Creamy Tuna Noodle Casserole

Have you been missing that creamy, soul satisfying dish of...something, since you stopped eating gluten and/or dairy? I was messing around in the kitchen tonight, and came up with this Creamy Tuna Noodle Casserole that will satisfy every fall craving you have had!

You will need:

1 - 8 oz package of rice noodles - I used Annie Chun's brand of pad thai noodles from King's
2 large cans Tuna packed in water, drained well
6 Cups broth - I used a garlic broth from "The Gluten Free Italian Cookbook" by Mary Capone
1 Tablespoon butter, or dairy free butter substitute
3-4 T olive oil
3 T gluten free flour blend
2 T arrowroot powder
4-5 stalks celery, diced fine
2-3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 onion minced very fine, or 3 Tablespoons dry, minced onion, rehydrated
1-2 C frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste

* Bring a pot of salted water to boil for rice noodles, but don't add noodles just yet.

* In a large skillet or wok, add a bit of olive oil to pan and sautee onion, garlic and celery. When tender, remove to a plate.

* Add butter and 3-4 Tablespoons of olive oil to pan, melt butter. Add pinch salt and pepper, and then with a whisk, briskly stir as you add flour to oil/butter, you want it to be pretty thick, add a bit more flour if necessary.

* Again, with whisk, briskly stir as you slowly put 5 cups broth into the pan. Try and keep the lumps out, if you can. Take the remaining one cup of broth and whisk in 2 T arrowroot powder, then stir into pan. Guess what? You just made a roux!! Yay for you!! Turn the heat to medium and stir often as the broth mixture starts to thicken. Cook for 5-7 minutes.

* Go ahead and drop the rice noodles into the boiling water, stir, cover and turn off heat. Set timer for 10 minutes.

* Put sauteed veggies, drained tuna and peas into the sauce. Taste and add more salt/pepper, if desired.

* Continue to stir, til sauce thickens nicely. Add drained rice noodles, stir well and check salt/pepper again.

* Serve hot and enjoy!


Garlic Soup Stock
Mary Capone, p 41 in her book, listed above

2 quarts cold water
2 heads of garlic, skinned and smashed
1 large, yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh thyme (I used dried)
3 T fresh sage leaves (I used 2 T dried, rubbed sage)
3 T fresh oregano or savory (I used dried oregano)
salt to taste
6 whole peppercorns

combine all in large stock pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, with pot covered for 2 hours. Strain into a container and salt to taste.

Vegetable broth & Chicken Noodle Soup

I can't get enough of this soup!

The broth takes some time to make, but it is not hard. The soup itself is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!!

Broth -

48 cups (or 12 quarts or 3 gallons) of cold water in a 16 quart stock pot
3 white onions, quartered - don't worry about "papery skin" it will all get strained out
2 whole heads of garlic, cut cross ways, so each clove is cut in half - see above note on onion
1 piece of ginger, about a thumbs length, and the same width; cut in half, up the length of the root
5-6 big carrots (not the baby ones)
3-4 stalks celery (I prefer to use the inside of the celery, if available)
2-3 leeks (depending upon the size). take of the top four inches of green
1 Tbsp salt

Place all ingredients in the pot, and turn on the heat - do not allow it to boil, and don't stir it, just let it simmer for 4-6 hours with the lid on, but tilted a bit, so some steam can escape. Apparently (from what I just learned in an Italian Cookbook), if you boil or stir the veggies, it will make the broth cloudy - who knew?!?

Turn off and let cool. Place a large colander in a larger bowl, and pour the broth into the colander. Lift the colander out, and there you have lots of beautiful, home made vegetable broth! I freeze my broth in quart freezer bags (4 Cups per bag) lay them flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, then you have it on hand for...whatever!

(Do I have to mention that if your bowl is not bigger than your stock pot, that it will flow over?? Just checking...)


Soup:

8 cups of veggie broth
2-3 large carrots, sliced into thin rings
2-3 stalks celery, sliced thin, including green tops
2 tsp dry parsley, or handful of fresh, chopped
1 chicken breast, cooked, shredded (or whatever left over meat you want to add); or keep it veggie, if you like
1/2 to 1 tsp salt (depending on how much salt you like to use)
fresh ground black or white pepper (I use a mix)

1/4 to 1/2 package banh pho rice stick noodles - these are the flat rice noodles, such as you would use for pad thai; they are available at most grocery stores in the asian food section

Put everything but noodles in pot with 8 cups of broth; bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer for 20 minutes. Bring back to boil and add noodles; turn off heat, cover pot and let sit for 15 minutes. I use a pair of scissors to cut the noodles once they are cooked, either in the pot, or in the bowl..or you can leave them whole, but they are long ;-))

I pretty much don't measure anything when I cook, so I have gone back and tried to do that for you, but you may need to adjust the seasonings to your taste.

Enjoy!