1. Turkey is naturally gluten free, but you can thicken your gravy with corn starch instead of flour and no one will be able to taste the difference.
2. Stuffing can be converted to a gluten free recipe by substituting GF bread, but my family's stuffing recipe is cereal based, and there are GF substitutions for all the ingredients in it. See recipe below.
3. Pies cannot be overlooked. Any pie can be made in a gluten free crust. As I have never been able to make a pie crust (even before my GF days), I have always resorted to store-bought crusts. What I have found, however, since my celiac diagnosis, is that Whole Foods makes the best GF pie crust ever. It comes frozen, 2 in a package, in their GF freezer section. It's made with butter, which makes it unbelievably yummy! (I also use it to make quiche... but not on Thanksgiving).
Ok, so those are my best Thanksgiving tips for a happy and healthy GF day!
Here's my family's three-generations old recipe for cereal (and now GF) stuffing:
Mom’s Stuffing - GF
Dry Ingredients
12 oz (by weight) hand crushed Corn Flakes (Nature's Path GF)
½ cup Cornflake Crumbs (Southern Homestyle GF)
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal (Bob’s GF)
½ cup cream of rice cereal
½ cup pancake mix (Bob’s GF or Pamela's GF)
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp kosher salt
Wet Ingredients
6 medium onions, sweated until soft
10 large carrots, grated
4 celery stalks, grated
2 cups chicken broth
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
seltzer, as needed
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Combine dry ingredients first, then mix in wet ingredients
- If mixture is too dry, add seltzer
- Put in a greased heavy casserole (don’t pack down)
- Bake covered for 2 hours (check after each hour, scrape crust on sides & bottom) then bake another hour uncovered.
Happy Thanksgiving!
