When I recently looked into baking without gluten as part of my research on gluten-free diets, I started to sweat a bit, as baking is not really my discipline. But what about cooking?
Cooking without gluten is not a big challenge, after all, you can work with all products that are naturally gluten-free. So vegetables, fruits, fish and meat, but also with dairy products, herbs and spices. However, it is almost essential to reserve a separate area for preparation, because even the smallest crumbs of gluten-containing ingredients, served on the wrong plate, can immediately cause allergies or other discomfort.
Some effort must be made if you want to prepare dishes in which usually processed wheat, rye, barley or spelt. Either you switch to alternative flours – or work with gluten-free variants of the basic products. Pasta is a great example.
Usually pasta is made from wheat flour – and / or semolina, sometimes as whole wheat pasta. In all cases, however, absolutely taboo for the gluten-free diet. So in both of my recipes, I switched to gluten-free pasta from Dr. Schär.
Spaghetti with porcini pesto, mushrooms and Jamón Ibérico de Bellota
A very quick dish – as long as you have the right ingredients in the house. In addition to the spaghetti (made with corn flour, millet flour and rice flour), I used a noble Pestato di funghi procini from Oschätzchen as a base. In addition, some mushrooms sautéed and served together with the noble Jamón Ibérico (125€/kilo), also from the Alsterhaus. A great autumnal pasta dish with an incredible amount of flavor.
Open lasagna with ragout of tomato and tagliata
Also relatively quickly can be prepared this slightly lighter variation of lasagna. It is important to get a feel for the cooking time of the pasta before preparing it. Peel tomatoes and sauté in olive oil with shallots and garlic. Meanwhile, sear beef tenderloin and place in oven. Layer lasagna and ragout, place thin slices of fillet, add Parmesan cheese, pepper, salt and olive oil.
Cooking without gluten is actually far less difficult or elaborate than you might think, quite a few dishes are gluten-free by default anyway and for all others you can very well resort to alternative basic products without gluten. And if you have a gluten intolerance and don’t want to cook, you can also find great restaurants that offer special gluten-free dishes at www.glutenfreeroads.com.
Note: This article was created with the kind cooperation of Dr. Schär GmbH, which of course does not affect the content and assessment.
