Have you seen this yet? One of the worst segments on the gluten free diet that I have seen. From spelling celiac wrong to saying it is like a "nut allergy" and you have to eliminate "almost all of the gluten." There has been a lot of bad media coverage on the GF diet lately, but this one takes the cake.
Send the Today Show an email and let them know how you feel about this!
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The stack of books on my nightstand is mostly Gluten Free Cookbooks. It seems like everyone is writing a GF book and I have read a lot of them. What really annoys me is when some popular mainstream cook/writer who really does not know that much about the GF diet decides to write a “gluten free” cookbook and do so by taking their old recipes and substituting GF pasta and call it day. If I am going to buy a GF cookbook I want one with real quality recipes that are not too hard to cook, taste good and offer some real gluten free alternatives.
Recently I had the chance to review Williams-Sonoma Weeknight Gluten Free - Simple, Healthy Gluten-Free Meals for Every Night of the Week by Kristine Kidd.
I love this cookbook. I have cooked a recipe from each section and loved them all. The meals are all fairly easy to make but the end results are healthy, gourmet-like meals. My kids have loved everything that I have cooked and I feel good about the food I am serving. It is now my favorite cookbook.
It helps that the author, Kristine Kidd, has celiac disease and was the Bon Appétit magazine’s Food Editor for 20 years. The cookbook includes easy to prepare, flavorful every night of the week recipes. This is not a gluten free baking cookbook so don’t expect recipes for breads and pie crusts. However, sprinkled throughout the chapters are recipes for starchy, gluten-free staples that can replace wheat-based pastas, breads or crusts in meals such as a Polenta Pizza Crust and this recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh.
Recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh
Williams-Sonoma Weeknight Gluten Free
Simple, Healthy Gluten-Free Meals for Every Night of the Week
Directions:
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Place the quinoa in a medium saucepan. Rinse with cold water, drain. Repeat rinsing 3 more times, and then drain the quinoa and return to the pan. Add 11⁄2 cups (12 fl oz/375 ml) water and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until all the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand at least 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Transfer the quinoa to a large shallow bowl and cool to room temperature. (Refrigerate to speed up the cooling).
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, chickpeas, radishes, cucumbers, green onions, parsley, mint, and feta, if using. Add to the cooled quinoa. Add the oil and lemon juice and toss to combine evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with romaine hearts for scooping.
To speed up dinner prep during the week, cook the quinoa the evening before (or save the leftovers from dinner that night).
Instead of the cherry tomatoes, you can use 1 lb (500 g) regular heirloom tomatoes, seeded and chopped.
I like to spoon the salad into a bowl lined with romaine hearts, and then use the salad to pick up bite-sized portions. This is another convenient dish to take to parties.
Now for the Giveaway
I am excited to offer a FREE copy of this wonderful cookbook to one lucky winner.
I am sure this cookbook will soon become a favorite! To enter the giveaway leave one comment on this post or one comment on my Facebook page with the name of your favorite Gluten Free Cookbook.
No purchase is necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries. The winners will be randomly chosen and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond, a new winner will be randomly chosen.
If you are not lucky enough to win a copy, you can purchase Weeknight Gluten Free (Williams-Sonoma): Simple, healthy meals for every night of the week
Disclaimer: I was provided with free product to sample, but was not paid to write this review. The opinions in this post are my own.
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Gluten free baking can be challenging. We have been baking GF for eight years and we have had lots of success in the kitchen but we have also had some down right disasters. So start with some easy and proven to be successful recipes and breathe easy if at first you don't succeed.
Baked goods that are not dependent on gluten are pretty easy to recreate with either a store bought general gluten free flour mix or a gluten free flour mix you make yourself. By this I mean that if you have a recipe with a lot of eggs, sugar, oil or some kind of fruit, you can easily substitute almost any kind of gluten free flour mix for the regular flour called for in the recipe.
Gluten free breads, however, require very specific gluten free flour substitutions. For baking these, you will want to stick with a proven bread recipe.
We use the following recipe for most of our gluten free baking, other than bread. It works great for everything from the coating on chicken nuggets to chocolate chip cookies. I will double, or even triple, the recipe and store it in an airtight container in the freezer.
Basic Gluten Free Flour Recipe
Your baked goods will be less gritty if you use a finely ground brown rice flour such as Super Fine Brown Rice flour from Authentic Foods. Only choose grains and flours labeled gluten free. Bob’s Red Mill is a good source for Gluten Free Flour. You can also find Gluten Free flour on Amazon.
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Brown Rice Flour Mix |
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Whisk the flours together so the consistency is like one homogeneous bowl of flour – you do not want to see any clumps or individual streaks of flour.
Karen Robertson’s Gluten Free Flour Mix Karen Robertson is one of my favorite GF cooks. She recommends the following basic Gluten Free Flour Mix. I have used it as well and it works beautifully in cakes, cookies and pie crust.
Xanthan Gum
Xanthan gum is the ingredient in gluten free flour mixes that replaces the gluten and holds the recipe together. Most store-bought premade GF mixes include xanthan gum. If you are using my Gluten Free Flour Mix, you will want to add xanthan gum as follows:
Bread: 1 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour mix
Cakes: 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour mix
Cookies: 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour mix
In the recipes on my web site, I have already suggested the amount of xanthan gum that you use.
Ready Made Gluten Free Flour: The following are ready made, one-stop flours that can be used in almost any recipe:
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What are you serving for Easter Brunch? We are a pretty traditional family so we will have the standard ham and some roasted potatoes and probably broccoli salad. I do have a few extra treats that I will be serving this year.
For the egg dish, I will be making these Egg Muffins. They are pretty easy to make, naturally GF and they store well in the refrigerator if you have any leftovers. They work great too if you are going to a friend's house for a shared meal and want something that is safe for your GF family but great to share with others.
Recipe for Egg Muffins - Naturally Gluten and Dairy Free
Ingredients:
12 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste (at least 1/2 teaspoon of each)
Optional extra ingredients:
Cheddar cheese
sweet bell peppers, chopped
onion, chopped
cooked GF sausage (Jones Dairy Farm's meats are certified GF)
olives
spinach, chopped
mushrooms, chopped
salsa
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F and grease a 12-cup standard size muffin tin. The muffins will stick if you do not grease it well, so take care with this step.
Whisk the eggs, baking powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper until well blended.
Fill the bottom of the muffin tins until they are about 1/3 full with the optional extra ingredients.
The Gluten Free Teen put a tiny bit of cheese with the bell peppers, olives, onions and mushrooms in hers. Try a combination of onions and sausage, without any cheese, for a dairy free option or you can substitute dairy free cheese.
Stir the egg mixture and add to the muffin tin until each tin is 3/4ths full. They will rise slightly while baking.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until it starts to brown.
Yields 12 muffins.
Click HERE for a Printable Version of this Recipe.
As a special treat, I am also making this Blueberry Bread. It is an absolute family favorite.
Recipe for Gluten Free Blueberry Bread
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups gluten free flour
½ cup almond flour
1 teaspoon GF baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
⅛ teaspoon salt
¾ stick unsalted butter (use Earth Balance for dairy free) softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
½ cup warm milk (use Almond Milk for dairy free)
1 ½ cup fresh blueberries
Lemon sauce (recipe below)
Directions:
Lightly butter a bread loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Whisk together the gluten free flour, almond flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt.
Cream the butter until white. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.
Add the lemon zest.
Add the dry ingredients to this mixture in 2 parts, alternating with the milk. Do not over mix.
Fold in the blueberries.
Let the mix rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325 F and bake for one hour.
Remove from the bread pan and pour the lemon sauce over it.
Lemon Sauce
⅓ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Bring to a boil in a nonaluminum pot.
Adapted from Gluten Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly.
Click HERE for a Printable Version of this Recipe.
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According to the Operation Services Coordinator for Regal Entertainment Group the popcorn served at the Regal Movie Theaters is popped in canola oil and is gluten free. The buttery topping is also gluten free.
There is a lot of information on the internet about movie theater popcorn. I have not checked all of the movie theaters but a majority if not all that have responded to questions regarding the GF status of their popcorn have confirmed that it is GF. Recently, however, there was some confusion as to whether the buttery topping on the popcorn at Regal Entertainment Groups is GF or not.
The Savy Celiac reported that "the popcorn is gluten-free but the buttery topping is not" and listed the ingredients in the buttery topping as: “Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Soy Lechtin, TBHQ & Citric Acid to improve stability, Natural & Artificial Flavors & Colors, Dimethylpolysiloxane (an anti-foaming agent)”
None of these ingredients jump out as having gluten in them. Since we occasionally like to eat popcorn at this movie theater I decided to follow up on this information.
I made contact with Jami Miller, the Operational Services Coordinator for Regal. I shared with him the report on Savy Celiac and after a month of exchanging emails he confirmed that he checked with the Food Services Department and both the popcorn and the buttery topping is in fact gluten free.
I can only report the information that is shared with me and you should always independently confirm that food is gluten free before consuming it yourself. You should also confirm the risks of cross-contamination at your local movie theater.
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