Sweet and sour sauce: dairy & soya free

I don't know about anyone else with a toddler with CMPA or food allergies themselves, but when I started excluding dairy and soya - I almost immediately really craved Chinese food. I used to make a lot of stir fries with a simple Soy and honey sauce, and have an incredibly soft spot for restaurant style Crispy chilli beef. However, soya in all it's forms was completely out of the window. I started experimenting with combinations of flavours and it took a while to get a combination that I was happy with, but this is it.

Sticky enough to resemble that gloopy takeaway sauce, but with a fiery kick of chilli and ginger it's perfect for a Friday night fakeaway. Harry and I love it with rice noodles - his favourite additions are baby corn, peas and carrots, I like to completely wipe out my veg trays and make a proper fridge-bottom dish. When I made it for the inlaws however, I did tone things down a bit and just used onions, peppers, carrot and beansprouts - and I was surprised that everyone loved it!

Obviously you can add whatever you like to this sauce, meat, veggies, noodles; be they egg, rice or vegetable - and go as heavy or light on the spices as you like. Which I think is the great thing about a fakeaway - you really get to personalise it to your tastes.

Sweet and sour sauce, takeaway style
Dairy, and soya free
Serves 4 (plus a toddler)

Thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped/ or 1 tsp chilli flakes
4-5 tbsp tomato sauce
4 tablespoons Date syrup
3 tablespoons malt vinegar
225g tin of pineapple chunks in juice (chop the pineapple up if you get rings and keep on one side for the stir fry, you just need the juice here)
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

Mix the ginger, garlic and chilli together in a medium sized bowl
Add the ketchup, date syrup, and malt vinegar - have a quick taste to check that your flavours are balanced and add extras of anything you feel it needs
Add the 5 spice powder - I normally add half the teaspoon first and then a bit more as necessary
Add the pineapple juice - give it a good stir and taste again

I marinate my chicken if I'm using it in half the sauce, then add the rest while cooking once I've added the veggies. It really is delicious, and I make a little bowl, with only a tiny bit of garlic, and ginger for Harry who inhales it too!

I'm linking this up to Le Coin de Mel's Free From Friday's linky - if you're an allergy parent, or have food allergies yourself, be sure to pop over and see what everyone else has linked up (there's a gorgeous looking chocolate cake up already)

Why not Pin this recipe for later, using the image below:

I'm also adding this to A Mummy Too's Recipe of the week link up:

The best Simnel cake ever: dairy free recipe

Back in 2011 I blogged our old favourite Simnel cake recipe. The same one my Mum had always used it was a real tried and tested Easter bake. Then, last year I needed to make it dairy free so replaced the butter with dairy free spread - and ended up with an epically dry, wildly overcooked cake. I now know that dairy free spreads seem to cut down baking time considerably, so this year had noted to halve the cooking time. 

And then I got to thinking. I love Simnel cake, it's my absolute favourite so I thought I'd put some of the moistness back in with a soak in some Amaretto and change up the fruit a bit. That, coupled with a lower heat in the oven and a far shorter bake has been a revelation. So here we have it - the best Simnel cake ever. No word of a lie. Or exaggeration. Honest. 

The best Simnel cake ever
Serves 12
Dairy free, soya free

6oz dairy free spread









6oz caster sugar

3 eggs lightly beaten

8oz self raising flour, sieved

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

7oz glace cherries, halved

9oz sultanas & currants/ raisins

2oz ground almonds

1 500g pack marzipan (apologies for change to metric) 

150ml Amaretto

2 tablespoons apricot jam

Weigh out the dried fruit and put it in a bowl. Pour over the amaretto. Cover and leave to stand for 12 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees C

Grease and line a 7 inch round cake tin

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs a little at a time with a spoonful of flour in with each addition

Fold in the flour, spices, and ground almonds

Add in the soaked fruit - including any leftover amaretto from the bottle of the bowl

Put half the mixture into your lined tin

Cut the block of marzipan in half and roll out one half so that it's big enough to cover the mixture in the tin. I cut around the base of the cake tin so it slots in nicely - keep any offcuts

Add the rest of the cake mixture

Bake for 1 and a half hours - test that the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle. It should come out cleanish

When the cake is cool remove from the tin, and unpeel the paper

Roll out the other half of the marzipan as you did before - again keep the offcuts

Warm the jam with a splash of boiling water and spread over the top of the cake using a pastry brush

Top with the next disc of marzipan

Split the marzipan offcuts into 11 equalish sized balls and using a little dab of apricot jam stick them to the top of the cake too. 

And you're done. The best Simnel cake ever. 

Fig and nutmeg buns for Advent - a dairy free recipe

It was the start of Advent on Sunday, and these fig spiked buns - gently spiced with nutmeg and sprinkled with demerera sugar are a lovely way to ease yourself into the start of the Christmas festivities. A hint of what's to come, without going full on CHRISTMAS! A simple bake, perfect with a hot drink - quick and easy enough to knock up before an NCT mamas lunch date where the toddlers try to cover as many square centimetres of their skin as is humanly possible with ratatouille. 

On my last post I apologised for my radio silence of late - the combination of getting used to new glasses and another shocking cough and cold from Harry, accompanied by a blast of sleep deprivation has meant that the blog has been last on my list. Well no, I've been last on my list, the blog is penultimate. This morning I've braided my hair, grabbed M's DSLR and got a bit of a wriggle on whilst bubba naps. There's a fair old amount going on in the Pantry at the moment. I'm trying to make some of my favourite Christmas bakes dairy free and get them up on here asap as well as getting organised for Christmas and all that entails.

Anyway - to (mis)quote my favourite Doctor "Allons-y!"

Fig and nutmeg buns
Dairy free, soya free
Makes 12

8oz plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3oz dairy free spread
2oz caster sugar
6oz dried figs (each chopped up into about 16)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg
3-4 tablespoons almond milk (or the dairy free substitute of your choice)
2 tablespoons demerera sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper
Put the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir briefly
Rub in the the dairy free spread until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs
Add in the figs, and a really good grating of nutmeg
In a cup, beat the egg and almond milk together, then add this to the mixing bowl
Stir well to combine - you want a dough that cleans the sides of the bowl but that's sticky enough to hold together
Split the mixture into 12 buns, pop on the lined cookie sheet, and sprinkle with the demerera sugar
Bake for 15 minutes
Allow to cool before tucking in

These are not the sort of buns that keep forever (shame) so make them the day or at most day before you plan to eat them. I find husbands are very useful for finishing them off if there's any left!

Bread in the bread maker and Cow's Milk Protein Allergy

Six months ago I wrote about Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy and bread. At the time, borne purely of frustration at not being able to find bread which didn't change its recipe as soon as Harry got used to it, I started using my Panasonic breadmaker again.  I was given it for Christmas 10 years ago and I am still happily using it weekly. The security and peace of mind it gives me knowing exactly what is in each loaf is priceless. Of course I could make bread by hand, and for many years I also did. However daily life with a toddler does not lend itself to peaceful 10 minute kneads, followed by a leisurely prove by a radiator (living in a draughty Edwardian house, that's the only sure fire way to make my bread rise) This way I can pop the ingredients in the breadmaker before bed, so that there is a loaf ready for breakfast. It really is such an easy way to ensure Harry’s safety and wellbeing and to maintain the illusion of being an organised wife and mother. 

That is not to say that we never buy bread, I’m good, but I’m far from perfect. At the moment we tend to rely on Waitrose Essential wholemeal loaf  Aldi crumpets and their Fruit loaf as our standby dairy, soya and egg free bread products. Whilst I’m happy to recommend these today, if you are thinking of picking them up and are catering for either your own allergies or those of a family member, please read the label. We’ve been caught out recently by a loaf we’ve bought multiple times in the past only to find on arriving home that the recipe has changed. For any other customer this would not be noticed, for us it could cause Harry a lot of pain. Fortunately in my new be-spectacled state I noticed before I sleepily aimed slices at the toaster, but I could have easily overlooked that essential double check. Something I've got used to not doing because I'm making my own and am safe in the knowledge that I know what I'm working with. 

Over the past 6 months I’ve made dairy free, enriched fruitbread as well as my usual white and wholemeal loaves in the breadmaker. Out of the bread maker (following my day at River Cottage)I’ve made lots of soda bread and flatbread. It is safe to say the my son loves carbs, especially those in bread form. Preferably with humous. Lots of humous. Which he shares with anything and everything within a 6 foot radius of his highchair.

Last time I wrote about bread and CMPA I included my staple recipe for a 50:50 wholewheat loaf, whilst this hasn’t changed, I’ve made it a slightly easier to work with printable below.

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50/50 Wholewheat bread

by Penelope Reader December-06-2015

A dairy free, soya free, breadmaker friendly recipe

Ingredients

• 200g Wholewheat flour
• 200g Strong white flour (include a little extra for dusting)
• 1 tsp Fast acting yeast
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 280ml Warmish water

Instructions

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker tin, top this with the remainder of the dry ingredients 2. Add the oil and water 3. Select sandwich loaf cycle (and if you are me, go to bed)

Details

Prep time: 5m Cook time: 5h 0m Total time: 5h 5mYield: 1 Loaf

This post has been sponsored by Panasonic. All content and views are my own.

Carrot and cinnamon Christmas tree cookies: dairy free, egg free, soya free, sugar free weaning recipe

This recipe is based on my Sweet potato biscuit stars, but carrot based and with different spicing for the festive season.

Since making the Sweet potato biscuit stars I've repeated the bake many times, most recently with a savoury twist - carrot and ground coriander, and parsnip and garam masala which were both huge hits. However a few things happened today - I had the last of our veg patch carrots to use up, Harry had a friend to play this afternoon and I'm all about Christmas as there's only a month to go. So even my husband can't be Scroogey about me mentioning it ;-) I decided to use the same spicing as I've used in the Christmas cake which is in the oven as I type.

Part of me wanted to make something Christmassy as lots of our baby groups are gearing up for the festivities and I'd like to make sure that I have an easy, allergy friendly something I can make of a morning and bring with us so that there's something safe for Harry to eat with his friends.

Harry and his friend helped to knead the dough, and they made round biscuits whilst I managed the Christmas tree shapes as the cutters are quite sharp. As this dough is just flour, dairy free spread, carrots and spices I wasn't at all worried at the toddler take on kneading which heavily involves the mouth.

 Carrot and cinnamon Christmas tree cookies
Dairy free, egg free, soya free, sugar free
Weaning recipe

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Carrot and Cinnamon Christmas cookies

by Penelope Reader November-25-2015

Dairy free

Ingredients

• 200g Carrots, boiled/ steamed until soft
• 360g Plain flour
• 60g Dairy free spread
• 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Ground cloves
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC 2. Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper 3. In the bowl of your food processor blitz the cooked carrots, flour, dairy free spread and spices until the ingredients come together in a smooth ball of dough that leaves the bowl clean(ish) 4. Alternatively you can mash the carrots and beat the rest of the ingredients in by hand 5. Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut out the Christmas tree shapes 6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes (or until very lightly browned)

Details

Prep time: 10m Cook time: 35m Total time: 45mYield: Makes 40 small cookies

I haven't yet tried these with cornflour to make them gluten free, but as I'm anticipating this batch will disappear fairly promptly, I'll have another go next week.

Pana chocolate review: Dairy free, soya free, gluten free (CHOCOLATE!)

Pana chocolate is an Australian brand making raw, organic chocolate that's (wait for it) dairy free, soya free, gluten free, and refined sugar free. With flavour combinations such as Goji berry & coconut, Hemp and nib and Sour Cherry and Vanilla it's not only perfect ingredient wise for a CMPA mama such as myself but really lovely. 

I'm not going to pretend that any chocolate is entirely good for you, but these bars of intense and unusual flavour combinations really do hit the free from spot without too much guilt. 

My favourites were Sour Cherry and Vanilla, Mint and Raw Cacao. M wasn't so keen because they are incredibly dark (which meant I didn't have to share, although I did offer) but he can have chocolate any time he likes - it's been a fair old while since I indulged in something quite so intensely chocolatey. 

The only sticking point are that these are £3.20 for each 45g bar (amusingly, portion size is suggested as 2 squares or 15g - whilst it is wonderfully rich, it's not so much so that you can't eat the whole of the Sour Cherry and Vanilla whilst watching the Bake Off final for instance). One for the Christmas list rather than an 8pm emergency dash to the cupboard. That said I'm seriously considering placing another order and asking M to hide them and just get one for me when I'm entirely desperate and sleep deprived. But I have no self control where chocolate is concerned - you might be one of those people still eating your Easter eggs. 

These were not sent for review, nor is this post sponsored - I was just over the moon at finding soya free, dairy free chocolate so bought and ate more than I should have! 

Sweet potato biscuit stars: a dairy free, egg free, sugar free weaning recipe

Sweet potato biscuit stars have been a hands down winner in our house this week - little mouthfuls of lightly spiced, naturally sweet biscuit are an ideal accompaniment to a midmorning beaker of oat milk, or as a pudding to go with some coconut yoghurt. Dairy, egg, soya and sugar free they are wildly simple to make, and for a bubba in his seventh week of a streaming cough and cold and his second week of cutting canines they were one of the only foods he didn't fling heavenwards.

I made these using the food processor, but a decent masher or ricer would mean they would easily make by hand. Similarly, I've used coconut oil but Pure dairy free spread, or Vitalite would work, as would gluten free flour. The biscuits keep nicely in an airtight tin, and I tend to view a portion as two of the little stars.

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Sweet Potato Biscuit Stars

by Penelope Reader October-10-2015

A dairy free, egg free, sugar free weaning recipe

Ingredients

• 150g Cooked Sweet Potato
• 180g Plain flour
• 60g Coconut Oil
• ½tsp Ground mixed spice
• ¼tsp Ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC 2. Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper 3. Peel, chop, and boil/microwave/bake your sweet potato. Allow to cool 4. Put the sweet potato into the bowl of your food processor (or mash thoroughly and mix the rest of the ingredients by hand). 5. Add the flour, spices and coconut oil to the food processor bowl and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball. 6. Liberally dust your worktop with flour, and roll out the dough until it is about ¼" thick. 7. Cut out the shapes, and put them on the lined cookie sheet 8. Briefly knead the leftover dough, reroll and cut out shapes. Repeat until you have used all the dough. 9. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. 10. Cool on a wire rack.

Details

Prep time: 10m Cook time: 35m Total time: 45mYield: 20 small biscuits

Whatever you do, don't turn your back while trying to take photos or this might just happen...

Apple and carrot dhaal - dairy free, soya free, CMPA weaning recipe

I love dhaal - as a quick lunch, or the more traditional accompaniment to a curry, it's one of my favourites. I've not made it for ages though, and was trying to think of some new meals for Harry's lunches when inspiration struck.

Lentils are a great food for babies - full of protein and iron but easy on little tummies. They mash up brilliantly if you're leaning more towards purees, and they give a meal substance if you're a baby led weaner.

For a baby recipe we don't want heat from our dhaal, but I did want to start to introduce some different flavours - the first time I made this I ignored my own notes and doubled up the spicing! Not a good idea.

Because the veggies are grated to start with, this is a really quick meal to make, and if you've got a food processor it takes minutes to throw it together. What's not to like, really?

Apple and Carrot dhaal
Dairy free, soya free, CMPA
Weaning recipe

4 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 eating apples, peeled and grated
750ml low salt veg stock/ water
2/3 cup red lentils
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4tsp ground cumin
2 Tablespoons olive oil


Pop the olive oil, onion, carrot, apples and spices in a large pan and cook down for a couple of minutes
Cover with the stock/ water, and lentils
Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for 10-20 minutes
Serve as it is or with rice

Butternut squash & tomato pasta: A dairy free, soya free CMPA weaning recipe

Butternut squash & tomato is a lovely combination for weaning, sweet and flavourful and one of Harry's favourites. I make this in batches, usually while he naps, and freeze it in portion pots for quick and easy lunches along the line.

This is also the sauce I use on his 'cheesy' polenta chips, and I also use it with chicken meatballs I make him. Harry seems to prefer his food to be a bit wet so this is a great moist-maker (to quote Ross Geller) 

I also make an adult version of this with salt, pepper, a pinch of chilli and lots of crispy bacon: Dairy free Butternut squash and bacon pasta

Butternut squash & tomato pasta

Dairy free, soya free - suitable for CMPA

Weaning recipe
Makes 20 baby portions

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 red onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic diced or crushed

1/2 tsp dried thyme 

1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into a 2cm or so dice

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 carton passata

1tsp tomato puree

Oatly cream

Violife cheese - I use 2 slices of the Mozzarella style, finely chopped

In a large pan, warm the oil and add the onion, garlic, butternut squash and dried thyme - cook gently over a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the onion starts to go translucent

Add the tin of tomatoes, pasta and tomato puree. Fill the tomato tin half full of water and add that to the pan too

Bring to a gentle simmer, pop a lid on the pan and cook for 30 minutes

Remove from the heat - and add 2 tablespoons of Oatly cream and stir through the sauce

Add the Violife cheese and stir through.

If you are doing purees as your weaning method, then let this cool down before blitzing. If you're doing baby led weaning then you can serve it as is.

I make up a batch of this, leave it to cool, portion it off and then freeze so it's ready to go for a quick lunch or supper. I use this from Nuby as initially one, now 2 of these is a perfect Harry sized portion.

If you find prepping butternut squash a faff - you have a couple of options. Tesco and Waitrose/ Ocado both sell it frozen. Or, have a look at this post for my super easy way to prep it. 

Blueberry muffins: dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free

Muffins are such an easy bake - you assemble your wet and dry ingredients and mix the two together. Pop in the oven and you're done. The muffin recipes I historically used contain butter, buttermilk, and eggs - three things that are obviously off our list.  Today I still managed to make Apple and cinammon, Banana and sultana and blueberry muffins that are all allergy friendly. I also made M and his colleagues entirely un-allergy friendly double chocolate.

A couple of months back I scoffed at the need for recipes to be free of refined sugar. The further I progress in our weaning journey, the less I want Harry to have and become accustomed to sugar in any form. However, especially now he's up and about maintaining his weight is crucial and also giving him access to new tastes and textures. Also, I don't want him to be the child at parties found face down in a bowl of Haribo because he never has anything sweet (only slightly exaggerated story of a Brownie I once knew).

Maple syrup is one of my favourite sweeteners, I love the flavour it has - this recipe was borne out of a remembrance of a Nigella blueberry and maple syrup sauce for pancakes. We've got all the books packed away at the moment as M is building me shelves (happy squeal - I'm such a booklover, this is the equivalent of shoe cupboards for other women) so I didn't bother to look that up, just went with those flavours. I'd been sent some Maple syrup from We love maple so made good use of that.

The weather today was disgusting, Harry has a streaming cold, Mark is putting up my much wanted shelves and I declared today a pyjama day and decided to hit the kitchen and do some baking.

Blueberry muffin recipe
Makes 12 small muffins or 6 big ones

¼ cup maple syrup - or honey if you're not vegan/ don't have any maple syrup

¼ cup Pure or other dairy free spread

1 egg -  or ¼ cup of stewed apples/ or 1 mashed banana

1 cup plain flour – ideally I’d have used half and half wholemeal and white flour, but had run out of wholemeal

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup stewed, unsweetened apples this replaces the buttermilk that you would traditionally use
1/3 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 170 C

Put cake cakes in a 12 hole fairy cake tin

Beat together the maple syrup and dairy free spread – this won’t go light and fluffy, but will end up looking curdled. That’s fine.

Add the stewed apples, and the egg/ stewed apples/ banana and beat again

Beat in the flour, baking powder and bicarb – at this stage you want a dropping consistency – if it seems a bit runny just add a couple more  tablespoons of flour

Thanks to We love Maple for the Maple syrup - I wasn't compensated in any other way for this post, nor was I required to write it.