Gluten-Free Forever

BY MARIA RODALE | PHOTOS BY ROBERTO QUEZADA-DARDÓN

I DIDN’T WANT TO GO GLUTEN FREE.

I love bread of all kinds—especially the soft and squishy kind, but also the bubbly and crusty kind. Sigh.

It started when Dr. Vincent Pedre, author of the Happy Gut book, advised my eldest daughter to give up gluten to end her persistent migraines. It worked. For 15 years I (reluctantly) accommodated her diet whenever I cooked for her/us. It was a challenge. But then, my youngest daughter started getting migraines when she was a teenager. She, too, tried getting rid of gluten and … it worked. Now I had two kids who needed the special breads and pasta. So about three years ago I decided to try it, too, thinking maybe I would lose some weight or something.

Lo and behold, I didn’t lose weight, but my chronic acid reflux cough, which was annoying as hell, disappeared completely. At this point, I was all in. But I wasn’t going to settle for crappy substitutes. I tested all the recipes, all the kinds of pasta, all the crackers. In fact, I’m still constantly testing.

My Favorite Gluten-Free Brands

For the record, my favorite pasta is Andean Dream Organic pasta, made from quinoa. Bread is hit or miss, and I have still not found an organic brand, but Trader Joe’s sells a good gluten-free white bread. I buy it in New York and then freeze it. Almost all gluten-free bread is better off toasted. And I actually prefer burgers on toast now rather than dry, crumbly GF buns. The best untoasted bread is called Green Lite and Wegmans stocks it in the freezer section. Shopping the GF way is an effort. Hopefully, one day it will be easier.

When it comes to baking, there are a few organic GF flour blends that can be found online. The most consistent non-organic brand is Cup for Cup. I wish they were organic! But I have also learned to use rice flour, tapioca, and potato starch for things like frying chicken, calamari, or tofu.

Eating out is still a challenge. Fortunately, we do not have celiac disease, which means we are OK with some cross-contamination. But this means 75 percent of the typical Lehigh Valley restaurant menu is not available to us, which sucks. Hence, I cook a lot at home. (Hence, the gluten-free pancakes recipe here.) The rise of gluten intolerance in the U.S. has to do with two things: First, wheat has been bred to be super productive for farmers. This change made bread harder to digest. The second and more egregious reason? Non-organic farmers spray Roundup on the wheat right before harvest in order to dry it. It’s called desiccation and it’s immensely toxic.

When I wrote my cookbook Scratch I was not gluten-free. However, almost all of my recipes are adaptable for gluten-free diets. My most-used (and stickiest) page of the cookbook is my Pancakes from Scratch in a Pinch recipe. Here is your new gluten-free pancakes recipe.

Gluten-Free Pancakes from Scratch in a Pinch

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Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups gluten-free flour substitute
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Tiny pinch of salt optional
• 3 large eggs
• 1¾ cups whole milk or other milk
• Butter for cooking
• Organic maple syrup
• Organic bacon

Instructions

 

• In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and a pinch of salt, if desired. Add the eggs and milk and whisk until smooth and combined. Gluten-free pancake batter is more gelatinous than regular, so don’t be surprised if it feels thick. Sometimes I add a little bit of buckwheat flower, which will turn your pancakes gray but it’s yummy anyway. You can also add some chia seeds, flaxseeds, fruit, or whatever else you want. Experiment!

  In a large cast-iron pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Honestly, you can use any oil, but butter tastes better.

  Ladle the batter into the pan according to the size you prefer—large or small. Turn when you start to see some bubbles or your spidey sense says turn. Keep doing this with all the batter until you are done. Add fresh butter with each batch.

  Serve with real maple syrup, but also bacon, because bacon will balance out the glucose spike from the pancake carbs and you will feel better as a result.

  You can cut this recipe in half. Or if you make all of it and have leftovers, I enjoy heating them up gently in the microwave and topping them with jam to accompany my afternoon tea.

  Gluten-free isn’t that bad after all. And as my daughter says, “Nothing tastes as good as gluten-free feels.” When I have my last meal, I will probably want KFC Original Recipe fried chicken. But it probably won’t taste as good as I remember anyway.

Keyword gluten-free