Gluten and Dairy Free meal ideas for Christmas visitors

[HappyAsASandboy]

I will have several days of feeding 11 people over Christmas, including one Gluten & Dairy Free 11 year old. I am comfortable cooking for this number of people as have hosted them before, and I'm good with GF variations of my staple foods, but the addition of Dairy Free this year has me a bit worried about what I'll cook.

Christmas dinner should be fine, but my other winter staples are things like lasagne, beef casserole with mash/crusty bread, sausages with mash, baked potatoes with cheese/beans/tuna, pancakes with bacon.

Does mash still taste good with an alternative milk and butter? Which milk and butter?

Is there a reasonable dairy free cheese for lasagne, jacket potatoes etc?

Any amazing meals to try that are GF and DF and would feed fairly bland eaters ranging from 3 years to 80 years?!

just be careful with using standard soy sauce as it is not gluten-free, gluten-free alternatives are available however.

its usually easier to start with foods that are naturally Gf and Df and work from there

eg all meat, fish, poultry, all fruit and vegetables , all pulses and rice, all grains except wheat , barley and rye

And work from there . Rather than start with an existing dish and see how you can make it gf/ Df

eg lasagna - needs Gf pasta, corn flour for sauce, DF substitutes for butter, cheese and flour .

you’ve had lots of good suggestions upthread.

id also speak to the 11yos parents about what she likes to eat. There’s no point in you making a Df alternative to every meal if it turns out she would rather have pigs in blankets and Gf frozen fish fingers or pizza.

Sainsbury’s have some taste the difference free from mince pies which are nice warmed up with some Swedish Glacé vegan ice cream.

I also came on to suggest Asian food - so long as you can get gf soy sauce, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese - all good options. We cook Vietnamese dishes and add chill at the table (for those that want), to make them child friendly. Eg a big pot of beef or chicken pho goes down well with adults and children, and is completely gf and df.

Kikkomen do a really good g-f soy sauce. That's my favourite. Pretty healthy, too.

Stir fries with rice just use gf tamari
Beef chilli with rice
Chicken fajitas (old el paso) does gf and df tortillas.
Cottage pie (just use a ricer and olive oil for the potatoes)
Sausage casserole (generally the special ranges are gf etc)

Be careful to check your stock, don't buy cheaper cola/diet coke it contains barley typically