Managing food allergies at Christmas

Allergies at Christmas

A collection of recipes designed to help you manage your allergies at Christmas. Just because some foods are off limits, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the festive season!

Meet the chef

Hi, I’m Stella, the food allergic chef.

You might wonder how I came to be a chef, when I have food allergies, so let me explain.

As a child, I was what might have been called ‘sickly’, or ‘fussy’, even ‘naughty’.

In fact, my mother was told that I just needed some discipline, which gave her permission to punish me for taking a long time to eat my meals, for refusing food, for being sick. She thought I was doing all this to be naughty, when the truth was, that I was really sick. As a baby, I had been in hospital for ten days because I couldn’t feed, and Mother was told, ‘She’ll grow out of it’. The truth is, that while many children do ‘grow out of’ their allergies, many do not, and actually grow into many more over the years.

It actually took almost 50 years of suffering for me to finally get a diagnosis of EoE, or Eosinophilic Oesophagitis. Please go to www.eosnetwork.org to find out more about this and associated conditions.
I saw preparing my own food as the way to control what I ate. If I made it, I knew what was in it, and I most certainly would not have to eat anything I knew would make me ill.

I believe that most children instinctively know what foods will make them ill. That is why I would encourage parents to listen to their children when they say they don’t like something or that they feel sick after eating.

This recipe book is the result of many years of trying things out, adapting other people’s recipes, and a passion to make life easier for others who are living with special dietary needs. So, whether you are dealing with food allergies, coeliac disease, EGIDs, IBD, IBS, Crohn’s disease, food intolerances, or diabetes, there are recipes here for you.

All the recipes below are free from the top 14 allergen groups. They are designed to help you manage your allergies at Christmas.

Some of the recipes are vegetarian or vegan by default, but my focus is on those who NEED to avoid certain foods, not those who choose that lifestyle.

The top 14 allergens

What are the top 14 allergens? They are groups of foods that have been identified by the medical profession as foods that cause serious allergic reactions in some people. These can be irritating at least, and life-threatening at the worst.

Symptoms range from a mild itching and skin rash, through blisters in the mouth, hives, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, sudden drop in blood pressure, swollen airways causing difficulty breathing, and ultimately death.

The allergens are:-

Celery: A vegetable often used in stock, soups, sauces, salads, and cheeseboards.
Crustaceans: These are the shellfish that have legs, such as crab, lobster, prawns, crayfish, and langoustine.
Eggs: This includes all birds’ eggs, chicken, duck, quail, goose.
Fish: They are anything with fins and scales, white or oily, saltwater or freshwater.
Gluten grains: These are wheat, rye, barley, and oats, also spelt, triticale, semolina.
Lupin: This is a legume now being used as a replacement for wheat flour.
Milk: That means all mammalian milks, cows, goats, sheep, buffalo, camel, etc.
Molluscs: These are the shellfish with solid shells, such as cockles, mussels, oysters, scallops, snails, and winkles. Also includes octopus, calamari, and squid.
Mustard: This can be powdered, whole grain, French, English, etc.
Peanuts: These are another legume, also called groundnuts (due to their curious way of burying their heads into the ground to produce the ‘nuts’), and monkeynuts.
Sesame: These are seeds, tahini, and oil.
Soya: Another legume found as textured vegetable protein, tofu, oil, and milk.
Sulphites/SO2: This is a chemical often found in wine and vinegar, which is produced as part of the fermentation process. Sulphites are also used as a preservative for dried fruits and in many other foods such as sausages, cakes, prawns, etc.
Tree nuts: There are eight (8) nuts in this category. They are Almond, Brazil-nuts, Cashew, Hazel/Cob-nut, Macadamia/Queensland nut, Pecan, Pistachio, and Walnut.

Breakfast

As everyone knows, breakfast is the meal that sets you up for the day. Christmas day is usually very different though, because the little ones will have opened their Santa sacks or stockings, and eaten the yummy sweets left for them. Forget the fruit and other healthy snacks in there; they most likely won’t want breakfast.

There are so many ideas for breakfast, that it has been difficult to choose just a few for inclusion in this edition, and there is a very long list of ideas for the future.

Here are a couple of suggestions for something a little different, yet tasty and filling enough to keep you going until the blowout that is Christmas Dinner.

A breakfast laid out, consisting of black coffee, strawberries, chocolate chips and croissants.

Christmas-spiced American-style pancakes

A stack of American-style pancakes with blueberries on top, and icing sugar being dusted on top.

Ingredients	Method
150g (6oz) plain gluten-free flour 1teaspoon baking powder 1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoons of water 1 large mashed Banana ½ teaspoon mixed spice Pinch Salt 2 tablespoons water, or your favourite milk or milk substitute. Oil for cooking	Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and mixed spice together in a bowl. Stir in the mashed banana, flax mixture, and sweetening (if using any). Add liquid as required to make the mixture thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Heat a frying pan or griddle, and brush with a little oil, just enough to prevent sticking. Add a tablespoon of the mix to the pan, and cook until the top is dry. Turn the pancake and cook until golden on both sides. These pancakes are good for breakfast or a pudding. Serve with a topping of your choice: eg: Fruit, syrup, or your safe yoghurt or ice-cream.

Breakfast muffins

Ingredients	Method
6 rashers of rindless streaky bacon 1 small red onion 200g frozen sweetcorn 175g plain gluten-free flour 125g fine cornmeal 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder 50g grated milk-free ‘cheese’ 200ml rice drink 3 tablespoons flax meal ½ cup warm water 3 tablespoons vegetable oil	Lightly oil a muffin tin, or use muffin cases. Combine the flax meal and water and set aside for 10 minutes. Finely chop the bacon and onion and dry fry for 3-4 minutes until crispy. Cook the sweetcorn for 2 minutes. Combine the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder in a large bowl with the bacon, sweetcorn, and ‘cheese’. Add the flax meal mix, oil and rice drink. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Spoon into the muffin pan and cook in the oven at 220°C, Gas 7, for 15 to 20 minutes until firm and golden. Enjoy while still warm, or cool on a wire rack for later.
	These muffins are delicious and can be eaten for breakfast or as a savoury teatime snack. They will keep in the fridge for a couple of days; alternatively, freeze and warm to serve as required. They will keep in the freezer for 2 months, after which they will start to dry out.

Lunch – starters

Just because you are restricted on what you can eat, it doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy your Christmas lunch. Here are just a few examples of yummy dishes that you, your friends, and your family can enjoy! From starters to the main course and dessert, there is something for everyone.

Carrot and orange soup

Ingredients	Method
1 small onion 250g carrots 1 small potato 1 orange 100ml orange juice 100ml water 2 teaspoons oil 2 cloves Freshly chopped parsley to garnish Salt and pepper to taste	Peel and cut the onion, carrots, and potato into small, even pieces. Zest and juice the orange. Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion, cover and cook until golden. Add the potato, carrot, cloves, water, and orange juice, and cook until the vegetables are soft. Remove the cloves, and blend the mixture until smooth. Adjust consistency by either cooking for longer, or adding more water. Season to taste, and serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and orange zest.

Crispy corn croutons

Ingredients	Method
100g yellow cornmeal 100ml water 2 teaspoons oil Pinch salt	Add salt and oil to the water in a pan, bring to the boil, then stir in the cornmeal, cook until thick, adding more water if necessary. Spread out evenly to about 1cm thickness on a baking tray, and allow to cool. When cool, cut into cubes and fry in oil until golden and crispy. Serve with the soup.

Lunch – mains

Preparing and serving a traditional Roast Christmas Dinner really need not contain any of the major allergens.

Although Turkey is often basted with butter, the stuffing made with bread and egg, pigs-in-blankets may contain rusk with wheat, gluten, egg, sulphites, or soya, and the gravy could be made with wheat, soya, celery, and milk; all these ingredients are quite easily avoidable when you know how.

Butter can be replaced with olive oil, wheat flour can be replaced with gluten-free flour, and milk can be replaced with rice, coconut, or hemp drink.

Sage and onion stuffing

Ingredients	Method
1 finely chopped onion 2 teaspoons freshly chopped sage 100g quinoa 100g cornmeal 250ml water Oil for cooking Salt and pepper to taste	Heat the oil, fry the onion until golden, then stir in the sage, quinoa, and water. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cornmeal, salt and pepper, and cook for a further 3 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Transfer to an oiled ovenproof dish and cook in the oven at 180°C until golden on top. Alternatively, spoon into balls onto an oiled baking tray and bake as above.

Yorkshire puddings

In all honesty, if you can buy ready-made Yorkshire puddings suitable for you, then do it! It is not easy to make Yorkshire puddings that are free from the major allergens. Gluten-free can work, egg-free can work, and milk-free can work, all individually, but without all those ingredients, it is difficult.

However, here is an option for you to try.

Ingredients	Method
100g Gluten-free flour 50g Chickpea (gram) flour 200ml Water or your milk substitute Oil for cooking If yours come out better than these, I’ll be very impressed! This is the best I have managed as a free-from version.	Heat oven to 220°C. Sieve flours together. Gradually whisk the flour into the liquid, making sure it is completely smooth. Allow to stand for 30 minutes. Whisk again and add more liquid if necessary. The mixture should coat the back of a spoon with the consistency of double cream. Put a teaspoon of oil in each well of a cup-cake or muffin pan, and heat in the oven until almost smoking, then carefully pour in the mixture to halfway. Cook for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, until golden in colour.

Pigs in blankets

The easiest way to make Pigs in Blankets is to buy your safe pork chipolata sausages, and wrap them with streaky bacon.

Alternatively, you could buy pork mince, add your own choice of herbs and seasoning, form sausage shapes and wrap in streaky bacon. Cook at 180°C for approx. 15 minutes.

Puddings and desserts

For those with food allergies, puddings and desserts can be a real source of exclusion. Many are offered a fruit salad or the bog standard chocolate brownie. Even the chocolate brownie is not suitable for everyone because it usually contains eggs and milk. However, there are lots of options to include some sweet treats for everyone

I have included some classic desserts here that have been adapted for the food-allergic diner, even traditional Christmas Pudding, Brandy Sauce, and Mince Pies.

For nostalgia, the Brandy sauce recipe is adapted from my Grandmother’s 1933 recipe book, by Elizabeth Craig, and I am including the original measurements.

Christmas pudding

Ingredients	Method
3 tablespoons flax meal 150ml warm water 400g self-raising gluten-free flour ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ¼ teaspoon ground cloves 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 50g dark brown sugar ¼ teaspoon salt 100g mixed dried fruit (soaked overnight in Brandy if desired) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 courgette, grated, and the liquid squeezed out 1 mashed banana ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 75ml olive oil 3 tablespoons maple syrup	Put the flax meal in the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. Mix together the courgette, banana, vanilla, olive oil, and maple syrup. Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices, then add sugar, salt and fruit. Add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into a pudding basin and seal the top with a circle of greaseproof paper and foil with a pleat across the top. Traditionally, this is tied with string. Place in a pan or a pressure cooker, half-filled with hot water. Cover and boil for 3 hours, topping up the hot water from a kettle as required. Boil on Christmas Day for 2 hours. Or cheat and use the microwave to heat it.

Brandy sauce

Ingredients	Method
100ml water (1 gill) 50g castor sugar (2 oz) Rind of 1 lemon 45ms Cognac (3 Tablespoons) 4 drops Vanilla 25mm Cinnamon stick (1 inch) 1 teaspoon Dairy Free ‘Butter’ ¼ teaspoon arrowroot (1 salt-spoon)	Mix the arrowroot with a little water and set aside. Place the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan, mix well and bring to simmering point. Whisk in the arrowroot. Simmer for 1½ minutes. Strain into a sauce boat. Serve with the Christmas Pudding.

Banoffee pie

Ingredients	Method
Sweet pastry base: Follow the sweet pastry recipe Filling: 2 large bananas sliced 100g granulated sugar 200ml rice or coconut drink 1 Tablespoon cornflour (This caramel filling may also be used as a sauce to accompany the banana chocolate loaf cake recipe.) Topping: Version 1 2 Tablespoons cornflour 2 Tablespoons Sugar 250ml rice or coconut drink A few drops of Vanilla extract Topping : Version 2 Dairy-free cream substitute, available in some supermarkets. I have had success with Elmlea and Coco-Collab, which are both vegan.	Pastry: Roll pastry out to 5mm thickness. Line a flan dish or muffin pan with the pastry, prick with a fork, and bake blind at 220°C for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Mix cornflour with a little of the liquid to make a thin paste. Put the sugar in a pan and heat gently until caramelised. Carefully add rice/coconut drink, and bring to the boil. Add a little to the corn-flour mix, then return to the pan. Stir constantly until thickened. Allow to cool, then pour into the pastry case. Arrange the banana slices on the caramel. Topping: Version 1 Mix the cornflour and sugar with a little of the liquid. Place the rest of the liquid in a pan and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the cornflour mix and vanilla extract, and bring back to a simmer until thickened. Allow to cool and spoon over the bananas. Decorate with slices of banana and grated or curled dark chocolate. Topping: Version 2 Whip to a soft peak, spread on top of the banana slices, and sprinkle with grated or curled dark chocolate or Free-From dark chocolate.

Lemon meringue pie

Ingredients	Method
Sweet pastry base: Follow the sweet pastry recipe Filling: 2 Lemons, zested and juiced 100g Caster sugar 200ml water 1 Tablespoon Cornflour Meringue: 150ml Aquafaba (water from a can of chickpeas) 75g Caster sugar	Pastry: Roll out the pastry to 5mm thick, and line a flan dish. Bake blind in the oven for 20 minutes at 200°C. Meringue: Whisk the aquafaba on high speed until it is white and forms peaks. Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is all dissolved into the meringue. Lemon Filling: Mix the cornflour with 1 tablespoon of the water. Put the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water in a pan and bring to a simmer. Add a little of the hot liquid to the cornflour mix, and return to the pan. Continue to simmer until it thickens. Pour into the cooked pastry case. Carefully spoon the meringue onto the lemon filling, then bake in the oven at 180°C for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, until the meringue is golden on top.

Pastry

For many people, making pastry can seem like an impossible task, but it really doesn’t need to be difficult. Using gluten-free pastry does need a few more considerations, however, these recipes remove the mystery, and you will be able to make light crisp pastry in no time.

Here are my best versions for a savoury shortcrust, for making sausage rolls and savoury pies, and a sweet shortcrust suitable for mince-pies, fruit pies, and as the base for the Banoffee Pie in the Pudding and Dessert section.

Savoury shortcrust pastry

Ingredients	Method
250g gluten-free plain flour 50g milk-free block margarine 50g vegetable shortening ½ teaspoon salt Cold water to combine	Sieve the flour and stir the salt through. Cut margarine and shortening into small pieces, then rub through flour to make a fine breadcrumb texture. Gradually mix in a little water at a time, just enough to hold the ingredients together and form a dough. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before rolling out.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Ingredients	Method
250g gluten-free plain flour 75g finely grated cooking apple 50g milk-free block margarine 25g caster sugar A little water if necessary	Sieve the flour and stir the sugar through. Cut margarine into small pieces, then rub through flour to make a fine breadcrumb texture. Add the grated apple and knead it into a dough. Add a few drops of cold water if necessary. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before rolling out.

Savoury ‘cheese’ straws

Ingredients	Method
250g Plain Gluten-free Flour 50g Milk-free Block Margarine 50g Milk-free Cheese substitute, grated 50g Vegetable shortening 50g Yeast flakes 1 Teaspoon Salt Cold water to bind	Put the flour, salt and yeast flakes in a mixing bowl, and mix thoroughly. Rub the margarine and vegetable shortening through the dry ingredients until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the grated cheese substitute. Add cold water a little at a time, and mix to bind the ingredients together. Roll out on a floured surface, cut into strips, and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 220°C for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack, store in an airtight container.

Savoury wheels

For those who are able to have yeast extract, try spreading thinly on the above mix after rolling out. Roll into a sausage shape, slice and lay flat on baking parchment, and bake in the same way.

Sausage rolls

To make sausage rolls, you could use either the savoury pastry recipe or the savoury straws mix above. Roll out, and place your choice of sausages or sausage meat along one edge. Roll over and brush with vegetable oil to seal and glaze. Bake in the oven at 220°C for 20 minutes.