Sarah Van Sciver, Author at Allergy Free Menu Planners

Why gluten-free breading is as easy as peas

Do you miss the breading you used to enjoy on your chicken before you went gluten-free?

Have you been avoiding recipes for gluten-free breaded dishes because you don’t think they will turn out?

I’ve had my shared of flops when trying out breading. But I have also discovered some things that work great.

And once again, if you don’t try it, how will you ever know?

So if you haven’t yet tried gluten-free breading, or your experiments have been disasters so far, here are some tips.

What to use for the breading:
There are many kinds of gluten-free breading for you to start experimenting with. Here are a few ideas.

Brown rice crumbs: You will be able to find these in your gluten-free section of your grocery or health food store. Use them in place of wheat bread crumbs. Add salt, pepper and herbs for extra flavor.
Almond meal: Use in place of bread crumbs. I personally love this choice.
Other ground nuts such as pistachios, cashews, walnuts. You can choose to grind or chop them coarsely or grind them into a fine meal.
Cornflakes or gluten-free rice cereals: grind these up into a fine meal and bread as usual.
Stale rice bread, cornbread or other gluten-free breads. You can also toast bread in the oven until it is dried out and golden brown. Grind to a fine meal in the food processor and use a bread crumbs.
Dehydrated potato flakes: Make sure to find a natural brand that is free of preservatives (like Barbara’s).
For Chicken Parmigiana: mix 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese with 1 cup bread crumbs and add 1 Tbsp fresh chopped herbs and salt to taste.

Fresh herbs from the farmer's market and Beet and Fennel Recipe

Tuna Tahini Salad with Farmer's market herbs and strawberries

There is something so wonderful about going to the Farmer’s market and looking at all the beautiful, home-grown produce, herbs, plants and flowers for sale. If you can’t have your own garden, I think this is the closest you can get to incredibly fresh and beautiful food.

A couple of weeks ago when I went to the market, I spotted some fresh herbs, some of which I had never used before. The man at the organic herb stand told me that the chive flowers, featured above in the salad, were all the rave with the local chefs. I tried it fresh in my salad and it was, oooooooooh, spicy! (I ate the whole flower in one bite). If you like onion flavor, this would be a great herb for you. But I would recommend cutting them up a bit instead of devouring them whole like I did. You can also saute these flowers and the chopped stems, and use them in vegetable or meat dishes.

I also decided to try the “Anise Hyssop” herb, just right of the salad in the picture above. If you like licorice or anise flavor, this herb is for you. It is quite strong but has a very lovely flavor and can be added to salads fresh or chopped up and used in fish, chicken or vegetable dishes.

I decided to put the anise hyssop in a dish I created with golden beets and fennel. Now, these two vegetables may not be favorites of some people. But again, if you like licorice or anise flavor, you will like this dish even if beets aren’t your favorite vegetable.