“I’m on a mission to create great food and help you heal through the power of delicious food. As far as I’m concerned, food is a vessel for enjoyment, healing and love. It is a tool that facilitates mind-body synergy. And it should always be absolutely delicious.” This is the philosophy of Vee Culinary’s Chef Vedam Clementi (Steve Clements) of Atlanta and the North Georgia Mountains.
Chef Vedam recently won $10,000 on a TV show featuring chefs, The Rat in the Kitchen, to put an exclamation point to his skills.
He offers gluten-free services as a personal chef, catering, personal or group cooking classes, and wrote a cookbook with his recipes. It’s available along with special products on his website, veeculinary.com.
Chef Vedam grew up in Gloucester where he was raised on a farm. “From an early age I learned to appreciate farm-to-table food, before there was a name for it and the value of bringing family together at the table.”
He graduated from Gloucester High School in 1982 where he obtained his cosmetology license. Following graduation he pursued his career in Richmond. In 1998 Vedam was paralyzed for the second time due to spinal meningitis when he was 19 years old. “Did my recovery back home.” It was during this period when Steve had “an insatiable desire to understand healing and the power of the mind…. Spirituality became a new forefront in my life.”
He later took months off and traveled to India, “to deepen my understanding of meditation and spirituality, and learn that spirituality, health and food are all connected. It was there I received the name Swami Veet Vedam.”
Now Vedam, he said, “I returned to the States a changed man and walked away from my 32-year-long career as a hairstylist and educator. For a time I became an ordained minister and the coach for a non-profit spiritual meditation and learning center I had started. But I was still having debilitating GI issues.”
Vedam followed the advice of a doctor to change his eating habits and go gluten-free, and his health problem ceased.
“Gluten-free food gave me my body back.” It proved so successful that he began to do a lot of research. He became associated with the United Personal Chefs Association and did a great deal of trial and error gluten-free cooking. All of his training, learning and love of cooking led Vedam to becoming the successful gluten-free chef that he is today.
For many people, Vedam explains, “Food is a constant source of stress and guilt. And that’s exactly the opposite of what it should be. As your personal gluten-free chef, I create culinary experiences as an act of love and the dinner hour as a sacred celebration.”
MEXICAN SWEET POTATO SPINACH SALAD
“This gluten-free vegetarian salad (and soup!) recipe is hearty, flavorful and loaded with nutritious veggies.”
Avocado Dressing
1 large avocado
½ c. Greek yogurt
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 shallot
1 tsp. dried chives
1 tsp. dried parsley
¼ tsp. dried cilantro, optional
Mix all ingredients together in a blender into a creamy smooth dressing.
Salad
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into ½” pieces
2 Tbs. olive oil or avocado oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 bell pepper
1 11-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 11-oz. can corn, rinsed and drained
1 tsp. minced garlic
¼ tsp. each: salt, pepper, chili powder, dried cilantro
½ tsp. each: Vedam’s Seasoning Blend (or one of choice), cumin, coriander, oregano
1 c. cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
2 fresh avocados
8 oz. bag fresh spinach
Make avocado dressing and place it into the refrigerator until ready for use.
Bring a pot of water with 2 tsp. of salt to boil. While water is beginning to boil, wash and peel sweet potatoes, and cube into ½-inch pieces. Once water is boiling, add sweet potatoes to water and allow them to boil for 6-8 minutes. Remove sweet potatoes from boiling water, and shock with cold water to stop all cooking. While sweet potatoes are boiling, add olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat and sauté the onion and bell pepper. Once sweet potatoes are done, add sweet potatoes to the mixture. Also, add black beans and corn to the mixture. Add garlic, salt, pepper, Vedam’s Seasoning. Blend cumin, coriander, oregano, chili powder, and cilantro to the mixture and continue to simmer on low heat for five minutes. When you are ready to create your salad, place your desired amount of spinach onto your plate, arrange cherry tomatoes and sliced avocado around the plate, top with sweet potato mixture, and finish with a dollop of avocado dressing.
(Bonus Step) Turning this into soup! Using all of your leftovers, and I do mean everything—the sweet potato mixture, the cherry tomatoes, spinach, and even avocado (if there is any left)—add this to a medium stockpot. Use enough vegetable stock or chicken stock to cover the other ingredients and simmer on low heat for at least 10 minutes. Serves 4.
GLUTEN-FREE FISH TACO WRAPS
Just because you are gluten-free does not mean you have to miss out on fried gluten-free fish tacos!
Gluten-free fish fry batter
¾ c. Chef Vedam’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Blend or your flour blend of choice
1 egg, beaten
¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp. Chef Vedam’s Gluten-free All-Purpose Seasoning Blend or one of choice
½ c. of your favorite gluten-free beer (We use Anheuser-Busch’s Red Bridge)
4 cod filets
¼ tsp. each: salt, pepper, cumin, coriander,
Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp. Chef Vedam’s Gluten-free All-Purpose Seasoning Blend
Your favorite salsa
Sour cream
1 14-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 whole tomato, diced
½ onion, diced, optional
Lettuce, preferably Boston Bibb
Shredded Mexican Cheese Blend
Oil for frying (We recommend peanut oil)
Prepare fish fry batter: In a medium-size bowl, sift together Gluten-free Flour Blend and baking powder. Add black pepper, salt, Old Bay Seasoning, and Chef Vedam’s Gluten-free All-Purpose Seasoning Blend. Stir in beaten egg. Slowly add beer to the mixture and stir until the mixture is creamy and lump-free. Set aside. Cut cod filets into strips and spice with salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, Old Bay, and Chef Vedam’s Seasoning Blend. Place seasoned cod filet strips into fish fry batter and set aside. Empty black beans into a strainer and rinse beans. Set aside. Dice tomato, rinse lettuce leaves; set aside. Pour oil into a deep frying pan, Dutch oven, or deep fryer and heat oil to 350°F. Carefully drop seasoned cod filet strips into hot oil and fry until golden brown. You may want to do this in 2-3 rounds to not crowd the fish filets while frying. Usually, this takes about 5-6 minutes for each batch (depending on the size of your fish filets). Remove cod filets from oil and drain on a paper towel. Continue until all filets are fried. Create fish taco wraps. Starting with a dry lettuce leaf, add fried fish filets. Top with diced tomato, sour cream, black beans, diced onion, salsa, and shredded cheese. Serves 4.
GLUTEN-FREE BARBECUE RIBS ISLAND STYLE
Gluten-free barbecue ribs are one of our favorite summertime dishes. Barbecue sauces and spices found in grocery stores aren’t typically gluten-free, so we make our own. Try our tropical twist on ribs for yourself.
½ – 1 lb. of pork ribs per person
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. Chef Vedam’s Gluten-free All-Purpose Seasoning Blend or your choice
1 large sweet onion
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow or orange bell pepper or both if you like
1 mango, peeled, sliced and cubed
1-2 Tbs. coconut or olive oil
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
½ tsp. chili powder
1 inch fresh ginger or more, grated or minced, depending on your taste level (or you could use 1 tsp. ground ginger)
1 heaping tsp. minced garlic
2 Tbs. Coconut Palm Sugar or may substitute brown sugar
1 c. mango nectar
Liberally spice all sides of meat with salt, pepper, Chef Vedam’s Seasoning Blend, and set aside. Slice and dice onion. Remove seeds from peppers. Slice and dice peppers, add to onions and set aside. Slice mango, remove the skin, and dice mango; set aside separately from onions and peppers. Place skillet on stove burner on high heat, and get skillet scalding hot (we recommend a large cast-iron skillet). Add oil to skillet, and reduce heat to medium-high. Pan sear all sides of seasoned pork until there is a nice char on all sides of meat; remove from skillet and set aside. Reduce heat on skillet to medium-low, add more oil if needed, and begin to sauté the onions and peppers with a dash more salt for 5-6 minutes, stirring periodically. Add salt, pepper, Chef Vedam’s Seasoning Blend, cumin, coriander, ginger, minced garlic, coconut palm sugar, diced mango, and mango nectar to skillet, and stir to blend. Add seared pork back to pan, cover, and allow to simmer until pork has reached an internal temperature of 160°F. Remove everything from the heat, remove the ribs from the sauce, and allow to rest 10-15 minutes. When ready to serve, plate, add more sauce. Serves 4.
GLUTEN-FREE SAUSAGE MUSHROOM FRITTATA MUFFINS
This gluten-free recipe can also be made vegetarian; just omit the meat and add your favorite veggies like spinach, broccoli, or just lots of Baby Bella mushrooms, and voila, you have a gluten-free vegetarian frittata muffin.
1 small sweet onion, diced
4-6 Baby Bella mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
16 oz. favorite gluten-free breakfast sausage (I have also used turkey and chicken breakfast sausage, and they work great also)
5 eggs
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. Vedam’s Seasoning Blend or your own choice
1 c. heavy cream
¼ c. Vedam’s Flour Blend or blend of your choice
8 oz. sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 350°F. Using a large skillet, brown sweet onions, Baby Bella mushrooms and breakfast sausage. I like to use a potato masher to crumble ingredients into small pieces. In a large bowl, beat eggs with salt, pepper and Vedam’s Seasoning Blend. Whisk in heavy cream. Sift Gluten-free All-Purpose Flour Blend into egg and cream mixture and stir to insure there are no lumps. If needed, drain sausage mixture before adding to egg mixture; some sausages, especially turkey or chicken sausage, have more water content, and other sausages have more grease content. Add onions, mushrooms and sausage to mixture. Add 6 oz. Cheddar cheese to mixture and stir. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray and equally divide mixture between 12 muffins. Top each muffin with remaining 2 oz. Cheddar cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Once baked, remove and allow muffins to cool slightly for 10-15 minutes before removing muffins from tins. Place muffins onto cooling rack. If you are preparing these for the freezer, allow to cool completely and then wrap in parchment paper, and place paper wrapped muffins into a gallon zipper freezer bag. Place frozen muffins into a preheat 350°F. oven and allow to reheat for approximately 15 minutes or until thoroughly warmed. Serves 6.