician, addresses this, fuels it and provides our tiny dictators with just enough space to exercise their authority.

OXO have just launched a range of Herbs & More Flavour Pots to help you get dinner on the table quicker, so you have more time to be bossed about by your children. (Cheers for that, OXO!) In celebration of this seriously delicious, but sadly not gluten-free range, OXO invited bloggers to get in the kitchen with their children and whip up a meal.

I'm working with BritMums and OXO on this project and have been compensated. All opinions and editorial are my own.

Bacon grease and tender sirloin steak are the key ingredients in this classic, filling dish, perfect for chillier weather!

Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: up to 1 hour

Chili Con Carne

 Hello to Anyonita Nibbles's wonderful readers! A couple of years ago, my family moved 2 hours away from the hometown where my husband and I grew up, which was a little town outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Aside from making the adjustments to living so far away from our families, there were also few restaurants we had grown up eating that we missed.

Pan-fried sirloin steak served with a creamy and rich mushroom duxelle flavored with tarragon for a delicious gluten-free dinner!

Yield: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Gluten Free Pan-Fried Sirloin with Creamy Mushroom Tarragon Duxelle

Mushrooms and steak, one of my absolute favorite meals. I love how down to earth this dish is and the flavors work so well together because mushroom, tarragon and steak go together because the flavors of each can be bridged together. A flavor bridge is one of the basic formulas when developing recipes. The flavor bridge dictates that if A goes with B and B goes with C and C goes with D, then A will go with D, too.

So the flavor bridge in this dish is: 

Tarragon goes with mushrooms.

Mushrooms go with cream.

Cream goes with steak.

So, steak goes with tarragon.

Gluten Free Celeriac & Truffle Mustard Braised Beef #Mailleflavours

Succulent beef pot roast braised in Maille's celeriac and truffle mustard and served with velvety mash!

Yield 4 to 6 servings

Celeriac & Truffle Mustard Braised Beef 

When cooked low and slow, beef becomes unbelievably tender and melts in your mouth. You could achieve this by cooking it in a slow cooker or crock pot, but I like to cook it in the traditional way: a large stock pot. This beef is extra special because it's wrapped in a lovely blanket of delicious and slightly spicy mustard. But not just any mustard: sophisticated Maille Mustard with White Wine, Celeriac and Black Truffle. Are you drooling yet?

Gluten Free Beef Bulgogi & Rice (Korean BBQ)

Tender thinly-sliced sirloin marinated with onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and pears!

Yield 2 to 4 servings

Beef Bulgogi & Rice Korean Barbecue

This beef bulgogi recipe is easy to follow and a perfect introduction to delicious and authentic Korean food. Thin slices of sirloin are marinated in a sweet mix of soy sauce, sugar, garlic, pears and sesame oil for a tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef dish.

I've had lots of bulgogi in my lifetime--a dish introduced to me by my dad who lived in Korea for a while. The bulgogi I've had has always been the results of a labor of love from some petite Korean grandmother, who had gifted the barbecue to us in a slightly warped Tupperware container. As a result, this truly magical dish was something that I attributed to these women, an offering of their culture, a memory of taste and flavor that I wouldn't be able to recreate.

Gluten Free Crock Pot Beef Bourguignon Recipe with Step-by-step Instructions

Rich and hearty, this slow-cooked French classic is a perfect winter warmer!

Feeds 4

Crock Pot Beef Bourguignon 

If ever a dish was awarded a prize for rising from the culinary slums to the refined dinner table, beef bourguingnon would be the recipient. This classic French dish had its beginnings in the bowls of peasants, but over time has become one of the most enjoyed and revered beef dishes from Burgundy. 

We aren't Francophiles, well not in an overbearing way. My husband used to live in France and I have become quite obsessed with patisserie and some most French cuisine and we did  have an enjoyable holiday there two years ago (a leisurely roadtrip from Manchester to Calais and around Normandy, Brittany, the Loire Valley and Paris). Okay, maybe we are slightly overbearing Francophiles. But you don't have to be to enjoy this stew!

Ignore the poncy French name and at the end of the day, it's just a stew. But it's a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth stew full of the things I love: soft and tender beef, salty, smoked bacon, pearls of shallots and a richly indulgent red wine sauce fiery with pepper. I always serve bourguignon with mashed potatoes and carrots--either the carrots go in the stew or on the side. But I've seen bowls of bourguignon dished with thick ribbons of egg noodles, too! You could serve it over rice, if you really wanted. But I'd opt for wild rice instead of the perfume-y Jasmine rice popular in Thai dishes or the bitty Basmati. Wild rice or even giant couscous would be an interesting substitution.

I'm doing that thing that food bloggers aren't supposed to do. I'm re-sharing a recipe already published on my blog. I first published a version of this recipe in 2011 and while that it is a very good version, this one's better. A bit longer in the kitchen and after making this dish repeatedly throughout the fall and winter, I've made some changes that make this dish worth re-sharing. The photo alone would be worth it, too!

Gluten Free Crock Pot Beef Tortilla Soup with Crispy Tortilla Strips Recipe

Classic tortilla soup gets a twist in this family favorite with lashings of coriander and tender beef slow-cooked to perfection!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler with leftovers

Crock Pot Beef Tortilla Soup with Crispy Tortilla Strips 

Tortilla soup is like slurpable taco salad: warm and cheesy and full of punch from fresh coriander. It's comfort food at its very best and it's absolutely brilliant. I love a good bowl of chicken tortilla soup, but I wanted something different. I didn't want the clean taste of boiled chicken, I wanted the meaty taste of beef!

This is one of those soups that changes each time I make it. Sometimes I use sweet corn, sometimes I add in fresh cherry tomatoes toward the end. Sometimes I use chicken. Sometimes it bubbles away on the stove for 30 minutes. It's versatile. But my favorite way to have tortilla soup is just like this: slowly cooked all day in the crock pot with tender beef and finished with fresh coriander, black pepper and crispy, crunchy seasoned tortilla strips.

Beef Bowl Inverse Recipe

A pile of rice, tender beef and mushrooms with vegetables sits beneath a soft-set fried egg in this classic Mauritian dish!

Feeds 2 adults

Beef Bowl Inverse Recipe 

Bol Renverse is a popular Mauritian dish and this Beef Bowl Inverse is a nod in that direction. This dish is subtly flamboyant and touts mystery from the start. Traditionally, you're meant to serve it on a plate with the bowl still covering the goodness inside. Then when the bowl is lifted, everyone's meant to ooooh and ahhh and applaud the chef on their cunning. It's dinner and a show in one without the pesky danger of flambe.

Much like a stir fry, anything you want can go in your reverse/inverse. If you've got veggies to use up before they rot, then this makes a refreshing change from the usual everything but the kitchen sink stew. Plus, that silky soft set yolk just coats everything in a velvet blanket of protein and eggy goodness. It's definitely the best part of the dish. If you like your yolks runny.

Remember: if you plan on serving this dish to children, pregnant women or the elderly, you've got to cook that yolk all the through. People with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems can get salmonella-induced food poisoning from runny eggs, so says medical staff around the globe. At the very least, if you must feed runny eggs to anyone in the at risk group, be sure to use pasteurized eggs as these carry a lesser risk.

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Sweet potatoes and tender turkey mince replace the classic ingredients in this comforting autumnal pie!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler with leftovers

As autumn begins to make her presence known, I've been meal planing warming and heart family recipes. Food with roughage that sticks to your ribs and keeps you warm. Like this Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie. I love the sweetness of this pie found in the frozen corn and the potato. It's like a big, aesthetically pleasing and tummy-filling hug.

The best things about this recipe are that it is a cinch to prepare. It's ready in 30 minutes or less. Callum absolutely devoured it. The Emmental or Swiss cheese adds a perfect element of nuttiness to the dish and it's packed with veggies and lean ground turkey mince.

It's very forgiving and versatile, too, so feel free to swap out any ingredient or half or double any quantity. I must be honest with you, the only thing I measured before making this was the sweet potato. That's because I had to ask for the husband to pick up a specific amount on his way home! All other measurements have been added at the time of typing this up and are what I feel I would have used. By all means, explore and play and make it to your family tastes.

Better than Takeaway Gluten Free Beef with Broccoli Recipe

Succulent ribbons of beef with soft rice and a rich marinade combine to make a home cook's version of this classic takeaway dish!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler plus leftovers

Beef with broccoli is one of those dishes we have multiple times a month. We just get a hankering for the rich sauce, the thinly sliced ribbons of medium well beef and the crunch of fresh, lightly steamed broccoli all sitting on a bed of fluffy rice. How could you not crave that, right?

There was a time when food like this would have been relegated to takeout night, but with the purchase of a good quality wok, a dose of confidence and guidance from a few cookbooks on Asian cooking, we enjoy all our favorite Asian restaurant dishes in the comfort of our own home. And you know, there's nothing better than digging into a steaming plate of this beef with broccoli with night falling outside and feet pushed into slippers.

It's comfort food that you wouldn't expect to be comforting. The key to making this dish a success lies in two components: you need beef sliced ribbon thin. Invest in a good chef's knife or, for a more authentic feel, a heavy-handled cleaver. Our cleaver is one of three knives my husband had when I met him and he loves wielding it around, chopping everything from beef to fruit with it. Must be a man thing. But seriously, slicing the beef ultra thin means your family can eat twice off of one steak. And actually get full. Man-sized portions included.

The second component you have to get just right to make this dish really sing is the marinade. In fact, you could leave out all of the other ingredients and just serve up a plate of marinated beef. I'm telling you, it's that good.

Gluten Free Porterhouse Steak with Grilled Sweet Potato and Coriander Chilli Butter

Add flavor to steak night with tender grilled sweet potato and fiery coriander chilli butter!

Feeds 2 adults (just the steak) & 1 toddler

We are bona fide carnivores in this family. While we're settle for a salad every now and then, it often leaves us asking where's the meat? This was one of those meals that came together without much effort. In fact, I spent more time trying to unjam the blade on my mandolin without severing a finger than I did preparing the entire meal!

There's not really much to say about steak and chips--we've all had it before. The real star of this show, however, is the butter. It's got that lovely fresh coriander flavor with a kick of chilli that is so lovely.

Gluten Free Standing Rigatoni Pie

Rigatoni receives a modern makeover with this fun and whimsical pasta dish!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler

The thing that intrigued me and drew me into this dish was the peculiar way it's served. I must admit, I've never had pasta that was still standing. I was expecting this dish to be far more complicated than it was. To be honest, it doesn't take much longer than a rigatoni dish where the noodles are relaxing on their sides, instead of standing like gap-mouthed trout. 

Still, no one ever said that easy was synonymous with flavorless. Fact of the matter, this is one of the most flavorful and pasta dishes I've ever made or even tasted! It's perfect for busy weeknights or would be great on the weekends with a bit of help from the smaller-handed folk. Even my kid loved poking at the standing noodles before I poured the sauce over them!

---

Ingredients:

For the standing rigantoni pie
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, mince
300g beef mince
500g gluten free rigatoni pasta
handfuls of 2 types of cheese

---

Instructions:

Standing Rigatoni Pie

1.  Warm the olive oil in a skillet and brown the mince with onion, garlic, herbs and cayenne pepper. Cook until fragrant an the mince is browned.
2. Add the tomatoes, sugar and tomato paste and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
4. Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet, but undercooking it slightly. (According to the my packet, the pasta needed 12 minutes, I boiled it for 9.)
5. Strain the pasta and allow it to col enough to handle.
6. Grease the sides of a 9-inch springform tin. Spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom.
7. Stand the pasta upright with one end on the tomato sauce layer. Tightly pack in each noodle.
8. Spread over half of the remaining sauce, allowing some to fall inside and between  the rigatoni. 
9. Sprinkle over a layer of cheese, covering the sauce. Spread the remaining sauce on top, followed by some more cheese.
10. Bake until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Allow to stand two minutes before release the tin from the base.

The Best Gluten Free Slowcooker 2 Bean Chili Served Half & Half

The Best Slowcooker 2 Bean Chili is filled with loads of flavor and lots of vegetables.

Please  vote for me!

Everybody has a go-to chili recipe. In fact, I have multiple go-to chili recipes (veggie chili, diet chili, chicken chili, spicy chili...) but one day in March I was craving chili and none of those go-to recipes sounded good at the time. With a craving and a need to whip up something that my boys could eat whenever they wanted, I consulted my favorite recipes and came up with a compromise. It's the first of May and we've already had this recipe three times (not counting the leftovers we'll eat for lunch today)! In my book, any recipe you happily eat three times in a month is a keeper and deserves to be called "the best".  It's also kid-friendly and Callum loved it!

Trust me, guys, you'll want to pin this and make it the next time you're craving chili! There's a secret ingredient that adds a lovely depth and sweetness to the chili. We serve it like you see in the photos--half and half with rice and chips. There's a little restaurant five minutes walk up the road from our flat and they serve all of their comforting stews, casseroles and curries half and half and I think it's a brilliant idea! Who says you can't have two starches??

Gluten Free Creamy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

This classic Southern American pot roast made in the slow cooker has a creamy mushroom soup base for tons of depth!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler with leftovers 

Growing up in the south in America, Sundays were about two things: church followed by a big Sunday dinner. Usually that dinner consisted of a mountain of fried chicken with mashed potatoes, slow-cooked green beans and cornbread or (my favorite) pot roast with a big helping of rice and gravy.

While looking for inspiration for this recipe, I concluded that pot roast's most important feature, its sauce, is usually made one of two ways: thin and meaty like a proper gravy or thick and creamy like a good stew base. I've gone for the second option--the gravy is thick with cream of mushroom soup, slightly earthy and certainly moreish.

The next day, with all that leftover pot roast, we forked the shredded beef onto bread for the best warm leftover sandwiches I've had in a while. This one is definitely a family favorite; I think we'll be having it once a month.