Gluten free recipes are recipes which contain no ingredients which have gluten in them. Duh...
The main ingredient which contains gluten is wheat which can be found in a variety of foods ranging from bread through to gravy, sweets and beefburgers. This makes if difficult for anyone with coeliac disease, or a gluten allergy to be able to go to a restaurant to eat, or to use a "normal" cookery book to find a recipe.
Wheat can be called by a variety of names on ingredient lists so having knowledge of these different names is paramount to finding out if a product is gluten free.
- Additive numbers 1400-1450 are either wheat based or are undefined.
- Batter is usually made from wheat flour.
- Beer can be made using wheat gluten.
- Biscuit is usually made from wheat flour.
- Bran is the outside hull of a grain of wheat.
- Bread is usually wheat based.
- Breadcrumbs are usually made from wheat bread.
- Bulgur wheat is made from whole grains of wheat steamed before cracking.
- Cereal can be wheat based.
- Cornflour can, depite its name, be finely ground wheat flour.
- Cous cous is steamed, dried and cracked wheat grains.
- Crumbs can be made from wheat.
- Hydrolysed protein can be wheat based.
- Monosodium glutamate is usually made from cane, beet or tapioca starch, but a small amount is made from wheat starch.
- Modified starch can be made from wheat amongst other things.
- Rusk is a wheat based bulking agent usually found in sausages, beefburgers and veggiburgers.
- Seitan is a vegan protein made from wheat gluten.
- Semolina is made from the outer coat of wheat.
- Spelt is a low gluten flour which is acceptable to some gluten intolerant people, but not all.
- Thickener if unspecified can be derived from wheat.
- TVP can on occassions be made from wheat.
- Wheatgerm is the inside section of a grain of wheat.
Other grains containing gluten are barley, oats triticale and rye. These also appear in food ingredient lists in disguise.
Even seemingly innocent ingredients such as baking powder can have evil gluten hiding in it by way of a company using wheat flour as a bulking agent. Malt vinegar and wild rice are also enemies.
There is hope though, as there are numerous different flours which can be substituted for wheat flour despite this type of flour being the most used in western cooking. Each flour has it's own special qualities though, so thought must be used when choosing a flour.
- Buckwheat flour doesn't contain wheat despite it's name. It is a speckled grey flour which give an effect quite close to wheat flour in baking, but can be heavy if used in large quantities.
- Gram flour is usually made from ground chick peas but can be made from ground mung beans. It has a strong distintive taste so is best used in savoury dished or in small quantities.
- Ground rice is made from white short grain rice and can be used as a flour. This is sometimes used in desserts.
- Millet flour can be difficult to get hold of, but can be sucessful when blended with other flours.
- Peasemeal is a flour made from green peas.
- Polenta is ground corn. This can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
- Potato flour is very fine and contains lots of air.
- Rice flour can be white or unrefined brown, with brown flour being the rice flour equivalent of wholemeal. This needs to be cooked for 15 minutes or more to make sure it doesn't have a gritty texture.
- Soya flour is made from ground soya beans. This is a fine flour, but goes out of date much more rapidly that other flours.
- Yellow pea flour is made from ground yellow peas and can be used for thickening sauces.
Below are some of the recipes found in the Everything2 database which are gluten free.
Breakfast
Starters and Soups
Main Courses
Desserts
Breads, Cakes and Biscuits
Side Dishes
Other
Sources
Cooking for my husband
http://www.csaceliacs.org/labelnames.html
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/aww/Food/articles/WorldFood/article367.asp
/msg me if there are any recipes you would like to see included.
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