Gluten Free Eating

Hasselback butternut squash is the side dish that makes people ask what it is. The neck of the squash is sliced into thin accordion folds, roasted until the edges caramelize, and basted with brown butter, sage and a spoonful of honey. Every ingredient is gluten-free by nature, so there are no flour swaps to think about. The work is all in the knife. Use the neck, save the bulb A butternut squash has a long solid neck and a round bulb full of seeds. Only the neck slices into even folds, so cut it away from the bulb and halve it lengthwise. Save the bulb for soup or roasting in cubes later in the week. Peel the neck before you slice it, and scoop out any seeds at the top. Soften it before you slice Raw butternut squash is hard, and hard squash under a knife is how fingers get cut. The gfcooking.food recipe microwaves the two halves, covered, for 4 to 5 minutes first. That softens the outside enough for the knife to glide through, but leaves the center firm so the slices hold th...

Stuffing is the Thanksgiving side that fails gluten-free cooks most often, and it fails for one boring reason. Gluten-free bread turns to mush faster than wheat bread. It soaks up broth, collapses, and comes out of the oven as a pan of damp porridge. The flavor is fine. The texture is a tragedy. The fix is two habits: start with truly dry bread cubes, and bake the stuffing in its own dish instead of inside the bird. Get those right and the rest is just seasoning. Dry the bread harder than you think you need to Wheat bread cubes can go into a stuffing pan a little soft. Gluten-free bread cannot. Most gluten-free loaves are built on rice flour and starch, and their crumb breaks down fast when it gets wet. The cure is to drive off almost all the moisture before the cubes ever see broth. Cut the loaf into half-inch cubes and spread them on a sheet pan in a single layer. Bake at 300F for 20 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until the cubes are hard and dry all the way through. They shoul...

Every Thanksgiving table has one dish that looks safe and is not quite safe. Sweet potato casserole is usually that dish. The sweet potato part is fine. Nobody puts wheat in mashed sweet potatoes. The trouble is the topping, which is where gluten hides in plain sight. The classic version comes two ways. One has a brown sugar streusel with pecans. The other has a layer of toasted mini marshmallows. Both are delicious, and both need one change each to be gluten-free. Neither change affects the taste in any way your guests will notice. The streusel version: swap the flour, keep everything else A standard streusel is butter, brown sugar, flour, and pecans. The flour is there for structure, and it is the only problem. Replace it with an equal amount of almond flour and the topping bakes up crisp and buttery with a slightly richer flavor. If you want more crunch, add a half cup of certified gluten-free oats to the mix. Certified matters here. Regular oats are grown and processed alo...