Gluten Free Tips

Archive for February, 2009

In this article I’m going to share with you a selection of gluten free pumpkin recipe ideas. Pumpkins are full of the antioxidant called beta-carotene. Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease. Pumpkins are also a good source of Vitamins C, K, and E, and magnesium, potassium, and iron.

Pumpkins are by nature a gluten free food, and I hope that via the following gluten free pumpkin recipe examples you can incorporate this food into your starter, main course and dessert options.

Pumpkin Nutrition Facts (quoted for 1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)

• Calories 49
• Protein 2 grams
• Carbohydrate 12 grams
• Dietary Fiber 3 grams
• Calcium 37 mg
• Iron 1.4 mg
• Magnesium 22 mg
• Potassium 564 mg
• Zinc 1 mg
• Selenium .50 mg
• Vitamin C 12 mg
• Niacin 1 mg
• Folate 21 mcg
• Vitamin A 2650 IU
• Vitamin E 3 mg

Now for gluten free pumpkin recipe number 1. The (often-forgotten) pumpkin seeds! These can be roasted and kept in a container for up to a year. Pumpkin seeds are delicious as a snack food, or can be added to breads or sprinkled onto soups or other dishes. Pumpkin seeds are believed to have an anti-inflammatory effect, and help protect against prostate cancer and osteoporosis.

The second gluten free pumpkin recipe is for Pumpkin muffins

• 1 cup gluten-free flour
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup mashed, cooked pumpkin

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. In a bowl, whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and sugar. In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork; then stir in the oil and pumpkin. Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.

The third gluten free pumpkin recipe is for Pumpkin soup.

Children like it because of it’s sweet taste; but you can also present it at a dinner party and pass it off as a very sophisticated dish. The ingredients and preparation for this gluten free pumpkin recipe are the following :
Olive oil, potatoes, Leeks, carrots, onions, pumpkin, garlic, chicken stock, nutmeg, salt & pepper, and parsley.

Put oil in pot and glaze the garlic and onions until they are transparent. Then add chopped up potatoes, leeks, carrots and pumpkin. Then add the chicken or vegetable stock. Let it simmer until the vegetables are soft. Then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Purree the soup and serve garnished with chopped parsley.

As evidenced by the above 3 examples above of gluten free pumpkin recipes, you can see that you can incorporate pumpkin in many types of dishes – not just vegetable dishes. I suggest you look at some of the other dishes you normally make and see if you can substitute or mix pumpkin into them.

Good luck and Enjoy!

Gluten-free pasta can be used as a substitute for normal, gluten laden, pasta in most recipes and is virtually indistinguishable from the normal type of pasta. As such there is nothing to stop you from throwing a meal with your favourite Italian cuisine and including many pasta dishes made with gluten-free pasta if you or some of your friends happen to have coeliac condition.

The food manufacturers have been quite ingenious in developing gluten-free pasta and use many different approaches to producing the end product. Some examples of gluten-free pastas are: -

1. rice and corn pasta – this has good cooking qualities and resembles wheat pasta very closely
2. organic brown rice pasta – a similar texture and flavour to normal pasta with the enhanced nutrients of whole grain rice
3. white rice pasta – ground rice used to produce a realistic looking pasta
4. maize, potato, soya and rice pasta – the taste and texture of standard Pasta with a nutritional result

One main advantage of using these pastas is there very close resemblance to the typical gluten-based pasta you would buy in the supermarket or local store. Firstly, you can substitute these for normal pasta when throwing a meal form friends and no one will be the wiser allowing the meal to proceed without being diverted into a cul-de-sac in discussing the ingredients. Secondly, if you have a child or teenager who has recently been diagnosed with coeliac condition, you can very happily substitute the standard pasta they have been used to for these gluten-free pastas and again the gluten-free product will be inconspicuous in the meal.

With the growing awareness of coeliac condition and a more general requirement for gluten-free foods from larger sections of the community, gluten-free pastas are now becoming a regular items on the shelves of supermarkets. Indeed many supermarkets now carry extensive lines of gluten-free foods stretching from pastas to bread and cake mixes to name but a few.

Why don’t you try one with the next meal that you take. As a challenge do a blindfold taste test to those members of your family who are able to eat gluten. You will find that blindfolded n one is able to distinguish the taste or the texture of gluten containing pasta from the gluten-free pasta.