Would anyone be up for a coeliac chat thread?

[Squirrel125]

Umm...that's it, really! I was thinking a thread for people with coeliac or a coeliac sufferer in the household where we could share recipe ideas and any other questions might be helpful. I did briefly follow something like this on FB but found it a bit intense, as FB groups tend to be!

My DD (12) has coeliac, diagnosed last year. Still getting to grips with some food alternatives but we have quickly found specific favourites (all in different supermarkets, of course!)

So my first question is...any ideas to make GF couscous a bit more flavoursome?!?

Hi, I’ve been diagnosed 3 years, I try to cook naturally gf foods so we can all eat the same - so like people have said meat / fish and veg etc. fajitas and Nando’s style meals are good fakeaway options and popular in my house.

for bread - Morrisons white rolls, m&s wholemeal (only 6 slices) or warbartons tiger or sourdough - old El Paso do small street food wraps that are naturally gf and are the best wraps I’ve found.

Morrisons pizza counter have gf bases so you can get a fresh pizza - they are good and cost the same 😊

for couscous I add roasted veg and passata

I miss egg noodles - has anyone found a reasonable alternative? I can’t stand rice noodles

love this thread 😍

Yeah, same….we tried them all. 😁. They’re all long life breads here so none of them great. Ok for toast maybe.

@Sleepychicken clearspring buckwheat noodles? They’re gf. Dd likes the rice noodles thankfully as they’re cheaper.

@LoveSandbanks where do you get gluten free teriyaki sauce, please?

I’m coeliac, diagnosed nearly 20 years ago. Things have drastically improved since then!

Can I join. We're a completely GF house as both DC are diagnosed coeliac and DH reacts terribly as well. We've been GF for over 10 years now, so are well used to it.
Bread was the biggest loss, we now get GF sourdough, either from Gail's or from the Good Grain Company. They need to be toasted but even non GF visitors like them, just wish they weren't so costly.
For wraps I get the old El Paso GF ones, they are great for packed lunches. I also get corn tortillas from the Cool Chile Company - they are authentic Mexican corn tortillas and naturally GF, great for fajitas or a Mexican style brunch.

Please may I join, I have been gluten free since 2013, my acupuncturist who I was seeing for peri menopause stuff suggested it might help my stiffness and joint pain. I have never been tested but if I have inadvertently have gluten it causes severe joint pain to the point I struggle to climb the stairs. I have since been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and after discussing with my GP they agreed that I should just stay GF as eating gluten to get tested would probably make me very unwell.

@Sleepychicken I find that gluten free spaghetti works quite well as a substitute for noodles, the Dove Farm one is just brown rice and water.

Oh no - I had high hopes but will fill in the form.and see what happens!

To the most recent posters - of course, all welcome! And hello 👋

We use Lee Kum Kee - they have lots of gf stir fry sauces (not black bean, we've never managed to find a replacement for that). You can get them in big supermarkets- usually in the specialist world food section rather than with all the general stir fry stuff.

I don't use the prescription food anymore. 10 years ago I used to be able to get a much wider range of food, but then they limited it to long life breads. One advantage of the prescription food is if you are flying abroad, it classifies as medication (as long as it has the prescription sticker on it) which means you can take it in addition to your luggage allowance when travelling. When the DC were younger I would take a couple of bags on holiday. I haven't done this for years and have never struggled getting food abroad, but it was useful at the time.

Thank you!! 😁

Megachef make GF soy, fish and oyster sauce.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Megachef-Gluten-Free-Soy-Sauce-500/dp/B00OM2EN9G

The average Brit gets about a quarter of their protein intake from wheat.
Rice and maize substitutes tend to be low protein. GF bread typically only has a third of the protein.

You need to think outside of the box and find alternatives.
Aldi has a range of GF pasta and often has GF noodles (edamame), at a sensible price.
https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-the-foodie-market-gluten-free-green-pea-penne-250g/4088600206479

I did not know that wheat was such a source of protein! I really like the green pea pasta. It’s quite widely available now.

Teriyaki sauce I initially got from Amazon but I’ve also seen it in Sainsbury’s

Britain was built on the back of bread. Wheat is a superfood, it is high protein, cheap and stuffed with B vitamins. Unless you can't do gluten.

Alternative flours and grains are expensive in supermarkets. There are places you can get them from the manufacturers.

Shipton mill: I've done a tour, you do the GF mill first and then the regular one to prevent contamination.
https://www.shipton-mill.com/collections/gluten-free-flour

Hodmedods also do a range of products and have recipes on their site.
https://hodmedods.co.uk/products/gluten-free-bundle?_pos=2&_sid=b74b2aac5&_ss=r

Top tip - if you are travelling to Spain, the supermarkets often don't have a gf section but you will find gf products with their non gf counterparts. Also for travel we got some laminated cards in French and Spanish explaining that my daughter was coeliac, and what that means. Helps if your languages aren't great (like mine!)

I've always dismissed Aldi and Lidl because of their lack of a GF section - maybe I need to look a bit harder in their foodie type sections. Such a faff reading all the labels on the off chance. I have the coeliac UK app but I find it useless inside supermarkets as they always seem to have v poor mobile signal!

Lidl used to do absolutely amazing GF cookies but we haven't seen them in ages. Aldi do very nice GF chipolatas. Tesco have GF sausages in their own range (not the free from section) that are half the price, look for a blue bag. Not the highest quality sausage but are at least GF and inexpensive!

Lidl in my country has a GF section (plus of course random items on the normal shelves that are GF but you only know it by reading the ingredients) and used to do the best bread, these rolls you heat up in the oven or air fryer for 10 minutes and were so good but I haven't seen them in a few months :(

Aldi even do GF chicken nuggets.
https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-ashfields-tempura-chicken-nuggets-270g/4088600518022

@NerdWhoEatsMedlar that's very welcome news about nuggets!

Morrison's The Best sausages are all GF and generally two packs for a fiver.

@Squirrel125 I use half a gf stock cube, salt and pepper to make the cous cous, if I make it. I tend to use quinoa instead though.

Mindful Chef is all gf and df, might be worth getting a few boxes to get some meal ideas?

I make a lot of things at home. Naan bread/pizza bases/onion bahjis/potato scones/tortilla wraps/yorkshire puds etc

I think Sainsbury's Promise bread is quite good as are the M&S range. I only use them for stuff on toast though as toasted it's fine.

I don't like any GF bread for sandwiches- so use a lot of Nairn cheese oatcakes.

Can I recommend Tescos finest onion Bhajis - really good and GF

Also M&S GF fish fingers are great- better than normal ones!!

One thing to be careful of is GF eating can send your folic acid really low as a lot of normal food particularly bread is enhanced with it. Mine dropped to 6.9 and it was the first thing GP asked me- so I now take a very high dose methylfolate twice a week.

I am not coeliac (tested) but strangely I get massive back of head migraines and chronic arthritic neck pain within 2 hours of eating anything with gluten in it- I'm ok with oats. came on post covid out the blue (I'm 62) - give it 2 days to clear my system and it goes right down - utterly odd