Celiac Chef

One of my biggest complaints about going to restaurants is that most soups are thickened with flour or have bread in them. I have yet to find a good gluten-free French onion soup anywhere in Pittsburgh, so i decided to attempt to make one by myself. It was surprisingly easy to make!

You will need:

• one large red onion
• one large Vidalia onion
• bay leaves
• three cloves of garlic
• butter or olive oil
• gluten free Bisquick or multi purpose GF flour
• two cans of gluten free beef broth (can also sub with beef bullion cubes and water)
• white wine (or red, whatever is available)
• mozzarella or swiss cheese
• gluten free bread (highly suggest Udi’s) 

Step 1) Cut up the onions so that they separate into thin curved strips and dice up the garlic. Begin to heat the butter or oil in a deep pan or dutch oven.

Step 2) Add the onions, bay leaves, and garlic into the simmering pan and stir until they are covered. Allow them to cook until they turn translucent and the aroma fills the room. Gently stir on occasion, but allow the onions to brown.

Step 3) De-glaze the pan with the onions by pouring wine around the simmering vegetables. Pick out the bay leaves from the mixture.

Step 4) Add about two tablespoons of the GF Bisquick to the onions and mix in well until the appearance of powder disappears. This later gives the soup a thicker texture and also gives a hint of sweetness.

Step 5) If you are using the beef bullion cubes: in a separate large pot, begin to boil water  and add the cubes in at a rate of one cube to per two cups of water.

If you are using beef broth, pour the cans into the pot and heat to a simmer.

Step 6) Add the onions and mix and allow to simmer on the stove and thicken over the course of a half hour. Add more flour to the soup to thicken further.

Step7) Pour soup into individual bowls and place the bread on top, then cover with your choice of cheese.

Total Prep Time: 1-1.5 hours

Cost: $ (relatively inexpensive)

Taste: 4 out of 5

Enjoy this delicious gluten free soup!

~Catherine R

to the tune of American Pie,

By By miss my bread and my pie,

drove my chevy to the bakery and I almost died,

those cinnabuns bring tears to my eyes,

‘cus I can’t eat wheat, oat, barley, or rye,

can’t eat wheat oat barley or rye….

~words by me in a bored moment, tune by Don McLean

Hello World. I am one of the thousands of sufferers of Celiac Disease. This is a food intolerance to the various things listed above due to the protein known as Gluten. As a Celiac college student and a diagnosed Celiac since age nine, I have to either cook my own food or suffer at the fickle hands of fate concerning the public food system. Celiacs range in the intensity of their symptoms, and I happen to land in the extremely sensitive category. Lucky me.

In this blog, I will be attempting to help bring some gluten free options to the masses from various attempts at creating edible concoctions. I will try to have some sort of indication of prices, ingredients, cooking times, and reviews from whomever I can feed the stuff I make to. I will also be hopefully reviewing the gluten free products available (at least in the North East US) and telling you which ones are not worth the outrageous price of our food. I hope to update this whenever I have worthy posts and give other celiac sufferers some good food choices.

Wish me luck,

Catherine R.

Celiac Chef