A Gluten-Free Holiday Feast

Is gluten-free a fad?

I dunno. But I think it is helping me feel better (if only in my mind). Like I said, it's pretty easy to keep to a GF diet during your normal life, but here's 2 places when it's hard: 1) while traveling, and 2) during the holidays.

For instance, I was in San Fran and Park City earlier this month and every food court was filled with nothing but sandwiches, pizza, and burgers. I had no choice but to eat airport sushi to stay on the wagon.

Yep. I like to live dangerously.

The holidays can be even trickier, especially with wheat-y staples like stuffing, gravy, bread, macaroni & cheese, cupcakes and pie tempting your tastebuds. What's a girl to do? Make a totally gluten-free homemade holiday feast!

And guess what?

It was good. Seriously!

Not... not horrible. Not good... all things considered. Just plain good. Tasty, even! So, here's a rundown of what I made, and how you can make it too.

Side note: I don't like to follow recipes, but I'm linking to some recipes I used for inspiration because didn't want this post to be 52 pages long describing exactly how I made each dish.

Side note 2: Food tastes better if you have the proper inspiration while cooking.  I watched a double feature of Julie & Julia and Big Night. Twice. But really, any food-centric movie will do -- Chef and The Hundred Foot Journey, or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Ratatouille would also be delightful duos.

Bon appetit!

Think I'm kidding? Check out this feast! All. Gluten. Free.
Only keep reading if you like delicious food...

For starters, I made apps that were super easy. Cheese & GF crackers (Breton,
Mediterranean & Glutino), sopersatta, veggies, chips, Snyder's GF pretzels,
and a delightful nut medely made with cashews, pistachios, dried cranberries, and Raisinettes. 

Ok, okaaaay, I cooked ONE app. Brown sugar-coated bacon-wrapped dates.
Because they are delicious.

Then, I made creamy butternut squash soup with apple and sherry.
An immersion blender will make this silky smooth, but you can use a reg blender too,
just be careful if the soup is hot. You don't want to wear it. And don't skip the heavy cream
or the sherry (go for dry, I got a brand called Taylor for $8 from the liquor store downstairs).

I could have made biscuits with GF Bisquick, but instead I picked up Bob's Red Mill GF cornbread mix,
and prepared it according to the package. Plus, I added a can of corn to the mix. And some extra milk
so it was less dry. Also, I served it with orange honey butter and Sarabeth's cranberry relish.
Aaand, I bought this cute cast-iron pan from C&B so I could feel like a pilgrim. Or a cowboy.

Gizzards and bones aren't for me. So I made boneless turkey breasts. Three, to be exact.
Blasphemous? Maybe. I don't care. One thing to note: Turns out chicken broth can have gluten in it!
So, see that box of College Inn in the background? Don't buy it. And definitely don't buy
three of them to go with your three breasts.

Every turkey needs gravy. Unfortunately most aren't GF. I prefer brown beef gravy over
tan turkey gravy and got a mix from McCormick. Then, I realized one packet wasn't enough
so I added more Kitchen Basics GF stock and Cup for Cup GF flour, and baby portobello mushrooms.  

This GF stuffing with sausage, apples, onions, celery, dried cranberries and sage was really, really good.
I didn't follow a recipe here, but I recommend getting Schar GF sandwich bread and
cutting it into cubes. And Jones pork sausage. And more GF stock. The rest takes care of itself.

I could lick the screen right now. This is a sweet potato gratin with sage and smoked gouda.
And it is my new favorite side dish. I also made a heaping pile of buttery masted potatoes,
but you know what that looks like.

This is a roasted veggie dish I made out of guilt from all those starchy sides. It's rainbow
carrots, parsnips, squash and cipollini onions, but you could use anything here. I got tired,
so I didn't mix them with maple, bacon, and pecans. But if I had, it would have looked like this.

Speaking of starchy sides, I made cheesy stovetop mac & cheese, using my own recipe,
but with Barilla GF elbow macaroni and GF flour instead. Side note: This also freezes pretty well.
Put individual portions in Gladware, freeze, then when you want one, microwave for about 6 minutes,
stirring every 2. Add a few splashes of milk along the way to make it super creamy again.

I guess pumpkin or pecan is a more traditional holiday pie, but I love apple. I couldn't find
GF pie crust and I hate to bake so I didn't make my own. Instead, I used these ramekins
to make individual apple pie crisps with Comstock's apple pie filling. I ground up some
Schar graham crackers with butter to make a crust and added brown sugar topping.

Betty Crocker makes GF yellow cake mix so I whipped up a batch of cupcakes too. I'll be honest,
of all the GF goodies, this one has a bizarre texture, but if you add in the vanilla extract like they
recommend, it tastes pretty much the same. And regular frosting works here because
it never had gluten to begin with. Sweet.

Finally, a holiday feast isn't complete without leftovers. Here's a turkey salad I made
with cheddar & gouda cheeses, roasted pecans, pears, and red grapes.

Ok, now I'm hungry.

Do you have any gluten-free go-to recipes? Share them below...


tags: food, holidays, recipes