Gluten free cold lunch ideas- not sandwich

[TealTeaTowel]

Looking for sandwich alternative lunch ideas for my teen when she’s out, they need to be gluten free and she has no access to a microwave or kettle so needs to be able to be eaten cold.

any ideas would be appreciated, at the moment she’s living on salad but is getting a bit bored of it.

Thanks 😄

Roasted peppers, tomatoes and onions with a little olive oil and herbs are really delicious cold, they taste like the little expensive pots from delicatessens. You could add chickpeas or feta for some protein.

tortilla is nice, the one made from eggs and potatoes
i know you said no salad but brown rice salad or quinoa salad is nice.

Gluten free pasta seems to go a bit funny for me so I wouldn’t do cold pasta.
I’m coeliac and I’m afraid it’s salad of some sort if you have to eat cold food

I make a quinoa salad for lunch pretty much every day - Cherry tomatoes cucumber etc and chicken or salmon whatever we have leftover always filling for me!

Sushi rice is my favourite
honestly just google there’s tons of ideas on line

Roasted veg with quinoa/GF pasta/rice and chickpeas or lentils or beans

• umpteen variations on the above

Lasagne (GF pasta) or moussaka or aubergine parm - always better the next day

Lettuce wraps or burrito bowl

.Soup in a thermos

A good food flask is a godsend - I have risotto, soup, stew, dahl or really anything else hot and wet in it, even the Heinz beans and sausages sometimes. To add bulk, the Zenb pasta agile can be thrown into a flask of soup and left for 5 minutes and is really nice (actually I'm having tomato soup with this for lunch today), esp with some Nairns gf cheese oatcakes, or you can do miso soup with broken up rice noodles and shredded chicken (chicken will be fine in the soup base till lunch).

Thanks for the suggestions.

@WeirdPookah that does sound nice- she’ll definitely try that.

maybe I just need to jazz up the salads rather than have an alternative 🤔

@SoOpenitsbrainshavefallenout we’ve found the same with gf pasta, it just congeals together, and as it took so long to diagnose her she views food as an enemy, something that makes her I’ll so it puts her off being adventurous when she out in case she can’t get to the toilet 😔

@CMOTDibbler why have I not thought of a flask! I feel really stupid as that’s so simple!

she loves soup!

I’ll have a look online now for some good ones…this may be a game changer 😂

How about a mini cheese/charcuterie board with olives, pickles, peppers on the side?

My DD loved her food flask from Thermos.
spag bol,
meatballs and pasta
Pesto pasta

We've not had a problem with GF pasta in a salad - just a little sunflower oil or mayo mixed in stops it sticking. Mix with chopped up toms carrot celery pepper cooked peas /sweetcorn and some tuna or chicken.

beware of nairns biscuits, they contain oats which can cause problems for some coeliacs, even if it does say they are gluten free. I don’t eat wheat, rye barley or oats or spelt

Frittata / crustless quiche

Check out Kathleen Ashmore and her Hungry Lady Salads they are very filling and more often than not she does them gluten free.
I tend to have cold Quinoa type salad as a pack lunch or use a food flask for something warm.

Another favourite of mine is pate on rice cakes. I just take a little pot of pare and stack of rice cakes.

I've always liked having a dip (guacamole or yoghurt based so that they're filling) with carrot/pepper/celery/cucumber chopped to dip, as well as some sort of crackers (GF obviously) to bulk it out a bit.

Or roast a tray of mediterranean veg and stir through brown rice or quinoa and maybe add feta.

Or a something like chicken/mayo/spring onion/peppers pasta (GF) salad. I like the quinoa pastas.

Sushi bowl with rice, cold chicken, pickled ginger and strips of carrot and cucumber (done with a peeler) and soy sauce.

Soy sauce contains gluten unless you get the gluten free one

These all sound lovely. I will be trying them myself.

Bean noodles are great as a base for some alternative cold or warm meals. Fry up thinly sliced carrots, beans, celery, peppers, courgette with some paprika and gluten free soy and vinegar, add some fried meat if you want.

The benefit of bean noodles as opposed to rice noodles is that they hold their shape for longer.

Have you tried Zen B? It cooks really well, spread it out to cool and then add a smidge of oil or other sauce/dressing and it's Ok.

Get on instragram and search #bento

Cold felafel and houmous with crudités and GF crackers.
Cold GF pizza.
Puy lentil salad with halloumi.

Re: gluten-free pasta. Don't give up hope!

I was about to give up till I tried the Asda own brand range which was on offer.

Bring the pot of water the boil, add a little salt and oil, drop in pasta shapes or broken spaghetti and at this stage make sure you break up any clumps with a fork. Boil for 13-15 minutes. (I prefer 15.) Drain immediately, put the pasta back in the pan, and fork up again with a little butter or oil and maybe a little salt and pepper. Or as pp said upthread, you could add mayonnaise.

I make it in batches and store in a tub in the fridge. It is nice cold, and microwaves well. And it freezes.

I also came here to suggest a quinoa salad!

Recently bought a nice thermos food flask for my DP to take soup in to work. He’s loving it. It even has a folding metal spoon in the lid. He usually likes a big salad of some type, but with it getting colder he’s switching to soups or stews.