Gluten-free Pesach

Rikola

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 8:23 pm

Hi, I have never posted here before, so forgive me if this has been asked already. We just discovered my DD can't eat wheat a month or 2 ago, so this Pesach I have to consider her diet for the first time. We are already dairy-free, so cheese-based recipes won't work either. Help!! Thanks so much.

Rikola

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 9:55 pm

Yes, I need to think outside the matzah, matzah meal foods! I have never used potato starch, so I'm not sure if it's an even exchange, or if the flavor would even work? We make tons of matzah balls, matzah lasagnas, matzah sanikopita, matzah farfel, eat boxes upon boxes of Crispy-O's - wheat, wheat, wheat! All my Pesach baking is matzah-based. While I do have tons of fruit and veggies around all week, and of course meats, it's the breakfasts, snacks, desserts I'm struggling with. {{freaking out}}

I'd love some of the following: brownies, cakes, kugels, etc.

If there's already such a thread I'd also be happy to take a look at that.

Thanks!!!

french fries

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 9:59 pm

Its really the best holiday for glutten-free. The matzah is an issue to talk to a rav about. If you eat processed foods all you have to do is look for non-gebrocks food. There will be no glutten in any of those foods. So much so I buy cookies, macaroni, cake mixes for the rest of the year. Some glutten-free people can still tolerate spelt matza or oat matza. Look into that. Good luck.

anon for this

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:18 pm

There are definitely non-gebrochts dry cereals available, though my kids didn't like the taste much so I won't be buying them again. Other non-grebochts breakfast choices are yogurt and smoothies.

I used to stock up before pesach on GF foods for the whole year. Now that GF foods are more widely available year-round, I don't stock up on most foods. The one item I do stock up on is GF gefilte fish loaves, because I can't find this during the year. Also, I'll still buy cake mixes and such after pesach at clearance prices, if I find them.

My daughter does fine with oats, so we use oat matza. If your child can eat spelt or oat matza, you can buy or make matza meal from those.

cbsmommy

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:19 pm

french fries wrote:

WHOA! NO!
Spelt is a form of wheat! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt) Spelt contains gluten and has a similar molecular structure to wheat. If your dear daughter must be gluten free (or if she has celiac disease) spelt is a HUGE no-no!

In comparison, oat matzah is made from oats. Oats contain avenin as the protein. Oats lack the gialdin molecule which is the 'trigger' for gluten reactions.

OP feel free to PM. We've been a gluten free household for a number of years. I have tons of recipes, advice on dealing with brands (no, non-gebrokts does NOT always mean gluten free, many products are made on lines which are NOT CLEANED for safe allergen standards.)

eraiser

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:30 pm

anon for this:
btw, you CAN get gf gefilte fish loaves all year - the shindler's brand has a Gluten free line that we like a lot - we used to eat Ungers and this one is very comparable, if not better. I buy a case and just keep it in the freezer, but they carry it at the local kosher supermarket here all year. Ask your local store if they can get it for you.

anon for this

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:34 pm

[quote="eraiser"]anon for this:
btw, you CAN get gf gefilte fish loaves all year - the shindler's brand has a Gluten free line that we like a lot - we used to eat Ungers and this one is very comparable, if not better. I buy a case and just keep it in the freezer, but they carry it at the local kosher supermarket here all year. Ask your local store if they can get it for you.[/quote
thanks, I didn't know that.

cbsmommy

Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:48 pm

mha3484 wrote:

If I understand correctly there is a difference between not being able to eat wheat and not being able to have gluten. Maybe that is why spelt was suggested?

You are right, there is a huge difference between not being able to eat wheat and not being able to have gluten. Wheat allergies are typically an IGA histamine reaction. Gluten intolerance is an autoimmune disease that involves a person's T-cells (a type of white blood cell). That being said, someone with a wheat allergy CAN have barley, even though it contains horedin, which causes a reaction in people with a gluten intolerance. Someone with celiac disease can become incredibly ill from having barley.

That being said, spelt and wheat can be a gray area. Some people with a true wheat allergy can have spelt, but some cannot because the two are too closely related. (A bad analogy scientifically speaking, but easy to understand spelt vs wheat conceptually is as follows: some people who are allergic to walnuts can have almonds. Both are nuts, but some people are only allergic to one type of nut, while for others BOTH types of tree nuts are a problem.)

However, since the title of the thread was GLUTEN-FREE PESACH and there might be people reading this who are new to the gluten free diet, I wanted to state very explicitly that SPELT CONTAINS GLUTEN and is therefore NOT SAFE for anyone on a medically required gluten free diet.

yOungM0mmy

Tue, Mar 20 2012, 5:50 am

I'm pretty much gluten free and dairy free on pesach (except for the matza), as well as completely nut free and mostly egg free. We also don't use any processed foods (except the kids will have some non-gebrokts cereal, potato chips, chocolate spread and yoghurt).
I don't do any baking, at all, since my son is allergic to eggs and I am allergic to nuts and can not tolerate any ground nuts or shell particles floating around, and we don't do gebrokts. No one seems to miss the baking for 1 week - I do lots of cut fruit - we especially like melon. I do an apple and peach compote, fruit ices, mango sorbet...
Chicken soup with no matza balls, since we do not do gebrokts - last year I cut the carrots into flower shapes for a little something extra floating in the soup, and made chicken balls from minced chicken and blended onions.
Instead of gefilte fish I do salmon, either just broiled with some lemon juice and salt, or in a pan with some lemon juice, salt, sliced onions and rosemary.
Breakfast is lots of cut fruit, you can have a fried egg as well, or a big vegetable salad.
I do chicken nuggets dipped in just potato starch - no egg cuz my son can't have, no spices cuz we don't use any except salt, and my kids wait for pesach shnitzel all year! For company, you can fry it in potato starch, and then make a sauce of loads of fried onions, some wine and water, and let them cook in that a bit - they get really soft and moist. Or the duck sauce recipe on this site - I think from ra_mom.
I do a fried potato kugel which has no potato starch or gluten, or a baked 3-colour kugel which is also fine.

french fries

Tue, Mar 20 2012, 7:00 am

As someone who personally has celiac disease, tolerances of spelt, oats or non-gebrets foods is an indivdual thing. If any of these foods can be tolerated than it makes the holiday much easier. I really don't know what one would eat on Pesach if they don't eat non-gebrects food. These are just suggestions.

cbsmommy

Tue, Mar 20 2012, 11:24 am

French Fries - if you have celiac disease, I urge you to speak with your doctor before continuing to eat spelt.

"Spelt is a species of wheat, so spelt and spelt flour are NOT gluten-free.

People who believe that spelt (scientifically known as Triticum spelta) is gluten-free and safe for people with celiac disease are mistaken.

According to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, foods that contain spelt or kamut cannot carry "wheat-free" or "wheat-alternative" labels."

-About.com/celiac disease

Oats are a different animal completely. Spelt contains a LOWER gluten content, however it is still drastically HIGHER than the 20 ppm that is considered the safe 'cut-off' for people with celiac disease.

Oats from a reliable gluten free source (the gluten free matzahs, laras gluten free oats, bobs red mill gluten free oats, lakewood gluten free matzahs, lucy's gluten free oat cookies, etc) have CONSISTENTLY tested BELOW between 5-20 ppm depending on the product.

shoeboxgirly

Tue, Mar 20 2012, 12:43 pm

I saw gluten free matza at my local kosher store yesterday. Made me think of my non-Jewish celiac work colleague...then I remembered he doesn't have to endure Pesach anyway. It has become a bit of a joke at work, that we can eat out anywhere as long as I can bring my own food and he can have steak.