Gluten-free recipes from whatever's in your fridge

Why gluten-free searching is so tiring

Gluten is the allergen that hides best. "Naturally gluten-free" recipes turn out to use soy sauce. A stew is thickened with flour in step four. The noodles are wheat. The beer in the batter is barley. So every recipe you find has to be read twice: once to see if you'd like it, once to audit it. Most people give up and cook the same safe five.

Grublin does the audit before you see the recipe. You set gluten once and never search for "gluten-free" again, because every answer already is.

What the check catches

The gluten rule is stated plainly in every request, and Grublin's own code then checks every ingredient in the finished recipe for the obvious sources and the sneaky ones.

The grains and their flours. Wheat, barley, rye, spelt, semolina, bulgur, couscous, seitan, and plain "flour" wherever it appears, including as a thickener.

Bread and pasta in all their disguises. Bread, breadcrumbs, panko, pastry, pasta and the named shapes that don't contain the word pasta: spaghetti, macaroni, lasagne, linguine, penne, gnocchi.

Noodles. Udon, ramen and plain "noodles" are treated as wheat. Rice noodles, buckwheat noodles and glass noodles are recognised as gluten-free and allowed through.

The ones people forget. Soy sauce, which is brewed with wheat (tamari, the gluten-free kind, is fine). Beer and ale, which are barley. Anything battered or breaded.

Gluten-free versions are allowed. The check understands "gluten-free flour", corn flour, rice flour, almond flour, coconut flour, chickpea and gram flour, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour and potato flour, so a recipe that uses them is not falsely rejected.

If a recipe comes back with any of the forbidden terms in it, Grub quietly asks for another and you only ever see the one that passed.

What the check does not catch

Honesty matters more here than anywhere else on this site.

• Oats. Oats are not flagged, because they are gluten-free in themselves and only a problem through cross-contamination. If you are coeliac, use certified gluten-free oats and read the packet.
• Stock cubes, sauces and seasonings. The check works on ingredient names, not brands. A recipe will say "vegetable stock"; whether your stock cube contains wheat is on the label in your cupboard.
• Cross-contamination. Shared fryers, shared toasters, flour in the air of a bakery. Grublin knows nothing about your kitchen or anyone else's.

Grublin reduces the risk of a gluten ingredient reaching your plate. It does not remove it. If you are coeliac or have a serious wheat allergy, read every label and do not rely on Grublin alone.

Gluten-free and something else

Gluten rarely travels alone. Set every rule that applies and each recipe satisfies all of them at once.

• Gluten-free and vegan. The hardest combination to search for, and the one testers mention most. No wheat, no soy sauce, no egg, no dairy, no honey.
• Gluten-free and dairy-free. The classic intolerance pair. No flour, no butter, no cream, no cheese, with coconut and oat milk allowed.
• Gluten-free and low-FODMAP. Set both. Low-FODMAP is steered rather than re-checked, so treat the onion and garlic as yours to verify.
• Gluten-free and nut-free. Many gluten-free flours are nut flours. Set tree nuts too and almond flour is excluded as well.

What you'll actually cook

Grublin writes from what's in your fridge or from what you fancy, so there is no fixed list, but the gluten rule pushes it towards dishes that are gluten-free by nature rather than by substitution: rice-based dishes, risottos and pilafs, potato-topped bakes, polenta, corn tortillas, rice-noodle stir-fries with tamari, tray bakes, curries over rice, frittatas, big salads with grains like quinoa and buckwheat. Ask for "something like a Thai green curry" and the version that comes back uses fish sauce or tamari, never soy sauce.

Set your kit too. A gluten-free dinner from an air fryer or slow cooker is written for that machine.