Gluten free and vegetarian- struggling for choices

[lauram1978]

Hi, I am diagnosed with coeliac disease and I am also vegetarian. I am struggling for choices, and feel my diet is very bland and I tend to repeat meals several times a week. Particularly eating out, or free-from sections in supermarkets are difficult. They seem to cater for both, but not the two combined.

Any suggestions of meal plans, recipe books, online resources, good restaurants or shops would be helpful?

Please note: I was brought up as a vegetarian from birth so at 45 I no longer consider this a dietary choice. Please do not suggest I consider including meat or fish in my diet.

Thanks ☺️

[Whydothis]

I am semi-veggie, and a great believer in eating more veg but fewer carbs - and it's the carbs, I think, that make a diet bland as well as not being good for us!

My favourite recipe books:

James Wong - 10-a-day the Easy Way

River Cottage Light and Easy

River Cottage gluten free

Megan Rossi - Eat Yourself Healthy

Megan Rossi - Eat More, Live Well

They are not all totally gluten free, but almost. The few that call for flour can use GF flour

I hope this helps!

[Babette]

I used to find that Italian restaurants were a good choice, and cook from scratch.

Quorn pieces, fillets, and mince are all gluten free so how about chilli, spag bol, stir fry, curry, etc. I also make things like bean stews and lentil soups. The key is using different herbs and spices, add a bit at time, taste regularly, and don't be afraid to experiment.

[uhtred]

I was Vegetarian for 15 years before Coeliac diagnosis, I actually found being Vegetarian helped since I was used to checking food ingredients. I'm not sure where you are based - but there are some helpful Facebook groups e.g. Vegetarian Coeliacs UK - maybe others. I have found a lot of Italian recipes useful although some adaption maybe necessary. e.g. Carluccio's vegetables or even CLASSIC FOOD NORTHERN ITALY T by Anna Del Conte - has some great naturally gluten free Vegetarian recipes. mushroom risotto is another example. I have also adapted a Moussaka from youtube (How To Make Greek Moussaka | Akis Petretzikis), which is simple and very good using Quorn or lentils instead of meat. I find eating out is the most difficult - in the UK before Covid it was increasingly easy to eat out as a Coeliac Vegetarian, now I would suggest find local restaurants that can cater and are understanding. They do exist , some chains are good such as Pizza express or Prezzo.

Hope this helps?

[KBird01]

Like you, I've been a veggie since way before it was trendy! I've cut out a lot of gluten from my diet, so have changed a few things recently. I now have the Eat Natural gluten free buckwheat toasted muesli for breakfast most days. I add chia seeds, raisins and pomegranate to it too, which makes it very filling and tasty. I have it with soy milk, but no reason why you couldn't do cow milk, etc.

I make most meals from scratch now, so here are a few ideas:

* Bean Chilli

* Grilled Halloumi with roasted aubergine, courgette and bravas sauce - with mini roast new potatoes

* Shepherds pie - using green lentils as the 'meat' bit

* Warm salad - great big bowl plate with salad leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, saurkraut, beetroot, pine and cashew nuts, roquefort cheese, pomegranate, roasted sweet potato with cajun and 5 spice seasoning, grilled asparagus and balsamic glaze and olive oil to dress.

I'll watch for other replies with interest.

[Singinglouder]

Hi. I've been veggie for over 40 years, diagnosed coeliac in 2005, and I'm with you on the difficulty of finding things that are both gf and veggie, especially since being vegan became popular, as so many vegan dishes in the supermarkets contain wheat.

Recipe books: I always check The Works or similar, and have just accepted that I either buy veggie cookbooks and adapt to gf flour, or buy gf books that have a reasonable veggie section. Also worth looking in health or whole food shops, which sometimes have leaflets, or trying your local library.

Eating out: going gf has felt like going back to the early 80s, when my main choices were cheese salad, omelette or jacket potato and beans, but Indian is usually a good choice, and I find they're happy for me to take my own gf naan bread if I want some.

Supermarkets: the best I've found for gf is Ocado, so I usually have 3 deliveries a month and shop locally in between. Lidl has no free from section, but some of their vegan own brand protein is gf (they've got gf escalopes in at the moment, for example), and they also have Gosh foods - some regularly, some in the specials fridge - including some new frozen veggie burgers with a gf crumb, and they've got loads in at the moment for Veganuary. Waitrose and M&S are more expensive, but more of their everyday chilled food is gf - not necessarily marked Free From, but eg using cornflour not wheat flour to make cauliflower cheese or a potato bake. Tesco was quite good, but ours has just halved the size of the Free From section. Our Asda is quite small, but not bad, so I imagine a large one would be worth checking out. Aldi has gf food in the specials every so often, but it's very unpredictable.

Cooking from scratch: I have to do this a lot, as I'm allergic to mushrooms (very inconvenient for a veggie!) and also on a very low fat diet for another medical condition. Unfortunately, I also have very little energy and my hands don't work too well, so I save energy and effort by keeping lots of prepared veg in the freezer - onions, peppers, butternut squash etc - and by reworking one recipe into several. I make a rice dish with onions, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, tinned tomatoes, rice and peas with garlic, mixed herbs and paprika, and Cauldron marinated tofu pieces for protein - it's good as a main meal, then leftovers cold as a salad or used to stuff aubergines and/or peppers and bake them. A bolognes(ish) sauce (Clearspring soya mince, onions, jar of bolognese sauce, tin of baby peas and carrots) I have with spaghetti the first day, then the next I mash potato and turn the rest into a shepherdess pie. I have an InstantPot, and do dump and go dishes (shove everything in without sautéing) - lots of soup, but also cook pasta and sauce ingredients all in one, Kung Pao Cauliflower, vegetable stews, risotto. Filled tacos are easy, and there are several gf brands around - warm them through in oven or microwave, and fill with onions cooked up with refried beans, taco spice, sweetcorn and some peppers from the freezer, topped with salsa if you want to make it spicier. You can also get gf fajita kits and enchilada kits - cheapest in Lidl, but they only come round every 2-3 months.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but I hope there's something useful in there!

[Farrugia]

I think the River Cottage Gluten Free book by Naomi Devlin is really good. I also like her other book Food for a Happy Gut. I think she tests her recipes really well because they always seem to work. I've followed other gf recipes from other books and have had some disappointing results!

[Veggie2]

I’ve been veggie nearly 40 years and only recently tested for coeliac. I’m only just exploring possible recipes but confident there will be lots. I can already recall making a gluten free spinach and mushroom lasagne for a friend years ago with GF pasta and GF white sauce. Similarly a Rose Elliot lentil, carrot and leek “loaf” which had no bread except for crumbs to line the tin. I bought GF crumbs. In the meantime most Quorn products are GF except the sausages - but Linda McCartney Lincoln sausages are GF. It’s easy to knock up a beany and veg sauce for pasta or chick pea and curry sauce with rice. Good luck to us both!

[Catz72]

Jane Devonshire - vegetarian hassle free gluten free

Dr Alan Desmond - The plant based diet revolution (Not all GF but can be adapted)

Stephen & David Flynn The Happy Pear - The Veg Box (Not all GF but can be adapted)

Elisa Rossi - Happy Skin Kitchen (most are GF)

Tend to cook from The plant based diet revolution and The Veg Box every week. Happy Skin Kitchen was a Christmas present and recipes look fantastic.

[Toomanydietaries]

Restaurants I love going to are Wagamama, Giggling Squid and Pizza Express/Zizzi! They all have great options for gluten free and veggie/vegan meals. My favourite at Wagamama is Raisukaree with Tofu.. I have it every time!

Someone mentioned above Linda McCartney and I 2nd that, there is a vegetarian roast which I love, plus the sausages (onion and rosemary and lincolnshire)