Cooking for yourself is relatively easy when you can choose from anything and be guaranteed good health. Yet when you meet your partner who's gluten intolerant, or you or your kids are diagnosed with celiac disease then mealtimes become more of a chore.

Actually, that's not strictly true. Often cooking for the gluten intolerant is easier than finding them a snack to eat in the supermarket. Picnics and day trips can be awkward when they're left with no choice but fruit and veg, or a packet of crisps (providing the flavoring is gluten-free!). So what alternatives are there to sandwiches, pies and cakes?

Firstly you need to build up a repertoire of gluten free food. For instance, rice. Bread and pasta are both carbohydrates that most people eat on a daily basis and without them gluten intolerant individuals can be left feeling hungry. Rice is great for filling you up and it goes with so much other food, too. For a picnic you could make saffron rice with raisins and serve it with cold chicken wings, coleslaw and cucumber. For a less healthy treat, substitute things like bread, dumplings and pastry for chips or mashed potato.

The real life saver for cooking gluten free sweet foods is gluten free flour. In the past this was impossible to use and everything crumbled but if you look around nowadays there are some really good brands that offer self raising as well as plain. Things like chocolate chip muffins are great for celiacs who crave something sweet and there's absolutely no reason why a gluten intolerant child has to go without a birthday cake.

Pastry, however, is often still a bit of a problem with gluten free flour, so try to use the filling and find a way to make it into a separate meal. For instance, a chicken and leek pie could become chicken and leek casserole, served with vegetables and lots of creamy mashed potato. If you're a fan of apple or berry pie then ditch the pastry and make a crumble with wheat free flour, oats, butter and sugar instead. Also a problem is bread dough and as many gluten free individuals crave pizza once they've had to give it up, that's often one of the first things they try to make. Gluten free flour doesn't rise very well, so the key here is to use plain flour for a thin-crust dough recipe (there are loads available online).

Very importantly for cooking meals for gluten intolerant individuals is to always check the ingredients for each new foodstuff that you use. The most surprising foods can contain gluten, like ginger beer, '100%' oatcakes, soy sauce and stock cubes, so to avoid hours of your loved ones writhing in agony or feeling very sick indeed, make sure you're not using anything that has gluten in it. Things like soy sauce and stock cubes often have gluten in them and unfortunately the only alternatives are to remove them from the meal completely or pay out more for gluten-free alternatives. Everything else, on the other hand, can generally be substituted with something equally as nutritional and equally as delicious.

Stan Tian

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