Tips for Cooking Gluten Free and Vegan

 Where to begin with Gluten Free????

Admittedly, some approach food prep and cooking like chemistry. Everything is measured, weighed, and exact...then there are some that have an instinct to cooking.

  I fall into the latter! Many people ask me for recipes, while my husband tells me to write this one down! He has since learned to tell me, remember this one! For the purpose of this blog and to share recipes and hints, I will try to provide measurements. However, never be scared to adjust any recipe!

A basic to understanding baking GF is understanding gluten is like glue- it keeps things together. So without gluten, foods and bake goods tend to crumble more. Many GF commercial products and mixes use or require eggs to compensate for the lack of a binding agent. So what happens with no eggs and no gluten? This is where understanding your flours and starches is beneficial. Tapioca starch or flour, Xantham gum and Guar Gum will help thicken and bind. 

GF FLOURS:

Brown Rice Flour

White Rice Flour

GF Oat Flour

Buckwheat

Quinoa Flour

Garbanzo Flour

Almond Meal Flour

Potato Flour

Amaranth Flour

Tapioca Flour 

Millet Flour

Sorghum Flour

Teff

*Flaxseed mill (also used as an egg replacer)

*Using one type of GF flour ≠ wheat flour. Experiment by mixing two or more flours together. Hint: use tapioca sparingly, otherwise it can result in a chewy consistency.

Many prepared gluten free flour mixes have already mixed flours, but these can be pricey. Milling your own flours can be easy if you have a high quality blender such as a Blendtec® or Vitamix®