Hippy Cooking

See how happy Gluten Roast can make you?

Here's a couple of odd recipes I've made this week. I improvised the rice crackers and they turned out to be very yummy. And the Non-cheesy Cheese Sauce I found in a garage sale find of a 1970s cookbook from The Farm, a hippy commune with a soya bean obsession.

Personally I try and avoid most soya bean products except miso. The research I've done into soya isn't entirely conclusive, but the indications seem to be that soya maybe implicated in some kinds of hormonal problems, such as nasty menopause and other women's health issues. I reckon better safe than sorry. Soyabeans are hidden in lots of different processed foods including lots of 'junk foods', but dodgiest form seems to be tofu and soymilk. The least troublesome is miso due to its fermentation process.

Anyway, the recipe that made me shell out 50c for The Farm cookbook doesn't have any soyabeans in it. It's similar to a recipe I used to make when Louise was little and had a dairy allergy, but I lost the recipe in my travels since then. Finding it last week was like being reunited with an old friend, just when I've had to give up my love affair with sugar.


Non-Cheese Cheese Sauce (from The Farm)

1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/3 cup rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
2 cups water
1/4 cup margarine


Mix dry ingredients in a saucepan. Gradually add water, stirring with a whisk until a smooth paste. Place on heat and stir constasntly until it thickens and bubbles. Let it bubble for about 30 seconds then remove from heat. Whip in the margarine. Have with vegetables or pasta or spread on pizza.

Homemade Rice Cracker Recipe

1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cold butter
3 Tbsp parmesan
1 Tbsp garlic granules
pinch salt
generous grind of pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup (rice) milk
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 200 degree. Put all the ingredients except the milk and sesame seeds into a bowl and rub or cut the butter in as though making pastry or scones. Mix in just enough rice milk (or other kind of milk) to make the dough stick into a ball but not be sticky. Roll or press out onto a greased baking sheet and sprinkle sesame seeds on top, press into the dough. Cut the dough into squares and slide apart on the sheet. Bake until golden brown and crisp.

While on the topic of anti-junk food food, check out this YouTube Chef with her Depression Era recipes. Mmm mmm.