Gluten free breakfast - rice & buckwheat porridge

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

I've only got into gluten free porridges for breakfast recently, and it's a nice change from cold cereal or breakfast pancakes. This gluten free porridge is made from brown rice flakes and buckwheat flakes which you'll get from any yoghurt-weaving hippy shop, although we order ours by the ton over the mighty interweb.

Here's how:

Gluten free rice & buckwheat breakfast porridge

Handful brown rice flakes (you can use white but brown have a better bite, plus they must be better for you - brown stuff is right?)
Smaller handful buckwheat flakes - smaller because the buckwheat will go squidgier and is more flavoured than the rice - it adds a nuttiness
Some dried blueberries (these have to be my favourite dried fruit)
Some dried cranberries
Some dried prunes
In fact, whatever dried fruit you like
Walnuts/macadamia nuts/pecans/almonds

Put the flakes in a pan with the dried fruit and pour on hot water until the flakes are covered. Keep stirring on a low heat and adding more water as you need. They should be done after about 3 minutes, but just check them until you're happy.

Spooin into a bowl, sprinkle the nuts on top and then if you want, pour a little milk over to cool and loosen the porridge. I use rice milk because I'm allergic to the cow's variety.

The best gluten free breakfasts are tasty, quick, easy and keep you going for at least longer than it takes to get to the office. This porridge fits the bill.

Other gluten free breakfasts: Millet porridge , Quinoa porridge

Gluten Free Food Ideas - Bacon and Pea Risotto

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

As gluten free food ideas go, risottos are reliably yummy, filling, and great cold. Once you get the basic concept of how to make a risotto, you can get creative with the ingredients.

In short, you saute onions and garlic in oil or butter for a few minutes, add your dry risotto rice for 1 minute so it absorbs the flavoured oil, then add a splash of alcohol and start adding boiling stock, ladle by ladle until the rice is cooked. All of this only takes 30 minutes - 5 minutes prep, 20'ish minutes cooking and 5 minutes for it to "rest" at the end.

Bacon and Pea Risotto

1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped finely
Olive oil
200g bacon lardons
400g risotto rice
about 2 litres of stock.
200g garden peas, blended to a puree
handful basil and parley, roughly chopped
Seasoning
Optional, grated parmesan

Heat up your stock to a rolling boil and keep hot.

Saute the garlic and onion in a little olive oil for a few minutes, to soften not colour. Add the bacon lardons and cook for a further few minutes until it is cooked. Turn up the heat and add your dry risotto rice and stir constantly for about 1 minute.

Add a ladle of hot stock and stir well. Keep adding stock 1 ladle at a time until the rice is cooked, which will take about 18-22 minutes depending on your rice, the phases of the moon and whether there was and "r" in the month. (No wine in the risotto at the moment as husband has to avoid yeast - apparently champagne is yeast free so he's developed a taste way above our beer income!)

When your rice is cooked, it will be soft with a tiny "bite" - if you break a grain of rice in half, you will see cooked rice and a tiny speck of white, slightly undercooked rice in the middle.
Stir in the peas, herbs and season. Leave the risotto to rest for a few minutes. Serve sprinkled with parmesan if you like.

I always thought they were too complicated and time consuming for me, but the reality is so different - risottos are a great gluten free food idea, so take the plunge and make a risotto tonight.

Other gluten free risotto recipes: Asparagus & bacon risotto , Chicken, mushroom & courgette risotto , Smoked haddock and vodka risotto

Gluten free lunch recipe - super quick & easy

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Gluten free lunch nightmare!

Imagine it... you're working hard all morning. It's 4 hours since lunch. You come out of your computer trance and... You're STARVING!

You dash to the kitchen in a desperate hunt for gluten free goodies and aaaaaarrrrgh... no food!

Luckily, gluten free wifie is close at hand and a quick wail of "I'm huuuungry" yields a marvellously creative gluten free lunch recipe...

Sweet potato and mackerel mash

Now this is tasty. I wasn't sure when Lyndsay suggested it but, as usual, the girl was right.

3 small sweet potatoes
1 tin mackerel in brine
Olive oil
Freshly gound black pepper
Fresh greenery - herbs, rocket, watercress, whatever you've got, roughly chopped.

Here's how easy this gluten free recipe is:

Microwave the sweet potatoes. 2 mins each should do it. Cut in half along the length and scoop the hot potato into a bowl. Add the mackerel, thrown in the herbs, add a couple of glugs of olive oil and some pepper and mash the whole lot together.

And if you're not banned from it by a food allergy like I am (grrr...), you can grill some grated cheese over it.

That is one tasty, and super quick gluten free lunch recipe I'll be making again.

Roast sweet potatoes and lamb chops

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

I love easy gluten free recipes that yield superb results - and this is the best example I've found in a while.

I reckon you have to spend less than 10 minutes on this gluten free wonder before you end up with a plate of seriously tasty scran (food :-)

Gluten free roast sweet potatoes and lamb chops

Large glug olive oil
8 lamb chops (2 each)
2lb sweet potatoes cut into chunks
2 onions halfed, halfed and halfed again -bascially big chunks of onion, or alternatively 12 shallots
Large head garlic broken into cloves with skin left on
2 dried red chillis crushed with 1 tbsp cumin seeds
Fresh coriander, roughly chopped (optional)

Heat the over to 220 C / gas 7. Put a little of the oil in a roasting tin and fry the chops both sides (and on the fat) for a couple minutes each side so browned. Set aside.

Add all the other ingredients (except the coriander) and toss to mix. Roast for about 25-30 mins. Lay the chops on top and put back in the oven for about 10 mins. Toss the coriander and remaining olive oil through the veggies and serve with the chops.

That's a real winter warmer gluten free recipe that's tasty enough to serve at a dinner party with minimal prep required. Nice.

Gluten free falafel burger recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Sorry about the gluten-free-recipe-less day yesterday. Gluten free wifie had her pals in so I couldn't get to the laptop. But we did have a quick and tasty gluten free tea last night - falafel burgers. Super-healthy, and the kids will love them too.

The falafel burgers only take about 15 mins to make so you can whip them up at short notice, and you're likely to have the ingredients in the cupboard.

Gluten free falafel burgers

2 * 400g cans chickpeas (we only had one tin so we replaced one with a tin of black beans)
1 small onion, roughly chopped
A handful of parsely leaves
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
4 tablespoons gluten free flour, plus a bit extra for dusting
4 tbsp olive oil

Put everything except the oil into a food processor and pulse until the mixture turns to a chunky paste. Tip the paste onto a floured surface and form into 6-8 burger shaped patties. (Tip: If you have time to chill the mixture it is easier to work, but we got away without doing this)

Fry in the oil until crispy and browned on both sides. Serve with salad, gluten free burger buns, or whatever you fancy.

Tip: a nice sharp salsa or onion salad is good with the falafel burgers.

I think you could play about with this recipe quite a bit - some fresh coriander would be good at the last minute and you could encrust them in sesame seeds. Let us know if you come up with any good twists on the gluten free falafel burger.

Gluten free salad - chicken, orange & avocado

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Gluten free salad? Of course most salads should be gluten free, so who the heck came up with the idea of croutons? (Hands up those who have had a salad returned 'gluten free' in a restaurant because they've picked the croutons off). Sheesh.

Anyway, this salad really is gluten free, and not because it's had anything removed either. And it's very tasty indeed.

Chicken, orange & avocado gluten free salad

To serve 4 you will need...

Olive oil
4 chicken breasts
Juice and zest of a lime
2 avocados
3 oranges
4 spring onions, sliced finely
1 handful basil, chopped

How to assemble your tasty gluten free salad...

Cook your chicken breasts any way you like 'em. If you're going to fry them, it's a good idea to half them to make them less thick and so easier to cook without annihilating the outside. Squeeze the lemon juice over them just before taking them out of the pan.

Chop the avocado into smallish chunks and peel and segment the orange. Mix together in a bowl with a glug of olive oil, the lime rind, the basil and spring onions.

Arrange on the plate and you're away.

Optional extras: Toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled over and/or finely chopped fresh red chilli.

That's a gluten free salad's that's satisfying to eat and easy to make, for lunch or dinner. And not a crouton to be found.

Food allergies

My apologies for not posting any gluten free recipes for the last few days, but I've been working on the new food allergies section of the website.

I have discovered this year that my feeling ill a lot of the time was due to food allergy rather than my coeliac disease, and although it has been a long road to overcoming them (and is ongoing), I feel much, much better now. I thought all the research and work I've done on it might be helpful to others who think they might be suffering from a food allergy, so here it is:

Food allergies - my story, from thinking I was a super-sensitive coeliac to knowing I was allergic to some foods
Food allergy treatments - the different approaches and tools I've used
Using a food diary (with downloads) - the food diary could be the most important tool in treating food allergy
Food allergy/coeliac vitamins & supplements - stuff to make you feel better and heal better
Food allergy test - how to get definitive information on what makes you ill

Food allergies were making me feel absolutely horrendous, and having them sorted now is like having someone turn the lights on. I hope this section helps you if you're feeling rough. We'll be back with more recipes soon!