Tubular shaped rice cakes with fresh vegetables.

I've been gluten free for a few months now. In the beginning it was just part of my detox, dry January phase but now it's become a habit. I've naturally reverted back to eating Asian food, so these days it's been rice over pasta—although I did buy a pack of gluten free pasta from Barilla the other day and I was pleasantly surprised by it!

Being gluten free has taught me to distinguish between which ingredients contain gluten or not. Avoiding gluten has been relatively simple for me as most of the gluten free grains and other starch containing foods make regular appearances in my diet anyhow with the likes of rice, quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat.

I'm discovering more of my favorite foods that are gluten free with a wee bit of adjustments made to them such as in this Korean spicy rice cake dish, dukbokki.

At times I am stumped by a product that has gluten in it like the gochuchang sauce I had on hand. The sauce is pretty much the star of this dish otherwise I would have turned it into a Chinese stir fry dish with some other replacement sauce. Disappointed with a raging craving, it was determined that I had to make my own gochujang sauce. With luck on my side and some research it turned out to be pretty easy for me to whip up a homemade version of the sauce and I was able to enjoy this dish without gluten.

A lot of the ready-made Asian sauces contain gluten or MSG so I've been on the hunt down for MSG free and/or gluten free sauces in Paris—organic would be nice too. Anything I have found comes from the U.S. and costs a pretty penny for delivery. So if anyone has any leads in Paris, please do let me know...

Spicy Rice Cakes, Korean Style Dukbokki

INGREDIENTS//Serves 3-4

• 400 ml or 1.5 cups dashi, katsuobushi dashi, or water
• 500 grams rice cake
• 1 carrot, matchsticks
• 1 zucchini, matchsticks
• 150 grams cabbage, chopped
• 100 grams Shimeji mushrooms

Sauce:

2 tablespoons gochujang (fermented red pepper paste)
1.5 tablespoons brown sugar
1.5 tablespoon tamari sauce or soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large pan, bring your dashi broth to boiling point.

Lower the heat to medium, add the sauce and stir until it all disolves into the broth.

While the broth is boiling, add the rice cakes and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

Continue to stir from time to time so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Then add all the vegetables: carrots, zucchini, cabbage, mushrooms.

Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for an extra 5 minutes or until it has softened. Remember to keep stirring the rice cakes from time to time. The vegetables should be cooked through but still retain a bit of crunch.

Garnish with some scallion and serve while hot.

NOTE

I used the tubular shaped rice cakes from the refrigerated section of the Asian supermarket which took about 10-12 minutes cooking time.

Cooking time depends on the type of rice cakes you use. They can be purchased fresh, refrigerated, or frozen and they come in tubular shapes and sliced disc shapes.