I meet up with Cheryl Harris nearly every Monday for the Gluten-Free Menu Swap. For over two years I’ve joined a small band of intrepid menu planners who sign up with Cheryl to host our swap and come up with a week’s worth of gluten-free dinner. This month’s Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger was an opportunity to make some of the recipes I keep saying I’m going to try at Gluten Free Goodness and the Kale Pesto was at the top of the list. I’ve included it on several menu plans, but kale disappears in this house before I can put it into pesto. Since we found out about kale chips, kale goes even faster. Cheryl tops fish or quinoa with her pesto, but after I tasted this creamy green, garlicky good pesto, I put away the quinoa and whipped up a batch of socca crusts. ‘Whipped up’ really is the right description of whisking garbanzo flour with water and a splash of olive oil and baking it in a cast iron skillet in a hot oven. I learned this from Amy Green’s new cookbook and weekly pizza nights have not been the same.
We tried the Kale Pesto topped with artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes with feta, and topped with mozzarella and diced organic canned tomatoes. It all works with this gorgeous green pesto. I have to say it is now my absolute favorite gluten-free pizza. Combining the garbanzo or chickpea flavor of the crust with this genius pesto is the perfect flavor and texture combo.
I have included Cheryl’s Quinoa Italiano that features basil and cherry tomatoes in a couple of summer menu plans. The pine nuts and olive oil in the recipe made me think I could just stir in a few of my pesto cubes to get the taste of August in this snowy spring.
I did top it with a little feta and now I regret the three times I put it on the menu and just made my standard southwestern flavored quinoa version instead. Her Tilapia in Parchment is a quick, “lazy” recipe full of flavors even without the lemon grass. As a registered dietitian, Cheryl includes nutritional information with many of her recipes and she was by my side this summer when I needed help refining my diet as a midlife celiac. She is also quite a gluten-free baker and she listed her favorite baked goodie recipes just last week.
Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger, the creation of Sea at Book of Yum is one of my favorite gluten-free community activities. I always learn something new about my fellow bloggers and find great new recipes. Sea will be rounding up all the adoption posts soon.
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What a great adoption! I am not really familiar with Cheryl and her blog…I’ve recently heard her name a lot as an excellent source of gluten free nutrition help, but after seeing these recipes, I realize I have so many more wonderful things to learn about her! Off to check her blog out!
Cheryl is such a sweetheart and full of gluten-free diet information. She has been a great resource and a friend to me on my journey.
Wendy, you do the most lovely, comprehensive cookbook reviews and adoptions. I am always impressed at how many recipes you make for these posts! Look at all the gluten-free goodness in this post—yes, pun intended.
Kale pesto pizza, parchment tilapia, and both Italian and southwestern quinoa … I’m game for all! And yes, Cheryl is a great baker, too. I still remember what a beautiful job she did with her rendition of my blueberry pie. 
Great post and I hope more people will find Cheryl because of it; she’s a gem!
Shirley
Yes, that Cheryl is a gem. Thanks for the kind words, Shirley. I love doing adoptions and cookbook reviews. I also like being able to tell my blog readers that I really put a book or a blog’s recipes to the test when I recommend them.
Wendy,
thanks so much for your sweet review! I’m glad you enjoyed those and putting the pesto on socca is pure genius! I had to head out and buy a large back of kale after seeing it on twitter, b/c I was so envious of how yours looked. Made the kale, now I need to make the socca w/chickpeas and see how that goes.
It has been my delight to get to know you and share munchies virtually.
You are definitely my new bestest blogging buddy. I made that quinoa for lunch already this week and didn’t share it with anyone. And you saw there’s more kale pesto on my menu.
I’m always looking for ideas for different pizza toppings and this looks FABULOUS! I’ll be trying this combo for sure!
It was sooo delicious, yet so healthy.
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