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Dairy/Gluten-free tips?
So, my dear Mr. Black was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in October. He's decided to try a dairy-and-gluten-free diet to see if it helps. Any recipes or tips on delicious products/brands (or which ones to avoid) would be greatly appreciated!
For starters...is there a good dairy-free substitute for fresh-grated parm?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ruth on -
Ugh. I don't have any good advice. Just my sympathy... I know that can be a crummy disease to manage.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on -
I have a couple of friends who are gluten-free because of celiac. They swear by Bob's Red Mill products for grains. I'll see if any of them have any product advice aside from that, as there are also a couple going dairy free.
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Permalink Reply by kommishoner on -
I don't know brand names, but I just went to Plum (local vegan place) for lunch and I swear I had no idea I was not eating cheese. Apparently vegan cheese has come a long way in the last couple of years. You might call them and see what they use - they had a lot of gluten-free stuff as well.
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Permalink Reply by rommie on -
I was dairy/gluten-free for a while with Mikey, so I might be able to help some. I can't think of many good products to recommend, though; the storebought stuff sucked my will to live and was uber-expensive, so that was the point at which I started learning to cook. Oh, Bob's Red Mill gluten-free chocolate cake mix is awesome, though.
We used rice milk for savory stuff and coconut milk for sweeter foods for a long time, both homemade unless I needed really thick, creamy coconut milk. I don't like buying rice milk, in particular, because there are about fifteen gazillion extra ingredients; my homemade kind only has two, brown rice and water. I've been on an almond milk kick lately, but I haven't tried making it myself yet, so I ration it carefully to make it last. Hot cocoa with almond milk = teh noms.
I tried soy "cheese" once and hated it. Daiya brand "cheese" is a little better, but I still kind of think it sucks. Moose loves it, though. It gets nice and melty on pizza, too. I do like the cheddar-style Chreese, which is mostly nutritional yeast and comes in little packets, but they're kind of pricey. There are lots of recipes for nutritional yeast cheese substitutes online, and I make those for on burgers, pizza, pasta, whatever. They're not cheese, but they're pretty good in their own rights.
Okay, actually, it's not just soy "cheese" I don't like. I have yet to find a soy product other than soy sauce that I like. Speaking of which, use tamari for gluten-free, since most soy sauce has wheat. Anyway, I hated the soy ice creams and yogurts and all that stuff, so I got the kinds made with coconut milk instead. So Delicious is one brand. They're expensive, though (seeing a trend here?), so I just ended up making my own. My little ice cream maker has paid itself off so many times it's not even funny. Coconut milk ice cream is really easy to make, too. I can throw some recipes at you, if you want. I'm an ice cream fiend.
Earth Balance margarine is dairy-free (most aren't) and comes in both tubs and sticks. I like it. A friend swears by Best Life. I guess that works, too.
Gluten is a little trickier, since it's not a one-for-one sub most of the time. There are lots of blogs out there with excellent recipes, though. I've only had one thing from the Gluten Free Goddess site that I didn't much like, and it was a recipe that was many years old. Even though we're back to eating wheat now, I still make her big banana muffins (sometimes with pumpkin instead of banana) all the time. We really like her blueberry millet cake and apple coconut cakes, too.
Let's see, I have a couple really tasty pancake recipes if you want them. A good buckwheat apple muffin recipe, too. Mostly, other than baked goods, we just stick with making naturally gluten-free meals, thickening with corn starch (or arrowroot) when necessary. I stuck with lots of rice and potatoes for starches, plus quinoa, oats, buckwheat groats, and millet when my picky husband wasn't eating. Cornbread can easily be made gluten-free, and corn tortillas are just corn, water, and a little salt if you make them from scratch. Just make sure to get gluten-free cornmeal and masa harina (I think that's what it's called--someone correct me if I'm wrong, please). I could make some pretty tasty bread, nothing like the crumbly bricks sold in the stores, but I just didn't bother more than once a week or so, less in the summer. If he can have egg, gluten/dairy-free gets instantly much, much easier than if you can't. Egg is a great binder and leavener.
That's all kind of random, but like I said, if you want some recipes, I can send you a bunch of our mainstays.
My sympathies to him. I hope he gets good results. After the first few weeks, it's not hard to eat quite well, but it's a royal pain to get people to understand that NO, you can't let your food touch, and YES, a little will hurt you.
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Permalink Reply by Zealflyer on -
I saw that someone recommended Earth Balance - I'd second that. Also, Daiya is the tastiest (if not healthiest) fake cheese in my opinion. One of the faux mayos is pretty good too - the one that is in the cooler, not the one on the shelf. "How it all Vegan" is an awesome go-to cookbook and "Vegan Cucakes Rule the World" has delicious cupcakes and one that is gluten-free (though I have never made the gluten-free one). I've never been vegan myself but I have friends and one family who are vegan so I have experimented a bit. We were actually talking about going dairy-free around here though because the little one is lactose intolerant and doesn't tend to take "no" for an answer. Would be a hard one for me and the boy though!
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Permalink Reply by JTX on -
Natural Nectar "Sans Gluten" Cracklebred in sundried tomato & oregano is AMAZING. I use it for chili, tuna salad, egg salad, etc. etc. I've also discovered lentil crisps, which are pretty tasty and come in a variety of flavors.
I am waiting to try one of the gluten & dairy free parms but they're really expensive so I usually stick with Daiya or similar fake cheese and only use it when I can melt it (ex. in the aforementioned chili).
Most rice pastas have yucky texture, but quinoa is great. You can get quinoa-based pasta and you'd never know it was different.
I'll "ditto" the Earth Balance margarine (and I LOVE butter, so that was a tough one) and the So Delicious coconut milk products.
Most of my GF friends prefer Udi's GF breads. I have found they're too dense for me (I have a Lap-Band, so many breads are too hard for me to eat anyway) but the taste seems fine. Not fresh-out-of-the-oven Vienna, but when you discover gluten makes you sick and then kick the habit, you start to feel so good that it's worth giving up.
I went gluten- and dairy-free right before Thanksgiving (under care of a nutritionist) and lost five pounds and gained an octave in singing. I was super-strict for the first month and now I'm less so, only because life gets in the way -- but I prefer how I feel this way. Just sometimes, girl needs real ice cream or cheese, ya know?
Hopefully, products will continue to get better.... good luck!
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