Best Gluten-Free Food

[BestestBrownies]

Inspired by the thread about unexpectedly amazing food. I thought it would be fantastic to have tried & tested/recommended Gluten Free foods and recipes as a resource to share.

Being coeliac, I mostly cook from scratch as a necessity but tend to get into a bit of a food rut, so would love to hear about other people’s favourites for inspiration please.

I have recently discovered Warburton’s crumpets, which are leaps and bounds ahead of any other brand in terms of texture, taste and the fact they don’t crumble to dust at the lightest touch.

My go-to bread is the M&S Made Without Wheat brown seeded loaf. It’s the only one I’ve found that has both flavour and texture and works equally well untoasted as it does toasted.

One of my favourite homemade meals at the moment is butternut and sage risotto (GF and vegan). Simple, comforting and sooooo tasty!

One of my worst GF experiences was Tesco’s own brand mince pies. So grim! Sickeningly sweet but not particularly fruity filling and pastry that tasted raw. It was that bad I had to spit it out and even DH (who will inhale anything sweet), wouldn’t touch them.

Agree the M&S brown is so much better than any other bread.
I've noticed a lot of our local restaurants have started offering a wider gluten free choice which is excellent .
I love the M&S Fruit cake too 🍰 and the chocolate cookies are better than regular ones x (I think !)

Oh yes! I’d forgotten all about their GF fruit cake. I had some years ago at a wedding and it was lovely. Thanks for the reminder @tigertreats

I used to love the M&S MWW ginger snap biscuits, but they changed the recipe so they’re less gingery and more powdery than crunchy now. Gutted.

Waitrose Free sliced seeded cob loaf and their brown sandwich thins
Nestle Go Free honey cornflakes
Nairns cheese oatcakes

M&S Coffee and Walnut cake - absolutely delicious.

I prefer Schar seeded bread.
Tesco dark chocolate covered ginger biscuits.
M&S fish fingers - gorgeous.

Nigella's flourless brownies- best brownies ever (I substitute choc chips for the chopped nuts sometimes for children). Nairn gf oatcakes and biscuits are all great. Those tilda rice sachets are really handy if you are doing pasta or something with gluten for everyone else!

Does Lidl in the UK have the gluten free range? Here they do these amazing part-baked rolls that are absolutely delicious and the texture is so close to normal.

Schar wholesome loaf is good.

I like the warburtons tiger bloomer loaf.

Watching with interest. DP has just been diagnosed with coeliac disease so we are currently trying to find replacements for his usual favourites.

Just this morning tried the Warburton's tiger bread loaf. I was really surprised at how good it was.

Dr Oetker does the best GF pizza

I agree about doing most stuff from scratch. I'm slowly accepting I need to low carb anyway so trying to use fewer specific gluten free foods. But there are times one just has to bake!

My favourite mince pie substitute is to make a tart - quicker than making small individual ones. I start with a shortbread mix* and add an egg. Then I press out the base, and cover with mincemeat. Occasionally the rest of the pastry will roll well enough to cover the top, but usually I don't even try. I roll it as well as I can to cut strips, and just layer them criss-cross over the top. Looks good and doesn't take too long.

Shortbread - my mother taught me 6/4/2 - ounces of flour/butter/sugar. Roughly double that to one egg, with extra flour as necessary, is what I generally do for this rich pastry.

The gf pizza bases at the morrisons pizza counters.
Like meat nuggets from tesco/Iceland

Lots of good suggestions to try, thank you! I don’t have a Morrisons or Asda near me, so haven’t tried much of their GF ranges for about 10 years.

@Fivemoreminutes1
I haven’t tried the honey flavour as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but the Nestle Go Free plain cornflakes are great. DH reckons they taste like cornflakes used to when he was a child. They hold up well in chocolate nests for DC at Easter too.

The Nairn’s cheese flavour oatcakes are really cheesy. I personally find them a bit dry though, so tend to only have them with soup. Speaking of which, Lidl’s own Newgate tinned tomato soup is GF and a decent stand-by for busy days.

@Buddywoo
Is the M&S coffee walnut cake very sweet? I find this is a major problem with GF products —I’m looking at you Genius— as they use loads of sugar syrup to stick everything together in the absence of the binding quality of gluten.

Agree on the fish fingers, they crisp up lovely in the oven too. Sainsbury’s own GF fish fingers are brilliant too. Have you tried the Whitby frozen GF scampi? They are amazing with Leon seasoned waffle fries or Lidl’s own frozen French Fries. Both are GF and crisp up nicely.

@Natsku
I haven’t seen a specific GF range in Lidl here, but I wish they would! I do most of my shopping there as am on a budget and a lot of their products are GF anyway. I particularly like the Deluxe Lincolnshire and Cumberland sausages they make and the Gosh brand of falafels. Their hot-smoked salmon fillets make for a delicious quick dinner with stir-fried veg or pesto courgetti.

@Tanaqui
I keep the kitchen GF as cannot afford any cross-contamination, but do occasionally use pouches if I’m visiting somewhere and supplying my own food for safety reasons. Even with the best intentions other people can accidentally get gluten in a meal. Although I will use Lidl brown rice or spiced chickpeas pouches as they’re a fraction of the price of the Tilda ones.

I'm newly GF (true wheat allergy rather than coeliac, but need same diet) and have been trying as many GF things as I can find to identify new staples. I'm especially keen to find easy fridge and freezer bits for when I CBA to cook and no longer have takeaway options nearby.

Big hits have been:
M&S MWW sausage rolls (best sausage rolls I've had in ages, they are seriously good)
Rule of Crumb chicken kievs
Sainsbury's frozen Yorkshire puddings
Whole Creations garlic baguette (from Sainsbury's)
Garofalo and Barilla for spaghetti
Morrison's frozen profiteroles (a bargain at £1.50)

@Pythonesque
I am trying to lose weight so can’t eat too many carbs these days. I have drastically reduced my baking efforts (much to DH’s disappointment), and will have veg (courgetti, cauliflower rice, roasted root veg, potato), more often than GF alternatives to pasta, bread etc. Fortunately I enjoy cooking and baking!

Thanks for sharing your shortcrust pastry recipe. What GF flour do you use? I buy Sainsbury’s own rather than the expensive Doves Farm brand, and I use 50:50 butter:lard as I find the pastry holds together and rolls better (chilled from the fridge).

@Fivemoreminutes1

Dr Oetker does the best GF pizza

Yes! Am slightly addicted to the Mozeralla one

I have used a lot of Asda flour recently (stumbled upon some massively reduced a few months back lol). But, just last week we were discussing the crumbliness problem and should I go back to using the xantham gum my eldest had found in the back of the pantry ... I agree Sainsburys are good. Lidl is decent when I've had it but our local one doesn't stock it and last time I was at my mothers cottage I'm not sure I found it there anymore.

For a long time I made my own flour mixes based on rice but adding variable amounts of tapioca, potato and soy flours. Then there were some major rice crop failures perhaps 12-15 years ago and the price of rice flour skyrocketed for a while. Buying mixes then became cost effective and in the main has stayed so. In Australia we used rice and arrowroot but could buy the latter in 300g boxes not the 50g ones sold here.

Most of my cooking is dairy free plus one child is veggie so stork block or vitalite or any dairy free marg really.

The other flour I like is 'glutinous rice flour' made I think in Thailand or Vietnam. It is processed in some way that involves water so solves the problem of needing to leave a pancake batter, eg, to stand for a while to absorb liquid.

I thought it might be helpful to add some images of the products mentioned so far. I know I try to keep visits to the supermarkets as short as possible these days and a visual is always easier to remember.

These are the microwave pouches I use

The Genius artisan seeded cob is my go-to bread at the moment. It's very high in fibre, so I consider it to be far healthier than other options. I also love the spicy fruit loaf.

The M&S pain au raisin is my favourite supermarket pastry. Lately it's only available on Ocado and I'm terrified it will be discontinued. The new Sainsbury's croissants are also pretty great.

Leon now sell their chicken nuggets retail. They are delicious.

Oh, and if you can get your hands on Rummo gf pasta, it is the absolute best. I've only seen it in specialty Italian shops.

M&S MWW Victoria Sandwich is delicious.
Schar Pretzels.
B Free Pittas - esp Wholegrain.
Warburtons GF Sourdough and Tiger Loaf.
Lazy Days GF Millionaire’s Shortbread.
Sainsbury’s TTD GF dark chocolate ginger cookies.
Sainsbury’s GF Margarita Pizza. I sometimes add extra toppings.

Excuse the junkiness of the above list. I tend to only buy specialist GF stuff for treats, as my cooking is pretty much GF by default these days.

Oh god, and if anyone is near Leeds, there’s a company called Wildcraft Gluten Free Bakery that will deliver - possibly even nationwide.

I got some GF cinnamon rolls and they are to die for.

We have have

Found Sainsbury's really good, actually, in terms taste and variety. The only complaint (that someone upthread mentions too) is the GFfood is stuffed full of sugar/sweeteners.
I would love to find more range in tthe savoury foods.
GF hobnobs are good (DD is milk intolerant too, so only tried the non-chocolate variety).
Schar frozen Vienna/Kaiser rolls are v good. The Sainsbury's FF ready made lasagne is good (fresh- the frozen has milk!) and makes a quick meal on nights we have to be places.
Sainsbury's own FF muffins are nicer than genius. There's a brioche loaf that Sainsbury's stock, but it's made by some one else, but that's excellent as well.