Can you recommend a recipe book?

[Cooper27]

My partner was just advised he has coeliacs (blood test, no biopsy yet), so I'm looking for some good recipe books - can anyone recommend anything?

I'm not sure whether I should go for something tailored to coeliacs - is there a difference with books that are simply gluten free?

[Venetia]

Coeliac UK had a recipe book. Don't know where you live but public usually have lots of gluten free recipe books,

[Venetia]

Sorry I left out the word 'library'

[Cooper27 in reply to Venetia]

Thanks! I'll call by the library and see what they have. I can at least try a few things out.

[BronB]

I got millions for my birthday! Phil Vickory's (his wife is coeliac) and the honeybuns bakery book is good. If you live in the UK and get food on prescription, you get a recipe booklet with the flour from Juvela. I've found these recipes quite straight forward compared to the recipes using rice flour where you have to become a scientist with xantham gum and some flours are expensive and difficult to find. Cakes turn out crumbly and i got fed up. If your husband can tolerate gluten free codex wheat starch then i really recommend the Juvela White Mix. I love it so much, I'm writing a recipe book at the moment. Juvela have also got some YouTube videos on their website which are so helpful. Happy gluten free cooking!

[Cooper27 in reply to BronB]

I'll recommend that to him! We're in the UK, so will get a lot of stuff via prescription, but I'd rather minimise the amount we ask for. The flour sounds fab though! He'll be really happy if I can still make him the odd scone

He's still on Gluten until the biopsy, just to make sure the results are relevant, but I just need some good ideas for alternatives after that - I'm worried half of it will just be low carb, high meat...

[BronB in reply to Cooper27]

At first I used supermarket gluten free bread and cakes and it was horrible! There are no nutrients in it. My iron levels already low from being coeliac, dropped lower. Juvela bread and flour mix is fortified and really made a difference to me. I use my normal recipes and just substitute with Juvela . Biscuits need a spoon of xantham gum to stop spreading and scones work well too. I'll be happy to help when you get round to it! 😊

[DartmoorGuerrilla]

The best I've found is "How to cook and eat gluten free" by Heather Whinney, I think out of print but you could try library, or secondhand on Amazon.

A good starting point for everything apart from bakery items is to cook what you always cook but switch to GF ingredients e.g. potato or GF cornflour to thicken gravy, tamari instead of soy sauce, cider vinegar instead of malt vinegar.

Baked goods is the problem. My advice for a newbie? The Heather Whinney recipes for pastry, pizza and pasta. But forget trying to make bread unless you are prepared for serial disappointment! I would suggest try all the ready-made breads until you find one you consider edible.

Also far easier and safer if you can both be gluten free whilst at home. My partner who does a lot of the cooking will only eat gluten out of the house. We have a separate toaster kept boxed away for weekend guests that when used is on a separate dining table and not allowed in the kitchen!

I promise you it will get easier as you get used to it, good luck to you both.

[Cooper27 in reply to DartmoorGuerrilla]

Thanks! I am alright to eat gluten free in the house, we don't have a hugely gluten-containing diet at the best of times (except for pasta, that will have to change).

With your toaster comments, do you think I will have to get rid of my bread maker? It's been used for traditional breads, but I can sterilise the baking pot, but is that enough? I think it would be handy to have, because it has settings I can use to make pasta dough and pizza dough, and I can try some gluten free breads.

[DartmoorGuerrilla in reply to Cooper27]

It depends how risk averse you are. I went the route of thoroughly cleaning the breadmaker, figuring that if there was any minute trace of gluten left it would disappear with successive loaves, which I think is doing the best you can pragmatically bearing in mind that at the beginning you will make bigger slip ups (especially in restaurants) and this is the least of your worries. Toaster, different story, you can't really clean a toaster! At least, not if you want to use it again

[Ummijan]

I generally just use youtube or google then adapt as needed. I'm an experimenter in the kitchen so I sometime win n sometimes putupwith lol

[Penel]

Hugh FW has a wheat and dairy free cookbook, "Light and Easy", 90% gluten free, which can introduce you to alternative flours, etc. Places like Holland & Barrett sell a lot of gluten free ingredients. You can find things like chickpea or gram flour in Tescos and buckwheat in Waitrose. No need to be low carb.

Be careful with xanthan gum, it doesn't suit everyone.

[Coeliacbunny]

Gloriously Gluten-Free is a great recipe book for all kinds of recipes. I also like Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, which is a recipe book for healthy cakes, and the vast majority use rice flour which is gluten-free.

[Ukbusybee]

Hi Cooper, my favourite cookery book is called 'The Allergy-Free Family Cookbook: 100 delicious recipes free from dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soya, gluten, sesame and shellfish' by Fiona Heggie & Ellie Lux. Although it caters for a range of allergies/ intolerances it does have options to add in certain ingredients if you can have them. When I first went through the book I only found a few recipes that I wouldn't try! Most are everyday favourites that have been adapted. Amazon sell it and all the other reviewers seem to love it as much as I do! 😃

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river cottage gluten free by Naomi Devlin, foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.