Gluten Free

I'm not sure if you already have it, but the Coeliac Society of Ireland have, or at least had a few years ago, a little book with all gluten free products from different brands.

Knorr used to have a lot of GF sauces and gravy etc where other brands had wheat in them. Evergreen shops had GF pasta and lasagne sheets etc.

I'm not a Coeliac but one parent was so I'm not as up to date with it as I was since I don't live at home, but they liked the weetabix type cereal you could get in Tesco/Dunnes and Lidl bread.

Recipes are easy enough to work around with GF flour

If you are looking for beer, all 9 White Beer products are gluten free both on draught and in bottles.

For cereal I'd recommend "Delicious Ella" most SuperValu and Tesco stock it.

For bread I prefer "Wellness Banking" soda bread. By far the best bread.

Id avoid most foods from a deli due to cross contamination.

Few other times for you.ake sure that ALL foods you buy state they're gluten free.

Be prepared to pay considerably more for the vast majority of foods you buy as well.

Be that person in a restaurant that asks "are you sure it's gluten free". The person serving won't be the one suffering the consequences of you do eat something containing gluten.

It takes time to get used to watching everything you eat . Get into the habit of reading ingredients on the back ,it's surprising how many products contain gluten. Tesco has some nice gluten free cereal . There are also apps you can get so you can scan products to check if they are gluten free . Did you have an endoscopy

Knorr Gravy granules are gluten free and I think Bisto have brought a GF one out as well. I use Knorr GF granules but I would always add a glug of Worcestershire sauce (for colour) and a splodge of tomato puree (to assist colour and thickening). The flavour is pretty good but it will never be as good as a good old beefy gluteny gravy. All fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat are GF, but stay away from breaded or battered anything unless it states it is GF. I use Promise GF bread because it is a nice soft bread. I suggest you join the Coeliac Society as they will provide you with much more information on the foods you can eat and I believe they have an App now which you can use as you go round the supermarket. They didn't have that when I was a member. With experience you will probably manage without them but as a newbie I'd stick close to them for now. Gravy, sauces and soups are things to be careful of, even if someone makes a home made one for you, it's vital to always ask for their exact ingredients. Good luck!

Thank you for starting this thread. I am GF/coeliac for over 20 yrs now. I miss the forum that used to be hosted by the Irish Coeliac society. It covered many other topics as well as food and was easy to navigate.

Bread: my favourite is Sowans Brown Bread mix ( 40 mins bake, add buttermilk and cider vinegar)

Beer: Brown Bear from Aldi, individual bottles of 500ml. Daura is 330 ml but in packs of 4 when you can find them.

Biscuit: I make my own with peanut butter base but favourite to buy is Tesco ginger chocolate.

Fish: other half has Donegal Catch etc but I will do plain fish in foil and there are GF oven chips (Green Isle).

Eating out is still an issue especially for snack/lunch.

There is a brand of soya called Tamari that is wheat free and availabe in supermarkets. A good restaurant should give you some for the table but soya is included in many basic recipes so hard to avoid. I have never noticed a reaction to same… it must be such a small amount in a recipe.

You don't need to miss out of the family Chinese meal at all. Like most restaurants they will have a few options that you could have. It goes without saying stay away from anything in a batter. Or as someone else said soy sauce also contains gluten. You could have a chicken chop suey or breast of chicken with sweet and sour sauce, Also fired rice is out as well so it will have to boiled rice. But like everything you order in a restaurant you would will need to ask is it gluten free and maybe more that ask once. In the main restaurant are pretty good , but they're human as well so mistakes can happen even in the best of restaurants. Don't be afraid to ask multiple times.

Eating at home is relatively straightforward as for the most part you know that you're sticking to the diet unless you inadvertently eat something you shouldn't. Eating out can be a right pain in the arse, especially if you're on the go. Avoid all deli counter foods including salads,as there can be a lot of cross contamination. The vast majority of take away foods are out of the question, depending on your sensitivity the could mean even a bag of chips. Always try to eat foods that specific state that they're gluten free, if not read the ingredients on everything else you eat.

Also you will need to be careful with snack foods like chocolate, crisp peanuts etc as some of these contain gluten. A lot of crisps manufacturers add a sprinkle of flour to help them be more crispy.

Edit, O Donnell crisps are gluten free

About to recommend Keoghs…

As for gravy, cornflour is your friend. Cornflour can be used to bake biscuits, make a coating for cooking meat/fish.

I feel the world has moved on to vegan and gluten seems old hat now for restaurants. It is cruel to have to scan a menu even with allergy symbols to finetune what you can eat. Many dishes can be modified by simple omission of a bread item. Be great is there was always a separate printed up menu and well done for some places that put a 'gluten free' flag on a dish when presented.

My wife is coeliac. We have to plan ahead and I have seen her go hungry multiple times. You get used to it and learn to plan ahead. People not understanding is a real problem. We went to a spanish restaurant in Temple Bar one night and the manager said an ingredient had gluten - but would pick it out before serving! Sadly, I am serious.

She can eat O'Donnells crisps but not Keoghs. She knows now which cafes and takeaways can cater for GF, but it is all planning, planning, planning. Restaurants do try, but it needs more work. Standard response is salad (without croutons), or steak.

The BeFree range of breads is quite palatable, while she has found the Lidl GF pasta is good. She hates the kelkin stuff. Rosie and Jims chicken products do GF which is good but watch out for marinades. She gets chick fillets in the butchers marinated in whatever, but they changed the supplier and the new stuff had gluten.

You WILL be glutened, no matter how hard you try, all you can do is try to avoid it as best you can.