Spinach Crepes Recipe

Kayleigh here. As the summer winds to a close, I find myself wanting to make it last a little longer however I can. Making cool but satisfying meals that can only be enjoyed this time of year have it feeling like there might be another week of sun and blue sky yet.

These spinach crepes do heat up the kitchen a little bit, but they cook fast and quickly cool down to room temperature when you start adding the cold fillings. It's the perfect light dinner to keep you satisfied without weighing you down.

We tend to have these crepes with basil pesto, sliced mozzarella, and an assortment of raw vegetables. Chopped leafy greens and tomatoes are a must, and others like mushrooms, zucchini, cucumber, or even boiled and diced beets can make a lovely addition. Just grab whatever looks nice!

Spinach Crepes Recipe

Ingredients:
(Serves 6)

1 Cup white rice flour
1/2 Cups Potato Starch
2 eggs
1 ts salt
1/2 Ts Xanthan/Guar Gum
1 10 oz package frozen Spinach, thawed and drained of liquid
1 Cup Milk

Directions:

 

1) If you have a blender or food processor, add all the ingredients and pulse until smooth. If not, then chop the frozen spinach extra fine and combine with the other ingredients. The larger the spinach pieces, the more fragile the crepes will be.
2) Heat up a large pan on medium-high heat and add some butter to grease. Dollop on a portion of the crepe batter and use your spatula to spread it around as thin as you can. If you do it right, it should have cooked all the way through by the time you are done, and then you just need to flip it to lightly brown the other side. All told, it takes roughly a minute (or less) per side to cook.
3) Transfer onto a serving plate and line up a buffet of pesto, mozzarella, and raw bite-sized vegetables. Let each person add the fillings to their liking.

Note- In the wintertime, swap out the fresh fillings for sautéed mushrooms, peppers, and onions, then top it with a fried egg and a drizzle of cheddar cheese sauce.

Jason here, the fresh vegetable crepes are one my favorites healthy meals. They make for a great quick meal once you have all the ingredients laid out. Plus it’s to scale the meal up to multiple guests as they can each put together their own crepe just how they would like it.

My favorite crepe is basil pesto, lettuce, mushrooms, slices tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella slices. Kayleigh likes all kinds of other vegetables, but I tend to stick to those basics. It’s a simple blend of ingredients, but I like how the strong basil pesto accents the fresh vegetables.

Since I tend to load my crepe up, I eat with a fork and knife to handle the spillover.

Good luck to all your crepe making adventures, and I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Assimba Ethiopian Cuisine Review

Jason here. Kayleigh kindly maintains a list of all the gluten free restaurants in the area, which we have yet to try. This week we could not decide where to go and opted to roll a dice and choose at random. This landed on Assimba, an Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle.

Driving there we passed by many Ethiopian restaurants nearby, but what made this one in particular special is it specifically advertises to be gluten free.  Neither Kayleigh nor I had ever had Ethiopian food before, so we were in for a surprise. We did some research ahead of time, so luckily we did not embarrass ourselves.

We were seated by a window in this nice little restaurant, and provided menus. The back of the menu had a little story about Ethiopian chefs and the meaning cooking holds in their culture. I don’t want poorly retell the story, so I will just say I recommend anyone give a read if you eat there.

Unfortunately, writing this review up after the fact we cannot remember with certainty, what the various items we ordered were called. The online menu lists there base items, but their in house menu has some family style combo dishes. Kayleigh and I, opted for a combo platter so we could really get a try for the different styles. If you have never had Ethiopian food I highly recommend you get a combo platter so you can try out different items. Otherwise, you could end up getting stuck with a large plate of something not to your taste.

Our combo plate came with 6 items. I actually ended up liking them all, but 2 really stood out for me. When you order a combo plate it comes in a very large deep dish. It must have been at least 12 inches in diameter. Lining the bowl was injera, a spongy flatbread made from teff flour. Unlike many types of bread, the injera had a taste on its own which was almost sour, with just a hint of sweetness. I enjoyed the injera, but it definitely compliments some meals more than others. I found I enjoyed the taste a bit more with the spicy dishes.

Before I get into the actual dishes, I want to take a moment to explain how to eat Ethiopian food. I’m not an expert by any means, and all of this comes from some brief internet research. It’s simple to explain really. First you break off a bit of the injera with your right hand. Then you create a scoop shape and gather some of your main dish onto it. Then you eat it bread and all. I found it easier to tear off a few inch long strips of injera and then pinch the food with it. The bread is quite soft, so using it purely as a scooper you can end up just sliding food around and making a mess.

On top of our injera lined dish was the 6 items. The first of which was a regular salad made of greens, tomatoes, and a lemon dressing. It was a good salad, and made a nice complement to the spicier dishes.

The second dish is a bit hard to describe, and we cannot find it on the online menu. It reminded me of butternut squash, with large stewed carrots. It tasted sweet, and like the salad made an excellent complement to the spicier dishes. We tried looking into it once we got home, and believe it was Atakilt Wot.

The third dish was the Gomen Wot, a collard green cooked with onions, garlic, and ginger. This was my favorite out of the vegetarian sides, and tasted like rich buttered spinach.

The fourth dish we are pretty sure was the Gored-Gored. It tasted like diced barbequed steak, with a hint of chili powder. It had a lot of flavor, but not spicy. I enjoyed this dish, but less so on the injera. The sour taste from the injera detracted from the dish a bit for me. Despite that, it was still my third favorite dish of the night.

The fifth dish, and by far my second favorite was the Lega Tibis. It was really well cooked steak, green pepper, onion, garlic, and ginger. All of these flavors blended seamlessly with the injera, and reminded me a bit of a steak sandwich. I really must emphasize how tasty the steak was.

The final dish, and my personal favorite, was the Lega Tibis. This dish was finely cut beef seasoned in niter kibbeh, and mitmita. It reminded me a bit of pulled chicken, cooked with chilli powder and curry, but oh so much better. It was very spicy, but not hot sort of way. The sour in the injera really complimented the spices in this dish. The sponginess of the injera also added to the texture of the more chewy steak. I even used the salad, and other sweeter sides to cleanse my pallet just to experience this dish fresh each time.  Next time I go to Assimba, I will definitely be ordering a full meal of this.

Kayleigh here. The simple presentation of this platter was a genius way of forming a balanced meal, with all the delicious spiced juices soaking the injera below. No need to lick the plate clean, and believe me- you will want to get every last bit. My personal favorites were the garlicky Gomen Wot and the Lega Tibis, which had almost a cinnamon-esque taste to me. It was complimented well by the house tea I ordered, which had such a delightfully spicy aroma that I almost preferred sniffing it to drinking it!

Overall, Assimba made for a fantastically unique experience for us, having never tried anything quite like what we were served before. This review cannot do it enough justice, since we had a hard time coming up with words for spice blends and flavor combinations we had never tasted before in other cuisines. Unfortunately, they do not have a website to peruse, but if you are on the search for an adventure one evening, then give this place a try!

HighScore Burgers Review

EDIT- Since this review, HighScore Burgers has closed its doors. It sounds like a new joint will open up in its place, but we'll have to wait and see if they also offer a gluten free menu.

Jason here. The other week Kayleigh and I went out with some friends to HighScore Burgers, a local burger place in Redmond.  

We had heard about this place as a cool little shop where you can go, have a burger and some ice cream, and then drop a few quarters to place arcade machines and pinball. I was expecting a lot more neon lights and the sounds of arcade games. Instead, it was a much more relaxed atmosphere and reminded me of a boardwalk shop, where you could sit outside and enjoy your meal and cool breeze. We did go during the middle of the day, so there were only a few other people sitting outside and relaxing.

                               

I had a lot of fun playing arcade games from my child hood like Ninja Turtles and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. They also had a bunch of pinball machines including a Roller Coaster Tycoon one, and then a handful classic games like Ms. Pacman, Galaga, and Centipede.  I did not get a chance to play some of the classic game tables, so pardon if I am mistaken on the names.

Before we went, we saw there were some reviews online which mentioned they had gluten free buns. That is always a very good sign, as gluten free buns often mean more variety in side options, too. Unfortunately, when I asked I was told that effectively only the burgers were gluten free and they were out of gluten free buns. So for my meal I ordered two bacon cheese burgers on lettuce. The burgers themselves were good, but the lack of any side made the meal lack in variety.

Kayleigh here. HighScore Burgers does get a few points in my book for Vegetarian/Vegan options on top of the Gluten Free buns. Their black bean burger was quite tasty with their house sauce, and actually went well with the lettuce leaves (again, they were out of GF buns when we went). They had a surprisingly large selection of vegan ice cream as well, but unfortunately they did note that the ice cream is not guaranteed to be gluten free, due to equipment cross-contamination.

If I am walking through the area again, and all I want is a quick snack I would stop here again grab a burger and play a few games. If I was going out looking for a meal, I would unfortunately look elsewhere.