One of our guests is a college-age girl who was diagnosed with gluten intolerance over the past few months, and we want to make at least some of the meal easier for her to enjoy.
Stuffing is a lost cause obviously (though we make a not-in-the-bird version, so at least the turkey will be safe for her).
Gravy: I’ve never made gravy with anything other than flour as a thickener. What are the alternatives, and have you ever tried these? What adjustments would I need to make?
The turkey itself: we know someone who is very gluten-intolerant and she said that her mother has found gluten-free turkey, of all things. I’d have thought the turkey was already gf, but I guess maybe she found one that wasn’t even FED on gluten. Is that overkill?
Any suggestions for a side that would fill the ecological niche left by the stuffing?
Anyone got some recipes for flourless desserts you’d like to share? Must be peanut-free, ideally would be free even of other nuts - my son is allergic to peanuts so we don’t cook with those AT ALL, and we’ve been advised to avoid other nuts for him. That’s not as big an issue, but if there’s something we can make that he could have as well, that’d be nice.
We do have a nice flour-free alternative to pumpkin pie: a pumpkin custard pudding.
Stuffing’s actually not all that hard. You just use gluten-free cornbread. And you can use pretty much any gluten free flour in the gravy, or even corn starch–just remember to make a slurry first. You don’t really need a gluten analog for gravy.
The turkey being gluten-free is probably overkill (as you aren’t eating the stomach or anything), but I understand newbies being overly cautious. It really doesn’t take much to ruin your day or even week.
As for gluten free deserts: I personally like pumpkin pie filling without the actual pie. You could also make puddings, unless she’s also dairy-free. Gluten-free peanut butter cookies are really easy to make, and don’t require any extra ingredients. (Here’s the recipe I use.) I honestly couldn’t tell the difference.
One extra bit of warning–stay away from oats, unless they are certified gluten free. There’s a lot a cross contamination there, for some reason. Otherwise, I’d eat no-bake cookies a lot.
The pumpkin custard pudding is probably good. I’ve also made a gluten free pumpkin bread pudding by just subbing in a loaf of gf bread that I toasted and cubed.
This recipe for a pumpkin cream trifle would be easy to adapt to gf.
You can also buy gf pie crust, either frozen or refrigerated, or a frozen gf pumpkin pie. Lots of options here.
Flourless chocolate cake is usually a bit hit if people like chocolate. I’ve never made one, but I think they are fairly straightforward.
I’ve made gf pumpkin cheesecake, but I used a nut crust. I don’t know if there are gf gingersnaps or graham crackers (I don’t think I’ve ever seen them) but there are gf shortbread cookies that would work as a crust.
You can actually make gf stuffing. It’s not hard. As with the bread pudding, you just need gf bread, which is pretty available. Or you can buy gf stuffing that’s precubed and seasoned (rather like stove top).
Gravy can be thickened with corn starch. There are other thickeners, but I’m not familiar with them.
I don’t know if a gf turkey is overkill. It sounds like it to me. I’ve never had any issues with eating regular meat.
Mashed potatoes are gf already. So is cranberry sauce.
Green beans are, but green bean casserole isn’t. I don’t know of a good substitute to make it work (I hate gb casserole, so I’ve never looked).
Veggies like roasted autumn vegetables or Brussels sprouts or the like are gf already. This is good and the almonds are definitely optional.
We usually do a wild rice stuffing of some sort (sometimes with mushrooms, sometimes with green apples and toasted hazelnuts - it varies depending on the cook’s mood). This one was a hit a couple of years ago.
Turkey not fed gluten is definitely overkill. However some turkeys have a solution injected to make them more moist and that could be a source of gluten.
Gluten free frozen pie crusts are available at grocery stores like Wegman’s or Whole Foods.
I’m doing a GF free Thanksgiving this year too, and kept thinking about starting a thread for it. My Mom is going GF for various reasons, and although she says she’ll deal with whatever she has to work around, I’d rather just incorporate the restriction seamlessly into the meal.
There was a thread recently about thickening gravy. I personally don’t do much to thicken mine. I bake my turkey with some pan veggies (celery, carrots, onions…plus orange and apple, and herbs). When it comes out of the oven, I drain off the excess juices and put them in the blender along with some of the veggies. It’s not a really thick gravy, but it’s tasty.
For dessert, I’m making a berry crumble. I need to play with how to make the crumble, but it’s going to be from my selection of corn flour, brown rice flour, and oat meal ground up. Mixed with some butter. I do have a decent flourless chocolate cake recipe (it’s the bottom layer of my triple chocolate mousse cake), but that just doesn’t seem Thanksgiving-ish to me.
I made a test batch of corn bread stuffing over the weekend, and it was…ok. I need to season it a little stronger, and I’d like it to be a little more clumpy. I might add an extra egg to the stuffing, or maybe some other binding agent.
Other things I’m serving: Salad, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry sauce.
I’m still open to ideas, though!
Cornbread is out, as it happens, because she’s avoiding corn as well. I wasn’t sure about that, so I checked with her mom. I’ll have to check into the wild rice variant - even if it doesn’t go in the bird it might be a nice side dish. In that vein, I found a quinoa-based dish on epicurious.com that sounded interesting, if not exactly stuffing-like (it seemed to include more veggies than starch).
I’ll have to feel out the territory with the mom to see if the daughter would be really upset to miss out on stuffing - if she would, I might make a smaller stuffing dish with the gf stuff. I have a feeling Whole Foods is gonna own my soul in 9 days.
I found a recipe on the washington post for a cranberry-gingersnap ice cream pie - you use gingersnaps for the crust. I could buy (or make, though I don’t think I have the time) some gf gingersnaps, and may be able to get some safe cranberry sauce (though homemade isn’t that tough) - as the canned stuff has corn syrup in it.
Good point on the turkey maybe being injected with something - that had simply not occurred to me, and it might explain why the acquaintance commented on it. As I buy the chi-chi organic raised-in-a-spa-and-pampered-til-it-dies-of-bliss turkeys that are NOT injected, it shouldn’t be an issue (then I brine the hell out of it. Yummmmm).
Be careful on the oatmeal as BigT mentioned - I’d actually heard this before but had forgotten. I’m not sure if it’s cross-contamination in the mill, or some weird “I’m not wheat but I still behave like gluten” compound in some varieties.
You can buy certified gluten free oatmeal from several different labels.
Frankly, I wouldn’t bother with gluten free bread stuffing. It just doesn’t work, in my experience. And especially being a new gluten free person, who probably remembers intimately what stuffing is supposed to feel like (taste isn’t the issue, it’s texture) any sort of almost-stuffing is going to disappoint. Go with the quinoa, and you’ll have a side dish that everyone can enjoy.
Of course, I lovelovelove stuffing, so I may be pickier than most.
If she’s not doing corn, you can’t do a corn starch slurry for the gravy, but potato starch works well in gravy. Use it like you do flour, whether that be in a slurry or a roux. Potato starch can be found in the regular baking section or the kosher section cheaper than the “GLUTEN FREE - GIVE US ALL THE MONEY!” section, and it’s usually much cheaper than arrowroot.
Hell, for that matter, if you’re one of the infidels who uses instant mashed potatoes sometimes (I don’t judge you…unless you use instant mashed potatoes to make your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes ) you can thicken a gravy simply by stirring in a couple of spoonfuls of instant mashed potato flakes, and save yourself buying a box of starch you probably won’t use again. Just check the label - most plain instant potatoes are gluten free, but the flavored ones often contain gluten. You don’t want flavored ones anyhow.
Thanksgiving’s actually one of the easiest ones to accommodate gluten free. Stuffing/dressing excepted, there are so many traditional dishes that are already gluten free that you don’t have to get very creative, you just have to make a few tweaks and make sure your kitchen is clean and you’re not contaminating things (this includes your hands - if you’ve just plated the regular crackers, please wash your hands before you slice the cheese!)
Fourth of July…that one’s the hardest. Hot dogs and burgers with buns, battered fried chicken, macaroni salad, cakes, spinach dip served in a bread bowl…my family’s traditional cookout is like an Ode to Wheat.
This is one of my favorite pies, Maple Bourbon Pecan pie. This year, gonna make it with this pecan nut gluten free crust since boyfriend’s got an in-law who is g-free. Never tried the crust but it has good reviews.
Instant = ugh (loved it as a high-schooler but my palate has become slightly more refined, LOL). But I could perhaps save out a bit of the potatoes before doing the mashing.
We had some potato starch at one point but I think I tossed it out last year when we had pantry moths (brief / limited and contained because I took a scorched-earth approach to any kind of packaging that had been opened). I’ll have to pick some up.
I wonder if rice flour would work? We have some of that around, and in fact I was thinking of using that to dust the pan for the flourless chocolate cake (hadda laugh: flourless, but it says to grease and flour the pan).
Has he been tested for other nuts? If it is only ‘advice’ - get him tested, peanuts are not nuts they are legumes. He would be more likely to have issues with peas or lentils than walnuts in general* with a peanut allergy [akin to the link between mango, latex and cashews.]
And believe me, it is interesting making a batch of peanut baklavah and a batch of walnut baklavah and making certain nothing is cross contaminated!
) you can thicken a gravy simply by stirring in a couple of spoonfuls of instant mashed potato flakes, and save yourself buying a box of starch you probably won’t use again. Just check the label - most plain instant potatoes are gluten free, but the flavored ones often contain gluten. You don’t want flavored ones anyhow.