Basic Gluten-Free Quinoa Flake Fruit Crisp (Gluten-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free)

OK, going gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and egg-free has been interesting for my health.  My skin has improved but I feel like I've lost a bit of energy since I cut out my main protein sources:  eggs and dairy.  With this diet change, I haven't lost weight!  I guess eating rice cakes in place of cheese and eggs has stalled my weight loss for this carb-sensitive gal.  For those who know me, I may look tiny, but I'm really good at hiding my saggy poochie mommy tummy.

I'm still trying to perfect my gluten-free vegan cupcakes but in the meantime, I wanted to throw something quick and yummy in the oven.  From this summer's bounty, I managed to freeze a bunch of rhubarb and summer berries.  

I turned to my Strawberry Rhubarb crisp recipe for inspiration.  I made it gluten-free and vegan (no animal products; dairy-free and egg-free).  I added chia seeds to the filling.  I used quinoa flakes instead of rolled oats.  I was able to find quinoa flakes in the bulk section of my local grocery store.  

This is a very flexible recipe!  Feel free to make changes depending on your palate, diet, or whatever ingredients you have on hand.  You can make it sweeter, use whole wheat flour, rolled oats and real butter.  This is a great starting point.  

For my 6 cups of fruit, I used 1 diced gala apple, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen raspberries and 3 cups frozen rhubarb, thawed and drained.  Frozen rhubarb releases water too quickly for pies and crisps, thus making the filling watery and runny.  To counter this, thaw and drain the excess liquid from frozen rhubarb but do not squeeze it dry. 

Basic Gluten-Free Quinoa Flake Fruit Crisp

Filling:
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch (I used 1 tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp tapioca starch)
6 cups mixed fruit and berries (I used 1 diced gala apple, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen raspberries and 3 cups frozen rhubarb, thawed & drained)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
2/3 cup quinoa flakes (or gluten-free oats)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup gluten-free baking mix* (or all-purpose/whole wheat flour, if tolerated)
2 Tbsp vegan margarine, melted (I used Earth Balance buttery spread)
dash of cinnamon

Mix first 4 ingredients for the fruit filling.  Pour and spread evenly in a 2.5qt/L dish.

Mix topping ingredients, spread evenly over the fruit base.

Bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes until bubbly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

-  Adapted from  SparkRecipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

*Gluten-Free Baking Mix

from  Simply Gluten-Free Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

Combine and whisk together:  

3/4 cup super fine white rice flour 

1/4 cup potato starch (not potato flour)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch (use Asian tapioca to avoid an “off” taste to the tapioca)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Makes about 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour mix

The tart raspberries and rhubarb made the crisp sooo addictive!  If you find this too tart, a little drizzle of maple syrup can sweeten things up if needed.  
  

Enjoy!

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Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole Wheat or Gluten-Free

Growing up in a Chinese household during the 70's and 80's, my parents would predominantly cook Chinese meals for dinner.  Usually, we had the classic stir-fried vegetables with slices of meat and lots of fluffy white rice.  If we were lucky, we had ice cream for dessert.  How much we looked forward to hauling out that 4L/gallon bucket of Neapolitan (strawberry/vanilla/chocolate) ice cream!

What a contrast nowadays!  I guess I got tired of Asian food and wanted branch out.  Rhubarb is not what we ate growing up.  I have two rhubarb plants in my garden and this season, I have harvested and frozen enough to last the year!  It's mid-August and in my rural BC town, my rhubarb plants are still producing!  After playing around with Strawberry Rhubarb pie, I wanted to try a lower sugar version of Strawberry Rhubarb crisp.   

There are so many recipes out there but I wanted something super easy and not loaded with too much sugar and fat.  Of course, if you want to add more sugar and butter, be my guest!

This basic recipe uses whole wheat flour and half the amount of sugar compared to conventional recipes.  It got rave reviews in our household!  The kiddies wanted it for breakfast the next day.  I was worried that it would be too sour, but it wasn't for us.  Our strawberries were sweet, so that helped. 

For fun, I also made this gluten-free with great results.  Oats can be contaminated with gluten during processing, so if you are serving oats to guests who are gluten-sensitive, make sure they are certified gluten-free on the package. 

Instead of using whole wheat flour to thicken the filling, I mixed in chia seeds and arrowroot starch.  I bought a few scoops of chia seeds from the bulk organic section my grocery store to try.  Apparently, it has great thickening properties, extra fibre, and plant omega-3s, like flaxseed, according to the Globe and Mail.   I like to try different kinds of food... sometimes it's healthy...sometimes not! 

In the lower left corner in the picture above, you can see the chia seeds in the sauce.  The chia seeds swell up, like tiny tapioca pearls.  They absorb the extra liquid and I don't notice a difference in taste. 

Next time, I will try using quinoa flakes in place of the rolled oats.  With these substitutions, this has been very forgiving recipe with whatever ingredients on-hand!

Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole wheat or Gluten-free

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup sugar)

3 Tbsp whole wheat flour or cornstarch (I used 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch)

3 cups quartered strawberries

3 cups diced rhubarb (about 1/4-1/2-inch chunks or about 1.5cm)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

2/3 cup rolled oats (I will try quinoa flakes next time!)

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1/4 cup)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or your fave gluten-free baking mix*)

1 Tbsp butter, melted (I needed to use 3Tbsp melted butter with the gluten-free flour)
dash of cinnamon

Mix first 5 ingredients for the fruit base. Pour and spread evenly in a 2.5qt/L dish.

Mix topping ingredients, spread evenly over the fruit base.

Bake at 350F for 45 - 55 minutes until bubbly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  With ice cream is good too.  

- Adapted from SparkRecipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

*As for the gluten-free baking mix, I tried  Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free All-purpose flour mix for a different recipe and I didn't like it.  It had a strong (nasty) aftertaste, due to the bean flour added to it.  To salvage this, I used 2 Tbsp of Bob's GF flour, 1 Tbsp rice flour, 1/2 Tbsp tapioca starch and 1/2 Tbsp potato starch to make up 1/4 cup flour.  Gluten-free flour mixes usually have a combination of rice flour, tapioca and potato starches. 

 We served our strawberry rhubarb crisp with homemade vanilla bean ice cream. YUM!

Enjoy!

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