How to Set Up a Gluten Free Kitchen

How to Set Up a Gluten Free Kitchen

My house is a little crazy because we have lots of food allergies. Two of us are gluten intolerant and one of us is severely allergic to all nuts. As you can imagine in our house we have to be very cautious to make sure that we don’t have any mishaps. We have a little system that works good for us that I think can be adapted for any household.

The reality for most of is that some of us have special needs in the kitchen and others we live with may not. It wouldn’t be quite fair of us nor would it be financially beneficial to put a large family on a gluten free diet and so we end up having to take certain precautions.

Here is my system that I use and I hope this will help you set up a system that works for your family.

1)   Get duplicates of some basic kitchen tools

All my existing kitchen tools that I had before I was diagnosed are now for regular food. I have color coded my kitchen so that I use a different color for the gluten free tools. It works pretty good. Here are some of the items I would recommend that you get duplicates of.

2)   Have one shelf in your pantry set up for just gluten free food.
That way you won’t confuse the gluten free chocolate chip cookies with the regular ones. Also if the cheerios accidentally fall over it won’t cross contaminate your expensive gluten free food. Make the most convenient shelf the regular food shelf and one that is higher and less convenient the gluten free one. Hopefully your family members will find it less appealing to put food higher up.

3)   Buy colorful labels or stickers or labels for labeling gluten free items.

4)   Buy 2 each of the double dip items such as peanut butter, & jelly, mayo, butter or margarine and label them with the fluorescent labels to make sure everyone knows which is gluten free and which is not.

5)   I have a large freezer and I keep my gluten free frozen food separate from the regular frozen food.

6)   I don’t have a large counter space in my kitchen. So I can’t dedicate one counter to being gluten free, so I have become really good friends with paper towels and cutting boards. When I prepare my gluten free food I do so on either my cutting board or a paper towel.

7)   Since I have a large family and live on a budget, I have decided that it is more economical for me to grind my own flours when possible. I can grind rice, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth to mention a few. I would recommend getting a grinder/mill if you cook and bake from scratch and want to save some money on flour in the long run. The other reason I choose to do that is because gluten free flours don’t have a very long shelf life. However, if you purchase the grains in bulk and grind the grains as you need them you don’t seem to have as much waste.

8)   If you are frying food, you can’t fry gluten free food in the same oil that you fry regular food in.

9)   Clean, clean, clean. Make sure that your surfaces are cleaned carefully and often. The same goes with your kitchen mixer if you use it for both foods. I try not to in my kitchen, but it is difficult because it is a more expensive item. So I clean it well between uses and always before I use it for gluten free cooking.

10)  This might sound silly, but be careful how you place items on the table. If I have company I try to place all items containing gluten away from my place. That way any clumsy members of the group won’t drop their rolls on my plate or spill their pasta in my drink. I try to serve myself, and my daughter before everyone else gets served. That way if any utensils end up being used in more than one dish it doesn’t matter to us anymore. This is especially difficult for me, I was raised with that the host always serves themselves last. So I have to go against the manners I was raised with.

I know this all sounds like a chore. With time it will become second nature. You just have to be one step ahead to keep up with what everyone else is doing.

Good luck!