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Cookbook review: Allergy-Free Cookbook for Kids

There seem to be more and more youngsters suffering from allergies these days. The author Leslie Hammond was also a sufferer so she understands the health and social issues surrounding food allergies. She is now a mother of children who also have food issues so she has become an authority by necessity.

It’s obviously not just children who have to live with allergies. Adults have the same symptoms and the same threats but they are more able to look after themselves and are better equipped to make the right choices. Kids are under a lot more pressure to conform and to eat the same snacks and treats as their friends and siblings. It’s easy to consider oneself stigmatised when one feels like a dietary oddity.

Allergy-Free Cookbook for Kids comes to the rescue of food-intolerant children and their parents. There are 150 or so recipes here which are gluten-free as well as being free of the eight most common allergens. The dishes contain no wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, fish or shellfish.

That list sounds daunting. It contains within its ranks all the common ingredients for making your regular family meal. Cut out wheat and you can kiss your pasta goodbye... or perhaps not. It’s about ingredient substitution and there are many substitutes for your daily bread. Different flours do however have different qualities and that’s the strength of this book. All the guesswork has been taken out. You are presented with recipes that work and which are delicious, and are designed to be enjoyed by the whole family with no complaints.

Cakes and sweet snacks tempt all of us but they also present the greatest hazard. Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins use white rice flour instead of wheat flour.  And there is a recipe for homemade icing sugar rather than the commercial version which might, amazingly, contain corn flour. These muffins do double duty as a lunch-box filler as well as an alternative to fairy and cupcakes. The poppy seeds add an air of adult sophistication.

Pasta of any kind is a favourite with kids. It’s a regular on most family menus and now there are wheat-free alternatives in the guise of rice noodles and the like. There are commercial allergen-free pasta sauces but it’s easy to chop a few veggies and make your own. That’s Wednesday night’s supper sorted.

Pizza is popular but a real problem for many. Allergy-Free Cookbook for Kids offers a recipe for pizza dough which has rice flour and tapioca flour as a wheat-flour replacement. Use your choice of fresh vegetables and spices to create your perfect pizza topping.

Allergy-Free Cookbook for Kids will take the anxiety out of safe food preparation. Its recipes are fun, easy and tasty, and will be enjoyed by every member of the family. No strange tastes and textures. Just good food that coincidently has no allergy triggers. Bon appetit!

Cookbook review: Allergy-Free Cookbook for Kids
Author: Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger
Published: Apple Press
Price: £12.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-362-8