Gluten Free Eating

French onion soup looks simple: onions, broth, bread and cheese. Each of those layers can carry gluten, though, and the classic version picks it up in four places. Fix those four and the soup tastes the same as the one you remember. The stock is the first place to look A pot of onion soup is mostly stock, so the carton counts for more than anything else you buy. Plenty of boxed broths and bouillon cubes list yeast extract, which can come from barley, or caramel color and flavorings with no source named. Pick a chicken or vegetable stock that says gluten-free on the package. Homemade stock works too, as long as nothing in it came from a packet. Give the onions their full time The flavor of this soup comes from the onions, not from any special ingredient. Slice them thin and cook them in butter or olive oil over medium-low heat, stirring now and then, until they turn a deep golden brown. The gfcooking.food recipe gives this step 25 to 30 minutes. If the onions start to scorch a...

Pumpkin bread is the first thing I want to bake once the mornings turn cold, and it is one of the friendliest quick breads to make gluten-free. Pumpkin puree brings moisture and structure that wheat-free batters often lack, so the loaf stays soft for days instead of drying into a brick by the second morning. A few small habits decide whether your loaf comes out tender or gummy. Start with the right pumpkin Buy pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. The cans sit next to each other on the shelf and look almost the same. Pie filling already has sugar, spices, and sometimes thickeners mixed in, which throws off the balance of the batter and can add ingredients you did not plan for. Pure puree is one ingredient: pumpkin. If you roast your own, drain it in a fine strainer for 20 to 30 minutes, because homemade puree holds more water than canned and will make the center of the loaf wet. Know what is in your flour blend Gluten-free all-purpose blends are not interchangeable. Some i...

Thanksgiving baking starts earlier than you think. The pies and rolls need oven time on the day, but a good quick bread can be baked up to a week ahead and nobody will know. This is the one I make every November: a gluten-free cranberry walnut bread that slices clean, toasts well, and survives a crowded holiday table. Cranberries are the star, and they are picky in quick breads. Fresh ones burst and bleed pink streaks through the crumb. Frozen ones hold their shape better and give you little jewel-like pockets of tartness. Either works, but do not use dried cranberries without soaking them first. Dried fruit pulls moisture out of an already lean gluten-free batter, and you end up with a dry loaf and chewy spots. The flour blend matters more here than in a muffin. A simple rice-flour-and-starch blend gives this bread a tender crumb, but I add a spoonful of psyllium husk powder to the dry ingredients. Psyllium builds the structure gluten would normally provide. Without it, fruit-laden...

Thanksgiving is five and a half weeks out, which means pumpkin pie season has already started in my kitchen. It is the one dessert where a gluten-free version either wins the whole table over or gets politely left on the plate. Most gluten-free pumpkin pies fail in the crust, not the filling. The filling is easy: pumpkin, eggs, evaporated milk, sugar, spice. It barely knows the difference. The crust is where the trouble lives, because gluten is what keeps a wheat crust from falling apart. Without it, you need a plan. Start with a crust you can roll without a fight Cold fat is the first rule, same as any pie. Cut your butter or shortening into the flour mix while everything is still cold, and work fast. Warm fat melts into the flour instead of making pockets, and those pockets are what turn into flakes. The second rule is rest time. Gluten-free flour needs longer to hydrate than wheat flour does. Mix your dough, shape it into a disk, wrap it, and give it at least 30 minutes ...

Halloween is two and a half weeks away. If you have celiac disease or you cook for someone who does, the candy bowl needs a plan before the trick-or-treaters show up. Most candy is a gray area. Some bars are fine one year and risky the next. The label rules for candy are not the same as the rules for bread or pasta, and the fine print matters more here than almost anywhere else in the grocery store. Here is how I sort through it. The formula you remember can change Candy companies change recipes and suppliers without announcing it. A bar that was safe last Halloween can carry a new "may contain wheat" warning this year, or the other way around. I check the label every October, even on brands I bought last year. The ingredient list is the only thing that counts. "Wheat" is a required allergen on US labels, so it will show up in the contains statement or the ingredients. Barley and rye are not top allergens, so they can hide under words like "malt flavo...

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...