Dinner Foods

Dinner Foods: 

Schär Gluten-Free Pastas

In search of a good tasting gluten-free pasta, I did a lot of research. I read articles, spoke to people on gluten-free diets, and read labels in the store. I found the Schär brand to taste most like regular pasta. The fusilli pasta in this line is made with corn flour, rice flour, pea protein, and edible fats. Other types of pasta in this line may have different ingredients. To me, this one is the best tasting, and the spaghetti tastes the same as the fusilli. Last night I made this pasta and found it does take a little longer to cook than regular pasta, but only about 3 minutes more. Do not overcook any pasta or it becomes mushy. I followed that rule here. I made beef strogranoff for dinner and used this pasta, some chopped up flank steak, chopped up portobello mushrooms (washed and gills removed), diced yellow onion, a packet of gluten-free mushroom gravy mix, and a can of gluten-free mushroom soup from the brand Gluten-Free Cafe'.

I found the mushroom soup from the Gluten-Free Cafe' line to be good tasting, low in salt and the flavor to be "earthy" which I typically do not like, but when mixed into the big pan of strogranoff I was making, I could not tell. Remember, I added a whole can of Campbell's beef consumme' soup to the pan, plus the gravy packet plus a tsp. of worstershire sauce and I had all those onions and mushrooms in there browning with the beef, so there was plenty of flavor. I did not add any salt to my cooking, and I normally don't do that anyway. With stroganoff, you have to make it slightly more salty than your normal dinner food, so that when you add in the sour cream, you still have taste and not "blah". So I added a handful of salt to the boiling pasta water instead, and that gave the pasta plenty of nice flavor which really added to this dish. I also added chopped garlic and fresh parsley, as well as REAL WHOLE NATURAL NOTHING ADDED TO IT SOUR CREAM. I like the Daisy brand the best. When you look on the label, it says under ingredients: CREAM. And that's all! Other sour creams which have modified food starch added to them are not gluten-free. You have to remember when you are grocery shopping that the only foods that contain gluten are those made from WHEAT, RYE AND BARLEY. But since most products contain flours made from all those grains, that eliminates about 80% of what is in the grocery store from our diets. But MEAT has no wheat in it, neither do MILK, EGGS, BUTTER, and OLIVE OIL. Frozen peas contain no flour, neither does fresh fruit. So do not forget all the products that are naturally gluten-free. Here is a photo of the gluten-free soup, and the link to the Gluten Free Cafe' web site

GLUTEN-FREE CAFE' CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP















My favorite pasta sauce for spaghetti is Classico Tomato & Basil - It has no modified food starch in it.

Any pasta sauce you find in the store that has only whole, natural ingredients is gluten-free. For example: read the label - if the ingredients are only tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, onion and herbs, then it is gluten-free. Sauces that contain words like "spices" and "modified food starch" are not gluten-free. "Spices" could mean spice-blends that contain wheat starch and all "modified food starch" is derived from some wheat or rye or barley grain. Most breaded coating mixes and gravy and sauce packets contain modified food starch. Most canned soups contain modified food starch. Most cereals and desserts also contain heavy levels of modified food starch. Even baby food has it! At stores like Henry's & Sprouts, you can find gluten-free sauces.