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Gluten free - please help!

5 replies

TeddyBare · 19/03/2010 13:40

I have a gluten free teenager coming to stay with me this weekend. She is bringing her own breakfast and lunch but I'm going to need to make 3 dinners for her. Please can someone suggest gluten free easy things to cook. If I can find something I might make the whole family gluten-free for the weekend just to save cooking, in which case it also needs to be veggie. Can anyone suggest any take aways in Cardiff / UK wide which have a gluten free option.
Is it like a nut allergy where I wont be able to cook in pans which have had gluten-ey food in them?

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madnortherner · 19/03/2010 14:16

I have coeliac disease and my DH is veggie. We tend to cook the same thing for the whole family. If your teenager friend is a coeliac then yes, cross-contamination will be an issue so use separate knives, clean chopping boards, separate pans, colanders, stirrers etc. As you can tell, it's just easier to make everyone gluten free and veggie for the weekend where possible IMHO.

We have a lot of veggie curries - chickpea or kidneybean or aubergine - in our house since curries just involve spices, onions, garlic, tomatoes and whatever you're currying.

You can also easily do a veggie pasta sauce (maybe with a carton of ready-cooked lentils for nutrition) because again pasta sauce is usually just herbs, tomatoes and fresh veg. Just buy some g/f pasta in the supermarket (which tastes much the same as "normal" pasta so noone should mind) - go to the "free from" (or similar) aisle and it'll all be there. Only thing to watch out for is that g/f pasta goes gloopy if you boil it for too long. But even if that happens, I just rinse it through and it gets rid of the gloop. Just don't overcook and it's fine. Oh and add a drop of olive oil if you're cooking spaghetti so it doesn't stick together, and keep stirring while cooking.

My DS has just woken up so will have to leave it there for now but check out the Coeliac Society website because there's probably lots more info there:

www.coeliac.org.uk/

PS while you're in the supermarket, you can stock up on g/f treats for her, like g/f bickies, hot cross buns (sains) and stuff like that. Oh and use the grill to toast anything for her since the toaster will have breadcrumbs in it. I just sling a piece of tin foil on the grillpan for quickness and ease to ensure it's clean, I mean, non-glutened.

DS has settled again, so, here's another thought while I'm on: if you're going into town with her, Caffe Nero not only does lovely coffee but also does a most delish g/f brownie thing. Hope there's a Caffe Nero in Cardiff.

Another thought for you is that I find indian takeaways are always a safe bet since indian cookery tends not to rely on glutenous starches. You'll have to ask them if they can cater for a gluten-free diet and be very sure they understand (many chefs still don't - they think gluten = wheat). I wouldn't take the risk if I were you since eating gluten for a coeliac can have nasty consequences and it might be best to play it safe for this visit. You can get more adventurous as time goes on perhaps?

madnortherner · 19/03/2010 22:03

Another thought I had this evening was pizza.

Buy a gluten free pizza base in the free from section of your supermarket (assuming you live close to one of the large supermarkets) and then make a pasta sauce-type thing, reducing it down further than you would for a sauce, add some fresh basil or whatever else you like, then sling it in the oven for 20 mins or whatever it says on the packaging.

The pizza bases are usually quite small so take that into consideration when deciding how many to make. They're nice with a side salad of rocketty type salad leaves and maybe some (gluten-free) potato salad if you/your teenager guest like those sorts of things.

Many own-brand supermarket labels are now good at saying "gluten free", especially Sainbos which has its own little symbol for gluten free.

tartyhighheels · 19/03/2010 22:12

just cook normally, be careful about stock cubes and you can buy gluten free flour from tesco in plain and self raising

there are loads of pastas available - the corn and rice ones are best as they break up the least

pancakes too with gluten free flour are a major fave in our house - we do actually have mardi gras about once a week!!

oh and genius bread is amazing - all coeliacs are singing it's praises as it is finally an edible gf bread - tesco and sainsburys sell it - i think waitrose too probably

and i wanted to say as the mummy of two coeliac kids, one of whom is a diabetic, how lovely it is that you are posting here and making an effort and trying to accomodate this young person without putting the onus on them to sort things out for themselves

LadyG · 19/03/2010 22:39

Most dinner type food is fine packed lunches/tea time more of a problem. We are all gluten free as Ds is coeliac and would tend to have a curry or stirfry with rice and as veggie options. Curried chickpeas are delicious and cheap and some baby spinach stirred in is delcious. We are not veggie but could you use tofu and do a stirfry with rice? Pasta(Doves farm GF pasta v good) pesto and tortilla/frittatas type thing quick lunches. I'm sure you can probably do stuff you would normally have with adaptations. If you are feeling really kind there are some lovely (and really easy) Gf cakes chocolate almond a favourite round here.

TeddyBare · 20/03/2010 16:44

Thank you very much everyone.
We had rice noodles and veg yday and it went down pretty well.

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