The Gluten Free Blog

Following on from our review of gluten free iPhone apps available in the UK iTunes store I found this iPhone app that’s available to US users.

glutenScan™ provides information on over 30,00 products and has a database of over 10,00 manufacturers. That’s pretty impressive! And with over 500 products added or updated each week this looks like an extremely valuable iPhone addition for anyone following a gluten free lifestyle.

glutenScan™ is currently offered at an intial discounted rate of $1.99 for 30 days of use. Continue as necessary by extending your subscription for $1.99 for another 30 days, or $3.99 for 90 additional days. This may sound pricier than many iPhone apps but with a wealth of information on gluten free products at your fingertips one could argue it’s a real bargain!

Take a look at the glutenScan™ website for further features and up to date information.

Being in the UK I am unable to formally review this app. It looks great! Have you used it? Let us know what you think.

Genius gluten free bread

Tried a new gluten free bread this week. And it was genius! No it really was. Genius’s gluten free bread tastes just like the real thing and is the brainchild of Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, a mum of three and a professionally-trained chef.

When she discovered two of her children had foods allergies she set about creating the perfect gluten free loaf so her little boy could enjoy toasty ‘soldiers’ with his boiled egg. Not only that, she wanted to create a gluten free bread that the whole family would be happy to eat – not just the ‘gluten frees’.

“It took me three years to perfect Genius Gluten-Free Bread and my children would often come home from school to find 14 different loaves of bread waiting for them to try. I even broke my oven. But finally I got there.” Says Lucinda.

I agree. Genius gluten free bread is soft, bouncy and tasty. And unlike some gluten free breads you can eat this bread without toasting it. I made a fried-egg sandwich yesterday and it was delicious.

Genius gluten free bread is available from all major UK grocery stores. (Sainsbury’s have got it at half price at the moment, so try it!)

Today I found a search engine specifically for gluten intolerant users. Gluten Free Fox is a search engine that searches only gluten-free websites.

It uses a Google Custom Search Engine where you specify a finite list of websites to use for your search results. This provides a tailored set of results for a particular niche. In this case, gluten-free users.

The success of this search engine depends on them including as many guten-free websites in their search results. So if you have a gluten-free specific website and haven’t discovered Gluten Free Fox yet pop along to their site and submit yours to make sure you’re included.

The site also has many interesting articles written by their experts in living gluten-free. Tips on gluten-free travel, skin and cosmetic tips and even a collection of videos!

So take a look at Gluten Free Fox and let’s make this site the number 1 search engine for gluten-free users.

This recipe is taken from The Wheat and Dairy Free Cookbook by Terence Stamp & Elizabeth Buxton.

Buckwheat is used extensively in Russian cuisine. Buckwheat contains more than 13 per cent protein and has a high amino acid content. Toasted and cooked like this it adds a nutty taste to any dish. Halloumi is a traditional white, semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese.

• 1 halloumi cheese
• A little all-purpose wheat-free flour for dusting

For the Kasha Salad:

• Buckwheat – 225 g (8 oz)
• Olive oil – 4 tbsp
• Water – 1 litre (1¾ pint)
• Mint, finely chopped – 55 g (2 oz)
• Flat parsley, chopped – 55 g (2 oz)
• Finely sliced spring onion/scallion – 4 tbsp
• Cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced – 300 g (10½ oz)
• Lemon juice – 4 tbsp
• Black pepper
• Pumpkin seeds – 75 g (3 oz)

Rinse the buckwheat in plenty of cold running water. Drain thoroughly. Put half the olive oil in a saucepan, add the buckwheat and fry, stirring until toasted and golden. Be careful not to burn. Pour in the water, cover and simmer gently until all the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and leave to stand, covered, for 5 minutes. If there is sediment on the grains, rinse again under running water.

Put the remaining ingredients except the pumpkin seeds in a bowl and mix well. Leave to stand.

Heat a heavy non-stick frying pan/skillet. Do not add any oil. When hot put in the pumpkin seeds and shake over a high heat until the seeds start to ‘pop’. Remove from the pan and put on a plate. Sprinkle these over the kasha salad just before serving.

Slice the cheese lengthways to a thickness of about 1 cm/½ in, dust with a little flour and dry-fry in a non-stick pan until the cheese is a rich caramel brown. Serve with the kasha salad.

Serves 4 as a main meal

iPhone apps – don’t you just love ’em. Well as you might expect there are quite a few iPhone apps out there for gluten free living.

Below are a few gluten free iPhone apps that stood out for me. I haven’t included any recipe apps as there are so many gluten free recipes on the web already. The apps I have listed are ones that offer something a little different. These apps are available on the UK iTunes store. Some will be available on other iTunes stores I’m sure.

• Gluten Free Restaurant Cards from CeliacTravel.com (Free) – This little app provides information for restaurant staff about the restrictions for those on a gluten free diet. Not that impressive you might say. But this app offers this information in over 40 languages, making it far easier for you to dine out when abroad. The CeliacTravel.com website provides printable versions of the cards so they can be taken right into the kitchen, so avoiding possible corruption of your message on the way to the kitchen.
• CeliacFeed (Free) – This app is provided by CeliacFeed.com. It helps people with celiac disease find gluten free products and restaurants in their city. Users can share their recommendations directly from their iPhone and the app uses the iPhone’s GPS to locate restaurants near you. The app is very limited at the moment but I like the idea. All it needs is more users to download it and start recommending their favourite places for it to become a really useful addition to the global gluten free community.
• GlutenFreeNYC (£1.79) – Gluten free in NYC? Then this app is for you. Over a dozen restaurants with gluten free menus and over 40 restaurants that accommodate gluten free requests. Plus you can browse through different types of cuisine and meal types to discover their suitability. Not very useful you might think. Unless of course you’re in New York City. But visit the website and vote on where you want the app to focus on next. You never know. It might be your city!

Take a look at all the ‘gluten free’ iPhone apps available on the iTunes store. Let’s hope some more start appearing soon!