It is constantly surprising how many things contain wheat, barley or rye. There are obvious things that you cut out straight away—bread, pasta, beer, cakes and pastries—unless they’re specifically marked “gluten free”. But there are a host of less obvious things as well, turning you into an expert in reading food contents labels. Things to check carefully on a gluten-free diet include:

• chocolate and lollies
• cereals
• biscuits and crackers
• French fries—these can be coated with flour before deep frying
• gravy mixtures
• processed meats and sausages
• salad dressings
• sauces, including soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Hoisin sauce
• seasoning mixes, including rice and noodle flavourings
• seasoned snack foods, such as potato and corn chips
• soups and stocks
• spreads, such as Vegemite, peanut butter, Anchovette paste
• yoghurts—some of the flavoured ones are thickened with gluten.

To anyone attempting a gluten-free diet, making the change seems daunting—“what am I going to eat?” being the primary concern. Our diets are often so loaded with breads and cereals that you can’t have any more, it can be a real challenge to find alternatives. There are plenty of delicious things that you can eat, it’s just about making sure you eat enough to fill you up.

Gluten-free fillers

Our favourite gluten-free fillers are:

• chickpeas, lentils, beans (kidney, cannellini, butter, fava, black)
• quinoa, buckwheat, polenta
• seeds, nuts
• corn, rice, potatoes
• eggs
• plus a host of other fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish.

Gluten-free substitutes

If you’re really struggling to fill up, here are some of the things that we’ve substituted into our meals to make them gluten free.

Tasty gluten-free meals

Gluten free doesn’t mean flavour free! We make some delicious gluten-free meals. Once you learn what you can and can’t eat it makes it much easier to adapt your recipes to suit. Check out some of our regular dishes:

Soups

• Zucchini, potato and feta soup
• Dhal
• Chestnut soup
• Pumpkin soup

Salads

• Witlof, apple and walnut salad
• Quinoa tabouli
• Asparagus and pea salad
• Orange and fennel salad
• Coleslaw
• Caramelised pear & fennel salad with gorgonzola

Mains

• Herbed rissoles
• Coconut chicken curry with banana chutney
• Pasta with cauliflower, peas, mint and quinoa
• Coconut, chicken and banana curry
• Thyme and lemon lamb with zucchini and chickpea
• Lamb and haloumi skewers
• Beef tacos
• Fish with charred Mediterranean vegetables
• Tuna with bean salad

There are so many mouthwatering recipes in Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals it’s hard to choose, but eventually I settled on an Asian style beef and noodle salad (page 68).

Challenge #2 Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing

All of the recipes in this book start with the instruction “ingredients out” and this recipe also suggested boiling the kettle and setting a frypan on high heat.

Ingredients: cashews, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, rice noodles, romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radishes, coriander, spring onions, cress, alfalfa sprouts, steak, Chinese five spice, pickled ginger, limes, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, red chilli

So I set about weighing ingredients and getting various tools ready to go. This took 10 minutes and 44 seconds. Slightly longer than the first challenge but not by much.

Start cooking

First is toasting the nuts and seeds until golden then setting aside. Next pouring boiling water over the noodles to heat them through; then rubbing the steak with Chinese five spice, salt and pepper, and cooking in the pan until done to your liking (medium-rare for me). All very straightforward.

Next was the ginger dressing, really just mixing the pickled ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped chilli together. Not difficult.

Now on to assembling the salad—separating lettuce leaves, grating carrot, chopping radishes, cucumber and spring onion (by hand, not with the food processor like most of these recipes call for), grabbing the coriander leaves, cress and alfalfa, then arranging them on a platter or board—there’s nothing complicated here. All the while flipping your steak and, when cooked, resting it.

Finally, draining the rice noodles and scattering them over the salad, slicing the beef and placing the slices on top, then scattering the platter with the nuts and seeds.

It all sounds like the simplest thing in the world, and it is, but it still took me 22 minutes and 20 seconds to complete it. Although I have to admit, I wasn’t trying too hard because after last time I’d decided I preferred my own cooking pace.

That brings the total cooking time up to 33 minutes and 4 seconds. OK, so not 15 minutes but I still think that’s really quick to produce a delicious healthy dinner.

My thoughts

Positive: This dish had fantastic Asian elements—sweetness, saltiness, heat, fabulous crisp vegetables, amazing crunch from the toasted nuts and seeds, soft noodles, and tender juicy meat. I loved the combination. There were lots of beautiful textures and every mouthful was just a little bit different, depending on what ingredients had ended up on the fork.

Negative: Who am I kidding—brilliant dish! Just took a little longer to prepare than I expected.

Next time?

I will certainly make Jamie’s Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing again but will start by cooking the steak, and allowing it plenty of time to rest. The nuts and seeds can easily be toasted in another pan—extra washing up but not a big deal.

The types of comfort foods we eat are different for everyone. For me, I associate things that are loaded with calories—some sweet, some savoury—with comfort and feeling better. I know I’m not alone in that. I mean, realistically, has anyone ever come home from a bad day at work and said, “I’ve had such a bad day, I really need some salad to cheer me up”? No, it’s things like chocolate, ice cream, or potato chips that we crave…

So what are the key qualities of comfort food? As I see it:

• nostalgia—some of my favourite comfort foods, the ones more like a meal than a snack, are the dishes that take me back to nana’s kitchen or special family dinners. For me, that’s things like roast lamb with mint sauce or pumpkin soup
• a treat—if something in my life isn’t going quite to plan I like to give myself a little boost with a sweet treat. Chocolate caramel slice anyone?
• pleasurable to eat—the sheer enjoyment of eating something decadent and delicious, even if it may not quite fit in with the healthy eating plan. I make a very simple dish that I class as comfort food—it’s the creamy sauce of garlic chicken majestic. I just love it!

Looking back over some of my previous posts it seems I have quite a few comfort foods. In addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned, take a look at:

• ‘stralian beef curry. Who doesn’t love a good curry?
• scrambled eggs. Best…brekkie…ever!
• herbed rissoles served with creamy mashed potato. Two comfort foods on the one plate—heaven!
• savoury beef roll. It’s like a giant sausage roll…need I say more?

Hmmm, nothing healthy in that list. I would love to hear from you if salad really is your comfort food. And if so, what’s the salad recipe? It’s gotta have bread or potato or creamy mayonnaise, right?!

I’ve been watching Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals on TV and was given the accompanying recipe book for Christmas. Always on the lookout for great recipes to add to my work-day dinner repertoire, this book is full of my kind of food and I thought it best to get stuck in and give it a go this week. And why not put a time limit on myself for once. Could I actually cook a meal in 15 minutes? Challenge accepted.

I’m notoriously slow at preparing food, partly because I like to clean up as I go and partly because of a previous kitchen mishap (picture a tough-skinned Queensland Blue pumpkin, a blunt knife and a self-stabbing—the pumpkin won that day).

I’ve read quite a few reviews of the book and blogs of people challenging themselves in the same way. Not too many seem to have managed it so my expectations for success in the 15-minute timeframe were not high.

Challenge #1 Golden scallops, sun-blush mash & greens

The golden scallops, sun-blush mash & greens recipe (page 144) appealed to me as a good starting point—all the flavours I love and maybe, just maybe, achievable in the timeframe because there’s not a lot of ingredients or chopping to worry about.

Ingredients: scallops, bacon, sage, potatoes, cheddar cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, milk, broccoli, asparagus, frozen peas, lemon juice, olive oil

Ready, set…

I should start by quoting the instructions in the book to get ready for cooking “ingredients out • kettle boiled • large shallow lidded casserole pan, high heat • medium pan, high heat • food processor (bowl blade) • large frying pan, medium heat”.

Rightly or wrongly, I took “ingredients out” to mean weighing out quantities, and some vegetable peeling and trimming. It took me 10 minutes and 27 seconds to get prepared (yes, I was keen to really test myself time-wise).

Now to the cooking. GO.

The idea was to get the potatoes on the heat first, as they would take the longest to cook. Jamie’s idea of 1cm slices going into a hot pan and covering them with already boiling water was a good one—the potatoes took a lot less time than normal to cook. Although I can envisage a few kitchen mishaps with boiling water going into the hot pan. It bubbles, hisses and spurts a lot!

Next was cooking the greens. Boiling water for 3 minutes—a no brainer really. Jamie says to toss with lemon juice and olive as soon as they have been drained. I personally think they need to be refreshed in cold water first, but I guess that would take up a bit more time and it’s something I can do next time.

Continuing on with the sun-blush part of the mash, the cheese and sun-dried tomatoes go into the food processor to blitz in readiness for when the potatoes are cooked—easy.

Next, slicing bacon and scoring scallops ready for the pan. Jamie says to cook the scallops first. For me, scallops are so quick to cook I think the bacon (I used proscuitto instead) should hit the pan first because it takes longer to melt the fat. Then the scallops and sage leaves could be added so they cook in the bacon fat. Another personal choice…

While that’s happening the cooked potatoes are drained and go into the food processor to create the mash.

Then plate up. It all comes together quite well. My cooking time: 16 minutes, 6 seconds. So not far too off the 15-minute timeframe.

Total time: 26 minutes, 33 seconds. Probably the fastest dinner I’ve ever prepared and cooked. Definitely the messiest state I’ve cooked in, physically and mentally.

My thoughts

Positive: I like the concept of Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals and the resulting dish was delicious! Sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, sage, scallops—these work so well together. Salty, meaty, sweet—brilliant! The mash, despite the rich flavours of sun-dried tomato and tasty cheddar, was surprisingly light and had a gorgeous creamy texture. It’s made me completely rethink the way I make mash.

Negative: I felt really rushed and disorganised, even though I had read the recipe several times and had everything out, weighed and ready to go. I know it’s not meant to be a race but I’m sure many people would struggle to get this done in 30–40 minutes, let alone 15! Oh, and perhaps I am guilty of gluttony but the dish needs more scallops (4 each is simply not enough of these tasty critters).

Next time?

I will most certainly make this dish again…but for me cooking should be an enjoyable experience, so I’ll do it while sipping a glass of wine and without the mad rush. I don’t really mind if this means it takes me longer.