Gluten Free Cooking Class - Park Slope

I love teaching.  It is extremely rewarding and allows me the opportunity to meet lots of people I otherwise wouldn't be able to meet.  I've been planning this gluten free cooking class for several weeks, coming up with ideas, creating and testing recipes and organizing everything.  I had the class, now a couple months back and it went really well - I think everyone enjoyed the experience and the food and had nice full bellies by the time the night was over.  The class was purchased by three friends for their good friend who recently was diagnosed as Celiac.  While she was in school, she was lucky to have her mother helping her learn and prepare foods.  Now that she is finished with her schooling and on her own, forced to cook for herself with her new way of life, she needs a little help getting started.  This is where I came in.  One of her friends contacted me via Facebook - we both laughed over the way of contact, and said she had heard about me from the NGI's website and was interested in the gluten free aspect, but not the baking aspect.  She was more interested in the cooking.  We spoke from there and I came up with a list of potential ideas, she chose which ones she would like, and off we were.

We had an entree, soup, salad and dessert.  3/4 of the dishes were vegan.  As the ladies in the class were not vegetarian, we prepared a chicken dish, but the sauce that we made with it can easily be served over seitan, baked marinated tempeh or tofu or any other kind of meat replacer.  I actually just ate some of the sauteed veggies in the sauce and was happy with that - it was very flavorful.

I think my favorite part of the meal was by far the soup.  I am a huge soup person and most of the time will eat a bowl of soup a day at work.  The soup was pretty easy to make, just a little labor intensive in regards to prepping all the veggies, but it really came together quite quickly once everything was prepped.  We even had some wine and Sangria to finish the meal with and I went home nice and happy.  It was great working with those ladies and it would be nice to meet up again.  I really hope the birthday girl (and Celiac) was able to learn something about gluten free cooking, to help her feel more confident as she learns more about new new way of life.

Some of the recipes were pretty involved and I don't want to post all of them.  I made the soup again a couple weeks back for Gluten Free Wednesday, so it is already posted.  I will just make a link to the Thai Vegetable Soup and write down the menu. 

Chicken in a Curried Coconut Sauce (Seitan or a Vegan Mock Chicken)
(Forgot to take a Picture!)


Thai Vegetable Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Coconut Milk



Thai Vegetable Soup with Fresh Basil as a Garnish


Quinoa Tabouli



Delicious & So Fresh!



Double Chocolate Walnut Cappuccino Brownies



Delicious Delicious Brownies.  So Rich and Dense!





(Remember, everything was gluten free!  And delicious!)

I am teaching some more private classes in the coming weeks, for a friend's sisters.  Those classes are lots of fun too because they are really open for pretty much anything - the girls are really open to everything and we always have a great time!

Enjoy!

-K