Rhubarb Juice Marinade

     Rhubarb is not sweet until we mix it with sugar, so there is no reason to only use it in desserts. Rhubarb juice, which has an interesting flavor and an acid content similar to that of vinegar, has all the tartness and "fruitiness" you need in a good marinade. I think it is particularly good for marinating lamb or pork. Unlike distilled white vinegar, it is not a corn product. Unlike vinegar generally, it doesn't contain traces of yeast left over from fermentation.

     To get rhubarb stalks to go through a juicer, you need to first pull off the tough, fibrous peels.

Lamb chops marinating in rhubarb juice marinade

     1 c. rhubarb juice
     leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary, minced
     3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
     1/4 c. olive oil (See Oil in the Glossary)
     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)
     1/2 tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)

     Mix all ingredients together.
     

Celery Juice Marinade

Celery juice marinade working on grass-fed flank steak,
a good example of meat that benefits from marination.

     Celery, besides contributing flavor, contains enzymes which can tenderize meat.  This makes it a useful marinade ingredient for most people allergic to soy sauce, vinegar, wine, and other common marinade ingredients. (I say most because there is such a thing as an allergy to celery.)

     2 stalks of celery
     2 cloves of garlic
     2 Tb. oil (See Oil in the Glossary)
     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)
     1 tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)
     1/4 tsp. celery seed

     Juice the celery and garlic in a juicer. Stir the oil, salt and spices into the juice. I recommend marinating at least overnight.

Spicy Marinade Without the Usual Allergens

     This very simple marinade is intense, tasty, and just a bit hot. 

Marinated, pan-seared sirloin.  Also try this marinade
on lamb or game meat 

     2 heads of garlic
     1/2 onion
     3 Tb. olive oil (See Oil in the Glossary)
     2 tsp. cayenne pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)
     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)

Ready for the juicer.

     Crack open the heads of garlic and remove the hard stem bits (your juicer won't like them). There is no need to peel the individual garlic cloves. Put the garlic cloves through a juicer, followed by the half onion.  Stir in the remaining ingredients. The raw marinade will have an odd, slimy consistency. Don't worry about this effect: it will go away as soon as the meat starts to cook.  Marinate overnight.

Lemon/Garlic Marinade for Chicken

     This is a classic Mediterranean marinade that does not contain corn or any of the major allergens.

     1/2 c.  freshly squeezed lemon juice (See Juice in the Glossary)

     1/4 c. olive oil

     6 cloves garlic, crushed

     1/2 Tb. savory (See Spices in the Glossary)

     1/2 tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)

     1/2 Tb. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)

     Stir all ingredients together.  Makes enough to marinate 3-4 lb. of chicken pieces.

Coconut Aminos/Black Pepper Marinade

     With only two ingredients, coconut sap and sea salt, Coconut Secret coconut aminos is the kind of commercial food product that allergy sufferers would like to find more often. Note that coconut aminos is fermented, so it presumably contains some traces of yeast.   

     Coconut aminos tastes nothing like a coconut: instead it brings a certain intense, savory flavor to a dish. The label refers to it as "soy-free seasoning sauce," and indeed it is an excellent substitute for soy sauce. I find it is also an excellent corn-free substitute for steak sauce in recipes. Below is the recipe that has now replaced my old marinade that relied on steak sauce.

     1/2 c. coconut aminos

     1/4 c. oil (See Oil in the Glossary)

     1 tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)

     salt to taste (The coconut aminos is already salted. See Salt in 

          the Glossary)

     Stir all ingredients together. Makes enough for several steaks.

Hypoallergenic Onion Juice Marinade

     Grocery stores have plenty of handy bottles of ready-to-use marinades and steak sauces.  Unfortunately, these are useless to some of us. I no longer waste time reading ingredient labels  to determine that "yep, every single one contains  soy sauce (soy, yeast), corn syrup (corn), white vinegar (corn, yeast) and/or other problematic ingredients."  Fortunately, there are a number of other ways to tenderize and season a piece of meat.  The following recipe is one of them.  

     Onion juice is an excellent tenderizer. One traditional way to get onion juice for a marinade is to mince an onion, add salt to it and wait for the salt to pull the juice out of the onion. Another is to give a good squeeze to a grated onion. These methods work, but it’s quicker  just to push an onion through a juicer.  Do rinse your juicer thoroughly before proceeding to make, say, orange juice.

     Meat marinated in this way does not taste as oniony as you might think; it just comes out tender and delicious. This marinade works brilliantly for steaks, beef kabobs and lamb chops.

     juice of one onion (1/2 cup or so)

     ¼ c. olive oil (See Oil in the Glossary)

     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)

     ½ tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)

     Stir all ingredients together.  Makes enough for several steaks.

Allergen-Free Radish Juice Marinade

     The combination of paprika, mint and garlic in a marinade is a Middle Eastern classic, one  I think works particularly well on chicken and lamb.  Usually the base is yogurt, but radish juice brings a lot of flavor, a hint of spiciness and no common allergens to the dish. Obviously radish juice  will tenderize just as well combined with more conventional Western poultry herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary, etc.)

     Radish juice is only mildly acidic, so give the marinade plenty of time to work.

     ½ c. radish juice (Just put a chunk of daikon or a handful of little red 

          radishes through a juicer.)

     ¼ c. olive oil (See Oil in the Glossary)

     2-3 cloves garlic, crushed

     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)

     ½ tsp. black pepper (See Spices in the Glossary)

     1/2 Tb. paprika (See Spices in the Glossary)

     1 tsp. dried mint (See Spices in the Glossary)

     Mix all the ingredients together.  Makes enough to marinade 3-4 lb. of chicken pieces.

     Variation: To spice things up, replace some or all of the paprika with red pepper.