Gluten free advice

[Edashwood]

My DH has just been diagnosed with coeliac disease. So far it’s going ok as I have found most of our usual recipes pretty easy to adapt.

I’m hoping for some advise from some fellow coeliacs on the best brands of pasta, bread, flour etc to buy as I’ve been overwhelmed with the choice available and some of the things we have tried so far have not been great!! We are in Scotland so can get some stuff on prescription. And what are your favourite treat foods?

Also any advice on baking cakes/bread/biscuits etc would be greatly appreciated!! Basically any of your top tips!!!

The new how to make everything gluten free recipe book is amazing.
Bread - every likes a different brand my favourite is the Warburtons Tiger loaf. You have to try them to see which you prefer.

I think I've tried pretty much everything as a long time gluten free.... pretty much all supermarket own brand pasta is good and the rest of my family don't taste the difference now. Be more careful with spaghetti and lasagne sheets - they are more sticky than non gluten free variety, the spaghetti sticks together if you don't constantly agitate it and lasagne takes longer to cook.

In terms of bread it's personal preference - I find toasting gluten free bread nicer and just have stuff on toast rather than sandwiches. Pittas are very nice (you can get genius or Bfree brand). I'd steer clear of wraps and seeded bread as I find them all cardboard like. The best pizza bases by a long way are Bfree - closest to the real thing, they tend to only sell them in Sainsbury's. Also the Morrison's pizza bar does gluten free bases too.

I tend to find most biscuits very crumbly and expensive, lots of homemade flapjack here. You can get gluten free oats which aren't rolled in anything and then follow a normal recipe.

Other than that lots of rice, potato, veg, salad and protein meals work for us!

Thank you! Tiger bread-yummy!! That book sounds great. I’m sure you are right, it will be a case of trial and error but it’s good to have some recommendations to start!!

Thank you lamby12. That’s all very useful and much appreciated!!

I love the WarBurton’s tiger loaf, it’s lovely. The best pasta make I’ve found is Barrillo, tastes much nicer than most pasta and it’s okay reheated (most aren’t!). It’s often a case of shopping around. I do most of my food shopping at Tesco, they have a good range. Their cakes are nice too (note co-op’s GF chocolate cake is very dry). I will go to Sainsbury’s for certain things I can’t get elsewhere, like their breadsticks!

Thanks for your advice. Great to know Barrillo is good as I’ve just ordered that in my shopping!! I mostly shop in tesco too but we do have a local Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose as well. Morrison’s is a bit of a trek!

No problem, I'm enjoying seeing some other suggestions on this thread!

If you have an M&S their whole meal loaf is probably the only gluten free bread I eat without toasting on the rare occasion I get there, so I'd say it's the best!

The recipe book mentioned above is great. We joined coeliac uk, the charity & still use the barcode scanner sometimes as that was a real time saver for us with crisps/chocolate etc.

My 2 children are both coeliac & prefer schar bread to supermarket own brand. We try to keep costs low with meat & veg meals. We all eat the pasta, seems pretty much all the same to us although we once bought some gf stuff out the pound shop and it was terrible.
We love baking & xanthan gum is a must as the glue in recipes.

We have a pretty much gluten free house as the cross contamination was a nightmare in the early days. We are very, very careful if we do eat gluten at home. Good luck!

Oh and just read you're in Scotland. You have to go to Sugardaddies bakery in Edinburgh. And The Wheatfree Bakery delivers all over Scotland. It's expensive but fab for treats!

The Juvela website has lots of good recipes - all very easy too. Their banana bread is lovely.

Oooo I’m off to google sugardaddies and wheat free bakery. Expensive is fine when it’s a treat! And he has a big birthday coming up!!!

I've been coeliac a long time, and the biggest thing I can say to new coeliacs is that when we say a particular bread is really good then what we mean is that it is edible and with any luck, doesn't fall apart. The Warburtons GF tiger loaf is only like a normal tiger loaf in that it has stripes on it tbh. Its my favourite GF bread, but you'd moan about it a lot if you bought it as real bread.
Barillo is my favourite gf pasta too.
There are loads of treats available, and I find online shopping at Ocado really easy as you can filter by GF and all the ingredients are listed clearly, but normally I shop at different places to pick up all the different things they do. The CoOp are good for gf breaded fish in the normal section for instance

We make cakes with Dove flour and you wouldn't know it's gf. You can just use it in any recipe. I'd recommend getting a waffle maker. I make them with 2 eggs, 25g of coconut flour and a bit of milk, little bit of oil, cinnamon. They come out really nice. Buckwheat flour makes nice pancakes. I like the Promise seedy bread from Sainsburys. Tesco macaroni pasta is good. We all eat macaroni cheese from it. Make a cheese sauce using cornflour. Pizza Express do a gf pizza. It's not too bad.

Dh is gf and the only bread he'll eat is the Warburton's gf tiger bread and the Schar frozen rolls. As pp said, it's generally better toasted. For gf cake recipes try Becky Excell gluten free website, all of her recipes have worked well for me and Xanthan gum is an actual miracle ingredient for sponge. The supermarket extra special range gf cookies are nice, particularly Sainsbury's dark chocolate and ginger and dh likes Mrs Crimbles coconut macaroons too

Bread is quite a personal thing - I find Genius to be the best. It took me a long time to accept bread though as it just doesn't take like normal bread at all (try toasting it initially as this helps).

Pasta I find doesn't vary much so I'll use most brands, I do find spaghetti always sticks together though. Sainsburys do a nice gluten free quiche and some nice pies too - I find pastry is hard to make from scratch.

As for cakes/biscuits there are some good supermarket ones but mainly I make my own. There is hardly anything I can't replicate the gluten version of and lots of family don't notice the difference. I use Dove's farm flour but a lot depends on which recipes you use. For brownies its worth using ground almonds to get a nicer texture.

This website is my go-to as its brilliant, and the recipes are fab - not had a failure yet!

fromthelarder.co.uk/

Thanks for the honesty about the bread!!

This is all great advice-thank you!!

You can ask for samples from lots of companies when you first get diagnosed (there might be a list on coeliac U.K.).
We buy Sainsbury’s and M&S pasta. We found Tesco’s to be disgusting.

It takes a while but you get used to it. I’d establish good habits in the kitchen. We have a separate area for keeping GF foods and preparing sandwiches. As well as a separate toaster, butter. My 12 year old is good at reading labels now and you learn who are the good brands to use (seabrookes, knorr, M&S).

I actually find the hardest thing is other people’s ignorance. They don’t understand about cross contamination or think if they don’t eat something it’s fine (because they choose not to eat gluten).

Nigella has some great gluten free recipes for cakes. www.nigella.com/recipes/lemon-polenta-cake this is my favourite go to recipe.
www.nigella.com/recipes/clementine-cake is also delicious 😋

Kirsties gluten and dairy free pizza from tesco is lovely. I'm 20 years gf and do so tried alot! Dove's farm flour and pasta best in my opinion and genius for bread (have it toasted wherever poss. ) lovely sweet potato wraps in free from section of most supermarkets. Love byron for gluten free buns with their burgers and the pizza express free from pizza is lovely too. Look up self saucing chocolate pudding for home baking and substitute with gf flour and baking powder. Cos of the lovely sauce it obviously isn't dry

I’d not bother getting the prescription bread, it’s horrid. I buy some from a local bakery and have it as a treat. Or Genius seeded bread.

I don’t like 90% of gluten free cakes and biscuits that I’ve never bought.

I use Doves farm flour to bake occasionally.

GF pasta is ok as long as you use lots of water to cook it and stir very frequently as it tends to stick. You need a sauce to disguise the taste which is slightly weird.

Mostly I just eat foods that are naturally gluten free it’s much healthier and cheaper.

If you like A lot of carbs then just stick to rice and potatoes.

I’m a bit concerned that your husband doesn't seem to be taking any interest in his own health and diet. He needs to start learning about food, cooking for himself and working out what he likes, it’s not up to you to do everything for him.

that I’ve EVER bought

That’s a bit rude!! He does cook (but I do more because I enjoy it and work shorter hours), he has signed up the coeliac uk to get more info, sorted the appointment with the dietitians and the pharmacy gf service because he is a competent adult!! But I’m the one with the mumsnet account so I said asked the question in here!!

I’m sorry you think it’s rude to suggest that an adult with a new diagnosis educates himself. You are not going to be with him 24/ 7 checking everything that goes in his mouth - he needs to learn.

And you didn’t mention anything that he had done in your first post - just that HE had the diagnosis and YOU were doing all the cooking, adapting recipes, being overwhelmed, seeking advice.

You asked for my top tips and I’ve given you mine, there’s no need to be rude if you don’t agree with them.

Well perhaps my posts should have said ‘we’ instead of I. He has only been diagnosed for a few weeks and is a ICU dr so has been a little busy and burnt out recently so yes I have done most of the shopping and cooking recently. But I think you put 2 and 2 together and got 5. And it is a little rude to assume that he is not taking responsible for his own health just because I asked a question on his behalf. I’m not sure where in my posts you got the impression that I was planning on monitoring his food intake 24/7.