If you have celiac disease, you have to avoid foods with gluten. Eating foods containing gluten causes your body's immune system to attack your digestive system, leading to malabsorption and malnutrition. There are a number of gluten-free foods you can eat, and learning how to cook with them will improve your health and quality of life.
Know What to Avoid
To understand how to cook without gluten, you need to be able to identify which foods contain gluten. Gluten is a protein found a foods made with, and containing wheat, barley and rye. Reading the ingredient list can help you identify foods with gluten. In addition, you need to avoid foods containing spelt, kamut, einkorn, emmer, tritical, durum, wheat starch, self rising flour, graham flour, semolina, cake flour, pastry flour, malt and malt flavoring.
Focus on Gluten-Free Foods
Fresh meats, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, milk, fruits, vegetables, oils, herbs and spices are all naturally gluten-free. In addition, gluten-free grains and starches include rice, potatoes, corn, peas, millet, quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth. To make cooking simpler, make these gluten-free foods the focus of your meals. For example, a gluten-free meal may consist of roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and a side of broccoli sauteed in olive oil.
Learn to Adapt Recipes
Learning how to adapt recipes using gluten-free food items can broaden your meal choices. Instead of using wheat flour to bread meats, try cornmeal, crushed potato chips, gluten-free cereals or gluten-free breadcrumbs. To thicken gravies and sauces, use cornstarch or rice flour. You can also use cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca or arrowroot to thicken pie fillings and puddings. When it comes to baking, look for gluten-free baking mixes and flours, such as rice flour, soy flour and quinoa flour.
Prevent Cross-Contamination
If a gluten-free food product comes in contact with any food containing gluten, it is considered contaminated. To prevent contamination, keep all of your gluten-free products separate from any foods containing gluten. You should also have certain utensils and appliances for gluten-free foods only, such as toasters, plates and silverware. It is also important that your cooking utensils and area be clean and free of any foods containing gluten. Have separate containers of items you might share with other household members, such as margarine, mayonnaise and peanut butter, to prevent possible contamination.
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