Gluten free food

maidincornwall

Hi I have just got a job cooking for ten men of which one is coeliac, I shall at times have to cook him separate meals as it would be too difficult and too expensive to feed all ten on gluten free foods, so my question is which supermarkets sell good gluten free food such as bread and biscuits? Plus a few good convinience foods such garlic bread, sausages etc. We have locally, Sainsburies, Tesco, Asda, morrisons, Lidl and Aldi I shall use mainly these for ease but also a couple of local deli's and shops. Also which flour is going to be best to thicken sauces and gravies and make home made bread, cakes, pastries etc from? I have four hours a day to produce two full home made main meals, one pudding and a snack plus stock cupboards for breakfast and weekends when they will want quick and easy things to reheat and cook for themselves. Thanks in anticipation of help!

tootallulah

I would keep looking on the Approved Foods site they often have gluten free food, very well priced.

zzzLazyDaisy

Every few weeks I do an online shop at Ocado - not cheap but they have a good range of GF foods.

Also, as he is coeliac, you will need to be very careful not to get gluten moxed with anything he eats - my friend has coeliac and if someone uses a knife on ordinary bread and puts it in the butter, she can't use that butter as there will be traces of gluten in the butter. She is very badly affected and I don't knowif everyone has to be as careful, but it is worth getting his express instructions about this.

NigeWick

Get your Coeliac to join the Coeliac Society and buy their "bible." It has all gluten free foods on offer in all the main supermarkets etc and has all the big name brands that will tell them what the ingredient are.

My daughter is Coeliac and my wife just cooked everything fresh watching which gravy mix etc was used, using the Coeliac Society book to make sure everything was Gluten free.

On a personal note, I gave up grains last year and just do not eat biscuits, bread, buns, cake, pasta, pizza and etc. I do my own breakfast & lunch and my wife cooks something appropriate in the evening. It's not that hard.

judexx

maidincornwall wrote: »

Hi I have just got a job cooking for ten men of which one is coeliac, I shall at times have to cook him separate meals as it would be too difficult and too expensive to feed all ten on gluten free foods, so my question is which supermarkets sell good gluten free food such as bread and biscuits? Plus a few good convinience foods such garlic bread, sausages etc. We have locally, Sainsburies, Tesco, Asda, morrisons, Lidl and Aldi I shall use mainly these for ease but also a couple of local deli's and shops. Also which flour is going to be best to thicken sauces and gravies and make home made bread, cakes, pastries etc from? I have four hours a day to produce two full home made main meals, one pudding and a snack plus stock cupboards for breakfast and weekends when they will want quick and easy things to reheat and cook for themselves. Thanks in anticipation of help!

Some suggestions for you - I like the Genius & Warbuttens Newburn bread and rolls and also Tescos 'Fresh' range (but not their long life range).

To thicken sauces, cornflour and arrowroot are both gluten free (but check packaging for warnings of 'May contain traces of...')

For baking Doves Farm GF flour is good - but follow a recipe for GF - you can't do a straight substitution.

For Snacks that the chap can cook him self, Tesco and Dietry Specials both do frozen GF pizza, Amy's kitchen range of frozen meals are very nice, can't help with sausages as I don't eat meat.


HTH

Little_Vics

I would strongly suggest you meet with him as soon as possible to get a clear understanding of what he can and can't eat, what brands he likes, what he tends to eat at home - he'll be the expert.

I can happily give you recipes and ideas, but I'm sure he'll have some too!

Edwardia

I've seen gluten free stuff in Sainsbury's, on Ocado and in Holland and Barrett. Both Sainsbury's and Morrisons have Free From sections.

HPoirot

Doves Farm flour is the best for gluten free, although as said above you need to tweak the recipe to suit the different texture of the flour.

Shortcrust pastry for example will need slightly more flour to fat and will be more brittle than normal so will not roll out as nicely as normal pastry. I love quiches so make a lot of GF ones and sometimes have to patch up the pastry in the flan dish. I have learnt to tweak the recipe quantities as I go along, although I'm sure there are lots of GF specific recipes. For bread I think you have to use xantham gum as leavening agent instead of yeast, although I've never tried making any.

For own brand, Asda IMO has the best GF bread and biscuits, much better than Sainsbury's - which I think are vile. Tesco's range is OK. Just found GF biscuits from a Spanish brand, "Gullon" which do sugar free biccies as well from the local independent shop. They are lush!
I am not coeliac but I need a GF diet to keep the IBS at bay.

beadysam

Rice is your friend! Quinoa is good too, smells like feet when cooking but tastes good. Stick to simple stuff with meat and veg and add in safe stuff gradually - you'll soon learn that the strangest stuff has wheat in, even liquorice and oven chips! Some people are funny with vinegar too so look into that. Loads of seasonings and sauces are out too but herbs and spices should be fine. We all eat the same thing here more or less. When we have pasta, I cook two pans of pasta and make sure I don't stir both with the same utensil, the GF makes the water cloudy and is very sticky, tastes ok though but is way dearer than regular. Noodles: well we eat loads of stir fry type meals and now use rice noodles from Thai store instead of egg noodles. Or make a stir fry and like the pasta, cook the noodles separately (its only an extra pan of hot water), then you can serve up the noodles and top with stir fry, or chuck a bit of stir fry into a pan with the rice noodles and mix the egg noodles with the rest when the stir fry is cooked. Careful though soy sauce is not GF, though you can buy it. I make my own oven wedges and use non contaminated butter in mash ( but only a little as hubby is lacto sensitive), boiled, baked and roasted spuds are fine. Bulghur wheat and Cous Cous used to be a staple in our diet but its all prohibited now. Me and my son love it though so again we cook bulghur or cous cous separately to quinoa and the meat/veg is shared.

I don't bake often as I tend to eat it all but the MSE Hob Nobs recipe is a good basic, just swap the flour for Doves and the oats for GF and you have a crumblier version. rice pud, jelly and ground rice are ok. Try to go for moist baked goods, banana bread, carrot cake, brownies etc as the flour makes stuff dry and crumbly.

Some of the cheapy high street stores (B&M and Home Bargains etc) have GF stuff in - a lot of European stuff is GF but with no big banner on the packaging - but it is among the rest of the products so happy hunting.

The chap you are cooking for may be able to get some stuff on prescription - he needs to talk to his GP, each practice/dr is different.

Hubby has tried every type of bread going including home made, but the Genius bread is a fave. Its about £3 a loaf though so a bit spendy - pubs and restaurants seem to have Genius if they offer a GF option.

Beer is a no-no, but you can get it GF - at a price...

Most health food shops stock GF but at a higher price than supermarkets and less choice.

For GF stuff supermarkets in order of largest range (round here anyway);
Sainsburys
Tesco
Morrisons
Asda
Coop

Just remember, keep food simple and ALWAYS check labels.:eek:

Hope that helps a bit.
x x x

frugallily

Don't forget that as a registered coeliac you can get certain gluten free foods on prescription. What you get depends on where you live. My coeliac husband is over 60 and gets free prescriptions but even before that we found it was worth buying an annual prescription as it saved a lot. In the coeliac society book it also lists lots of cereals etc which are gluten free. Cornflakes etc. It is worth joining the society for their book until you "find your feet"

frugallily

PS.. Me again!! Certain foods which you'd NEVER suspect to contain gluten DO!! White pepper and mustard powder, Roquefort blue cheese and malt vinegar are just some of them! So it is worth reading up. Get a book form the library! You can drink alcohol (except beer!) to numb the pain! BUT on the positive side..my husband has been really healthy since we discovered what was wrong with him!!