Cooking Gluten-Free? We’ve Got You Covered!

Published: March 4, 2021

Woman cooking & looking for a gluten-free meal.

If you or a loved one has celiac disease or a sensitivity to gluten, our Health Hub blog has dozens of recipes to try. LG Health is committed to offering healthy, delicious recipes to meet a variety of nutritional needs. In addition to adding new recipes to our blog, we are revisiting some favorites and noting where simple ingredient swaps can make a recipe gluten-free (GF).

Tips for Gluten-Free Cooking

If you are new to gluten-free cooking or considering eliminating gluten, this blog post provides an overview of the diet and this story has tips for eating GF on a budget.

Finding gluten-free ingredients is much easier today than decades ago, when only specialty health food stores carried these items. Many mainstream supermarkets have dedicated aisles for gluten-free foods, and most familiar household brands have expanded their offerings to include gluten-free options.

Stock Your Pantry with These GF Basics

Keeping GF versions of these ingredients handy in your kitchen will make cooking gluten-free second nature. You’ll reach for them repeatedly.

All-purpose flour—some GF flour mixes include xanthan gum, an additive that improves the chewiness of baked goods (it’s also used as a stabilizer in bottled sauces and dressings). If your GF flour includes xanthan gum, you can substitute the flour cup-for-cup in recipes. If it does not contain xanthan gum, add that ingredient to your shopping list. You’ll use roughly ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum for every 1 cup of flour in a recipe.
Pasta—you’ll find every shape of GF pasta, from lasagna noodles to elbow macaroni to ravioli—dry, fresh or frozen. Ingredients vary as well, including brown rice, quinoa, corn, buckwheat (which is not wheat), chickpeas and more.
Sauces—keep GF brands of soy sauce or tamari, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce and hot sauce in your refrigerator or pantry.
Bread—GF breads have come a long way in recent years. Freeze your favorites.
Breadcrumbs or panko—you can buy these already made, with or without seasoning. Use as a binder in turkey meatballs or Women & Babies Hospital’s Famous Premium Crab Cakes, or as a delicious topping on casseroles.
Crackers—not just for snacking, GF crackers make terrific homemade breadcrumbs with a wonderful crunch. Grind them in a food processor, add seasoning and store in an airtight container.
Broth or soup stock—most organic, boxed chicken or vegetable broth brands are GF.

You may also want to add GF oats, cereal, salad dressings, corn tortillas and alternate grains such as quinoa, rice, polenta or grits.

Recipes from Our Health Hub

Once you’ve stocked your pantry with gluten-free staples, it’s easy to modify most recipes in one of two ways:

Choosing a GF brand when a recipe calls for an ingredient that traditionally contains gluten, such as soy sauce or breadcrumbs
Swapping a similar ingredient when there is no gluten-free alternative, such as using quinoa in a recipe that calls for couscous, or corn tortillas in place of flour tortillas

Here are a dozen good ‘n healthy recipes to try, using simple swaps:

Good ‘n Healthy Minestrone Soup (use GF stock and pasta)
Stuffed Turkey Breast (use GF breadcrumbs and stock)
Fish Tacos (use GF breadcrumbs and corn tortillas)
Crockpot Chicken BBQ (use GF Worcestershire sauce or BBQ sauce)
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Bites (use GF oats)
Buffalo Chicken Tenderloins & Cauliflower Bites (use GF hot sauce and serve with GF ranch dressing instead of blue cheese dressing)
1912 Chicken Croquettes (use GF cracker crumbs)
Tomato Basil Soup (use GF flour and broth)
Macaroni and Cheese (use GF pasta, flour and breadcrumbs)
Honey-Glazed Salmon with Basil (use GF soy sauce)
Glazed Meatloaf (use GF breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce)
Turkey Tetrazzini (use GF pasta, stock and breadcrumbs)