Daisy and Bubbles are trying to figure out gluten-free life at home in Malaysia, and all around the world! Have a question? Drop us a line at daisynbubbles@gmail.com!
One thing that annoys me the most: guests who know that I have food allergies and then expect to eat bad (synonym “healthy”) food at my house. Gluten-free food is healthy and naturally delicious because it doesn’t contain a lot of the “stuff” that gum up our digestive tracts. One simple and tasty appetizer idea: steamed or grilled shrimp with garlic lemon butter sauce.
Ingredients
Shrimp
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Lemon
Only six ingredients (unless you want to add other seafood to the mix). Steam the shrimp. I do it in the rice cooker on a steaming rack. Grilling is fine too if you have a clean non-sauce-contaminated grill.
The sauce is simple but involved a little bit of practice when it comes to controlling heat. Mash garlic and salt in mortar or chop finely. The salt makes the garlic literally melt. Squeeze lemon juice. Go easy on amount of lemon juice unless you like your food really tangy. Melt butter slowly in pan. Slowly (if you need to, *very* slowly) add the garlic and the lemon juice. Be careful not to burn!
And that’s all folks! Guaranteed to please and oh so simple. 🙂
This is something I used to make a lot of when I was in the United States, and lo and behold, it turned out to be naturally gluten-free! There are a ton of fast-food burrito joints all over the US, and they are typically considered healthier alternatives to your regular fastfood.
Balanced, naturally gluten-free meal.
A burrito bowl is basically a burrito without the wrap. Easier to eat (no wobbly wet wraps) and easier to eat more of the good stuff.
Ingredients
Rice
Beans (kidney, red, or lentils)
Avocado
Lime juice
Coarse, raw salt (e.g. Himalayan or Celtic)
Olive oil
Tomatoes
Capsicums
Onions
Meat (if you prefer)
The base is always rice, cooked in a rice cooker with tomatoes or other veggies if you prefer.
Make a side of beans—kidney, red, or lentils work well. Just boil the beans, adding a little salt and pepper to taste.
Then, the guacamole (my favorite part). Remove the skin and seed from an avocado. Add the juice of half a lemon or lime. Add a pinch of any raw, course salt (Celtic or Himalaya Rock are the ones we use at home—stay far away from table salt. It’s so bad for you.). Add some chopped cilantro (hard to get in KL, so you could substitute with coriander) and some small tomato cubes (say 4-5 grape tomoatoes or half a large one). A generous amount of olive oil goes into the mix as well (say 15-20 ml to start, I usually double that). Mix, making sure to mash the avocado well.
Finally, pepper stir fry. Cut up some capsicums in various colors in long, thin strips. Chop up a little onion. Stir fry with olive oil, salt and pepper. And voila! You’re done!
Add some chilli sauce if it’s too bland. You can stir fry and add some meat (beef, chicken or pork is usually used) cooked with spices (chilli, peppers, paprika powder) if you’d like to go non-vegetarian as well.
Alternative preparation
Ingredients
Tomatoes–the more, the thicker the soup
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Make the guacamole as above and put on gluten-free bread, Cook down a bunch of tomatoes on your stove top—say 8-10 for two people. Just place tomatoes in a covered dish on low heat. Add a little water if tomatoes are hard and don’t cook down easily. When in a watery pulpy mess, transfer to blender. Add 3 table spoons of olive oil and a cup of parmesan cheese. Blend. Delicious.
Alternative Preparation: Guacamole with Tomato Soup
