Our food contributor, Paige Esson has been cooking up a storm, testing out free from cookbooks. From roasted cod to sausage rolls and fakeaways, she’s shared her favourite recipes here.
The Allergy-Free Family Cookbook
Fiona Heggie & Ellie Lux
The Allergy-Free Family Cookbook is a must have for any family with a new allergy sufferer. It’s a great introduction to allergy free cooking. All the recipes are free from dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soya, gluten, sesame and shellfish and are based around making small adaptations to familiar family favourites. It’s simple, easy to follow and the ingredients can be bought easily in local supermarkets. The book is informative, with advice on cross contamination, foods to avoid and even eating out. It is endorsed experts and dieticians too. My personal favourite recipe was the ‘Roasted Cod with Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Olives. The ingredients are simple, fresh and it takes less than thirty minutes to cook.
Quick and Easy Gluten Free
Becky Excell
Becky Excell is the undisputed Queen of gluten free! She creates wonderful gluten free recipes that are easy to make and seriously delicious. Becky’s written multiple recipe books, but her latest Quick and Easy Gluten Free really is a winner in my eyes. It’s full of recipes for “lazy” home cooks, many of which can be cooked within thirty minutes, with minimal ingredients. From classic recipes to comfort food, party food and delicious fakeaways, this really is the ultimate comfort food cookbook. She shares tips on how to make her recipes dairy free, vegan and low fodmap too. My favourite recipe from this book is the Curried Sausage Rolls and Mango Chutney. Sausage rolls are hard to come by in the gluten free world, so this is a real treat. The curried spices are a wonderful twist on the classic and the mango chutney dip adds a wonderful tang which really compliments the sausage roll well. The no compromise recipes in this book are brilliant for sharing with friends and family.
Bosh Healthy Vegan
Henry Firth & Ian Theasby
The Bosh Healthy Vegan recipe book has been a favourite of mine for a while. Though I am not vegan myself, I find myself gravitating to this recipe book a lot. The book starts off with lots of information about how to live well, including a section on how to sleep better and how to balance the food on our plates. There is information about the nutrients that we need in our daily diet and recommendations on foods that contain each of those vitamins. There are sections for high fibre recipes, high protein recipes, gluten free, low sugar, low fat and more. Even though this recipe book is aimed at people on a plant based diet, many of the recipes which do contain gluten can be made easily gluten free, just by altering ingredients like soy sauce or the bread options. The Sunny Sri Lankan Curry has been my favourite recipe in this book so far. It is packed full of vegetables, aromatic spices and the sprinkle of cashews on top adds a lovely texture (if your allergies allow.) The ingredients in these recipes are accessible and budget friendly. Whether you are vegan, gluten free, dairy free or simply looking for some meatless meal inspiration I would highly recommend this book.
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