Gluten free Snacks you can just Pick up and Eat
by Frann Leach

One of the things I miss most about the gluten free diet (apart from bacon sandwiches) is stuff you can just get from the fridge or cupboard and eat. I spend most of the day at my desk, and "pick up and eat" is one of those things that I find indispensible, especially when I'm trying to work to a deadline (which means most of the time).

You might not be a geek like me, but I bet there are times when you just want to eat something now - maybe when you're watching tv or playing a computer game. But most of the snacks other people rely on, like cookies (we call them biscuits in the UK) and potato chips (which we call crisps) are off limits. Sure, you can most likely get potato chips from a health store that don't contain monosodium glutamate or maltase, but they are wayyy pricey and somehow don't seem all that great, even then. As for GF cookies in the shops - most of them are dreck - and the price!

Well, anyway, just in case you may find it useful, here's a roundup of the stuff I've been using to replace the Scotch eggs and stuff I used to eat.

For times when "I must have meat!"

• I keep sliced ham and cottage cheese in stock, then i just put a spoonful of the cheese on a slice of ham, turn in the sides and roll it up. 3 or 4 of these is a great snack, or can go with a salad just as well. I like a few cucumber sticks on the side (I just cut off a couple of inches of cucumber, then cut it into 8ths lengthwise).
• I keep sliced German salami (can't stand Danish, and the Italian is too expensive) and sliced Swiss cheese in the fridge. It takes a matter of moments to stick a slice of each together and roll them up with the cheese outside. You could also cut this up and stick it on cocktail sticks for a party.

Pot noodle alternatives

If you used to like pot noodles or Chinese soup noodles (the ones that come with a little bag of flavor), you may be able to find something nice in the local Asian/Oriental store. Most have a good selection of rice noodles (packed with flavoring). It's worth trying all of them as some will be nicer than others. A little tip (unless you read Japanese): keep the empty packets of the ones you like and take them with you next time you go to the store.

Potato chip alternatives

• I love roasted cashew nuts
• Trail mix or tropical mix
• I often just buy a couple of different bags of hulled nuts, like walnuts, brazils, or sometimes a bag of mixed nuts (so long as there are no peanuts in it, as i don't like peanuts), and mix them with banana chips and dried mixed fruit to make my own fruit and nut mix
• Bombay mix from the Asian/subcontinent store - but I usually buy gathia instead, if they've got any, which is made from besan (gram/chickpea flour) and spices
• I don't like them, but Japanese rice crackers (which are sweet and salty) are another option
• I found some really strange "crisps" in the Asian/Oriental store - they were made from cuttlefish! Not that cheap, but I couldn't eat a whole packet at once. They do need storing in airtight conditions once opened, though. Odd, slightly fishy taste.

Other things

• I love houmous with either carrot sticks or celery. Houmous is easy to make, but most supermarkets have it. Check the label, but it should be just garbanzo beans (chickpeas), olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. If you can't find any readymade that is gluten free, you can make your own. Just put a 14oz (400g) can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, the juice of half a lemon, 1-2 cloves of garlic and 2 tablespoonfuls of olive oil into your blender, put the lid on and blend to the consistency you like. If it's a bit dry, add a bit more oil. This will keep in the fridge for several days.
• I used to like taramasalata, but until I work out a good gluten free variant, I have to go without. But when I feel like something fishy, I spread a thin layer of cream cheese on a Corn Thin (excellent cracker substitute from Real Foods) and add little slivers of smoked salmon (I buy the bargain packs, which is all offcuts). Almost as nice! If they hadn't caught on to the fact that lumpfish roe is such a good substitute for caviar and upped the price accordingly, I would use that instead of the salmon. But I confess that I do have expensive tastes.
• I sometimes eat a Cox (the best apple in the world) with slices of cheese. Blue Stilton is the best, but a good strong Cheddar will do just fine.

That's about all I can think of at the moment, but I hope that this little lot has given you some ideas.

Stop Press

My daughter pointed out that there are a couple of other things that make good snacks. They involve a little more work than the ones already discussed, but they are nice enough to make up for that.

The suggestion she made was for home made crisps (Americans would call these chips): very easy to do, you just get a potato and slice it very thinly (a slicing gadget would make these really thin, which is what you're after), so you can almost see through the slices. You can peel the potato first, or not, as you prefer. Then just drop the slices into hot fat until they go brown and drain on kitchen towel. Serve with salt, garlic salt or your preferred seasoning salt.

This reminded me of another very quick snack I used to make for the kids when they were little. You make a batter with gram flour (besan/garbanzo bean flour/chickpea flour), which you can season with a little salt, chilli powder if you like this, and chopped coriander. Mix up with water to make a thickish batter, then chop up a potato into matchsticks and mix in. Drop teaspoonfuls into hot fat and cook until they float and look crispy, then drain on kitchen towel. These are very moreish. Yum!