Member Reviews
Due to a passing in the family a few years ago and my subsequent health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for years after the bereavement. Thank you for the opportunity.
I found this really helpful with understanding more about the gut and tried a lot of the recipes. They were delicious! I will definitely be recommending this to anyone also needing a GF/DF cookbook.
You do not know how long I've been searching for something to help me navigate the hardships of needing meals that are gluten and dairy free. Nowadays, more alternatives are popping up in stores but you still have to read every ingredient to make sure it wasn't slipped in through another ingredient masked as something else. Then trying to find recipes and msking meal plans without cheeses or gluten definitely calls for a creative mind. But this book gives you recioes and ideas to navigate the food world without both!
I liked that this book was gluten free and dairy free because my daughter can't have gluten and her best friend (that happens to be my best friend's daughter so we are together a lot) has an allergy to dairy so it is handy to have a book that addresses both of their special food needs. Beyond that, the recipes all sound delicious. I especially love the section at the end of the book with the different bread and pastry recipes. The desserts also are notable for the different flavor options, particularly the raspberry and rosewater cupcakes. There are lots of great options to be found here whether you are gluten free, dairy free or both.
This book is full of pictures which is refreshing and is well organised and laid out. There are lots of good recipes but I didn't feel as though many of them were strictly gluten free. They were just normal recipes with substitutes. So the title is a bit misleading with the word Ultimate. However the aesthetic design of the book is excellent.
Wonderful cookbook full of unique recipes! There are plenty of recipes for comfort foods using readily available ingredients as well as innovative and creative recipes using less common ingredients. Everything looked delicious and I appreciate that these recipes won't leave one feeling sluggish or having tummy symptoms.
Since developing food allergies and ending up on a complicated diet it can be quite difficult sometimes to find recipes that cater for this and are interesting and aren’t just a repeat of the same four or so dishes. Therefore I was excited to give this recipe book a read to see what I might be able to give a go and try next.
The book itself is bright and colourful and I found the layout easy to follow. Measurements are given in a range of forms making it universal without relying on google converting skills. The pictures too make the food appetising and with over 200 recipes there is plenty of recipes on everything from breakfast, baking, lunches and weekday dinners and dinner part type courses- not to mention of course the most important thing, deserts! There was a lot of food for thought here too and I’ve come away with quite a lot of ideas of things to try.
My only main complaints of the book was that it while it advertises itself as gluten and dairy free the recipes instead said things such as ‘using a dairy free butter/milk’ etc and so therefore is just adaptions which could easily be made from any recipe book and not quite as inspiring on alternatives I had hoped. There is also a lack of vegetarian and vegan meals with many relying on meat, seafood, fish and eggs. However if this doesn’t bother you then this is a good recipe book to use for ideas.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book has some great recipes in it and the narrative at the beginning of the book is really useful, letting you know what equipment you need in general and what store cupboard items are useful to keep in.
I’m not gluten or dairy intolerant, but I do think it is good for us all to include more alternatives to the amount of gluten and dairy we consume so I’m looking forward to trying some of the recipes in the book.
Thanks to #NetGalley #Nourish #GraceCheetham
This was a very well written cookbook. I found the layout to flow well and the recipes were easy to understand and follow along to. I look forward to trying some of them out for my family.
The Ultimate Gluten-free Dairy-free Collection is a huge assortment of both gluten-free and dairy-free recipes. Note that each recipe is both. They may also be nut, soy, and egg free as well as vegetarian and vegan.
The recipes look both tasty and gorgeous. However, most take at least an hour to prepare and contain expensive gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients. If you are only avoiding one ingredient, there are better cookbooks available. However, the Ultimate Gluten-free Dairy-free Collection is a boon for those avoiding both.
Price and/or time prevented me from trying any of these recipes (though the Tomato Tart looked particular yummy). The more than 200 recipes are categorized by meal (breakfast, lunch, weeknight dinner) and type (side dishes and desserts). There is a comprehensive index. But it is not sorted by diet type making this cookbook difficult to use quickly for those avoiding other ingredients. All recipes include a key defining their diet restriction, servings, and prep/cook time. Most have full color pictures. Unfortunately, none have calories or other nutritional information.
Overall, this cookbook is best for gluten-free and dairy-free cooks with at least an intermediate skill in the kitchen, time to cook, and a substantial food budget. 3 stars.
Thanks to Nourish and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
I am so glad to see this cookbook. Clear and easy to follow recipes. I like that each recipe is marked GF, DF etc. Love that you have pictures! Can not wait to try the Asian beef with glass noodles, sounds yummy! Will recommend to my friends that follow a GF diet.
While there are things I like about this book, it struck me as a missed opportunity on many levels.
Our family is gluten free and many of us are vegetarian, so I hoped that there would be a lot of recipes that would work for our family. I know there are also a ton of gluten free vegans out there and folks who are gluten free and dairy free because they follow a paleo diet, so I assumed a lot of the recipes would work for those folks too. Unfortunately, while it eschews dairy it relies heavily on meat, margarine, eggs, grains and other ingredients that make most of the recipes unsuitable for vegetarians, vegans and paleo folks.
Many of the recipes are technically gluten free and dairy free, but they're basically just recipes with purchased stand-ins, too. For instance, they call for gluten free pasta or they are standard dairy recipes that call for dairy-free margarine or dairy-free creamer. Most dairy-free cookbooks give a basic recipe to make your own dairy free creamers and other basics but this book does not. I think most of us could figure out to substitute vegan margarine for butter in a recipe and to use gluten free lasagna noodles for lasagna.
There are some color photos, but about a third of the recipes do not have a photo. They are actual photographs of the recipes though, which is a nice change from the recent (slightly dishonest) trend in cookbook publishing to use stock photos.
There is no nutritional information or calorie count provided for the recipes.
The recipes do have abbreviations at the top to tell what they are free of (DF, EF, GF, etc.), which includes vegetarian and vegan abbreviations. They also tell you if they're free of eggs, soy, nuts and seeds. They include the GF and DF abbreviations, but that seems rather odd since the whole cookbook is GF and DF.
Each recipe includes measurements in multiple units, which some people will find helpful and some may find hard to read, such as this:
50g/1¾oz/3½ tbs dairy free margarine
There are no spaces and I found it really hard to read the recipes (imagine a long line of ingredients listed like this and reading with old eyes). The recipes looked very cluttered and confusing to me as a result, but I'm sure others will appreciate the alternate measurements.
Besides the fact that they relied so heavily on meats, I'm sorry to say I personally didn't find most of the recipes very appealing. I tend towards more seasonal, basic fare. I'm not a squid kind of girl, I guess. :) This is purely a matter of taste and I'm sure they'll sound wonderful to other readers.
Here is a sample of the recipes for breakfast and lunch, to give an idea of the recipes:
Muesli with summer fruit compote
Brioche with caramelized peaches
Mango and pomegranate smoothie
Carrot, pepper, tomato and kiwi juice
Asparagus soup with mint pesto
Tuna, avocado and tomato salsa wraps
Barlotti bean and tuna salad
Spinach, prawn and parma ham tortilla
Chargrilled pepper, parma ham and pine nut pizza
Turkish lamb pizzas
Fig, rosemary and olive pizza
Asian beef salad with glass noodles
Salt and pepper squid
There were some breads and desserts that I do want to try, but I have not tried them yet. I will update my review when and if I try them.
In summary, I'd recommend this book to folks who need to eat GF and DF but are not on other limited diets, who have a fair amount of time to spend cooking and who are not cooking on a tight budget or for children who don't have adventurous tastes. I would not recommend it to vegetarians, vegans or paleo folks, or for folks looking for simple gluten free and dairy free recipes cooked from scratch.
I read a temporary digital review of this book for the purpose of review.
As someone who's recently found out that I have crohns, which means I now have to avoid gluten, dairy, and a slew of other staples, I was very interested in recipes that omit both.
The recipes are given with multiple measuring options (ie 100g/3 and a half oz/3/4 cup) which made it easy to pick which one suits you - I didn't even think of that when I requested the book (if everything was in oz then as I live in Australia I would have been at a loss). At the start of the book it also confirms what they take a cup to measure - as this also differs around the world.
Before this book, especially when travelling, I didn't know what to do with myself without being able to rely on bread and noodles. Now I feel a little more confident for my upcoming trip to Tokyo (I've booked airbnb so I have my own kitchen), and I've preordered this book to have a print copy of my own.
In this book we get many different recipes of ideal hearty tasteful meals we can create with the most basic of ingredients at our hands.
It was a great book if you eat meat but if you're vegan or vegetarian you will be struggling for meal ideas but you can adapt them as we did. I hope there'll be a vegan and vegetarian version of this book soon.
Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!
As someone who is has multiple food restrictions, including lactose, I know how difficult and frustrating it can be to either find suitable foods to eat in restaurants or when buying from supermarkets. It is usually easier and less stressful to prepare my own meals. This book contains a good variety of recipes, each one indicating what dietary restriction it is suitable for. Some of the recipes have photos alongside so that you can see how the finished product should look, Instructions are clear. My only issue is that I'm not really sure that this book offers anything different to what is already out there.
Many thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this ARC for which I have given my voluntary and unbiased review.
As someone who has not only celiac disease , but also is lactose intolerant, and has multi allergies, this book intrigued me.
I have to say, that it’s full of recipes for most any type of eating issues a person can have.
You will get recipes for breakfast options, lunches, side dishes as well as desserts and breads.
The author gives us a good idea of what items to have in our pantries, as well as alternatives to use in a recipe.
Each recipe has letters at the beginning letting you know if it’s GF (gluten free), EF (egg free) etc.
A very good addition for those who need to make modifications in their diets.
I was entrusted a copy of this cookbook by Netgalley. The opinions expressed are solely my own.