This healthy baked apple, tomato, and basil tower is the perfect stack and full of flavor! Sprinkled with pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and dressed in a tangy balsamic. Vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free deliciousness. A perfect appetizer or snack!
Once you go gluten-free for life, or dairy-free for life, your life changes.
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You nave to find new ways to navigate a new diet. Your old ways won't work for your new lifestyle. Whether you are allergic to dairy or cannot have it due to a diet lifestyle you'll often feel as though your favorite foods have become a distant memory. And it doesn't have to feel that way!
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How to eat with food sensitivities and allergies
- If you cannot have dairy or any of the dairy components, eliminate them immediately.
- Always remove a particular food while having a replacement in mind. You cannot just remove the food and have less to fill you up or less to eat. The trick is to swap out the dairy for something else.
- Figure out if your body can eat the food your sensitive to, by cooking it. Cooked versions work for some people with food sensitivities.
- Open your mind. Be creative. There are things you are going to cook in your new lifestyle that you never thought to combine, and they are going to taste good.
- Food sensitivities can often be dose dependent. That means one day you'll be able to eat it, while another day you won't. This is more common for people with food sensitivities and elevated histamines in their bodies.
- The body works in mysterious ways. Celebrate your wins. If that means a portion of food you couldn't have has been added back to your diet? That's a win. If you have found something else that you love that can replace the food you cannot have, that is also a win. Celebrate them, because this journey is hard.
Baked apples versus raw apples
When your body is hypersensitive due to allergies, leaky gut, seasonal allergies, MAST cell, food allergies, SIBO, or Candida overgrowth it is easy for your body to have cross-reaction allergies, or react to the wrong things or the same things but in different forms. When I was food sensitive to apples for about a year I couldn't have them at all. I eased back into apples two years later the only way I could which was to consume them when cooked. While my body missed out on nutrients that were heated out, I was able to digest the baked apple without reaction. In fact, I felt quite safe with a baked apple. But slip some raw apple into my salad and I would be on Benadryl for days.
Pros and cons
- Raw apples have more nutrients because they are in their most natural form.
- Raw apples are also harder to digest.
- Baked apples and raw apples have the same amount of fiber so you don't miss out there.
- Baked apples are easier to digest.
- Peeling the skin both raw, and cooked also drastically helps those with allergies and sensitivities.
How could Apple possibly replace cheese?
While Apple doesn't taste like cheese, when apples are baked they have a soft texture that goes well with the soft, and juicy texture of a tomato. The flavors are savory and sweet which I found to tickle my palate.
So, instead of the cheese, I decided to use apple and garnish with pumpkin seeds for protein! It's a combo I never would have thought to combine. The texture of the baked apple tasted lovely with the raw tomatoes. Both were juicy, tender, and so flavorful. It was a combo that could have come out of a restaurant, but it was made in my little NYC kitchen.
Baked Apple Tomato Basil Tower
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
- 1 large dessert apple Fuji, Honey Crisp, Empire, or other
- 1 large tomato Heirloom or Beefsteaks, or other
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 9 large basil leaves, fresh
- 2 teaspoon raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- 2-3 pinch pink salt or sea salt
- 1-2 pinch black pepper
Optional Topping For Apple Slices
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1-2 pinch cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Then grease a baking tray with tin foil and cooking spray or coconut oil.
- Wash apple and slice into ⅜ inch thick rounds. Place on baking tray and set aside until oven is preheated.
- In the meantime wash your tomatoes, and basil. Slice your tomatoes to ¼" or ⅜" thick round slices.
- By now your oven should be preheated. Place apples on the lowest rack and bake for 15 minutes or until tender. If your oven is heats fast check them at 10 minutes. Halfway through the baking open the oven and flip the apples to their other sides so that both sides are evenly baked.
- When apples are ready remove from oven, and sprinkle your cinnamon or nutmeg on top if you choose to add these toppings. Then let cool.
Tower Stack Assembly Instructions
- Drizzle the plate with some of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Garnish the plate with some pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and salt/pepper to taste.
- Then place a fresh basil leaf at the center of the plate.
- Followed by your first slice of tomato.
- Add 2 basil leaves to the tower, and place your second tomato slice on top like a sandwich.
- After the tomato slice add a few more basil leaves.
- Then place your first apple slice on top of the basil.
- Add a basil leaf and top it again with another slice of the baked apple.
- Top with remaining dressing, herbs, seasonings, and toppings.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- The cinnamon and nutmeg are optional. It tastes amazing basic, and amazing with more flare. It's up to you. These two ingredients do not make or break the recipe.
- Dessert apples are the way to go with this dish. Do not use Granny Smith green apples. Choose a redder apple that is sweet such as Fuji, Honey Crisp, Empire, or other.
- As far as tomatoes there are a lot to choose from but you want easily sliced rounds so go with large heirloom tomatoes which come in a variety of colors, or beefsteak tomatoes which are really easy to slice.
- I also use Raw Sprouted Pumpkin Seeds. Raw seeds are dehydrated at a lower temperature keeping the nutrients and vitamins intact and very much alive.
ADDITIONAL TIPS:
- The cinnamon and nutmeg are optional. It tastes amazing basic, and amazing with more flare. It's up to you. These two ingredients do not make or break the recipe.
- Dessert apples are the way to go with this dish. Do not use Granny Smith green apples. Choose a redder apple that is sweet such as Fuji, Honey Crisp, Empire, or other.
- As far as tomatoes there are a lot to choose from but you want easily sliced rounds so go with large heirloom tomatoes which come in a variety of colors, or beefsteak tomatoes which are really easy to slice.
- I also use Raw Sprouted Pumpkin Seeds. Raw seeds are dehydrated at a lower temperature keeping the nutrients and vitamins intact and very much alive.
Love and creativity!
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