It’s hard to say what my hands-down favorite meal in Ireland was (The hearty vegetable soup! The ridiculously fresh salmon! The melt-in-your-mouth lamb! The hot whiskey – a meal in itself when nursing a cold. Shhh…) But the thing we always looked forward to at the start of each meal – breakfast, lunch and dinner – was the bread. Brown bread, soda bread, nutty, seedy, crunchy bread – each kind was a little different, and each loaf seemed better than the last. It became impossible to rate them.

When we returned, I made it my mission to create a classic soda bread to honor the Emerald Isle here at home. I realized this afternoon that if I was going to have soda bread ready for St. Paddy’s, it was now or never. I also realized I was missing a couple of key ingredients – all-purpose flour and raisins. But I did have brown rice flour and dates. So I got creative and crossed my fingers. And with that, I whipped up Sorta Soda Bread. Cheers!

Sorta Soda Bread
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups brown rice flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. Himalayan sea salt
• 2 tsp. coconut sugar
• 1 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/3 cup chopped dates

Directions:
1. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in large bowl; set aside.
2. Whisk almond milk and lemon juice. Add chopped dates, then let sit 1 hour
3. Stir almond milk mix into flour mix and knead to form a solid ball. Line baking sheet with parchment and spray or grease with coconut oil.
4. Place loaf on baking sheet, dust with flour and bake at 425* for 25 minutes.