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Cookbook review: Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free

It’s a sad fact that there are more and more of us who suffer from food allergies or intolerances. The symptoms range from discomfort to life-threatening inflammation after eating offending foods. It’s an inconvenience for adults but upsetting for youngsters. Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free comes to the rescue with a raft of delicious recipes for not only cakes but a selection of sweet and savoury baked goods, main meals and desserts.

Perhaps there is only one member of your family who has a food allergy but it can create a problem for the cook. If you have to provide a special meal for just one person then you have twice the work. Many of us love cooking but it needs to be stress-free and, hopefully, fun. Far better that everyone eats the same food but it needs to be delicious rather than over-worthy with a healthfood garnish.

The author, Antoinette Savill, has also penned the best-selling Gluten, Wheat and Dairy Free Cookbook so it’s fair to say she knows something about the preparation of foods that will be safe for all members of your family. This book does not, at first glance, read like a special diet cookbook. It has lots of recipes that are adapted from traditional favourites but there are many more that are cosmopolitan and good enough for a dinner party. Food should be good for us but we shouldn’t think of it as medicine.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Tarts would make a smart starter or light lunch. The author suggests using a ready-made gluten-free puff pastry for this one, although she has thoughtfully included a recipe for such a pastry should you have the time or the inclination to get out the mixing bowl. There are now many good-quality gluten-free products on the market, so use them sans guilt.

I’ll eat squid at every opportunity. Seared Squid with Chorizo is a flavourful Mediterranean recipe that has no special ingredients. It just happens to naturally be free of those foods that tend to cause problems. This recipe nicely illustrates that there are many dishes that will need no adapting at all. You’ll make this and then realise that there is other seafood that might work. This is a book to give you confidence and ideas.

Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free is one of a good number of books on the subject. The bookshop shelves are full of them but so many of these are sponsored by food manufacturers. Yes, Antoinette Savill offers particular brands that she has found to be reliable, but these are only suggestions - you’ll find your own favourites. The recipes are appealing and well-written and the advice is sound. Grub Street is a publisher with a good reputation for quality cookbooks from well-regarded authors, and this is another good-value, practical tome from their battery.

Cookbook review: Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free
Author: Antoinette Savill
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-906502-50-8