How to Stick to a Gluten Free Diet + A Vietnamese-Inspired Meatball Sandwich Recipe
I remember when I got diagnosed with celiac disease, roughly 5 years ago. I was in grad school and my health was in poor condition. It was a scary time for me because I knew something was going wrong in my body, but I didn’t know quite what. I did know that I had an iron deficiency, but I was taking my iron tablets every day and my blood work was not budging.
I felt terrible every day. Just walking up a flight of stairs made my head pound. I found myself falling asleep at my desk while trying to read papers. Even after getting 8 hours of sleep, I’d wake up feeling exhausted. After a while I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to find out what was wrong with me. Luckily, I happened to work in a research group that studied GI diseases (ie: celiac, Crohn’s, IBS). The things my fellow grad students, who studied celiac disease, were talking about during seminars started to sound familiar. Nutrition deficiencies. Malabsorption. I developed a hunch that I might have celiac disease.
Coincidentally, a post-doctoral fellow was doing a pilot study and needed to collect samples from subjects who have inflammatory GI diseases. I enrolled in the study and they took a tiny slice of my small intestine to examine. In return, I received the results that I had advanced damage in my gut from celiac disease.
Initially, I felt an immense sense of relief. When it came to the cause of my health issues, I had feared the worst. But celiac disease was something I could wrap my head around. However, as time went on, it hit me: I have to eat gluten free FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. At first, the thought was depressing.
When you first find out that you have to follow a gluten free diet, you might feel like your life is heading in this direction.
Fast-forward to 5 years later and I’m thriving on the gluten free diet. How did I get here? Here are my tips for how to stick to being gluten free - and enjoy it.
Fall in Love with Cooking
If you embrace your inner Julia Child, it can make being gluten free so much easier. First off, you can trust the food you’re eating to not be contaminated with gluten because you made it. In addition, if you’re cooking from scratch, you’re using whole ingredients. This is better for your overall health, and on top of that, cutting down on processed foods can make your tummy happier. As an added bonus, it works out to be cheaper if you make your own meals, as opposed to buying meals each day.
Once you get into it, cooking can be a bit of an adventure. I like to play ‘what-can-I-make-out-of-what’s-left-in-the-fridge?’ On the day before grocery day, the contents of my fridge tend to be sparse. I’ve had many years of valuable cooking experience though. I can look at a group of ingredients and come up with a recipe. Often the result is delicious.
The other night, I cut up some sausage and pan fried it with spinach and red onion. It went swimmingly with some brown rice pasta :)
If you’re lacking in the cooking skills department, it’s never too late to learn. There are tons of cooking tutorials on YouTube that you can watch and follow along. Let’s say you need to learn simple skills, like making an omlette - there are videos for that. If you want to learn more complex recipes, like how to make macarons, there are videos for that. Trust me, you can find a YouTube tutorial for pretty much anything. The other day I searched how to open a bottle of sparkling wine and found plenty of help. And if you happen to have some extra cash, you could even take cooking classes. Dietitian-led group classes are often available through grocery stores like Sobey’s and Zehrs.
Make Cooking a Social Activity
“Splendorous, I want to cook more but it stresses me out! It feels like a chore.” Well, I suggest cooking with others because it can make being in the kitchen more fun. Try picking a recipe to test out with a couple friends. You can make a whole evening out of it: go buy the groceries together, help each other make the recipe, and then watch a movie while you devour your good work.
If you have kids, bring them into the kitchen. Some of my earliest memories are of me standing on a chair so I could reach the kitchen counter to help my mom make sandwiches. As I got older, I cooked increasingly more complex recipes with my mom. Eventually I got to the point where my mom would bring out a cookbook so I could choose a recipe to make on my own. These experiences taught me to feel comfortable in the kitchen and I’ve taken my skills into adulthood. By cooking with your child you’re setting them up for success; plus, you get a helper in the kitchen.
Cooking as a couple can be fun and romantic. It’s a great way to spend quality time together. You can chat while you chop. And working together to achieve something (even if it’s something small) helps strengthen your relationship. There’s a social element to food. It’s meant to be enjoyed with others!
Try Foods from Different Cultures
As a celiac living in a Western culture, it can feel like every dish is made of wheat, with a side of wheat. You can definitely figure out ways to convert those dishes into the gluten free version, but I like it when I find a recipe that I can just follow as is. I really enjoy making dishes from Eastern cultures because they’re often made up of naturally gluten free ingredients.
I also like how Southeast Asian dishes hit all of the areas of the palate. Here, our cuisine tends to focus on either sweet, sour, or salty. But in other cultures, there’s an emphasis on incorporating all the taste elements together in harmony: sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and savoury. I first learned about this concept when I bought a Malaysian cookbook a few years ago. The recipes blew me away. I loved how the taste of each dish seemed to so full, like it was truly complete.
If you’re open to trying new foods, I highly recommend delving into different cuisines like Malaysian, Thai, or Vietnamese. If you’re interested in taking the plunge, try out this Vietnamese-inspired meatball sandwich recipe.
This dish is sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and savoury - I dare you to not love it.
Vietnamese-Inspired Meatball Sandwich
Yield: approx. 4 sandwiches
Carrot & Parsnip Salad
2 medium carrots, grated
2 medium parsnips, grated
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Meatballs
1 pound (450 g) ground turkey
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/4 cup chives, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce (choose a GF brand, of course!)
1 tablespoon sriracha
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
salt & pepper, to taste
Sandwich assembly
mayonnaise
sriracha
bun (I used Little Northern Bakehouse’s “Delicious Millet & Chia Buns”)
Instructions
Combine all salad ingredients in a bowl. Let the mixture sit in the fridge while you make the meatballs so the flavours can combine.
Combine meatball ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Form into balls (how many you get depends on the size you’d like to make them) and place on a lined baking sheet.
Cook the meatballs by frying or baking.
Frying: let meatballs sit in the fridge or freezer for 20 mins first. This helps them hold together better while frying. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Fry meatballs until they are browned and cooked all the way through.
Baking: heat oven to 400 F and bake for 15 - 20 mins, depending on size.
In a separate bowl, combine desired amounts of mayonnaise and sriracha to go on your sandwich. Spread the mixture on the bun and top with the salad and meatballs.
If you were feeling down before about being on the gluten free diet, I hope you can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Get out there and live your best gluten free life!
And now my question for you, which is more of a statement, is:
Tell me a way in which your health has improved since you’ve started the gluten free diet.