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Caroline Osborne
Natural Health Consultant
Gluten Free Recipe Guide
To Help You Cook Gluten Free With Confidence
A gluten free recipe guide is something I would love to have had twenty years ago.
I realised then that I’d be better off avoiding not only gluten, but dairy products as well. Also yeast and potatoes. I lived on brown rice and vegetables for a while, but this soon got boring. Plus it was hard to avoid wheat all the time when the rest of the family were eating it. I got very ill and depressed.
Eating wheat gave me IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), but not eating it made me hungry. Because of the IBS I wasn’t absorbing much goodness from the food I ate; I was weak and tired all the time. I found it hard to cope with three small children. I needed good food!
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So I did lots of experimenting with ingredients I found in the local health food store. I gradually developed recipes that were good for me, and pleased the rest of my family. I can even make a gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian lasagne!
There’s more than just rice to use in a gluten free recipe.
Of course, gluten intolerance is becoming more widely recognised and there are more ready-made gluten-free foods available than before, but they often have other things in them that I can’t eat. Besides, I prefer to make my own food rather than eat the processed stuff. Then it’s really fresh and I know exactly what’s in it.
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Most salads don’t have gluten in any form – but be careful of ready-made salad dressings – some of them contain wheat flour, so read the label carefully.
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For pasta salads and other pasta dishes, gluten free pastas are available in health food shops. These are usually made from corn (maize), rice or buckwheat. Rice salads and other rice dishes should be fine as they are.
Casseroles and gravies often call for wheat flour as a thickener. Instead use corn flour (if you can eat maize), rice flour (not quite such a good thickener), arrowroot or kuzu (the best, but expensive). Alternatively, puréed vegetables work very well. Parsnips and sweet potatoes are particularly good for this. For a thick stew or casserole, at the end of the cooking take out some of the vegetables and some of the liquid and purée in a blender or food processor, or mash with a fork. Stir back into the rest of the dish.
Where a recipe does call for wheat in some form, there is nearly always a suitable substitute.
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I have put together a guide which includes many of my best gluten free recipes, developed over twenty years of cooking and eating gluten-free. I’ve included an introduction to several readily available gluten-free grains and how they can be used to substitute for wheat, rye and barley. Also ideas and recipes for dairy substitutes.
You'll find that your new diet can actually be more varied and interesting than the old one, as well as better for you.
Read what others say about this book -
“I recommend this book to all my patients who are newly diagnosed wheat or gluten intolerant. It is simple and to the point, and absolutely relevant and easy to use, which is what is required when everything seems so difficult.
Many other similar books just tell you to use gluten-free flour - Caroline tells you all about many different grain flours, which both taste better and are nutritionally superior to gluten-free flour. Caroline's book is obviously written from personal experience which makes it so helpful.
This should be the first book you turn to when you need to feed someone who can't have dairy or gluten”.
Christine Herbert, herbalist, Norfolk. UK.
Caroline, Just read your book and truly enjoyed it:) I must avoid the same things you need to, as well as a host of others. It is refreshing to read some ways to create new tastes, while avoiding the foods that make me ill. Most gluten free recipes include many foods I am unable to eat. Thank you for providing more choices to help us remain healthy. Janice
Just to say thank you - I bought your cookbook from Rainbow in Norwich and at last I have been able to make decent pastry as I now understand how the different types of flour work - my husband, who has all sorts of intolerances, is delighted!
Tina, Norwich, U.K.