Gluten free Diet | Gluten Free Cooking | Fear of Failure | Allergy

Gluten Free Diet Cooking and Fear of Failure

by Allergy Guy

Cooking for a gluten free diet can seem daunting at first because everything seems different.  Don’t be afraid of failure, you’ll soon be gluten free diet wiz cook!

When faced with a gluten free diet for the first time, many people think “I can’t eat anything! What am I going to eat now?”  Faced with new ingredients and new recipes, many fear their new culinary creations will fail.

Actually, starting a gluten free diet is the start of a new culinary adventure, and a healthy one too!

If you should have any fear of failure at all, it should be of ingesting gluten.  If you have a gluten allergy or celiac disease, the consequences of eating any gluten can be severe.

That part isn’t so fun.  So accept that you must drop many foods off of your personal menu, and focus on what you can eat.

When you stop and think about it, a lot of what you can eat is the same as what you always did eat, for example:

  • Fruit
  • Vegetables
  • Meat
  • Beans
  • Lentils
  • Gluten-free grains such as rice
  • Tubers like potatoes

The above list is general and doesn’t even cover everything.  Most of the food types listed above can be expanded into dozens of individual raw ingredients.

What is true is that some recipes you are used to must be adjusted.

For example, you can’t use regular soy sauce.  So what?  You can get gluten-free tamari sauce (San-J in my favorite), or you can use salt instead, and adjust other seasonings.

Let’s say you adjust the seasonings and what you come up with doesn’t taste quite right.  So what?  I’m sure you’ll be able to eat it, and better luck next time.

Experimenting is the key. The worst that can happen is that you may produce something truly inedible.  But this is an extreme case.  It won’t be poisonous.  Maybe you need to save your biggest experiments for the weekend when you have time to make a second meal, in the unlikely event that the first attempt was beyond redemption.

On the other hand, most of what you make will be just fine.

Besides, bookstores are full of gluten-free cook books.  You’ll find gluten free recipes on this website and others on the internet.

Do not let your gluten free diet intimidate you.  Focus on what you can eat, and go ahead and make lots of delicious gluten free food!

What are your challenges with gluten free cooking?  Leave a comment and hare your experiences.

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