Gluten Free Ingredients and Techniques

Going gluten free doesn’t mean you have to give up the foods you love, there are many that are naturally gluten free and most recopies can be adjusted to become gluten free without giving up wonderful flavor.

Sauces
For thickening sauces, use Arrowroot, cornstarch, tapioca, or rice flour. Use about ½ as much as you would wheat flour. Test out each of the options below as they each have differences, basically in the consistency of the sauce. Arrowroot, for example, creates a “sheen” that can be desirable in some lighter sauces and less desirable in others. Emeril Lagasse uses rice flour to make the roux in his Gluten-Free Chicken Etouffee. Make sure you have gluten free soy sauce, and only non-malt vinegars (rice; wine, balsamic).

Seasonings
Question all seasoning blends, many contain gluten as fillers.

Breads and Snacks
There are a wide variety of gluten-free breads, mostly found in the frozen section, including hamburger buns, bagels, and other specialty items. Since they are frozen, most are best if toasted. I use the “defrost” setting on the toaster twice, turning the bread over .There are also gluten free crackers and pretzels available. Corn chips, corn tortillas, and rice cakes are good, but be sure to check to confirm that no gluten ingredients are used – just because is it corn based doesn’t mean it doesn’t have wheat as well. Alternatively, bake your own bread – it’s a lot of fun and will give you better bread than you can find at the store. For more on this, see my article Secrets for Gluten free Baking - Tips and Tricks for the Gluten free Baker.

Alternative grains
Of course there is rice (use wild rice or brown rice – white rice has very little nutritional value), but there are many alternative grains that are full of nutrients and packed with flavor. My favorites are the following:

Amaranth - corn-like with a woodsy flavor. Use as a porridge. High in protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium, and B vitamins

Buckwheat - despite the name, there is no wheat or gluten in buckwheat. Flour is great for pancakes, and the grain is a great hot cereal. High in protein, magnesium, B6, fiber, iron, niacin, thiamin, and zinc.

Quinoa - The Super Grain! Highest nutritional profile of all grains. Wonderful taste and texture as a side dish. Very high in protein, iron, magnesium, B vitamins, calcium, and fiber.

Alternative Flours
There are many gluten free flours and flour mixes on the market (Bob’s Red Mill are quite available). Most of the bread mixes, pizza mixes, cake mixes, etc., are pretty good. They can be expensive, however, and you can obtain as good, if not better, results creating your own mixes out of the gluten free base flours made of rice, corn, potato, soy, tapioca, or chickpea. You will also need to have Xanthan gum or Gar Gum, which act as gluten substitutes in baking. For a good mix and tips for baking with gluten free flours, see my companion article Substitute Ingredients for Gluten free Cooking.


Pastas
There are many dried gluten-free pastas on the market made from corn, rice, buckwheat and other gluten-free flour blends. Each has their own flavor profile, so you will need to experiment to see what you like the best. Big trick is to NOT OVERCOOK, because gluten free pastas get very mushy if overcooked. Watch them closely as they go from undercooked to overcooked very quickly. I also rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. I’ve had the best luck with a brand called Tinkyada.

Alcohol
This area is a bit contentious, and much comes down to exactly how sensitive you are. Wines, for example, are generally gluten free, but there are some concerns of cross contamination from the barrels, which may have been previously used for storing gluten containing ingredients or sealed with wheat-based glues (very common in the European Union; uncommon in the US). Wine coolers are definitely NOT gluten free, as they often contain barley malt.

Similarly, most distilled spirits are considered gluten free because of the distillation process. There are some studies, however, that challenge this on a very technical level, and you also must make sure they haven’t been infused with any gluten-based ingredients after the distillation process.

As for beers, there are also pretty good gluten free beers on the market, the easiest to find being Redbridge (an Anheuser Busch product). This is fine for adding to chili, baked beans, etc. There are also heavier beers like Sprecher that are harder to find but better if the recipe calls for a heavier beer.

By Glutenfreelady@glutenfreebaker.org

About the Author – GlutenFreeLady is a diagnosed celiac patient in complete remission who lives a happy and healthy gluten-free life. You can read her blog about gluten-free living, find recipes and other tips at glutenfreebaker.org. She can be reached at glutenfreelady@glutenfreebaker.org.