Vegan-Gluten allergy

[Erlinda]

I need to eat gluten free and I have friends who are vegan. I've made a really really easy and delicious curry using Thai Kitchen's Green Curry paste (vegan and GF). Use a can of coconut milk, add the green curry paste and any fresh veggies you want, like green beans, potatoes, peppers, onions, ginger, etc. Let it simmer and serve with rice. Ono and good for everyone!

[csgray]

Virtually any Thai, Chinese, or Japanese dish that doesn't use wheat noodles will be easy to adapt, India as well but I don't have a lot of experience with it. Generally I find that trying to adapt meat/dairy or gluten heavy recipes (like Italian pasta dishes) is less successful than turning to cuisines that were never dependent on those ingredients.

Oven baked tofu or tempeh that has either been marinated in a tamari/fresh ginger/rice vinegar mixture or with a really good BBQ sauce makes great sandwiches with tomato, avocado and sprouts; vegetable stir fry with tofu served with rice or rice noodles can be really good, the choice of vegetables and sauce are the flavor source. Rice and Rice noodles are fine to use too. I don't know about sweet potatoes or yams in terms of gluten.

It might help to separate the challenge into two parts: first tackle the gluten free part and figure out what your starch is going to be, foods from rice based cultures make this easier. Then address the vegan aspect, tofu or tempeh can be substituted for meat or poultry in most dishes where the ingredients are combined like curries or sautees, soft tofu can replace ricotta cheese in Italian cooking, but as someone said the gluten free pastas aren't very good so I would turn to Asia rather than the Mediterranean for inspiration.

My husband is a vegan with some weird food allergies, when we eat at friend's homes he generally asks what is in things to avoid having an allergic reaction, but he doesn't expect everyone at a meal to live with his limitations. Sometimes he ends up eating lots of side dishes while everyone else goes for the meat or dairy dishes. I am an omnivore and our kids went back and forth between vegan/vegetarian/omnivore while growing up, our table really didn't look that much different than anyone else's, we just had a little more variety than most people to accommodate everyone's needs.

Carol

[Guest]

Good stuff, Csgray. I often bring my own food to people's houses. I don't want anyone going to trouble for me and it's a chance to show off my cooking skills. I have also learned to never "preach" my views about food to anyone. The quality and quantity of produce we have in the Puna district makes it much easier. Best produce in the world and available year round.

[Kapohocat]

Mexican food can also be gluten free.

Most food cooked in Baja are not so heavily cheese laden like our infamous Liquin's or most Mexican restaurants north of the border.

Substituting tofu for meat - I have marinated it in cumin and other Mexican spices for vegans visiting to use on my version of tostadas.

[Guest]

Does anyone remember Mama Lani's Mexican that used to be in Keasu? This was the first place I ever had vegan Mexican. They made tofu enchiladas and burritos that were really good.