ANYTHING GLUTEN-FREE Most people have a bucket list of things to do before they die. But not me. I have a bucket list of 100 things that I wish were gluten-free. Freshly baked bread, Chinese takeaway, fried jam doughnuts, homemade pastry, fresh pasta, classic cakes, bakery-style cookies, noncardboard-tasting pizza... Sorry, I’ve just realized that I’m just literally listing foods that I can’t eat. But, if you’re gluten-free yourself (or you know someone who is) I bet you’ll totally understand why I often get lost in my bucket list. That’s because, when you’re gluten-free, all your favourite food instantly gets put on the list of things you used to eat. But do you forget about them and get on with your life?
Of course not! Instead, you gaze through the window of every bakery you pass, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a lamp post. You might occasionally catch yourself day-dreaming about when you last ate a real jam doughnut*. You’re probably also filled with food envy whenever a fast-food ad comes on TV, uttering, ‘I wish I could eat that’ for the millionth time. Being gluten-free made me realize that, when you’re told you can’t eat something, you only crave eating it ten times more. But there was one big problem with my gluten-free bucket list: I was probably never going to be able to eat any of the things on it ever again. After all, most things are utterly impossible to make glutenfree, right? And if they’re not impossible, a ‘gluten-free version’ always tastes and/or looks worse – agreed? Well, I’ve got a little news-flash for you that took me years to realize: it’s not true. And I totally understand if you’re filled with scepticism upon reading that. When I first became gluten-free twelve years ago I wouldn’t have believed me either. But honestly, through years of travelling to gluten-free bakeries across the world and creating/ sharing my own recipes online, I’ve discovered this: You can make anything gluten-free 40
So, no – nothing needs to taste any different or look any worse either. Nor do you need tons of strange, unobtainable ingredients or a top secret blend of gluten-free flour. I actually use a simple commercial gluten-free flour blend (if needed) for nearly every recipe in this book.
So what’s the big secret then? Well, in the early years of being gluten-free, I’d naively try to replace wheat flour with glutenfree flour when following a recipe. Or even worse, I’d just skip those gluten-containing ingredients entirely. Not surprisingly, I’d always end up wondering where it all went wrong and with a big mess to clear up. But of course that didn’t work! That’s like reading a book, but removing the main character. Yes, you can still kind of follow the story, but the ending is probably going to be a big, confused mess. To truly get that happy ending, a gluten-free recipe needs to be its own unique story from start to finish.
That’s the secret! Most of my recipes can easily be made dairyfree or lactose-free with simple swaps and lots are easy to make vegan/veggie too. Plus, there are loads of recipes that are low FODMAP, which is handy if you suffer from IBS like I do. So remember my bucket list of all the things I thought I’d never be able to eat again? Yep, I did it – I finally made them all gluten-free with zero compromise. Now I can make them whenever I want, and so can you. But if you still believe it’s impossible to make anything gluten-free without compromise, that’s OK. Because once you take a bite of something you haven’t eaten in years and it tastes even better than you remember… you’ll be so happy that you won’t even mind me saying: Told you so!
