The All Natural Allergy Cookbook: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free [Paperback]

Jeanne Marie Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1991

If you have food allergies or food sensitivities, this book was written for you. The All Natural Allergy Cookbook offers a wealth of information valuable to people with food allergies and to those interested in improving their diets by cutting down on eggs, meat or dairy. The book begins with some basic cooking tips to facilitate success in the kitchen and to maximize the digestiblity and nutrient content of foods. These basic tips are followed by advice on bread baking, cooking whole grains and beans, using egg substitutes, alternative thickners, tofu and milk substitutes. The recipes are largely made without salt, sugar, gluten, yeast, or dairy. The All Natural Allergy Cookbook contains more than 250 recipes, with hundreds of variations and the newest natural foods, including amaranth, quinoa, teff, spelt and kamut. The book also contains complete cooking and baking tips, a buying guide, a storage chart, food family information, a food glossary and a book guide.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For over thirty years, Jeanne Marie Martin has been a nutrition consultant, teacher, writer and lecturer on natural foods and wholistic lifestyles. She is the author of Vegan Delights: Gourmet Vegetarian Specialties, The All Natural Allergy Cookbook, Hearty Vegetarian Soups and Stews and Jeanne Marie Martin's Light Cuisine, and co-author of several titles, including Return to the Joy of Health with Dr. Zoltan Rona.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction by Jeanne Marie Martin

Recipes for people with allergies are plentiful, but they are not always palatable. Dozens of books are available, full of recipes for foods that are acceptable, but far from flavourful. This need not be the case.

I believe there are no bad-tasting foods, only bad recipes. If proper ingredients are blended together in the right proportions, there is no reason why each and every recipe should not be a taste sensation as well as a healthful change from ordinary fare.

A wholesome variety of foods is the basis of a healthful diet. Sometimes a limited, uncreative diet can contribute to a food allergy, because healthful foods are ignored until the body is in trouble. People with food allergies have the opportunity to explore and enjoy a wide assortment of new foods. When health problems arise, it is the time to experiment with more natural recipes, using vegetables, whole grains, legumes, tofu, nuts and seeds.

The most common foods people are allergic to are wheat, corn, glutten (found in wheat, barley, oats and rye), soy, citrus fruits, milk or other dairy products, chocolate, caffeine, sugar, meats, yeast and food additives like flavourings, colourings and preservatives. Recipes for foods without these ingredients are hard to find, especially good breads, cakes, and dairy-free deserts.

If gluten is a problem in your diet, delicious breads and cakes can be made with millet, rice, corn, buckwheat, teff, amaranth, quinoa, tapioca, carob, nut, soy, chick pea, potato, cassava and arrowroot flours. Some people can tolerate gluten in a more digestible form such as kamut or spelt. Millet and rice flour tend to add a slightly bitter taste to foods unless one adds nut milk, fruit juice or spices such as cinnamon, allspice or cardamom. Tapioca, carob or nut flours will also help offset this bitterness.

For those allergic to all grains, amaranth, teff, tapioca, carob, nut, soy, chick pea, cassava, potato and arrowroot flours may be used successfully to make anything, even pancakes, breads and brownies.

Getting gluten-free bread or cake to hold together and rise properly is often a problem, even for the most gifted cook. Eggs or egg substitutes, guar gum, xanthan gum and liquid lecithin can help alleviate these problems.

Those with dairy allergies will find nut, seed, coconut and soy milk wonderful substitutes in recipes for baked goods. They work well in beverages, too. Add a bit of vanilla flavouring and oil, or carob syrup. Fruit juices can also be used quite successfully in place of milk in many recipes.

Tofu works well as a substitute for meat, cheese or cream, and tends to absorb the flavours of whatever it is mixed with . Nutritional yeast may also be used to help create a cheesy flavour in some recipes.

If you are part of the growing number of North Americans with food allergies or temporary food intolerances, search no further. Here are the recipes you have been hungering for, along with kitchen and baking tips, food glossary, storage charts and a product buying guide. The All Natural Allergy Cookbook contains recipes for beverages, snacks, soups, main dishes, salads and dressings, cereals, breads and desserts, including substitutes for gluten, grains, eggs, milk and sugar. There is also a suggested book list.

If you have allergies, you have probably had the experience of finding a great recipe that you would love to try, but then finding it is dairy-free but not gluten-free, or vice versa. You will be glad to know that almost every recipe in this book is completely dairy-free and gluten-free, and all of them are 100% sugar-free and meat-free.

There are many opinions among health professionals and people with allergies about the causes and treatments of allergies. This book is not intended as a medical guide, but as a guide to preparing, serving and cooking delicious, nutritious, easy-to-make foods for people with allergies and food sensitivities.

Most important, you don't have to have an allergy to enjoy cooking and eating the foods in this book. In fact, when you start preparing and serving the wholesome dishes in these pages, you may find your non-allergic friends asking for seconds and wanting the recipes!

Sample Recipe for Whole Grain-Almond Pilaf

3/4 - 1 cup whole dry grain (rice, millet, quinoa, kasha,
or other grain

1 Tbs. light, cold-pressed oil, preferably toasted
sesame oil

1 onion, chopped

8-12 mushrooms, sliced thin (shitake or oyster
mushrooms can also be used)

1/2 cup almonds or other nuts, roasted and sliced

2 Tbs. dried parsley or cilantro

2-3 Tbs. tamari soy sauce (wheat-free)

Cook the grain. You should have two cups when it is cooked. Heat the oil in a frying pan until it is hot. Add the onions and saute until nearly tender. Add the mushrooms, onions and parsley and saute 2-3 minutes longer until the onions are clear. Mix the sauteed mixture with the hot cooked whole grain and tamari. Serve hot and enjoy. This is a great side dish or main dish. Makes 2-4 servings. (Introduction and Sample Recipe )

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Harbour; 1 edition (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550170449
• ISBN-13: 978-1550170443
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not, July 17, 2005

By 

Hugh Victor "Naturopathic Doctor" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The All Natural Allergy Cookbook: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free (Paperback)

As an allergy sufferer who counsels many allergy patients, I am disturbed that this book bills itself as "all natural" yet contains so much soy. Modern soy products are anything but "natural" and soy is now among the top 8 allergens. Those who are allergic to dairy or peanuts who start eating soy foods or drinking soymilk will, in all likelihood, soon be allergic to soy as well. Finally, people who eat a lot of soy often develop digestive problems and "leaky gut" syndrome, causing further problems for allergy sufferers. And there is a little known connection between soy and celiac disease so people with wheat and gluten allergies should definitely not eat soy either. Thus I feel impelled to warn readers that soy products are poor choices for people already challenged with allergies and related problems such as eczema and asthma. Yet this book includes lots of recipes with soy. I recommend that people educate themselves as fully as possible on this subject whether they think they have soy allergies or not by reading the book "The Whole Soy Story" by Kaayla Daniel. The book has been endorsed by Dr. Doris Rapp, a leading authority on allergies who has a great website [...]."

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Needs soy alternatives, June 4, 2007

By 

A. Brown (Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The All Natural Allergy Cookbook: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free (Paperback)

As a multiple allergy sufferer, I concur with the Naturopathic Doctor's assessment - there are no safe substitutions in this book for those of us who suffer from reactions to soy products, which are included in many of these recipes. I would expect any publication billed as an "allergy cookbook" to list viable substitutions for each of the eight most common allergens: soy, eggs, wheat, dairy, tree nuts, peanuts, fish and shellfish.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful whole grain recipes, July 17, 2010

By 

Natural Cooker (IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The All Natural Allergy Cookbook: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free (Paperback)

This book is full of wonderful information on gluten free grains,gluten free flour recipes that are wonderful.
Just love many of the recipes. I do agree with the soy issue mentioned by other reviewers. I avoid soy and just substituted
chicken where it called for tofu or just left it out. Sesame seed oil instead of soy sauce and other gluten free flours when it called for soy flour. There really isn't that many recipes containing soy so don't let that be an issue to stop you from using this book. It is becoming one of my favorites.