Planning a gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner

November 6, 3:50 PMSF Fiftysomething Lifestyle ExaminerAmy Wachspress

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No gluten in this turkey

PDX Pipeline at Flickr

November is the Thanksgiving season as well as Gluten-Free Awareness Month. If you have friends and family allergic to gluten who will be joining you for Thanksgiving, you may be wondering how to prepare a meal that they can share with the rest of the family. This is less difficult than you would think.

Gluten is found in certain grains, most notably wheat, barley, and rye. And gluten is often used in other food products, such as ketchup, salad dressings, and soy sauce. To avoid gluten, one must read labels carefully. When preparing gluten-free food to cater to someone with a sensitivity to gluten, you must be creative. And be absolutely sure the food is really gluten-free. Even a small amount of gluten can have a huge adverse impact on the health of someone with this sensitivity. (Refer to the Examiner article entitled ‘What to cook for someone who can’t eat gluten’.)

Fortunately, turkey does not contain gluten. Other traditional Thanksgiving delights that can be made without gluten include mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, and sweet potato. When making the gravy, use cornstarch as thickener instead of flour. In many households, macaroni and cheese is standard fare on the Thanksgiving table. For a gluten-free Thanksgiving table, make the macaroni and cheese with rice noodles instead of wheat noodles. Read the label on the noodles for cooking time since rice noodles take longer to cook than wheat. Once you smother those noodles in cheese, eggs, milk, butter, and more cheese, no one will even notice that they are gluten-free.

The most challenging foods to prepare gluten-free for Thanksgiving are turkey dressing, pies, and biscuits/rolls. For the dressing, use a cornbread dressing recipe and substitute teff flour for wheat flour when you bake the cornbread. It will taste slightly different and be darker in color; but it will be so close to the real McCoy that your guests will barely notice the difference. Teff flower is available at the health food store and in the natural foods section of many grocery stores. It’s hard to imagine Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, so make that pie for those who can eat it. But set aside some of the pumpkin pie filling and bake it with no crust. Your gluten-free guest will appreciate that treat with some whipped cream and it will be very satisfying.

For biscuits, rolls, or other gluten-free baked goods, check out Pamela’s products, sold at many health food stores. Although you may decide to make those mouth-watering fluffy wheat flour biscuits or rolls that your family loves best, you can also whip up a batch of Pamela’s gluten-free rolls for your gluten-free guest. (As if there won’t be enough food already without more rolls!) Thanksgiving is all about sharing the love and sharing the wealth. What better occasion is there to take the extra time to prepare a feast that your gluten-free guest can also enjoy?