You can buy certified gluten free oats now. This wasn’t the case in the recent past.

You might be able to find them at your local grocery store.

If not you can order them online.

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats, above, are very fresh tasting with a nice hearty chew. Great for a hearty bowl of oatmeal or to use in baking. Good price if you buy 4 or more packages at Amazon.

Celiac support and research groups have different views about oats. Some groups feel that oats that aren’t certified gluten free should be avoided, but certified gluten free oats, like the ones on this page, are safe. Others feel that most oats are safe, but it’s wise to limit their use because some Celiacs and gluten intolerant people report having “gluten” reactions when eating them. Still others, notably Paleolithic diet researchers, feel that all grains, including oats, should be avoided.

Recent testing revealed that oat products that aren’t certified to be gluten free are contaminated with wheat which led to the development of certified gluten free oats.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Trisha Thompson, M.S., R.D., showed that none of the main commercial brands of oats in the U.S were truly gluten-free. Nine of the twelve samples from three major brands of oats showed gluten levels ranging from 23 ppm to 1,807 ppm. * To be considered gluten-free, a food must have less than 20 ppm.

Why can oats be contaminated with wheat? Oats are usually grown, processed and packaged alongside wheat and other gluten grains, leading to cross-contamination.

Certified gluten free oats, in contrast, are grown, processed and packaged in facilities where there is no risk of cross contamination with wheat.

Cross contamination is a serious problem for anyone who wants to follow a gluten free diet successfully. You can’t wash it off foods that you eat. For that reason, you must be careful when buying anything from bulk bins and when you dine in restaurants or eat at other people’s homes.

The popular Lara’s Gluten Free Oats from Cream Hill Estates can also be purchased online

Oat flour can be a handy ingredient for gluten free baked goods. It’s available online, but for better taste and savings consider grinding gluten free oats to create your own oat flour. See my post: Best Grain Mills to Make Gluten Free Flour

Note: Some people don’t do well eating oats, certified gluten free or not.  They seem to be reacting to the proteins in oats, known as avenins.

I enjoy the taste of oats, but I do better if I avoid grains of all kinds, including corn. If you feel that you might do better on a grain free diet, then a Hunter Gatherer Diet might be a natural fit for you.

And to learn how to make oats more digestible, whether you’re gluten free or not, please see my post: How to Make Nuts, Seeds, Beans and Whole Grains More Digestible

* Thompson T. Gluten Contamination of Commercial Oat Products in the United States. N Engl J Med 2004; 351:2021-2022

Buy quinoa from good sources

If you want to buy quinoa that tastes good consider getting it online.

Why? Unless you can find Bob’s Red Mill quinoa, shown above, or a brand that you know you like at your local store for a good price, buying quinoa online can be more reliable and cheaper. If you read customer reviews on the sites you buy from that can also help you choose wisely between competing companies.

What’s wrong with some brands of quinoa?

What you ideally want is quinoa that has been prewashed. Although many companies claim that they prewash quinoa, many of them don’t do a thorough job so you have to wash it again yourself. I’ve purchased quinoa from a number of companies and from bulk bins and often had to wash the grains despite the ‘prewashed’ claims!

Why should quinoa be prewashed? Quinoa in its natural state has a coating of bitter-tasting substances called saponins. Saponins not only taste bad, they are mildly toxic. Ancient Harvest brand suffers from this problem, and they are a standard brand that you find it stores. Annoying. I think that Ancient Harvest quinoa flakes are from properly washed grains, but I avoid them overall. Also, the price of the flakes is far too high in my opinion.

Is washing quinoa yourself so bad? Washing quinoa is a pain because quinoa is so tiny! You need a colander with very small holes or a fine mesh strainer to drain the soaked quinoa. The holes in standard colanders and strainers are usually too big so the quinoa will drop out and wash away. I bought a special colander for quinoa before I discovered a better brand that didn’t need washing. I was willing to take the extra steps at the time – I didn’t know that there was a better brand – but I didn’t enjoy it one bit.

Quinoa is tiny!

Would you like rocks with your quinoa? Some companies that offer quinoa don’t sort the quinoa properly so you might get bits of twigs and rocks in a batch. I almost broke my tooth on a tiny pebble one time. Yet another reason to go with the brand I mention here which doesn’t seem to have that problem.

What does quinoa taste like? If you buy quinoa that is properly washed and of high quality, the taste is mild. A bit nutty perhaps. People who say that it’s a good substitute for rice are partly correct in my experience. But it far more earthy than rice – more like brown rice in taste, but that’s stretching things a bit. Quinoa ultimately tastes like … quinoa! The texture is soft with a bit of a squiggle. The squiggle is because when quinoa cooks the outer germ around each grain twists to form a white spiral tail. It’s fun. It’s very good in savory soups based on chicken stock, and it makes a more nutritious gluten free hot cereal than oatmeal or rice – just add a bit of salt, butter and perhaps a sprinkle of berries if you want something sweet. It’s great for making a gluten free tabouleh too.

Apparently quinoa is easier to digest than other gluten free grains. I can believe that from my own experience. If you have a damaged digestive system from gluten, quinoa might be easier for your body to digest than other gluten free grains.

Cooked quinoa – can you see the squiggly tails?

Cooking quinoa. The easiest way to cook quinoa is in a pot on the stove like rice. Usually the package will advise you to use a 2:1 ratio of liquid to quinoa. For the liquid, you can use water or stock. Simply combine the liquid and quinoa in a pot, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed, then fluff the quinoa with a fork and set aside for a few minutes. You can add butter or oil at the beginning of cooking, and a bit of salt, if you like, or add them afterward.

Some people love to bake with quinoa flour. I never have, but I’ve read that it works well in gluten free cake recipes.

Organic quinoa? It’s worth it to pay a bit more for organic quinoa, in my opinion. Quinoa is never cheap, even when it isn’t organic, but it’s grown in countries where quality control is not always ideal.

Paying more in general for quinoa, organic or not, than other gluten free grains isn’t so bad because it’s more nutritious (okay, I still feel that quinoa flakes are overpriced).

Quinoa nutrition? Quinoa is referred to as a ‘pseudocereal’ because it isn’t a grass like other grains. Thus it isn’t a true grain, it’s a seed, which explains it’s good nutritional profile. Quinoa is about 12-18% protein – much higher than other gluten free ‘grains’ AND the protein in quinoa is complete. Yes, quinoa contains all 8 essential amino acids, which is unusual for a plant food. It also provides calcium, phosphorous, potassium, Vitamin E, and B vitamins. Even so, I don’t recommend eating a lot of it (as you may know by now, I favor a hunter gatherer diet) so enjoy it in moderation as a novel gluten free grain and the price won’t matter so much.

If you’re looking for quinoa, I recommend purchasing Bob’s Red Mill quinoa at your local store or online. Online you can also read reviews of other brands which is handy.

You might also be interested in my post: How to Make Nuts, Seeds, Beans and Whole Grains More Digestible

Tribest Grain Mill – One of the best grain mills on the market today

If you enjoy making gluten free baked goods the cost of gluten free flour can really add up. Instead of buying gluten free mixes and flour, why not create your own gluten free flour and flour mixes from gluten free grains by running them through your own grain mill?

And of course these mills are used to create standard gluten flour.

Note: after reading this, please see my post How to make nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains more digestible

Before I dropped gluten from my diet, I often made yeast breads and flat breads from scratch. I read books about baking like they were stirring novels, carefully researched kitchen tools and appliances, and in general loved learning all there was to know about creating high quality, healthy baked goods.

A few months before my results came back from Enterolab, I had purchased a grain mill and was creating my own fluffy fresh flour from wheat, kamut and rye berries. Unfortunately, because my mill was contaminated by gluten grains, I had to give it away when I went gluten free. Yes, if you have a mill that has processed gluten grains it is likely impossible to remove all traces of gluten (gluten is one sticky protein!) so you’re better off selling or giving it away and buying a new one.

Although the 2 mills below are not ones that I have personally owned, I read glowing reviews of them on a baking forum that belonged to – the famed King Arthur Flour site forum known as The Baking Circle. That forum is peopled with some of the most dedicated home bakers around.

Amazon.com in general has good prices, quick shipping and decent return policies, so that’s why I often link to them. Many vendors, including companies that make high quality gluten free products, also sell on Amazon. It’s a nice one-stop shopping place for pretty much everything. Even though I’m Canadian and sometimes have to pay duty on items I order (the Canadian version of Amazon doesn’t carry as many products) the savings are still worth it. And Amazon carries the top rated mills thankfully!

Note: The second mill is utterly beautiful and well worth the extra expense if you are serious about making the freshest gluten free baked goods possible. The mill is German made and, yes, Germans make some of the best, sturdiest mills on the market. Don’t skimp when it comes to mills!

The WonderMill Grain Mill

The WonderMill Grain Mill used to be called The Whisper Mill, but it is VERY loud according to reviewers, so how ironic! It will produce a very fine grind rapidly which is rare with lower priced mills of this kind. It won’t create coarse grinds, but for most people that isn’t a concern. Click this link to read the reviews on Amazon.

Tribest Grain Mill - Stunning!

The Tribest Grain Mill is quiet, self cleaning and has variable grind (thus it’s more versatile than The Wonder Mill). This is definitely one of the best mills on the market. I can’t help but stare at the picture because it’s such a thing of beauty! I knew someone who had one and they were very very very happy with it, as are other owners who offer their reviews on Amazon.com, which you can read here.

Please leave a comment about your results if you purchase either of these mills, or another one! I enjoy learning about the best products.

A common complaint about gluten free noodles is mushiness and an odd taste that doesn’t marry well with classic sauces.

Not so with the best gluten free rice pasta that I’ve tried from Tinkyada:

Best Gluten Free Pasta – Tinkyada!

I love the taste of high quality pasta. I was a pasta connoisseur back in my gluten eating days, buying the best imported Italian pasta that I could find in intriguing tickle-the-tongue shapes that North American companies don’t offer.

What I discovered is that Tinkyada rice pasta is so good that you can fool people who enjoy traditional wheat pasta if you substitute it in your favorite pasta dishes without telling them. The rice bran in some of the Tinkyada products helps to give it the nuttiness of a high quality wheat based pasta.

Also, unlike many gluten free pasta brands, Tinkyada offers several shapes/varieties of gluten free rice pasta including spaghetti, lasagna, spirals, spinach, ‘Little Dreams’ (kid-friendly shapes like bicycles and airplanes), elbows, shells, penne, fusilli and fettucini.

Gluten free lasagna – Save by buying more than 1 package

Although it can be found in many grocery stores, it can be pricey. To save money on Tinkyada, you can order a dozen packages or more at a time from Amazon.com. It keeps well, so no need to worry if you don’t polish it off quickly. You’ll also read many positive reviews of Tinkyada on Amazon (links in this post will take you right there). * If you’re Canadian, like me, please see the note at the end of this post about where to order from.

“Little Dreams” Fun Gluten Free Pasta Shapes for Kids

You can also read reviews of a number of gluten free pastas at Gluten Free Mall and choose one that sounds promising. They don’t offer Tinkyada yet.

Personal Note: after going gluten free, I discovered that I do better on a completely grain-free diet, which means no rice. Fruits and vegetables provide the carbohydrates that I need with far more nutrition than any grain can offer. But for a treat a great gluten free pasta like Tinkyada is nice to have on hand, and it’s also good to have something familiar to serve to guests. Yes, there are packages of Tinkyada in my cupboard right now. :)

* If you’re Canadian you can order from here