Gluten Free Eating

Stuffing is usually the hardest Thanksgiving side to make gluten-free, because the classic version is mostly bread. This one has none. Wild rice takes the place of the bread cubes, browned mushrooms and celery give it the savory base people expect, and dried cranberries and pecans add the sweet and crunchy bits. With the bread gone, the labels left to read are short: the rice blend, the broth, the cranberries and the nuts. Cook the rice in broth, and start checking early The gfcooking.food recipe simmers 1 1/2 cups of wild rice blend in 4 cups of broth, covered, over low heat. It is done when the grains are tender and some have split open, which takes 45 to 55 minutes depending on the blend. Cooking times vary a lot by brand, so start checking at 40 minutes, and drain off any broth left in the pan. Because the rice drinks up all that broth, the carton is the biggest label in this dish. Many cartons and bouillon cubes use yeast extract or flavorings that can come from barley, so...

Cranberry sauce is one of the few Thanksgiving dishes that is gluten-free by nature and better made early. Fresh cranberries, sugar, orange juice, a little water, orange zest, a cinnamon stick and a pinch of salt cook down into a glossy sauce in about 20 minutes. It sets up in the fridge, and the recipe says you can make it up to 7 days ahead, which frees up a burner when the stove is at its most crowded. Fresh or frozen both work A standard 12-ounce bag of cranberries is the whole recipe. Rinse fresh berries in a colander and pick out any soft or shriveled ones. Frozen berries go straight into the pot with no thawing, so it is worth tucking a bag into the freezer while they are in stores. The sauce tastes the same either way. Dissolve the sugar first Put the sugar, orange juice, water and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar disappears. That takes about 2 minutes. Starting with a syrup means the berries cook ...