Things you might not know are gluten free in various cuisines

Cafe Society
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I feel like I’m still stumbling across exciting foodstuffs from various cuisines that I wouldn’t have known were gluten free without looking them up and asking lots of questions.

It’s nice to be able to go out to eat someplace and get something other than a piece of meat and a potato, or having to ask for everything to be custom made, so this thread is for things that you know or have discovered.

This is a list of things that are generally safe. Always ask if you are going to a new restaurant (well, I admit that I don’t always, but I live dangerously) because their recipe might be weird! Also, be wary of cross-contamination always.

And if you know that there is variation in some of this, flag it! These are just things I’ve discovered.
Mexican food

Really a godsend for gluten-free eating!

Enchiladas*
Huaraches
Carnitas/carne asada/meat on a plate
Nachos if they are not made with cheese sauce**
Items served with corn tortillas
Hard shell tacos
Flan
Indian food

All curries I’ve run across, though I’ve been warned some places put flour in as a thickener
Kebabs other than chopped/formed meat
Pakora (ask first! Make sure there’s no wheat in the batter)
Papadum
Tandoori chicken
Mediterranean/Middle Eastern food

kebabs other than chopped/formed meat
falafel
shawarma
tarna
Thai food

Pad thai and other rice noodle dishes
Thai curry
Tom Yum and Tom Kha soup
Chinese food

steamed rice
Japanese food

most sushi that does not involve tempura
Italian food

Some places do gluten free pizza or noodles, or sub in rice for pasta dishes but that’s customizing
Salvadorean

pupusas
curtido
German

Wursts other than those made with beer
Uzbek

Plov

  • Though a local restaurant does something to the spicy green ones that causes
    a reaction in me

** Cheese sauce can have wheat in it and it’s also not very tasty! I have spoken!

2

Gluten free beer is a tough one. It’s top secret, and not “by the letter of the law” gluten free, but I’m told that Two Brothers brewing of Warrenville Il uses fining (beer clarifying) agents that render the beer virtually gluten free. I’m told this by a homebrewer who’s wife has celiac disease, so I don’t suppose he’d be fibbing. But, grain of salt and all that, I don’t know this for a fact.

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For Italian food, you can add in polenta and risotto. An Antepasta plate and bowl of risotto with lots of cheese is my daughter’s go to for an Italian restaurant. Or some more upscale places will chill, slice and fry their polenta and then use it to make a “lasagne”, which is delicious and gluten free.

Of course, your chances of cross-contamination are high in an Italian kitchen, but if you are a gluten intolerant who can take cross-contamination, not actually a person with Celiac disease, it’s an option.

Good Ethiopian food should be almost entirely gluten free, as the injera (“pancake”) is traditionally made from teff, not wheat, and wheat, rye and barley aren’t used much, if at all. But I’m always concerned that they might be cutting their teff with wheat to save costs. There are two places in my city that I know I can call ahead and ask them to prepare some gluten free injera and trust that they will (Abyssinia and Ras Dashen). But the injera they normally serve has wheat - the rest of their food does not.

4

Only their Prairie Path Ale. It was accidental; they were trying to reduce the chill haze that some people dislike, and it cut down the gluten content to 5 ppm (FDA standards are 20 ppm or less).

5

Sour cream should be gluten free but some economy brands have thickeners. That could be a potential problem at some (low end?) Mexican restuarants.

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Also, any kind of meatball or dumpling can have wheat flour added as a thickener. I know falafel that were earlier mentioned as potentially gluten free very often include wheat flour along with the chickpea.

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Do they? Interesting. I have only had the falafel from two places and was told in both that they were gluten free, but it’s good to know that may not always be the case.

I’m saddened more at the thought of wheat in sour cream!

8

Take a look at the labels. All kinds of things use “modified food starch” as a thickener. This is almost always corn starch, but they can use any kind of starch depending on what’s cheapest. It just turns out that corn starch is almost always the actual ingredient but this means they don’t have to change the label if they happen to use starch with another origin.

Plenty of other products use gelatin, which can take something that seems vegetarian and add boiled baby cow extract to it.

I know the regular brand of sour cream at our supermarket comes in three varieties. “Lite”, “Regular” and “Natural”. Read the label for “natural” and it’s “Cultured Cream, Milk, Enzymes. Gluten-free.” Read the label for “regular” and it’s “Cultured Pasteurized Cream and Milk, Whey, Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Calcium Sulfate, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Carob Bean Gum, Potassium Sorbate (as preservative)”

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An Ethiopian restaurant near us has “regular” and “gluten-free” injera, where the “regular” includes wheat. It is unfortunate, because the more traditional teff-only version is much tastier (it has a fuller sour flavor). If you don’t specifically ask for that you get the inferior version.

10

Oatmeal is naturally gluten-free, since oats don’t have gluten. However, most oatmeal can’t be labeled gluten-free because it can be processed in the same machinery as wheat products, so there can be trace amounts of gluten.

So, it’s fine for people who want to minimize gluten, but not for people who have very low tolerances.

11

While true, in the U.S. they are supposed to have to label it if they choose wheat.

Sometimes I wish I could afford one of those gluten testing kits and go to town on a bunch of foods.