Everyone can benefit from eating a wide range of gluten-free whole grains. Gluten-free cooking and baking goes beyond just replacing the few popular gluten grains — wheat, barley, triticale, and rye in favorite recipes. It is a celebration of the earth's bounty. There are more whole grains that do not have gluten than those that do. More choices, more whole grains and whole grain flours to mix and match with local, seasonal produce for an endless variety of daily meals.
Gluten-Free Makeovers: you can make pasta dishes, pastries, just about everything that can be made with gluten can be made into delicious, nutritious, gorgeous dishes with a wide gluten-free whole grains and flours.
Beyond Toast: Start your day with nutritional powerhouses: gluten-free grains such as millet, rolled oats, teff, quinoa, and amaranth make tasty porridges cooked in water or coconut milk with a variety spices like ginger and cinnamon, and dried fruits. Top with your favorite yogurt, milk, fruit, or maple syrup for a great breakfast.
Pancakes and waffles are delicious and super nutritious made with one or a combination of gluten-free flours: teff, sorghum, quinoa, brown rice, corn, buckwheat, maca, and coconut flour.
Versatile vegetarian and vegan dishes: loaves, polenta, croquettes hold together well. Corn grits, millet and teff: once cooked and cooled can be sliced.
Cook Like An Artist: with earthy toned whole grains. You can make beautiful dishes mixing and matching grains with nuts, seeds, and colorful vegetables. Decorate finished dishes with edible flowers, springs of herbs, and sauces.
Protein: rare for whole grains to be complete proteins: however quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat and oats are complete proteins making them ideal for main course entrees, and side dishes.
Variety of Textures: You can create dishes with many different textures: running the gamut from dense, smooth dishes like polenta to chewy wild rice to crispy granola. In the realm of desserts alone, grains and their flours can be used to create textures ranging from creamy rice pudding to dense, chewy hazelnut brownies to crispy cookies made with teff flour.
Great Pastries Everyone will Love: Bake delicious cookies, piecrusts, fruit crisps, muffins, and brownies with a great variety of gluten-free flours: teff, oat, brown rice, quinoa, coconut, ground nut and seed flours (hazelnut, almond, and flax seeds, etc).
Vegetarian Sushi, also known as nori rice rolls are delicious and easy to prepare with a wide variety of rice: Bhutanese Red Rice, Forbidden Rice, brown rice, Jade Pearl Rice, sweet brown rice, among others. Mix and match with fresh and sautéed seasonal vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, beets, salad greens, etc) with avocado, pickles, sprouts, seasoned tofu and ginger tempeh, and more.
Variety of Shapes: Gluten-free pasta comes in many shapes and sizes and made from a variety of grains: rice, quinoa, corn, amaranth, and buckwheat. All are great topped with savory sauces: tomato, peanut, pesto, mushroom, among others.
Expand your Repertoire: Say yes to abundance of choices: enhance your nutrition by including high fiber, whole grains in your diet. You can make pilafs, soups, stews, porridge, and marinated salads and more with gluten-free grains.
Adapted and excerpted with permission from Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook* By Leslie Cerier (New Harbinger Publications, 2010).
Leslie Cerier, “The Organic Gourmet” is a national authority on gluten-free cooking and baking specializing in local, seasonal, whole foods and organic cuisine with 20 + years experience: Chef, Educator, Environmentalist, Photographer and Author of 5 cookbooks: Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook* (2010), Going Wild in the Kitchen* (2005), among others. Leslie teaches vegetarian cooking for health, vitality and pleasure nationwide. Leslie’s expertise in culinary nutrition has led to her being much sought after by natural food companies, health professionals and private clients to help them translate challenging dietary allergy issues into culinary success and meal satisfaction. Visit her on the web at LeslieCerier.com.
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