The Gluten Free Blog

If you’re looking for a fresh and filling lunch you might want to grab yourself a tasty veg pot from Innocent. Of course, Innocent are more famous for their smoothies, thickies and juices. But they’ve recently added veg pots to their range – and they’re absolutely delicious.

Which Innocent Veg Pots are gluten free?

There are eight in the range and I tried these two this week: Mexican sweet potato chilli with brown rice, jalapeno peppers and smoke paprika; and Indian daal curry with spicy cauliflower, chickpeas and fresh spinach. The ingredients are all fresh with no colourings, flavourings or nasty E numbers. And these two are gluten free, low in fat and contain three of my daily veg portions.

Not all the pots are gluten free so be sure to check the ingredients before you buy.

You can buy Innocent tasty veg pots at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda where they normally retail for about £3.50. But Asda currently have them for 2 for £5 which is a bargain!

Try out a few of the other flavours and let us know what you think.

Not sure which restaurants in your area serve gluten free foods? Or which ones have a good choice of vegan dishes? Or are nut-free? Wonder no more. Because we’ve recently come across LeaveItOut.co.uk, an all new specialist eating out online guide.

Whether you have a food allergy or intolerance, are vegetarian or vegan or even need to find a child-friendly venue or a place with disabled access, Leave It Out can help.

Simply enter your post code, click which intolerance you have and Leave It Out will show you your nearest restaurants.

You can even win dinner for two at a restaurant of your choice by writing a review or sending the site a new listing. Got a fantastic local restaurant you want to talk about? Just register here (it takes about 30 seconds) and write a review. Or if you want to see your favourite local restaurant listed just contact the Leave It Out team.

You’ll also find lots of informative articles on the site written by Medical Consultant Dr Adam Fox and Dietician Tanya Wright, such as Coeliac Disease And Malt Extract and When And How Can Wheat Allergy Occur?

We think this site is going to be a great resource. Remember to get your reviews and recommendations in. And you might be enjoying a gluten free pizza free of charge at the end of the month!

At the Allergy and Gluten Free Show the other week we found quite a few brands we hadn’t come across before including Lazy Day Foods and Steph’s Free From Cakes.

Dr Sally Beattie of Lazy Day Foods

Dr Sally Beattie who is a director at Lazy Day Foods is a professional food scientist, so she knows a thing or two about delicious food. And as a mum with kids who have allergies she knows a thing or two about food intolerances.

We chatted to Sally for a while and tried quite a few of her products – all in the name of research of course – and we can highly recommend the Millionaire’s Shortbread and the Belgian Dark Chocolate Tiffin. Delicious. And both wheat, gluten, dairy and egg free.

All Lazy Day products are handmade in a dedicated gluten free factory in Scotland and are available to order via the website. They’re so beautifully packaged we think they make ideal gifts.

New items to be added to the range soon include celebration cakes and muffins along with a Rustic Savoury Biscuit range flavoured with cracked pepper, mild spices or sweet chilli. We can’t wait for those.

Stephanie Palmer of Steph's Free From Cakes

Another stand we spent quite a bit of time at was Steph’s Free From Cakes run by the lovely Stephanie Palmer. Steph told us she suffers from a number of food intolerances herself and began baking free from cakes when she couldn’t find anything suitable (or edible) in the shops.

Steph’s Free From Cakes are all available to buy online and include classics such as Carrot cake and Battenburg cake. (Not forgetting the aforementioned Lemon Drizzle Cake – a personal favourite.)

There’s 10% off your first order – so get ordering now!