gluten_free | Recent Entries

I recently tried two different brands of gluten free frozen meals and was not deeply impressed. The "bettergoods" meals I tried were just fine but of course I'm hoping for better than "just fine". And the meal from "Blakes" was a confused mess of really great and icky.

I have really enjoyed most of the meals I've gotten over the years from "Amy's" and I have no complaints about any of them. I was just hoping to widen the possibilities for those times I defaulted to something frozen from the freezer instead of having to actually cook myself.

So, what brands available in north american grocery stores do y'all have experience with and like eating??

runpunkrun

Happy New Year! Our prompt for January is What's New. Have you recently learned something that makes gluten-free living easier? Tried a new recipe? Perfected an old one? Finally gave that weird new snack at the store a try? This prompt is for new things, even if it's only new to you.

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

Franz Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread from ranalore

fred_mouse

Purchased today, at the extravagant discount price of $3.50(AUD) for one pot of lumlum Thai Green Curry flavour pot noodles. These are labelled as vegan, non fried noodles, no preservatives, gluten free, no MSG. Product of Thailand.

caveat: It's been a while since I've had two minute noodles, and I'm not entirely sure if I've previously had pot noodles, so I don't have a good reference to compare these to. Plus, while the instructions say 'leave for five minutes' I left for significantly longer, because I forgot about them. Which is to say that my upcoming complaint about the texture of the noodles may be entirely unwarranted.

So: prep - getting in to the packaging was a little frustrating, as if there was a perforated tear line in the sealing plastic I didn't find it. Similarly opening the flavour sachet. Not recommended for people with hand issues.

Flavour: there was a generous amount of flavouring paste, it smelled great, and it was sufficient for the amount of water added. I ended up drinking it all before eating the noodles, and as a soup it was wonderful. Definitely the bit that I would want again. Importantly for me, this was really good flavour, not passable flavour with lots of salt to make it feel like more flavour. 5 star flavour.

Noodles: These were uncanny valley levels of wrong. Slightly flat rather than round noodles, the mouth feel was slightly gritty (this is commonly my experience with rice based products). Even if they weren't overcooked, these two complaints would still be there. Impossible to scoop out with the fork - after drinking the soup, I just supped them from the pot. Grudgingly, I'm giving the noodles 2 stars, because of the user error involved.

Overall: worth it as a one off. I really needed something as a pick me up, and buying a treat at this price was worth it. I would not be buying it as a regular item, partly because I don't really like 'cup' noodles (I do like two minute noodles in the pressed blocks. Yes, I realise they aren't functionally different). If you like cup noodles and you find them at a reasonable price, then I think I recommend them. 3.5 / 5 stars.

ingredients: brown rice noodles (74%) (organic brown rice flour, water), Green curry flavour paste (26%)(coconut milk, cane sugar, cumin, chilli, salt, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, galangal, tumeric, soybean, coriander, lime peel, citric acid).

leecetheartist

Here in Australia there are now two other gluten free alcohol free beers safe for coeliac sufferers.

We've been enjoying SOBAH's Non Alcoholic Davison Plum GF Pale Ale for a while now and sometimes they do the Wattleseed as GF too. They're an indigenous run company in Queensland and great, but not always easy to get in Western Australia.

BUT breaking news here in Western Australia let me introduce you to a Western Australian brewery who is doing not one, but two gf and non alcoholic beers.

They do a bunch of alcoholic gf beers too, but that's not of interest to us, you can check them out if you want.

https://somedaysomehow.beer/products/wherever

and

https://somedaysomehow.beer/products/whenever

or you can check them out at

https://freespiritdrinkco.com.au/collections/gluten-free

runpunkrun

My recipe for baked oatmeal cups has changed a lot since I first posted it, but the other day I forgot to put the sugar in and accidentally stumbled onto something great for me, a person who doesn't tolerate sugar well in the mornings. These are sweetened only by applesauce, have a soft, chewy texture, and make a nice breakfast or snack.

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats (222 g)
1/2 cup oat flour (50 g)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (200 g)
1/4 cup water (55 g)
2 Tbsp oil (27 g)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups frozen raspberries (200 g)

( recipe )

Questions? Ask 'em!

runpunkrun

These Pumpkin Pie Bars from Snixy Kitchen serve up pumpkin pie realness without having to make a pie crust!

You have two options for the crust, graham cracker crumb or shortbread. I went with the shortbread and it was flaky and buttery, with exciting hits of kosher salt. I didn't want to have to clean my stand mixer, so I used a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour instead, which might have given it a bit more of a pastry vibe. It made a wonderful contrast to the silky smooth pumpkin custard.

Snixy gives some advice for how to make these dairy free, and I used Miyoko's salted plant milk butter in the crust and Country Crock's plant cream in the custard. Both worked really well, though if you're using a salted vegan butter and you're sensitive to salt, you might want to cut down on the kosher salt in the crust.

You can cook these in an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch pan lined with parchment paper. I used a metal 9 x 9 pan, which I think was the right choice. The crust would have been a lot thicker in the smaller pan, and it was already pretty thick in the 9 x 9, more like a lemon bar crust than a pie crust. You parbake the crust, press it down to compact it, then pour the pumpkin custard over the top and put it back in the oven.

I baked the bars 40 minutes, then let them sit in the pan on the counter until completely cooled. After that I moved the pan to the fridge, but didn't cover it with plastic wrap because I didn't want any condensation to drip down onto the custard. I did, however, store them in the fridge that didn't have the turkey roast covered in raw garlic in it. *taps temple*

Now, I really value Snixy's recipes, but she doesn't tell you how TO GET THESE OUT OF THE PAN: I gently wiggled the parchment paper at the corners where the bars were touching the pan until they released, then, with help so that all four sides of the parchment paper were being lifted at the same time, swung them out of the pan and onto a cutting board. The custard didn't even wrinkle. I cut them while cold, using a sharp chef's knife, then plated them and let them warm to room temperature for service.

24 hours after making them, the crust was crisp and flaky and delicious. 24 hours after that, the crust had softened considerably, having absorbed moisture from the custard. It was still tasty, but no longer provided an exciting contrast to the softness of the custard as the whole thing was pretty soft. So you can easily make these a day ahead, but probably no more than that.

runpunkrun

Thank you to the anonymous benefactor who bought gluten_free paid time and ensured we can search the entirety of the comm, including the comments! Not only does this gift support our community, it also supports Dreamwidth.

So, while I'm here, a public service announcement. If you don't follow dw_news, here are two news you might like to know:

Dreamwidth is having its annual Holiday Points Bonus promotion. For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction.
Prices for paid accounts and premium paid accounts will increase in 2025 to more closely match the inflation-adjusted original launch prices.

fred_mouse

Australian Food Standards website

On Track Meals Pty Ltd - Slow Cooked Australian Steak 200g. The product has been available for sale at camping store outlets Australia wide and online.

Best Before: 30.10.2027 Batch: 504694

The recall is due to the presence of an undeclared allergen (Gluten).

runpunkrun

It's December and ANYTHING GOES* here at

gluten_free!

Have a gluten-free question, comment, request, suggestion, update, victory, confusion, failure, or announcement? Have an article or resource to share? Just want to do a quick product recommendation? Just want to post a gluten-free link and flee the scene?

Pop into the comments and do your thing. Content can be about GF stuff or the comm itself. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves!

Or, if you had something you intended to post for one of our past prompts, but it just didn't happen, now's your chance.

*Some restrictions apply. Just follow the community guidelines and make sure your comments don't contain unsolicited medical advice or personal details about your health and you're golden.

mific

In the spirit of North American holidays: Brian Lagerstrom just posted three recipes for alternatives to pumpkin pie, that retain the spicy pumpkin flavour but are easier (he says) to make. I'm guessing that's compared to making all aspects of a pumpkin pie from scratch.

Pumpkin Creme Brûlée - naturally GF
Pumpkin Crunch - his mother-in-law's bars/cake recipe. You'd need to sub the flour with all-purpose GF flour, or use the alternative in the recipe, a box of GF vanilla cake mix.
Pumpkin Basque Baked Cheesecake - he suggests subbing the flour with all-purpose GF flour in the video.

All the recipes have eggs and dairy, pumpkin purée and pumpkin spice. The Crunch also has pecans, but you could sub for those with a crumble topping made with coconut and oatmeal, or even crumbled GF cornflakes.

mific

Here are three recipes that look good. I haven't had a chance to try them yet. The first one is a frangipane slice (tart) which tastes like Christmas mince pies.

Frangipane mince pie tart GF recipe

GF mince pies

Goodbye gluten Christmas mince tarts

mific

I'm signalboosting this multigrain bread recipe

cupidsbow recently posted as it seems that people here might be interested. I haven't made it yet.

sonia

Following up on cereal snacks, I also like to snack on granola, but there's always that worry that the oats will be cross-contaminated. Purely Elizabeth granola uses organic certified gluten-free oats, and is made in a facility that processes soy, milk, eggs, peanuts, and other tree nuts.

The Chocolate Sea Salt flavor is crunchy, chocolate-y, and delicious. For some reason, it comes with added probiotics. To seem healthier, maybe? No soy lecithin! The salt isn't overly intrusive the way it is in some chocolate salt combos. A real treat!

Full ingredients: Organic Certified Gluten Free Oats, Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Chunks (Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Chocolate Liquor, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Vanilla Extract), Sunflower Seeds, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Cocoa Powder, Organic Quinoa Flakes, Cinnamon, Sea Salt, Organic Chia Seeds, Probiotic Cultures (Inulin, Palm Oil, Bacillus Coagulans GBI-30 6086).

The Pumpkin Cinnamon flavor is also crunchy, still pretty sweet, but less obviously dessert-like. The dominant note is cinnamon. It has pumpkin seeds rather than pumpkin flesh, so it's not really pumpkin-flavored. Also delicious.

Full ingredients: Organic Certified Gluten-Free Oats, Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Pumpkin Seeds, Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Organic Quinoa Flakes, Organic Chia Seeds, Organic Cinnamon, Sea Salt.

And I see on the Purely Elizabeth website that they now sell Chocolate Chip Cookie granola which looks pretty amazing, but I haven't had it. Has anyone here tried that?

runpunkrun

This prompt is for any holiday, celebration, or observance—for any time of year—if there's food you associate with it, now's the perfect time to share.

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

fred_mouse

Over on my journal, I've typed up a recipe (with annotations) for Rosemary and Walnut Scones - this is a somewhat simplified recipe compared to the ones I've found in GF baking books.

Notes:

It uses sorghum and maize corn flour, because those are my flours of choice. I assume as long as some amount of 'sticky' flour is included, they'll come together fine
vegan option: replace the butter with oil; if I could get it I'd use macadamia oil; if I couldn't, I'd use rice bran oil.
my jug measure is probably 1.5 cups total

runpunkrun

Our prompt for October is bread!

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

fred_mouse

This was bought in Western Australia, at my local IGA (supermarket), and the short review is: don't buy this.

The longer notes:

It was on the discount shelf, so it was $7.50 rather than $15, which is a thing that tempts me to try something new. It was labelled "Apple and Rhubarb Crumble, gluten free" and "400g" on the top (note: the company name is not there. I had to look in the fine print to find it). It was in an aluminium tray with a plastic lid, about the same size as a standard takeaway container. It looked like a reasonable size for two people to have generous portions, and three to have reasonable sized portions.

As there were no cooking instructions, I assumed it was ready to eat. I chose not to heat it up, because the oven would have been too hard, and the metal tray meant not in the microwave. This wasn't a dreadful mistake, but it was some amount of mistake, because the topping wasn't actually cooked. For people who like biscuit (cookie) dough raw, that would be fine, but I wasn't that enthused.

I reckon it was 80% topping. The fruit was almost entirely large chunks of apple. Neither the apple nor the rhubarb were cooked enough, so every now and then there was a crunchy bit. The rhubarb was also obviously stringy. The topping was at least felt to be more butter than it was sugar, so it wasn't horrendously sweet (although, given the ingredients list, this may have been wrong).

To add to all of these failures, I've just looked at the ingredients list: gluten-free flour, brown sugar, rhubarb, butter, cooked apple, baking powder. Obviously, the 'gluten-free flour' is a problem. But 'brown sugar' has to be a lie, no way that beautifully yellow topping had brown sugar in it. There was not more rhubarb than butter or apple.

If I have the energy, I'll go see if I can find the contact details for the company, and make a complaint.

jesse_the_k

I’m a big ginger fan, so a new entry in the ginger cookie space inspired a comparison between

Partake
MI-DEL
Tate’s

for science!

( all three have good points )

mific

Apparently this is a “thing” on some social media at present - who knows why as it’s pretty basic and something I’ve made before across the years. But anyway, here’s my version of the recipe.

Prep Time: 15 mins | Servings: 6-8

( Read more... )

sonia

This is a cereal of small round o's that carefully never mentions Cheerios on the packaging. They're slightly smaller and slightly crunchier than I remember cheerios being, but they're a pretty good substitute. If you like putting any kind of milk over your cereal (which I don't), I bet these wouldn't get soggy too fast.

It says gluten-free right on the front, but then in small print on the side (I noticed after buying them) it says, "Made in a facility that also processes soy, dairy, wheat, eggs, sesame, and tree nuts." It also says "Top 9 allergen free" and "3rd party tested." So it's a judgment call. I don't think I would buy them again myself, especially since it's $7 or 8 for a 7 oz box.

There's a whole holier than thou "pure foods" blurb on the back of the box that I was willing to ignore, but it makes the facility thing even more annoying.

The plain unsweetened version has organic cassava flour, organic coconut oil, and sea salt. They have a slightly sour taste that must come from the cassava, but it's a fine plain snack.

The cocoa version has organic cassava flour, coconut flour, organic coconut sugar, organic cocoa powder, organic coconut oil, organic vanilla extract, and redmond real sea salt. These are a great chocolatey snack! I would really be tempted by these if it weren't for the facility thing.

I bought the cinnamon version a while ago and wasn't so impressed with that one, but I gave these other flavors a try because they were on sale.

Company website: https://lovebirdfoods.com

runpunkrun

Pamela's Bread Mix: This bag has all the dry ingredients you need to make one loaf of bread, including a little packet of yeast. You just add water, eggs, and oil, throw it in the stand mixer for three minutes and then squeegee it into a loaf pan. The batter is thick and sticky and stays where it's put, so you'll want to smooth out the top with wet or oily fingers to get a nice, even crust. Maybe even press down the batter around the edges of the pan so that it's lower than the center and creates a domed top when it bakes.

The instructions are the bare minimum—no explanation of how you can tell it's done, or how to store it once it is—but it does give directions for making this bread in a bread maker or an oven. There are also instructions for how to turn this mix into dinner rolls (it's the same, only you bake it in muffin cups), and four variations on the plain loaf: molasses, 3 seed, cheese, and herb bread.

It smells really nice while it bakes and creates a firm loaf with the texture of a quick bread, dense with no chew. It tastes slightly sweet and slightly sour in a way that reminds me of baking soda, but as it includes none, I guess we're going to have to blame the millet, which can give baked goods an earthy, slightly burnt taste.

This is dairy free, easy to make, and probably easy to find (I found it in the "natural" section of my local Kroger analogue), but it doesn't have much flavor and I missed the chewiness I get from breads made with psyllium husk. And I still had to clean up the kitchen afterwards! All in all, I'd rather buy a loaf or, sigh, bake one from scratch.

Current Ingredients: Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, White Rice Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Evaporated Cane Sugar, Inulin, Millet Flour, Honey, Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet (active dry yeast).

Pamela's Products are manufactured in a Gluten-Free Certified Facility and peanut-free facility. Their products are produced on equipment that processes tree nuts, coconut, eggs, soy, and milk.

mific

These are a few I sometimes watch on Youtube.

Rainbow Plant Life: (Nisha Vora) the most straight-forward and practical. Lots of useful recipes, reasonably easy to make, and some good tips for quick meals and planning ahead.

Derek Sarno: an ex-chef gone vegan. Can be a bit cutesie (e.g. voiceovers from his gorgeous black lab), but good recipes, well explained.

Gaz Oakley: a young UK chef who turned to gardening and vegan cooking to get out of the restaurant rat-race. Older episodes have a bit more cooking - he covers all aspects of his lifestyle. Can be fairly cheffy with the details and prep, might be hard to replicate at home.

runpunkrun

Our prompt for September is vegan friendly!

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

vegan-friendly Jamaican chili from rhi
Vegan "Clam" Chowder from reeby10
Vegan ice creams in NZ from mific

rdm

Menz has resurrected the Pollywaffle (a sadly departed iconic Australian confectionery bar) as bite sized balls.

This would not normally be of interest to us, because, well, wafers.

Until I picked up a bag out of curiousity, to see just how badly I could not eat it.

And then I swore.

Pollywaffle bag with GF status highlighted

Pollywaffle bag with GF status highlighted

fred_mouse

One of the things I encountered when travelling was farro, which I couldn't find a translation for in the dictionaries I was carrying, but looked at and said 'that's a cereal, I'm not eating that'. Which turned out to be the correct response, because we looked it up today.

For other english speakers who haven't encountered it, farro is a term that covers any/all of spelt, emmer, and einkorn, all of which are Triticum species, as is wheat. I saw it cooked in a small (single serve) container in a supermarket fridge, and I saw it as part of a salad.

Mods: from the posting guidelines, I couldn't work out what the title should be, or whether this counted as a valid post. Apologies if I've stuffed up.

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gluten-free eats

gluten-free eats

Recent Entries

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recommendations??

Prompt: What's New

Product review: lumlum Organic Instant Noodles

Drinking to that!

Recipe: Raspberry Baked Oatmeal Cups (fruit sweetened!)

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Bars

Thank you!

Food recall alert - Australia & online

Prompt: FREE SPACE

Pumpkin pie alternative recipes

Three Christmas mince pie recipes

Cupidsbow's GF Bread

Product Review: Purely Elizabeth Ancient Grain Granola

Prompt: Holidays

Recipe: Rosemary and Walnut Scones

Prompt: Bread

Review: Misternosh Apple and Rhubarb Crumble

Three Commercial Ginger Cookies

Dense Bean Salad

Product Review: Lovebird organic grain-free cereal

Review: Pamela's Bread Mix

Some Vegan cooks

Prompt: Vegan Friendly

Unexpected confectionery find for Australians

Today I learned: farro

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