Read Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook: A Seasonal, Vegetarian Cookbook for Free Online Page B

pancakes, baked goods, and, of course, the ever-present toast—almost universally made from wheat flour. I’ll be honest. It’s rare that I want toast for breakfast. Why would I? There are so many other wonderful whole grain choices: waffles, pancakes, porridges, muffins, granola, and, for those rare times when I don’t want grains for breakfast, fruit smoothies, miso soup, or hearty tofu scrambles. If you’ve been avoiding gluten, you’ve probably thought you had to live without some of your favorite breakfasts. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee—or just thumb through this chapter. You’ll find the alternative recipes I’ve included to be a real eye-opener.
    Beyond being delicious and gluten free, all of the recipes in this chapter will give you energy and rejuvenate your senses. Best of all, most of them are fairly easy to prepare and are very adaptable. These days, so many people need or want to avoid various foods in their diet. It may be that in addition to avoiding gluten, you don’t eat dairy products—another major component of the average American breakfast. Don’t worry; some of the recipes are vegan, and I’ve provided a few tips on creating egg- and dairy-free variations. I’ve even included a recipe for making your own almond milk .
    You’ll find a number of recipes for pancakes and waffles—breakfast favorites that you may have thought you had to give up on a gluten-free diet. But let’s face it: many people are too busy to cook that kind of breakfast except on weekends. With that in mind, I’ve started the chapter off with quick breakfasts, like smoothies and porridges, as well as a couple of grab-and-go muffin options. These recipes and their variations may become your go-to breakfasts, but I guarantee you’ll look forward to the weekend, when you have time to make Banana Pancakes with Cinnamon , Berry Good Corn-Quinoa Pancakes , Teff Waffles , and other breakfast delights. Pass the maple syrup!
    Here’s a tip you’re bound to love: Some of the recipes in chapter 8 , Sweet Indulgences, are chock-full of fruit and use only a moderate amount of healthful sweeteners, so they can serve double duty as breakfast fare. The Lemon Poppy Seed Cake makes a great coffee cake. Or try Granny Smith Apple Crumb Pie or either of the fruit crisps (pages 192 and 193) topped with yogurt. With recipes like these, who says you can’t have dessert for breakfast?
    And as for the toast? You could definitely have a Corn Muffin or Amaranth and Corn Flatbread , but I’ll let you in on a delicious secret: Fried Dulse stands in for toast just fine—and it’s also a nutritional powerhouse, packed with a generous amount of protein and a complete range of minerals.

    Before you dive into the recipes, here are a few tips that can make the job of cooking easier, and some of them also make your cooking more eco-friendly:
When you need to measure both a liquid oil and a liquid sweetener, measure the oil first (including melted coconut oil and butter). Then, when you measure sticky liquid sweeteners like honey or maple syrup using the same cup, they’ll slide out quickly and cleanly. For the same reason, when making a recipe that calls for both oil and nut butter, it’s best to measure the oil first.
When a recipe calls for melted coconut oil, I find the easiest way to melt it is in a small skillet. Then, if you need to oil a waffle iron, baking sheet, or other pan, you can just clean out the skillet with a pastry brush and use the brush to oil the pan.
You’ll read many recipes that call for mixing wet and dry ingredients separately, then combining them. In my experience this isn’t necessary, and it just dirties another dish. Most of the time you can just mix everything together in one bowl.
In the recipes in this chapter, I’ve organized ingredients lists so that the information is presented in a uniform way to make things easier for you. But when I’m cooking, I usually add the ingredients in whatever