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

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.

Beef mince is the base but there are plenty of other flavours going on—sweetness from celery and capsicum, savoury from tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce, and acidity from lemon pepper. Wrap this in pastry and you have a grown up version of a sausage roll.

I recalled this dish as something that Mum used to make for my sisters and I when we were little. While I hadn’t made it myself for years, I decided to give it a whirl as potentially something to add to my kid-friendly repertoire.

Success! And the best bit—it’s full of vegetables but, because the pieces are so small, all fussy eaters see is an oversized sausage roll.

Ingredients:

500g lean beef mince
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 small green capsicum, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 tsp beef stock (powder only)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs tomato paste
½ tsp lemon pepper seasoning
2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
1 sheet puff pastry
1 beaten egg for glazing

Combine the beef mince, breadcrumbs, vegetables, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, lemon pepper and parsley; mix well.

Mould the mixture into a log shape and arrange on the pastry. Brush the edges of the pastry with water and fold over the top and sides, ensuring you seal the edges. Place in a greased baking dish and glaze with the beaten egg. Bake in a hot oven (approximately 200°C) for 30–35 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with creamy mashed potato and steamed green beans.

While this beef curry does not profess to be anything like a true Indian curry, it is still delicious and simple to make. It’s fantastic if you’re short on preparation time and can leave it cook slowly in the oven or slow cooker while you do other things.

There’s certainly plenty of flavour for not a lot of effort. And you can feed the family or multiply the quantities and feed the masses. I still remember my mother hiring catering pots and cooking this up to serve 40 people for my 21^st birthday party.

Ingredients

750g rump steak (you can also use round steak)
2 tbs peanut oil
1 brown onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbs ginger, finely chopped
2 tbs curry powder (I prefer Clive of India)
4–5 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into wedges
1½ cups beef stock
3–4 kipfler potatoes, cut into 2–3cm chunks

Method

Trim the fat from the steak and cut it into 2–3cm chunks. Heat the oil in a casserole dish and brown the meat. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion starts to soften. Stir the curry powder through and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and beef stock, stir and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.

Return the meat to the pan and add the potato, stir through. Cover the casserole dish with a lid and bake in a moderate oven for 1–1½ hours, stirring occasionally. You may like to take the lid off the dish for the last 20–30 minutes of cooking time to reduce the amount of liquid.

Serves 4–6.

By cooking this for a long time the meat becomes so beautiful and tender. This dish is hearty comfort food, perfect for the cooler weather.

I’ve come up with a recipe that satisfies both our food needs. Like all good lasagne, it takes a bit of time and effort to make but you end up with ample delicious leftovers.

First, make the tomato sauce:

1 tbs olive oil
2 x 400g canned tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbs rosemary, chopped
¼ cup basil, chopped
1 tbs oregano, chopped
1 bay leaf
Splash of red wine

Fry the garlic in oil until transparent. Deglaze the pan with red wine. Add the other ingredients and simmer gently for 45 minutes to thicken.

While that’s simmering away, start preparing the filling for the layers.

200g pumpkin
½ sweet potato
1 eggplant
2 zucchinis
12 mushrooms, sliced
fresh spinach or silver beet, roughly chopped
250g ricotta
350g mozzarella, grated
50g parmesan, grated
Lasagne sheets

Cut the pumpkin and sweet potato into 5mm slices and parboil. Set aside.

Slice the zucchinis and eggplant lengthways and grill for five minutes on each side. Set aside.

When the tomato sauce is ready, take off the heat, remove the bay leaf and set aside.

In a large ovenproof dish, cover the bottom with layer of tomato sauce and place lasagne sheets on top, covering it to the edges. Cover with a layer of eggplant, then mushrooms, then spinach. Dollop some of the ricotta around and sprinkle with some of the mozzarella.

Place another layer of lasagne sheets in the dish and cover with tomato sauce. Cover with a mixture of pumpkin and sweet potato, then add a layer of zucchini. Dollop with some more of the ricotta around and sprinkle with some more of the mozzarella.

Place another layer of lasagne sheets and cover with tomato sauce and another layer of mushrooms. Dollop the remaining ricotta and sprinkle with a thick layer of mozzarella and the parmesan cheese.

Bake at 140­­-160°C for an hour until cheese is golden with crunchy bits on top.

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…

The chicken comes out moist and tender, and the flavoursome crumbs are light and crunchy.

Here’s what you’ll need:

¾ cup breadcrumbs (dried, panko or fresh)
1 cup parmesan, finely grated
2 shallots, finely chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 tbs butter, melted
freshly ground salt and pepper
4 chicken breast fillets, cut into large pieces
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan, shallots, lemon zest, melted butter, salt and pepper in a bowl.

Lay the chicken pieces out in a baking dish and cover with an even layer of the breadcrumb mixture.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the top is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle lemon juice (to your taste; we like a lot of lemon so we use all the juice) and parsley over the top then serve.

This dish is great served with creamy mashed potato and lots of steamed greens.

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.

Mmmmm, this is a favourite in our household. We usually have it when we’re feeling too lazy to make anything else.

It’s so simple to make with minimal preparation time (about 10-15 minutes), then leave it to gently simmer until thick and rich (at least an hour).

Bolognese sauce
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 medium Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
500g lean beef mince
400g tinned tomatoes
2 tbs tomato paste
½ cup red wine
½ cup beef stock
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
¼ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tbs fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil then add the onions and garlic. Fry on low until onion softens, add the mushrooms. Continue to fry until mushrooms are soft, then add the beef mince. Brown the mince, breaking up large pieces as it cooks through.

Once the mince is cooked through, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, wine and herbs (fresh and dried). Stir through and bring to a rapid simmer, then turn the heat down to a slow simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on al dente spaghetti (or your choice of pasta) and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Belissimo!

Leftovers
The Bolognese sauce freezes well. If you’re making it in advance to freeze, leave a bit of extra liquid so you can reheat it in a saucepan. We do this when we’re planning to go camping.

Jim really loves to have the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. He does this by reheating in a small frypan. When heated he pushes the meat sauce to the edges and breaks an egg to fry in the middle, then serves it on toast.

Recently that was a quick dish grandly called Garlic Chicken Majestic. Grand it may sound, majestic it is in taste, but it is simple comfort food at its best.

I have no idea where the recipe came from, and it sounds like a strange combination, but it is absolutely delicious and very quick to prepare.

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
20g butter
1 tsp oil
1 tbs soy sauce (or tamari)
1-2 tbs curry powder
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp plain flour (optional)
1 cup cream

Heat butter and oil in a saute pan. Cook chicken over medium heat until cooked through and golden. Remove from the pan and cover with foil to rest.

Reduce heat to low and saute the garlic. Add curry powder and soy sauce, and stir into a paste. Add cream (and plain flour if desired) and heat gently till the sauce starts to thicken.

Return chicken and juices to the pan and heat through. Serve chicken on a bed of rice with your choice of steamed greens.