If this is your first Thanksgiving with a celiac family member, you're probably wondering if you're going to get to eat any of your favorite foods. Traditional stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie all contain gluten! But do not fear, it is possible to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner and not eat a bite of gluten. Here's how to do it.
1) Decide on the menu and find safe recipes.
What foods "make" Thanksgiving for you? For me it's cornbread stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and sweet potato pie. If I can have that, then I'm happy. Gluten free versions can be made of most foods; it just takes some time to look around the internet and find a recipe that has good reviews and ingredients that you can reasonably find. Once you've made a list, check out some of the more popular gluten free recipe blogs. These blogs are popular because they have good recipes and most of them will have a Holiday section with all of their Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes.
2) Shop for specialty ingredients.
Now that you know what you are making, it's time to go shopping. First, check to make sure that whether any of the traditional recipes that you plan to use contain gluten. Call up your celiac guest and run all of the ingredients by them. If you're not used to cooking gluten free foods, you'll probably be surprised by all of the ingredients that contain wheat. Campbell's Cream of Whatever soups are probably the most surprising gluten culprits to those who are cooking like this for the first time.
If you need to purchase specialty products, try Gluten Free Mall or Amazon. Both of these sites carry a wide variety of foods that do not contain gluten. Or you could ask your gluten free guest to send you some of the ingredients that they keep on the hand. I've brought my own gluten free pasta to a family dinner so that the cook didn't have to take the time to search it out in the grocery stores.
3) Use containers and utensils that are not contaminated with gluten.
All of your hard work will be undone if you cook or serve your food with kitchen equipment that has stray bits of gluten in it. For instance, wooden spoons, wooden serving bowls and wooden cutting boards are off-limits if they've every been touched by a food that contains gluten. The same thing goes for your bread machine if it's ever baked wheat bread. I'm also wary of loaf pans, Pizza Stone Grill">Pizza stones, and cast iron skillets.
4) Label the dishes to avoid cross-contact.
Once the table is loaded down with scrumptious foods, label the gluten free dishes and make sure that they have their own serving spoons. Warn your guests that they should not move serving utensils between dishes. Even a tiny, tiny crumb from the normal bread stuffing will contaminate the non-gluten foods and could make your gluten intolerant guest violently ill. No one wants that for Thanksgiving!
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