Eating Out Gluten-Free: Just Say, "Allergy?"

No doubt all of us who have to avoid gluten have the "restaurant horror story."  (Likely, more than one such story.)  Though, I have had far more good experiences at restaurants than bad, which is a testament to the public's growing awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity/intolerance.

My husband and I went to Colorado to visit his parents for the 2011 Christmas weekend.  (Gluten-free air travel is a whole different adventure, and not part of this story because it's worthy of its own blog post.)  One evening, we met a couple of friends at a Mexican food restaurant in Castle Rock, Colorado.  I first asked our server - just in case - if the restaurant had a gluten-free menu, the answer to which was, "no."  I had perused the restaurant's menu online beforehand to plan my meal around my gluten-free, vegetarian diet.  They had some delicious-sounding vegetarian spinach enchiladas made with white corn tortillas on their menu, and before ordering, I expressed to the server my dietary issues with gluten.  In particular, I was concerned about a "white sauce" over the enchiladas.

At first, the server assured me that no, the spinach enchiladas did not contain gluten.  But I had a feeling that she didn't quite have an understanding of gluten.  I rattled off the list of gluten-containing grains and a short list of possible ingredients; in particular, flour.  She went to ask a manager about it, then returned to the table reporting that most definitely, the spinach enchiladas did not contain gluten.  Fabulous!  I ordered said enchiladas and two-for-one margaritas (hey, I was on vacation!).

The enchiladas came to the table looking glorious in their minimalist blanket of white sauce and sautéed portobello mushrooms.  My skepticism had grown since ordering them, however, so I poked at the suspiciously-thick white sauce with my fork, and then decided to taste it, hoping the thickening ingredient was corn starch.  I tasted it a second time, and then had my husband taste it.  It was...well, being that I haven't eaten wheat flour in almost two years, I couldn't say for sure if that was the taste, but some little alarm bell went off in my head.  I still thought about chancing it and just eating the whole dish (I think by this point, I was very hungry and margarita #1 was already down the hatch, working its magic).

But my husband went to ask one last time whether the dish had flour - and therefore gluten - in it.  He returned with our server a few minutes later, when she reported that she had asked the cook this time, and that the cook said yes, he does make the white sauce with flour.  D'oh!

My plate was replaced with fresh food, sans-white sauce.  (And as a side note, I have to say it was perfectly delicious without any sauce.)  The only other problem I had with the meal came about halfway through eating the enchiladas.  As I ate a piece of sautéed portobello mushroom with a bite of enchilada, I realized that it wasn't a sautéed portobello mushroom: it was a piece of pork!  So, this restaurant had failed at meeting both my gluten-free dietary requirement and my vegetarian dietary preference.  To be fair, I hadn't mentioned being vegetarian to the server.  But the dish I was eating was advertised as such.  Oh, well.

Our server was apologetic about the gluten, but none of the restaurant staff seemed as concerned about it as they should be (thank goodness I don't have more serious reactions to gluten!).  They just had no awareness of or training in gluten-related dietary concerns.  Luckily, I did not have a bad reaction to the flour in the white sauce, but the whole incident raised the question: what's the best way to approach your Celiac or gluten sensitive/intolerant situation with restaurant staff to ensure a safe dining experience?

Around the restaurant table, we decided that perhaps the way to approach the subject in the future would just be to say, "I have an allergy to gluten."  People respond to the word "allergy" and understand its serious nature, whereas if you tell someone who's never heard of the condition, "I have a gluten intolerance" or "I need to eat gluten-free," they might think you just don't like bread.  I try to be an ambassador for those of us who have not been medically diagnosed with Celiac Disease but nonetheless have gluten issues, and I don't mind educating servers and managers on what gluten is, what ingredients contain it, and how to help avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen.  So I hesitate to misrepresent gluten sensitivity/intolerance, which does not produce an immediate histamine reaction like an allergy.

As with any food allergy, the only treatment for Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity/intolerance is completely avoiding the trigger food - in this case, gluten.  Therefore, though the terminology may be different, the restaurant's response to both allergies and sensitivities/intolerances should be exactly the same.  But for the sake of getting a restaurant's staff on the same page with you and for your own peace of mind, is it better to just use the words "gluten allergy" when you place your order?

What's your strategy for eating out gluten-free?  Do you just say, "allergy?"  What's your "horror story" that led you to your current strategy?

Versatile Recipes on a Budget: Lentil Soup

Some of the best recipes a home cook on a budget can have in one's repertoire are simple, basic recipes with a solid base of flavor.  By this, I mean recipes with a few inexpensive ingredients that taste great as-is, but that you can easily modify with add-ons to create multiple great-tasting meals.  Recipes like this can help you save money by utilizing leftover ingredients from other meals.  Soups and stews are especially adaptable.  For this reason, it's good to keep some gluten-free vegetable bouillon on-hand for those days when you have some leftover veggies and, optionally, some rice or pasta or beans - you have all the makings of a nearly-instant vegetable soup that didn't cost you an extra trip to the store!  In addition to vegetable broth-based soups, tomato-based soups and stews also offer a lot of flexibility.

I love taking versatile recipes like this and running with them, adding whatever I have in the refrigerator that I think might go well with the other flavors, and tossing in a variety of spices that changes every time I make the dish.  One of my favorites to play with is my lentil soup recipe - my husband says I'm like a mad scientist when I'm putting it together!  Lentils are a great vegetarian source of protein, iron and fiber, and even organic lentils don't cost very much.  The other ingredients in the basic form of this recipe - tomato paste, onion, garlic, vegetable bouillon and cumin - are also relatively easy on the budget, while still offering a lot of nutrition.  This delicious soup is entirely vegan and dairy-free if you leave off the optional cheese garnish.

The Recipe
Time: 10 mins prep, 30 mins cooking time
Yield: 4-5 servings
Use organic ingredients whenever possible!

Basic recipe:

• ½ cup lentils
• 1 6 oz. can tomato paste (also works great with just ½ 6 oz. can)
• ⅓ medium yellow or white onion, chopped
• 6 cups water
• 1 gluten-free vegetable bouillon cube
• ½ tsp salt if using low-sodium bouillon
• 1 tsp garlic granules or powder; or 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp cumin
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Optional add-ons (use one, some, or all of these and you still get a wonderful soup!):

• 2-3 medium carrots, or 16-20 baby-cut carrots, chopped
• ¼ to ½ green, red, orange or yellow bell pepper, chopped
• ½ cup scallions, chopped
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground mustard
• dash cayenne pepper, or to taste
• shredded jack or mozzarella cheese for garnish

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add onions (and carrots if using) and sauté for about 5 minutes.  About halfway through, add garlic to sauté, and bell pepper if using.
2. Add all other ingredients to the saucepan and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until lentils are soft.  Still occasionally during cooking time.
3. Serve hot (if using bay leaf, remove before serving).  Optionally, garnish with shredded jack or mozzarella cheese.

Serve this simple lentil soup with some garlic toast
and you have a winner!

New Gluten-Free Bread: My Review of Genius by Glutino

There's a new gluten-free bread in town: "Genius" by Glutino. I noticed it the other day at Earth Fare market in Columbia, South Carolina. Whenever I run across a new gluten-free product, especially a bread, I always get excited to try it! So I picked up the multigrain version of Glutino's Genius, which promises to be so "deliciously soft and light" that "you won't believe it's gluten-free."

Ingredients

Water, potato starch, canola oil, corn starch, tapioca starch, dried egg whites, rice bran, molasses, cellulose powder, yeast, inverted sugar, sugar, modified cellulose, sugar beet fibre, salt, xanthan gum, calcium sulfate, enzymes.

Allergy information: Contains eggs.  May contain soy and sesame.

Unfortunately, Glutino's Genius is not organic, but it is vegetarian, and is also dairy-free.

Texture
The first thing one notices about Genius is that the slices are large for store-bought gluten-free bread, meaning larger sandwiches are possible.  The second thing one notices is that the Genius bread is, indeed, very light and fluffy, with a holy texture that gives it the appearance of wheat-based bread.

However, Genius is much more brittle than wheat-based bread, which is to be expected with the absence of gluten.  Still, it doesn't just crumble when you look at it, like some other gluten-free bread brands - though by the end of my loaf the slices were starting to break in half.  I suspect the reason that most store-bought gluten-free breads are so fragile is partly due to the absence of gluten holding the bread together, and partly due to the fact that they are usually sold frozen.

One thing that Genius excels at is toasting!  It makes a light, crispy toast that is well-suited for breakfast toast or a garlic bread side for soup or pasta.  I imagine that this feature might also make it well-suited for making bread crumbs.  I made a Simple-Yet-Delicious Portobello Sandwich with some toasted Genius and it held up OK, though not great.  The bread gets mangled and falls apart when making a nut butter and jelly sandwich with any kind of nut butter that has to be refrigerated and gets hard, or when spreading it with margarine or butter that hasn't been pre-softened.

Flavor
Like most of the other gluten-free breads I've tried by Glutino, I thought the multigrain Genius was a bit bland.  I suspect this may be due to the fact that there simply aren't any grains or flours in the bread.  It does not taste like wheat-based multigrain bread at all, which may be a bit of a disappointment if you are new to gluten-free eating.  However, its mild flavor means that it won't overpower the other flavors of the sandwiches you make with it.  If you prefer white bread, you may enjoy the mild flavor of the multigrain Genius.  Glutino also makes a white bread version of Genius.

Glutino's Genius multigrain on
a dinner plate showing size

The Verdict
If you see Glutino's Genius in your grocery store or natural food store, it's worth a try to see if it's your cup of tea (or slice of bread, as the case may be).  As for myself, for now I'll be sticking with other brands that I've come to enjoy.  But the good thing is that Genius is new, and as it gets tested in the market and Glutino gets feedback from customers, the company will surely continue improving it.  I will wait a while and pick up another loaf of Genius sometime to see if it can eventually win me over.

Shop for Glutino products on Amazon

Summer Vegetable and Potato Casserole

This casserole is a new recipe for us. We found it delicious as a vegetarian/vegan main dish, but you could also use it as a side to complement another dish. It's a simple recipe that combines eggplant, squash, green beans, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, tomato and bell pepper with herbs and a little tomato sauce. A lot of chopping vegetables is involved in making this recipe, but it's worth it! And it can make a lot of tasty leftovers, depending on how many people you're cooking for.

The Recipe

Time: 15 mins. prep, 1 hr. 10 mins. cooking time

Yield: 5 servings as main dish, 7 servings as side dish

Use organic ingredients whenever possible!

• 1 medium eggplant (we used 2 "baby" eggplants)
• 1 large russet potato
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 medium yellow or white onion
• 1 large or 2 small zucchini or other summer squash
• 1 package (8 oz.) button or crimini mushrooms
• 8 oz. green beans
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1½ tsp dried basil
• 1½ tsp dried dill weed
• 1½ tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 small can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ⅓ cup gluten-free bread crumbs (some brands are vegan, though I have yet to find one that's organic)

1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. Cut all vegetables except green beans into 2-inch chunks, then place all vegetables including green beans into a large mixing bowl.
3. Mince garlic, then add it along with the herbs, salt and pepper to the veggies in the mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly to distribute herbs and spices evenly.
4. Pour veggie mixture into a 11" x 15" (5 qt.) baking dish. Drizzle olive oil, then tomato sauce over the top. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
5. Bake at 375° F for 1 hour and 10 minutes, adding a little water about halfway through baking time to keep top vegetables from drying out too much.
6. Serve while hot and enjoy!

Simple Fruit Smoothie

We love smoothies in this house. It's such a delicious, easy way to get a couple of daily fruit servings in. You'll probably be seeing a lot of smoothie recipes on this blog as I experiment with new ingredient combinations.

This recipe, in its non-dairy form, is our standard, go-to smoothie that we make with ingredients we usually always keep on-hand. Today I tried adding a little organic yogurt for some variation, which was quite good! Even so, I think I still prefer the original, non-dairy recipe.

The Recipe
Time: 2 minutes
Yield: Makes 1 smoothie.
Use organic ingredients whenever possible!

• 6 tbsp frozen blueberries
• 4 whole frozen strawberries
• ½ small to medium banana, cut into chunks
• 6 tbsp plain or vanilla yogurt (optional)
• apple juice (see directions)

1. Add blueberries, strawberries, banana and yogurt to a blender or tall Magic Bullet cup.
2. Pour in apple juice until the level just touches the top of the fruit.
3. Blend, adding more apple juice if the smoothie is too thick.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Step 1: Fruit and yogurt

Step 2: Apple juice

Step 3&4: Blend and enjoy!

The Vegetarian BLT, or the Simple-Yet-Delicious Portobello Sandwich

I am a vegetarian. My husband is not. The way we work it out with dinner is usually that any meat involved is an optional addition to whatever meal we're making - for example, stir-fry vegetables or vegetarian pad thai, with a few shrimp cooked separately for my husband to add.

Last night, we did something a little different and cooked two sort-of separate meals. My husband had been craving a BLT (and so was I, honestly). Obviously, that would leave only an "LT" for me.  So we did some searching online for vegetarian BLT recipes.  Most of them substituted vegetarian faux-bacon (one of the main ingredients of which is wheat gluten, so that's not an option). Another featured a fried-until-crunchy slice of cheese - sort of appetizing, but not that substantial. Almost simultaneously, my husband and I remembered a delicious "burger" made with a portobello mushroom cap I'd had at Whiskey Creek restaurant in Bishop, California. I say "burger" because the restaurant didn't have gluten-free hamburger buns or bread to put it on, so I just ate the innards with a fork and knife. And we thought, why not cook up something like that separately for me?

I'm very pleased to say that the result was amazing! This is such a simple, quick recipe and yet soooo good - dare I say, better than a BLT, which has always been one of my favorite sandwiches.  In fact, I was so eager to eat it that I completely forgot about photographing it for the blog.

The Recipe
Time: 15 mins for prep and cooking.
Yield: Makes 1 sandwich.
Use organic ingredients whenever possible!

• 1 small to medium portobello mushroom cap
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 slice yellow onion, halved to form shoestrings
• 1 slice of Muenster or your favorite cheese (Swiss would go well, I'd imagine.)
• sliced tomato
• 1 leaf of your favorite lettuce (I used red leaf.)
• mayonnaise
• 2 slices of your favorite gluten-free bread (I used Rudi's multigrain.)

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Sauté onions until they begin to carmelize.
2. Remove stem from portobello cap.  Move onions to the side of the pan and add second tbsp olive oil.  Pan-fry portobello cap for about 6-7 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, toast the bread to your liking and dress it with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.
4. When the portobello looks just about done, put the onions on top, then melt the cheese over it while it's still in the pan.
5. Transfer the portobello to the sandwich and serve.

Inaugural post

I've been thinking about starting a blog about gluten-free living nearly ever since gluten really entered the forefront of my consciousness about a year ago. Today, awaiting the results of a blood test for Celiac Disease, the spark of motivation truly hit.  Even if I turn out not to have Celiac Disease, I will be remaining gluten-free, because I am no longer in constant digestive pain since giving up wheat, barley and rye a year ago.  And as anyone who has ever tried going gluten-free knows, trying to avoid gluten in American food culture is sometimes like trying to navigate a minefield blindfolded!  So, my hope is that blogging about my gluten-free experiences, products I use, and recipes I make will help others trying to steer clear of the dreaded protein and live healthier, happier lives.