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

A Mediterranean feast is also very easy to prepare with the help of a good providore. Our staples for eating this way are:

• olives—we love smoked kalamatas, Sicilian olives marinated in lemon and garlic, and green olives stuffed with either feta or blue cheese
• ciabatta or Turkish bread—1cm slices lightly toasted
• garlic dip (this is essentially fresh garlic cloves ground with salt and olive oil till it’s light and creamy—delicious)
• dolmades—vine leaves stuffed with rice and herbs
• baby Roma tomatoes
• marinated Persian feta
• marinated artichoke hearts.

Just today we had a variation of this for lunch. If you wanted to have meat as part of this then you could add some finely sliced salami or ham.

When we are entertaining or having a Mediterranean feast for dinner we add:

• Greek salad
• Grilled haloumi (with onion, parsley & lemon)
• Chicken souvlaki (I use Jamie Oliver’s wicked souvlaki recipe, but substitute pork for chicken)
• Marinated lamb skewers.

There are many ways to make a Greek salad but I have a simple and effective recipe that can be put together in no time.

Greek salad

2 cups salad leaves, torn
1 Lebanese cucumber, diced
200g baby Roma tomatoes, cut into halves or quarters
12–16 pitted kalamata olives
250g marinated Persian feta, drained but retaining the liquid to use as salad dressing
½ a Spanish onion, finely sliced (optional)

Combine these ingredients in a large salad bowl. Drizzle some of the marinade from the Persian feta over the salad and toss to coat. Once the salad is dressed, serve immediately.

Grilled haloumi is something I love. Haloumi has a high melting point so, despite being fried or grilled, it holds its shape and chewy texture.

Grilled haloumi

250g packet of haloumi
½ a brown onion, diced
Juice of half a lemon
⅓ cup of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Combine the onion and lemon juice in a bowl and leave to stand (this will soften the onions and take away any astringency). Meanwhile cut the haloumi into 5mm slices. Heat some olive oil in a fry pan. Fry the haloumi over medium heat until golden on both sides. Remove from the heat and drain the slices on paper towel. Add the chopped parsley to the lemon and onion and toss to combine. Arrange the haloumi on a serving plate and sprinkle the onion, parsley and lemon over the top.

One of our regular dishes is thyme and lemon lamb with zucchini and chickpea salad. I can’t take credit for the idea. It is based on a recipe in the CSIRO Healthy Heart Program cookbook but we’ve changed the cut of meat and recipe to suit our own tastes.

This is one of those dishes that is packed with flavour—it’s really surprising given the overall simplicity of the ingredients and the way you prepare them. Not only that, it’s good for you too…

Ingredients

400g lamb back strap
Filling
100g ricotta
1–2 tbs basil, finely chopped
1 tbs thyme (or lemon thyme), finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
zest of 1 lemon
Salad
3 zucchini, thinly sliced lengthways (2–3mm thick)
olive oil
16 pitted kalamata olives, halved
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
1–2 small fennel bulbs, finely sliced
2–3 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbs basil, roughly chopped
1 tbs thyme (or lemon thyme), roughly chopped
3 tbs parsley, roughly chopped

Method

In a bowl, combine the ricotta, basil, thyme, lemon zest and olive oil. Season with freshly ground black pepper (you can add salt to taste).

Remove any sinew from the lamb back strap and tenderise with a meat mallet until 5mm thick. Spread the ricotta mixture across the flattened meat and roll up. Use toothpicks to secure the roll, if required.

Heat some olive oil in an oven-proof frypan and sear the lamb roll for 2 minutes on each side for colour. Place in a moderate oven 180°C for 10 to 15 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. Remove from the oven and rest the meat for half the total cooking time.

Meanwhile to make the salad, toss the zucchini and fennel in a small amount of olive oil to lightly coat. Place on an oven tray and cook for approximately 8 minutes, until softened.

Transfer to a bowl and mix with the remaining salad ingredients. Cover with cling film and set aside until the lamb is ready.

Cut the lamb into chunky slices (about 2cm thick) and serve with the chickpea salad. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice over the top. Serves 4.

My preference is to cook these on the barbecue. They are absolutely fantastic—the haloumi gets all brown and crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside; the saltiness of the cheese works perfectly with tender pieces of lamb…oh, so succulent and juicy.

You’ll need:

2 tbs oil
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbs fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tbs fresh oregano, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
300–400g lamb back strap (fillet), trimmed of any sinew and fat
200g haloumi, cut into 3cm pieces

Combine oil, lemon juice, herbs and garlic in a large glass bowl. Cut lamb into 3cm pieces, add to the bowl and allow marinate for 30 minutes.

On kitchen skewers, thread a piece of lamb then a piece of haloumi, leaving a slight gap between them (just a few millimetres), and repeat until your skewers are full (remember to leave a couple of centimetres free on either end of each skewer). Brush the skewers with the marinade and cook over medium heat on the barbecue (grill or frypan), turning frequently, until the lamb is done to your liking.

To accompany it, we lightly toast flatbread and mix together a green salad with a similar dressing to the marinade ingredients.

When entertaining, this is an ideal dish to include as part of a Mediterranean feast.

N.B. For a more herby flavour you could also add parsley and thyme to the marinade.

Growing up, every Sunday involved a roast. One very fond memory I have is roast lamb with mint sauce. Nana used to send me out into the backyard to pick the mint fresh from the garden. And it was nice as a kid to be included in the cooking process in some small way.

Jim was feeling particularly inspired by Maggie Beer’s saltbush mutton recipe. It’s fairly simple to prepare but you need a long cooking time so it’s perfect for a lazy Sunday at home. We opted to cook with a leg of lamb instead of the much fattier mutton. Because we have an uneven fan-forced oven, we also had to adjust Maggie’s cooking temperature so the meat didn’t dry out.

Roast lamb
Start with a leg of lamb, cut some slits into the meat and insert garlic slices and rosemary sprigs, pour 125ml of warmed port over it, then cover it and roast in the oven at around 140°C for two hours. The meat must be basted with pan juices every 30 minutes to stop it from burning or drying out. After two hours, pour another 125ml of port over the leg of lamb and continue cooking uncovered in the same way for another two hours. Before carving the meat, rest the lamb for at least 20 minutes.

We served this with a selection of roast vegetables that we love.

Roast vegetables
2 medium potatoes
A thick wedge of pumpkin
1 sweet potato
3 small beetroots
Rosemary

Cut the vegetables into roughly even pieces (around 4cm) and sprinkle with fresh rosemary sprigs. Toss with olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of butter, and bake, turning once or twice, until they’re golden and crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside (about an hour).

It’s worthwhile cooking the beetroot in a separate dish, or at one end of your baking dish, because otherwise it discolours all the other vegetables when you’re turning them.

Parsnips, carrots, onions and garlic are also wonderful roasted. Roasted garlic is particularly useful if you intend to make a jus or gravy with the meat juices from the pan.

While the lamb is resting, make the delightful mint sauce, just like Nana used to make.

Mint sauce
4 tbs fresh mint leaves
2 tbs caster sugar
2 tbs boiling water
8 tbs white vinegar

Finely chop the mint and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with the sugar and pour in the water. Stir once to mix and allow it to stand until the water is cool. Add the vinegar and mix well. Spoon this over your sliced meat at the table.

The meal was delicious! The lamb was delicately flavoured by the rosemary and garlic; any fat on it had melted away. The meat simply fell off the bone after cooking for that long but was still beautifully moist and tender. The mint sauce added a semi-sweet zingy quality, which was quite refreshing on the palate. And the rich flavour of the vegetables complemented it all well.

Now…what to do with all that leftover roast meat…

We were on Facebook the other day and our friend, Tristan, said he had a hankering for lamb tagine.

Well, with the cooler weather approaching in the southern hemisphere that sounded pretty good to us too. So here it is…the perfect Sunday night dinner. And what’s not to like. A tagine is all about tender meat in a rich and sticky sauce, sweet as well as savoury, and oh so good.

1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
½ cup coriander, leaves and stalks
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
zest of 1 lemon
600g diced lamb, cut into chunks
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup water
400g tinned tomatoes

Cous cous
¾ cup cous cous
2 tbs sultanas
2 tbs slivered almonds, cashews or peanuts, lightly toasted
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp butter

In a food processor, blend the onion, garlic, coriander, chilli, cinnamon, dates and lemon zest into a paste.

Heat the oil in a tagine to medium-high and cook the lamb in batches, so it doesn’t simmer in its juices. When all the lamb has been browned, return it to the pan. Lower the heat to medium, add the spice paste and stir to coat the lamb. Allow to cook for 5 minutes until the paste becomes aromatic. Add the water and tinned tomatoes and mix well. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a low simmer and put the lid on the tagine. Allow to simmer for 1½–2 hours, stirring occasionally and making sure it doesn’t dry out.

When the tagine is almost ready, put the cous cous into a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Take off the plastic wrap and add the butter. With a fork, rake through the cous cous to break up any lumps. Add the sultanas, toasted nuts and cinnamon, and mix through.

When the tagine is cooked (the lamb should be so tender it breaks apart), serve with the cous cous.

NB: if you don’t have a tagine use a wide, shallow casserole dish with a lid instead. We also reckon this dish done in a slow cooker would be amazing.