Tips for Entertaining Your Gluten-free Family and Friends This Holiday Season

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Getting together with friends and family is a big part of the holidays. A close second is food, including meal traditions, special recipes, and treats. Holiday foods bring a smile to the face of many. But things can be different when you are gluten-free. Avoiding gluten during day-to-day life can be hard. Eating out, eating at others’ homes, and non-gluten-free treats all around can make the holidays even tougher. With close to a quarter of U.S. households having at least one person eating gluten-free, we’re here to let you know how a little planning will help everyone have a happy, healthy holiday.

 

Tips for taking care of your gluten-free guests:

Don’t mess with the mix

  • Avoid contact between gluten-free and gluten-containing foods. For example, don’t stuff a turkey with gluten-containing ingredients and don’t serve them on the same platter.
  • Don’t share utensils between gluten-containing and gluten-free foods. It may not seem important, but even tiny amounts of gluten can cause problems for people who need to avoid it. Just having different utensils for each dish is a simple fix.
  • If you’re having a buffet and some items contain gluten and others don’t, keep all the gluten-free items on one end of the table. Label the dishes (or end of the table) “gluten-free.”
  • To be extra safe if it’s a big group of people, let your gluten-free guests serve first. That way utensils from gluten-containing dishes won’t get moved around and shared before they get their gluten-free food.

 

 

Have it their way

  • Ask your guests about favorite products and recipes to include in your meal planning. Talk to them about what you have in mind. Often just a small tweak or substitution in a recipe can easily make it gluten-free. Be open to their suggestions and thoughts and enjoy trying something new.
  • Easy substitutions include thickening gravy with cornstarch or rice flour (instead of wheat flour) and subbing easily available and delicious gluten-free pasta in your pasta favorites.
  • Make sure your guests are okay with eating from a kitchen shared with gluten-containing dishes. Especially if you are baking with gluten-containing flour in your kitchen, there is a higher risk of cross-contact of gluten-free foods that are in the same space. Be understanding if they choose to bring their own food.

 

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Have your cake and eat it too

  • From pie crusts to sugar cookies, there are lots of delicious, certified gluten-free sweet options available, both ready-to-eat, and ready to bake with.
  • There are many great gluten-free flour blends that can make it easy to bake your traditional favorites but make them gluten-free.
  • Try using recipes that don’t call for any flour, like flourless chocolate cake, French macarons, flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and meringues. All delicious.
  • Check out this post for more ideas: “Gluten-Free Cooking & Baking Hacks”.

To your health – Everyone can join in a holiday toast! Offer a variety of distilled hard liquors, wines, gluten-free (not gluten-removed) beer, and gluten-free labeled hard seltzers or hard ciders.

Choose a safe spot – If you are hosting at a restaurant, look for a location with gluten-free menu options. If you can, check with your gluten-free guests when making plans. They likely know of good options in your area. Eating at a validated gluten-free location can provide greater peace of mind. https://gffs.org/safe-spots/

It’s the thought that counts – Your gluten-free guests will be grateful and touched by your efforts. Not only the gluten-free food you provide, but the fact that you’re thinking of them and of how to accommodate them will add joy to their holidays.