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Food

Learning to Live Gluten Free

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Chances are, if you walk around any grocery store, you will see signs of the gluten-free movement. Some stores have entire sections; others have bright, noticeable labels to help you find products free of wheat, barely, rye and other gluten ingredients. What you may not know is that these products are not just a side effect of the latest fad diet; it’s how millions of people around the country with gluten intolerance and celiac disease manage their condition.

I won’t go into terrible detail here on symptoms and diagnosis, or what it’s like to react to gluten. Gluten intolerance symptoms are very specific, not only to the person but also to the amount of gluten ingested, and many people’s symptoms also change over time. But for the curious, you can check out this pretty comprehensive list.

What I am more interested in explaining here is the “how.” How do you live without gluten and not hole up in your apartment, destined to never eat anything other than fruits and vegetables grown in your own backyard…? Fine, that’s a little overboard, but it really can be tough at first. However, it is doable and, with a little work, can easily become just another part of your daily life.

Do Your Research

You must do research in order to understand how to live with this disease. But don’t just go and scour the big bad west of the Internet without a bit of planning and a cautious eye.

There are many exaggerations, lies, and outright scams out there when it comes to anything medical (or, I guess, any topic created). This problem especially applies to gluten intolerance because it has become such a fad to not eat gluten. So instead, here are some tried and true resources to get you started on the right track.

There’s much more out there, and some of it is quite good. Just make sure it’s coming from a reputable source before believing it.

Learn to Love Food Shopping

Raise your hand if you like food shopping. If you’re like me, your hand is firmly plastered to your side because the idea of going into the grocery store at least once a week for tons of specific things is, well, akin to a dental appointment. I’m with you. I feel your pain. And I promise, it gets easier.

Food shopping is important because (1) you need to buy a lot of fresh foods to stay both healthy and gluten-free, and (2) that’s the only way you are going to eat anything that isn’t bland meat, fruits, and veggies.

Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Giant Foods, and Wegmans all have great selections of gluten free products—from pasta to breads to baking goods—it’s all there. Just make sure you also learn to read labels. Many sauces, oils, and even spices have gluten. If in doubt, ask an employee, or consult a trusted list, before you buy.

Cook? Yes, You’ll Have To Do That, Too

For some of you, stepping into the kitchen may bring pure joy. But if you’re the kind of person who prides yourself on your PB&J skills with a side interest in boiling water, then this may take a bit of extra effort. But it’s totally worth it.

There are many great recipe sites and books out there, sharing both original concoctions and plays on traditional meals with the right substitutions. You may not be very good at them at first. That’s fine. It will get easier, just like cooking does in general. Eventually, you will love how easy it is to make your favorite recipes without any gluten at all.

Pro Tip: If you share a kitchen with those who are blessed with a tolerance for gluten-y goodness, it’s good practice to have a separate set of cooking utensils, pots and pans, and baking sheets. Gluten contamination happens all too easily on these surfaces. Also be sure to extensively clean your kitchen counters and other prep areas before and after every use, and also thoroughly clean any shared plates, utensils, or cups. While those who are not as seriously affected by gluten may not find these small contaminations bothersome, those with full-blown celiac disease often get sick from even the smallest interactions. It’s a good habit to learn.

You Have to Be Pickier About Where You Eat Out

The good news is that you don’t have to give up restaurants, happy hours, and late night munching. The bad news is that your favorite spots may or may not still be viable for you. Many more restaurants and other eateries now cater to those of us who can’t eat 98% of their food anyway. Pizza places, burger joints, and sit-down establishments are now dedicating parts of their menus to us. But even then, there are few things to keep in mind.

Here’s how to find the best places that will handle your requests with ease:

  • Call ahead and ask for a manager. They will be able to tell you any accommodations they offer and how broad their options are. While some restaurants have dedicated separate menus, others just modify a couple of their recipes by substituting something for something else. These may be good options, but still be wary. Their kitchen staff may not be as attentive and you’ll need to be extra vigilant in making sure they do it right.
  • Try to be familiar with the menu beforehand. This will save you review time and allow you to more specifically handle working with the staff so that you don’t slow down the whole process. Also, it cuts down on surprises.
  • Tell your waiter or waitress as soon as you are seated that you have a gluten allergy. She’ll ensure you have the proper menu and will tell you if there’s anything you should be aware of. This will also give you more time to work out the details while the rest of your party has time to make their selections. Often, this will even prompt a manager to come over, who will likely be more familiar with the processes of the kitchen and handling food sensitivities. Some restaurants even make this a policy.
  • Be wary. I hate to say it, but no matter what, eating out is a risk for those with gluten sensitivity. Your food is being prepared in the same place as food with gluten, by a busy and sometimes overworked kitchen staff. While there is still a good chance you will have a perfectly fine experience, be ready for the possibility of contamination and side effects. If your symptoms are severe, be extra careful and consider ordering something entirely from scratch that you know will be gluten free. If the chef says that he can’t guarantee that there won’t be contamination, consider whether this will be okay for you. The risk sometimes may be too high.

If you’re not sure where to start looking for gluten-free friendly establishments, check out the Gluten Free Registry. (It’s comprehensive and covers most of the country.) While it is sometimes a bit outdated, and includes old restaurants or forgets new ones, it’s a great starting point and often will help you think of other places that haven’t even crossed your mind.

Learning to live gluten-free may seem overwhelming, frustrating, and downright unfair, but it will get easier. If you stick to your new habits, are extra vigilant, and are above all patient with yourself and those around you, then the habits and routines will fall into place naturally. Gluten-free living doesn’t need to be hard, it just needs to be done right.

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Photo by Jennifer Dorsey

Food

My Cauliflower Nightmare

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This summer, I was shopping at the farmer’s market and on a whim, decided to buy a head of cauliflower. This may seem pretty lame to some of you—especially those of you who put nettle chips (that you hand-picked from a field and dried yourself) on your salads—but it was pretty gutsy of me!

I don’t eat cauliflower with any regularity. I’m fairly certain my mom had some traumatic experience with cauliflower in her childhood, because we never ate it when I was little, and I have always considered it to be devoid of flavor and nutrients. I mean, what kind of vegetable is white? That can’t be normal.

I brought home my bold purchase, put it in my fridge, closed the door. What had I done? Clearly I needed to find out what exactly this thing was and how I could make it tasty.

So I did what any aspiring cook would do: I Wikipedia-ed cauliflower. I learned that it’s in the brassica oleracea family and related to broccoli and Brussel sprouts (which I love). Cauliflower has lots of vitamin C and fiber while also being low in fat and carbohydrates. Unfortunately, it does not have quite as many vitamins and nutrients as broccoli, but it’s pretty close.

Excited to try this alien vegetable, I consulted the regular resources in my kitchen (because I find the number of recipes online terrifyingly daunting): The Betty Crocker Cookbook New Edition and The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (the exact 1980 edition my Mom has). Both had recipes involving boiling or steaming the cauliflower, followed by drenching it in fatty sauces, which sounded pretty foul. But then I remembered that my aunt had given us a cookbook for Christmas, Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?. Inside I found a recipe for “garlic-roasted cauliflower”—and anything with garlic in the title instantly had me drooling.

I consulted the recipe. I needed:

  • 1 head of garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
  • 1 large head of cauliflower (or two small ones), trimmed, cut into large florets
  • 4 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
  • 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

I didn’t have lemon juice, pine nuts, or fresh parsley, but I did have a garlic clove!

  1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
  1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add the garlic cloves. Boil for 15 seconds. Drain, peel and cut off any brown parts. Cut the largest cloves in half lengthwise.

I preheated the oven and started the water boiling for the garlic cloves. Wait what? Boiling the garlic cloves? Unexpected invaluable lesson: boiling them for 15 seconds makes peeling them a heck of a lot easier!

I took my knife and cut off a floret (think snacking on raw broccoli size), I was getting excited about the prospect of my delectable, garlicky cauli—HOLY CRAP, THERE’S A SPIDER IN MY CAULIFLOWER!

I screamed. Actually, to be more specific, I screamed like I was five. (Side note: I have arachnophobia.) I found myself in the living room, clutching my phone, feeling very itchy, and frantically texting my fiancé to come home from work NOW and save me!

Now, I love farmer’s markets, and I understand that there is an inherent risk that my organic, pesticide free produce might have been walked over by buggies. But, there was a spider…a LIVE spider…in my cauliflower.

To help you better understand my state of mind when confronted with a surprise spider attack, these are the first things I thought:

Where are all his spider friends that must also be lurking in my produce?
How did it live in my fridge for 3 days?!
Is it a radioactive super-spider?!

[Editor’s Note: I saved you from the nightmare-inducing photo link that used to be here.]

While I was deciding if it was safe to reenter my kitchen, I started to ponder the pros and cons of continuing this cauliflower adventure. Before I could do anything though, I needed to deal with the spider.

And by deal with it, I mean I waited until my fiancé came home, thoroughly rinsed (by spraying it down with the hose outside—just kidding) and cut up the cauliflower for me. All while I stood a safe distance away…with our sharpest knife…just in case. Thankfully, he found and killed the spider. (Thanks, babe!)

He wasn’t sure that we should proceed but I decided we were going to be adults and see this through.

After satisfying ourselves that there were no more radioactive spiders, that the cauliflower was clean and edible, and that we had enough of the ingredients to make a go of it, we finally continued with the recipe:

  1. On a sheet pan, toss the cauliflower with garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Spread mixture out in a single layer and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, tossing twice, until the cauliflower is tender and garlic is lightly browned.

Roasting is super hot and I convinced myself that this would vaporize any potential spider buddies.

  1. Scrape the cauliflower into a large bowl with garlic and pan juices. Add remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, parsley, pine nuts and lemon juice. Sprinkle with another 1/2 teaspoon salt, toss and serve hot or warm.

Unfortunately, because we lacked some of the ingredients, it didn’t taste all that great. But if I had, I am convinced it would have been splendiforous! I have yet to try cauliflower again but (now that I no longer consider it the mutant of the vegetable world) I intend to soon.

And since I’m still alive and writing this article, I would call it a major step forward in overcoming my arachnophobia!

Well, I still need saving…but I scream less, and not as loud.

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Photo by Elise Lundstrom

Food

Give Brussels Sprouts a Chance

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Brussels sprouts (aptly named for their prevalence in Belgium in the 16th century) are often considered the epitome of gross food. Every time a cartoon character has to eat something icky, every time someone wants to complain about a childhood dinner requirement, every time a parent wants to issue a threat to inspire fear into a child’s heart, it always falls on poor, misunderstood Brussels sprouts to be the bad guy.

This is especially unfortunate because it has implanted a dislike of Brussels sprouts in tons of people who have never even eaten them—or at least have never eaten them prepared well! My father was a victim of this stereotype. Unfortunately, my grandma did not know any better than the boiling method. As a result, my brother and I were spared the vegetable growing up and we assumed that if Dad (a foodie and not the least bit picky) didn’t like them, then they must be pretty bad. It wasn’t until I went to college and really started seeking out new recipes and tastes to take advantage of my kitchen when I discovered how tasty these little guys can be! Now I want to eradicate this damaging prejudice from everyone’s hearts, so all can embrace these delicious and healthy little cabbages.

Luckily, we can be the change we want to see in the world here. First, I will tell you the best ways to prepare the sprouts for maximum deliciousness (including some tasty recipes at the bottom). Then, having (hopefully) seen the light, you can prepare and enjoy some delicious Brussels sprouts to share with disbelieving friends.

The trick to enjoying Brussels sprouts is simple: Do not boil or steam them.

Think of the little guys like tofu—would you enjoy tofu, just boiled or steamed in water? No. (Unless, of course, you like bland things, in which case you probably already like Brussels sprouts: rock on!) The deliciousness of tofu comes from sponging up tasty sauces and spices, and the same holds true for Brussels sprouts. You can add whatever you want to them: brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, cinnamon and cloves, Worcestershire sauce, whatever, and they’ll taste delicious.

So here is how to prepare them:

1.  Buy a bag at whatever grocery store/farmer’s market you frequent and give them a good wash in the sink.

2.  Place them on a cutting board and use a nice, sharp kitchen knife to cut off the ends—that’s the whitish, dirty-looking end, not the round leafy one—and chuck that in the trash or compost. If your Brussels sprouts look bigger than you would comfortably eat in one bite, you might want to cut them in half lengthwise as well. This also gives them a nice flat side to sit on the pan and get that lovely, brown, roasted color.

3.  Once they are clean and cut, put them in a bowl and pour in a dollop or two of oil (vegetable, olive, or other). You want just enough to coat the sprouts and keep them from sticking to your pan. Then, add in your flavoring of choice: classic salt and pepper, brown sugar and cinnamon, honey and balsamic vinegar—the possibilities are endless. Mix it all up with a spoon (or your fingers). You want the whole surface of the sprouts covered so they can soak up all of the flavors.Many people favor sautéed Brussels sprouts with garlic and onion, shallots, or a tasty meat like pancetta and bacon (see recipes below).

4.  At this point, I like to sauté the Brussels sprouts for about 5 minutes. Sauté is just a fancy French word for cooking in a pan with a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil on a medium heat, and moving them around a bit with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking.

5.  After sautéing the Brussels sprouts, I like to put them into a 400º oven for approximately 30 minutes to roast them. When you try this method, keep an eye on them after minute 20 and assess how brown they are: you must take them out when they are chewable, but not burnt. Some folks turn them after 15 or 20 minutes to get an even browning, but I like mine with just the cut side browned.

Alternate Option: Some recipes call for you to sauté the Brussels sprouts until they’re browned to your liking. Then add a few tablespoons of water and continue cooking them for another 8 minutes or so. If you choose this method, be aware of how adding water may affect your flavoring.

6.  Pull them out when they’re to your liking and serve!

Some favorite Brussels Sprout recipes:

Remember there are lots of ways to make Brussels sprouts delicious; so don’t be afraid to try different things until you find something you like!