Food Substitutions Gluten Edition

In a time of growing food allergies and elimination style diets, I know I’m always looking for a helpful guide of easy swaps I can make to still have delicious, satisfying meals while meeting my specific dietary needs. This is by no means an all-inclusive list but merely a great place to start and I can’t wait to add to it as more great options become available and I have a chance to test them out. 

Flours:

• Finely-ground Almond flour
  • A decent sub for all-purpose flour, but I find I need an extra egg for baking to bind things.
• Finely-ground Oat flour
  • Super easy to make at home with a food processor.
  • Make sure the oats are certified gluten-free as sometime there is cross contamination.
• Coconut flour
  • Requires extra moisture added so I tend to use this in combination with almond flour.
• Gluten-Free 1:1 flour
  • These have definitely come a long way and are getting better, but I recommend flipping the package and reading the ingredients carefully. They typically have quite a few gums and stabilizers.

Pasta:

• Brown Rice
  • Jovial is hands down my favorite pasta.
• Chickpea Pasta
  • I highly recommend cooking this about half the time the package says, or you’ll be eating mush.
• Lentil Pasta
  • Getting better but still haven’t found a brand I’m smitten with. Same as with chickpea pasta, I recommend reducing this cook time by about half.

When you want a whole grain:

• Brown Rice
• Quinoa (technically a seed)
• Millet
• Amaranth

Swaps for places you might not expect to find gluten:

• Tamari and Coconut Aminos are great swaps for soy sauce, which contains gluten.
  • Coconut Aminos has a lighter, yet sweeter taste than tamari. 

• Deli Meats 
• Bouillon Cubes/ Soup bases