Wheat-Free (or Vegetarian) Dishes?

[Sunshine]

Due to food allergies and other things, my family is (temporarily) limited in what dishes we can eat. I'm trying to find some wheat-free dishes that do not include nuts, or in which nuts can be omitted. So I thought I'd ask to see if any of you have a favorite recipe that fits into these categories. Maybe a favorite vegetarian dish, or a rice-based dish? Ingredients do not need to be strictly wheat-free and nut-free, as in:

• if something was processed on the same facility as wheat or nuts, it's fine
• soy would normally be considered out of the question, if going on a wheat-belly diet, but it's fine.

The recipes that we've come up with so far are meatloaf, and rice pizza [crusts].

[darcie]

I have an unfortunate amount of experience with food allergies as well. Sorry you're going through this! But it is only temporary? Are you looking for vegetarian definitely, or just trying to expand to a different type of dish than usual? Luckily there is SO MUCH right now on the internet for wheat-free eating. So many Paleo blogs. I don't totally go for the "Paleo" way of eating, but at least they provide a lot of recipe inspiration and substitutions. A lot of people I know have enjoyed cauliflower crusts. Quinoa is a great ingredient too, you can use it like rice or grind into flour.

My allergy is corn ("It's in everything!") so I pretty much don't eat anything prepackaged. I get whole chickens and bake or cook in the crockpot. I turn the bones into stock, also in the crockpot. I get whole fruits and vegetables. Sweet potatoes. Asian rice noodles. If you need wheat-free soy sauce, Bragg's is soy or Coconut Aminos is a coconut based similar sauce.

[Tea Ess]

I'm sorry. I have next to no experience with food allergies, so I won't be much help. However, my family eats Quinoa regularly, and I can definitely recommend it.

[Sunshine]

@darcie: My mom has been looking into wheat-free eating recently, and then yesterday my younger sister was put on a wheat-free diet for at least three weeks. So we were already starting to get familiar with it, but we were hoping to wade into it little by little, rather than going full-fledged all at once.
Nuts should definitely be temporary. I have bad seasonal allergies, and our Nutritionist is working to get me off of my allergy medicine indefinitely. But meanwhile, I have to eat nut-free, as that is what's causing my allergies (don't ask me how they connect, but the nutrition stuff works, so I'm not complaining ).

No, I'm not specifically looking into vegetarian right now, but I thought I'd mention it in case if it would give any ideas to people as for what sort of things I'm looking for.
I'll check into the cauliflower crusts. Thanks for mentioning it.
Quinoa is is new to our experience in the kitchen, but my mom did get a bag of it yesterday. I didn't know that it can be ground into flour. I shall check that out as well.
It's good to know about the soy sauce too.

Wow, I've heard that corn is one of the worst, as far as GMOs go. You'd think that people would get the point sooner rather than later that all the food that they're messing with, like wheat and corn, is literally making everyone sick. =P Probably the only time that they'll get the point is when enough people are allergic to it, so no money's being made from products. I've also heard that soy has been linked to peanut allergies, so between that and knowledge of corn GMOs, I choose to not eat as many candies, etc. as I used to.

@T.S.: Do you have any specific recipes or uses that you like for quinoa (or any tips in general for using it)? (Because, like I said above, it's pretty new to our kitchen.)

[Petrichor]

Dessert and snacks and stuff can be a pain on wheat-free diets, so I thought maybe you'd appreciate an actual recipe. ^.^
These are literally some of the best cookies I've ever had, wheat-free or otherwise. Most wheat-free cookies taste really grainy and nasty, but these are deliciously gooey and chocolatey. They pretty much taste like really fudgy brownies. So good.

Brownie Cookies

2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup sugar

About 2 hours before serving:
1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 large cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper. In small bowl with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. At high speed gradually beat in sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating well at each addition. At low speed beat in cocoa and vanilla until blended.
2. Drop mixture by slightly rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheets.
3. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until set. Cool on cookie sheets on wire racks 10 minutes. With metal spatula, carefully loosen and remove from foil; cool completely on wire racks. Store in tightly covered container. Makes about 2 dozen

[darcie]

Yay, elimination diets! Well, I hope your sister (and you!) start feeling better with the diet change. There's a good amount of link to leaky gut causing autoimmune disorders or Autism Spectrum, and these problems being resolved or improved with elimination of allergens. And yes, GMOs and ingesting all the herbicides and other gross stuff causing so many problems is one of the few "conspiracy theories" I can get behind.

I'm part of a group of 1,000 people avoiding corn on Facebook, and most of the people have multiple allergies. I've heard of pretty much every substitution there is. Instead of missing packaged foods or trying to find healthier packaged foods without corn, I try to find new favorites to replace them instead. When you get used to eating less junk, your taste for better things changes. Less sweet things become totally normal. Cravings decrease.

I like to google various ingredients I have on hand and see what the internet gives me. I also use Pinterest a lot to save recipes and share ones with friends.

Quinoa- I cook 1 part quinoa (rinsed) to 2 parts water. Bring to a boil, cover. Cook 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it sit for 5 more minutes. Don't salt, if desired, until it finishes cooking. You can season it, serve it hot, serve it cold with other ingredients mixed in like a salad. I'll also heat it up with some milk and brown sugar or honey or maple syrup the next day for hot cereal. Also, here's a cracker recipe my corn-free friends have loved. Make 'em thin or they're too chewy in the middle.

[snubs]

I agree. Corn is pretty nasty stuff. Bleh.

[Jesus' Princess]

No one in our family has a wheat allergy that we know of, but over the past couple of years we've started eating less wheat and substituted it with spelt. I don't know if that's an option for you, but basically instead of using wheat flour in whatever recipe we're making (bread, noodles, desserts, etc..) we just substitute for spelt flour. We grind all of our own flour though, so it wasn't that big of an adjustment. Again, not sure if it's an option for you guys, but if it is, you can barely notice the difference, especially after you're used to it.

[Anna><>]

My family eats mainly gluten free foods because my dad is celiac, so you think I'd be able to help out with wheat free recipes, but honestly, I feel like we eat basically normal meals... Just a lot of potatoes and rice. Otherwise everything else is normal, like meat and veggies...

[Sunshine]

@Petrichor and darcie: Thank you so much for the recipes! I definitely want to try those soon!

@JP: We are starting to look into substitutes for flour, and I haven't exactly been sure where to start. It looks like spelt may be an option, so I definitely want to look into it more. Thank you so much for telling me!

@Hadassah: I hope that some day I can relate to you. Having normal meals made up of meat, veggies, and rice sound really nice. I think it may be a while before that happens though, because more than half of my family are great bread-eaters.

[darcie]

I used to have a toast obsession. I almost never eat it now, not even homemade that's safe for me to eat. You'll find a new normal. It gets better. (Pro-tip, if you're totally obsessed with a certain food and can eat it non-stop, you might actually be intolerant of it.)

[Laura Ingalls]

I don't have any recipes right off the top of my head, but I did just run across a free grain-free cookbook on Amazon if you would like to download it. I don't know if there are nut recipes in there though.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D7JEB5G

[Anna><>]

Well, since I basically eat gluten free I'll just post what I had for supper tonight.
My mom made potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips or parsnips and carrots all chopped up into small cubes. Roughly 1 cm by 1 cm in size. We also had pork tenderloin and tomato salad which consisted of chopped tomatoes, a bit of olive oil, salt and parsley.
A really classic meal we also have is sausage, rice, and salad. Like basically weekly.
If you want I can just post what I eat for supper every day.

Oh, I also love this recipe! It has a different flavour than traditional dishes do, but I think it's great.
http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/c ... 15665.aspx

[Sunshine]

JP, after looking into spelt flour, it turns out that spelt is a cousin to wheat, and therefore, is not gluten-free. Oh well, it was a nice try. =)

Laura, I shall keep that cookbook in mind (I'm not a prime member, so I'd have to pay a few bucks to get it). Right now I actually found multiple cookbooks at the library (got to love the library ).

Anna, that would be great if you could post that, and then I could get some ideas. =)

Petrichor, I used your recipe, and here's the turn out:

I whipped the egg whites, and then added the first two ingredients, just to make sure that the egg whites whipped right (I don't have experience whipping egg whites). We don't normally use cream of tartar either, so I substituted 1 1/2 tsp of white vinegar (3/4 tsp. per egg white), and it turned out fine.
Now I'm in the middle of making about 8 dozen more for tomorrow (Father's Day). Thank you so much for the recipe.

[Jesus' Princess]

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were wanting gluten free. I thought you only meant wheat free.

[Laura Ingalls]

Laura, I shall keep that cookbook in mind (I'm not a prime member, so I'd have to pay a few bucks to get it). Right now I actually found multiple cookbooks at the library (got to love the library ).

Aww, sorry that's not free anymore! It must have only been for a limited time.

Sorry I can't help more....I love gluten. When making our homemade whole wheat bread, we actually ADD more gluten!

[Anna><>]

Today we had steak, mashed potatoes and greek salad for lunch. My mom also made a gluten free jelly roll for dessert. I don't know what recipe she used, but I can ask her.

[Petrichor]

Petrichor, I used your recipe, and here's the turn out:

I whipped the egg whites, and then added the first two ingredients, just to make sure that the egg whites whipped right (I don't have experience whipping egg whites). We don't normally use cream of tartar either, so I substituted 1 1/2 tsp of white vinegar (3/4 tsp. per egg white), and it turned out fine.
Now I'm in the middle of making about 8 dozen more for tomorrow (Father's Day). Thank you so much for the recipe.

It looks like they turned out really nicely. I'm glad you guys liked them. (At least, I assume you liked them if you made another 8 dozen... )
I didn't know you could substitute vinegar for cream of tartar... good to know, I guess. The wonders of Google, eh? =P

[darcie]

Cream of tartar is an acid, so vinegar, lemon juice, etc. I have to sub an acid like that plus baking soda (a base) in place of baking powder on a regular basis. Science and food is awesome! I recommend Alton Brown's Good Eats if that's still on the air. He explains the reasons WHY various ingredients do what they do. Or his recipes online are awesome too.

And those cookies look AWESOME. They're like a cocoa meringue cookie. YUM.