For a perfect baked potato, simply pierce the skin all over the potato, rub with oil and salt and bake at 200°C or 180°C fan for at least an hour, but maybe 1hr 30 mins, depending on size.
Why not rub the skin with a mix of oil and cumin, or cajun spice powder for a more exotc flavour.
Then cut the potato down the centre and top with your favourite filling. I like leftover chilli con carne or bolognese sauce, but the best is chargrilled avocado and poached eggs.
What tops yours?
This time I made gnocchi with meatballs made from gluten-free sausages that I bought from Waitrose. It’s the first time I’d seen them in a supermarket, so I was pretty excited. They’re really lovely actually, quite spicy and peppery and very meaty, although they don’t hold their shape so well when you cook them.
I simply fried off some sliced garlic and some cherry tomatoes in some olive oil. Then I added little chunks of sausage that I’d cut up. I also removed the sausage skin but only because it was coming off anyway; no need to bother doing this otherwise. Once the little balls of sausage meat were cooked through, I added my cooked gluten-free gnocchi to the pan and added a little extra extra-virgin olive oil and some torn fresh basil. It was so quick to do but it looked and tasted like I’d spent ages on it. Yumbo-scrumbo.
One of the issues with being coeliac, I’ve found, is what to do for a work day lunch. Before I was diagnosed I wouldn’t even think about my lunch until I was about to make it; I’d just make some scrambled eggs on toast or some mashed avocado on toast or whatever on toast. But, no more. Now, every evening I must plan what I’m going to bring to work for lunch the next day. Although I work in a cafe, I can’t risk making my food there because we prepare a lot of sandwiches and, or course, I do a lot of baking, so the risk of contaminating my food with wheat flour or bread would be too high. Usually I bring in leftovers, which is simple enough, but what about those days when you’ve gone out for supper, got a takeaway or been to a friend’s house? Whatever it is has to be filling, and keep me full for a while (being a hungry coeliac in a sandwich shop is a little like being lost at sea… water, water everywhere…) and I believe I’ve got just the thing: a simple, healthy, tuna and bean salad.
I started with some really nice canned tuna, not the kind that smells like cat food, and some cannellini beans, although you could use any kind of canned bean you like (butter beans, flageolet, kidney beans, etc). After that it was really a matter of what I could find in the fridge that would be appropriate: I had some green beans, which I cut into thirds and boiled for about 3 minutes before draining and running under cold water, and some spring onions, a tomato and some cucumber. I chopped up all the veg and mixed it up with the beans and tuna. Finally, I added some chopped parsley, some defrosted peas, salt, pepper, garlic olive oil, lemon juice and a sprinkle of mixed seeds. Job done.
This literally took me ten minutes. And it made loads so now I have lunch for three days, easily, unless my boyfriend gets his hands on it. That’s the other great thing about this sort of gluten-free cooking: it doesn’t feel gluten-free, like a gluten-free sandwich or gluten-free pasta would, so everyone in the house can enjoy it. It is delicious, healthy and also happens not to contain wheat. It certainly ticks all my boxes!
Naturally Not 