There are many reasons you may be looking for gluten-free dinner recipes. Many Americans try to avoid gluten—a protein found in grains such as wheat, rye, and barley—for various reasons.
About one in 141 Americans have a digestive disorder known as celiac disease that is more than just being sensitive to gluten. Eighteen million Americans have other sensitivities to gluten that should not be confused with celiac disease. Although a sensitivity can be very uncomfortable when eating the wrong foods, ingesting gluten can actually cause damage to the small intestine for someone who suffers from celiac disease.
Whatever your reason for staying away from gluten, you may find it difficult in the beginning to stick to a gluten-free plan because gluten is simply found in so many foods, from bread and pasta to cakes and cookies. In fact, it’s even an ingredient in some vitamins and toiletries!
To make life easier, you’ll want to start by having at least a few great recipes to fall back on come mealtime. This is why we want to share some ideas with you that you can easily incorporate into your nightly dinner routine, all the while ensuring your meal will be gluten free.
Gluten-Free Dinner Recipes
These recipes are not only tasty but also easy to whip up on a school or work night. More importantly, they are safe to indulge in when you cannot—or do not want to—have gluten
on your plate.
Starters and Sides to Complement Your Gluten-Free Dinner Recipes
What meal is truly whole without a good side dish or appetizer? Start here to ensure your gluten-free dinner recipes are complete.
Recipe 1: A Power Salad to Get Your Daily Veggie Intake
Ingredients:
Quinoa and Kale
- Quinoa
- Kale, chopped and ribless
- Olive oil
- Limes
- Salt
Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes, chopped into ¼-inch cubes
- Ground cumin
- Smoked paprika
- Salt
Avocado Sauce
- AvocadosMedium jalapeño, chopped and deseeded
- Cilantro leavesGround coriander
- Black beans
- Crumbled feta (omit for vegan/dairy-free needs)
-
Pepitas
Instructions:
Rinse and cook the quinoa in a pot. Coat the sweet potatoes in olive oil, cumin, paprika, and salt and sauté them in a large skillet. You’ll know the sweet potatoes are ready when they begin to caramelize at the edges. Set aside to cool while you prepare your kale.
Massage the kale with salt in a large mixing bowl, then add olive oil and lime juice. To create the avocado sauce, simply combine the necessary ingredients in a blender or food processor and season with salt.
Toast the pepitas in a small skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until they turn a nice, light golden brown and start making little popping sounds.
When the quinoa has cooled down, toss with your crumbled kale, divide into serving bowls, and top with the sweet potatoes, black beans, a large dollop of avocado sauce, and a sprinkle of pepitas and feta.
(The full recipe with further details can be found at Cookie and Kate.)
Recipe 2: Soft Yet Crispy Dinner Rolls
Ingredients:
- Warm water
- Instant dry yeast
- Gluten-free baking flour
- Granulated sugar
- Xanthan gum
- Salt
- Warm whole milk (or an alternative for dairy-free needs)
- Large egg
-
Melted butter (or an alternative for dairy-free needs)
Instructions:
Combine water and yeast, as instructed on the packaging, into the bowl of your mixer. Stir until lumps are gone and let stand for five minutes.
While your yeast dissolves into the mix, add the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt in another bowl and whisk together. Combine the yeast and flour mixtures. Then add the egg, milk, and butter. Mix until smooth. You want the dough to be very thick.
Place ⅓-cup scoops of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Allow rolls to sit on the counter and rise until they’ve almost doubled their original size, then preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, bake your rolls for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
(The full recipe with further details can be found at GlutenFreeBaking.com.)
Gluten-Free Dinner Recipes: Main Courses
If you are a meat eater, you will love adding these gluten-free dinner recipes to your repertoire.
Note: If you are a vegan or vegetarian, there are still plenty of ideas to be found online. Do not give up on finding gluten-free dinner recipes that can easily help you get to a healthier, happier place. Just do your homework, and you will be on your way to a whole new nutrition experience!
Recipe 3: Tonight’s Meat of Choice: A Juicy Chicken
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Ground almonds
- Grated Parmesan cheese (omit for vegan/dairy-free needs)
- Large eggs, beaten
- Salt and pepper
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- Red chili flakes
- Cherry tomatoes
- Basil
-
Mozzarella (omit for vegan/dairy-free needs)
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a greased, parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the almonds and Parmesan in one bowl, beating the eggs in a second bowl. Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper and then dip each of the breasts into the eggs, then into your almond mixture. See to it that the chicken is well-coated with the mixture.
Shake off any excess before gently placing onto your baking sheet. Bake for about ten minutes, until the coating starts to brow. Carefully flip and continue cooking until the chicken is properly cooked through (at least five more minutes).
In the meantime, heat olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the chili flakes and garlic until sizzling and golden brown (approximately one minute). Add your tomatoes and a teaspoon of salt. Simmer over medium heat, occasionally stirring so nothing sticks or burns. Mash the tomatoes while cooking to release those flavorful juices. Stir in about half of your basil and set aside.
When your chicken is all baked, top it with the mozzarella slices and the tomato sauce. To help all the cheese melt, you can cook for an additional five minutes. Once it’s done, garnish with any remaining basil.
(The full recipe with further details can be found at Feed Me Phoebe.)
Recipe 4: Feel Like Having Italian Tonight? Try This Pasta Concoction
Ingredients:
- Sweet potato, chopped into 1-centimeter cubes
- Broccoli florets and stems
- Olive oil
- Garlic powder
- Pink salt
- Black pepper
-
Dry chickpea pasta
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and start boiling water on the stove for your pasta. Chop the sweet potato and lay the pieces on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook for around 20 minutes, flipping the cubes halfway through.
Chop your broccoli into bite-size florets and lay those out on a pan too. Drizzle with the same flavors as the potatoes and cook using the same guidelines.
Once the pasta water is boiling, add chickpea pasta and cook for nine minutes. Drain immediately once the timer goes off. Toss the pasta into a serving bowl with the broccoli and sweet potato, then drizzle the whole thing with the oil and spices combo—even almond flour, if you wish.
(The full recipe with further details can be found on Healthy by Marlowe.)
Recipe 5: Dive Into Dinner: It’s Seafood Time
Ingredients:
- Fresh salmon
- Grated ginger
- Garlic cloves, chopped
- HoneyLite, gluten-free soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Gluten-free hoisin sauce
- Sriracha
- Vinegar or rice vinegar
- Lime juice
-
Scallions, chopped
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, rinsing your salmon and patting dry while it heats. Cover the tray you’ll use for the salmon with tin foil. For the marinade, combine the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey, sriracha, sesame oil, vinegar, and lime juice into a bowl and stir well.
Finely chop the garlic and grate your ginger, then add both to the marinade. Top the salmon with a couple of spoonfuls of your marinade and then bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
While the salmon cooks, chop some scallions and set aside for garnish. Serve salmon immediately with quinoa or brown rice and a side of veggies.
(The full recipe with further details can be found at Honey, What’s Cooking.)
Are Gluten-Free Dinner Recipes Necessary for Me?
There are currently no official, widely-accepted methods to test gluten sensitivity like there are for celiac disease and wheat allergies. Instead of a test, your doctor will likely have you go through an exclusion process to see if eliminating gluten helps you feel better. It’s important to remember that although you may feel better upon removing gluten from your diet yourself—and use that to self-determine that you have a sensitivity—you should always work in tandem with your doctor.
It’s safest not to assume anything, so you shouldn’t run the risk of letting a different underlying issue go untreated. While you should listen to your body and consider avoiding any foods that are causing pain or discomfort, eliminating whole food groups if you truly don't need to can cause other nutrition complications. You can be proactive and take the first step at looking into what may or may not work for your body—try a DNA test.
Testing your genes can help show you if you have genetic variants linked to gluten sensitivities and provide some nutrition recommendations based on those genes—like whether or not you will benefit from gluten-free dinner recipes such as these. A DNA test is not a medical diagnosis, but it can show you your genetic potential of being sensitive. Keep in mind, there are other factors that come into play with developing sensitivities, such as your environment and microbiome.
Some genes, however, do have certain markers linked to celiac disease or other gluten sensitivities. For instance, celiac disease is associated with HLA-DQ2/DQ8 in over 95 percent of cases.1 That is an example of a specific link that these tests can look for and use to help redirect you toward the right path.
If you are seeking gluten-free dinner recipes for yourself or a loved one due to celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, know that a good quality of life can be easily maintained by making some simple changes to eating habits. As you learned, you can still enjoy many of your favorite carbs by switching out ingredients for just as delicious—and even more nutritious—alternatives.
Begin your journey to a healthier life by checking out this FREE, powerful resource that will tell you more about how a DNA test ties into what you put into your body daily.
References
1. Benahmed M, Mention J-J, Matysiak-Budnik T, Cerf-Bensussan N. Celiac disease: a future without gluten-free diet?? Gastroenterology. 2003;125(4):1264-1267. doi:10.1016/j.gastro.2003.07.002.
