Our roving Guerrilla reporters spotted some great new products at the Allergy and Free From food show in Liverpool recently. It was the first time the show had ventured out of London so we sent our top reporters along and they spied some new producers that weren’t at the London Allergy show this year.
We also had great feedback about the show from you - our Gluten Free Guerrilla fans. So we’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU for all your Twitter and Facebook pictures of your favourite stalls. As promised we’ve included your comments and pictures in our review.
Just in case you couldn’t make it to the Allergy and Free From Show in Liverpool here’s our pick of the best gluten free products to watch out for over the next few months…
Amy’s Kitchen
W: Amy’s Kitchen UK website
T: @AmysKitchenUK
[Amy’s Kitchen meals]
Comments
Amy’s Kitchen creates great ready meals for Coeliacs in a hurry. We always have a few in our freezer and they’ve saved the day many a time when you don’t have the energy to create your own packed lunch or are dashing off to stay with a friend. Our favourite is the vegetable lasagna and macaroni cheese (which we used to hate pre-CD). So they really do do great meals!
How to get you paws on them
Look out for them in Whole Food’s frozen section and many other larger high street supermarkets.
CELIA Czech Gluten Free Lager
W CELIA lager website
T @CELIAlager
[The CELIA lager lads]
Comments
CELIA are the new kids on the block when it comes to gluten free lager. Yet you wouldn’t know it, as their Czech lager tastes as good as any you’d remember
pre-coeliac diagnosis. Their website says their lager is,
Brewed in Prague, it mixes the proud brewing heritage of the Czech Republic with an innovative new brewing technique to produce a great tasting Gluten Free lager.
We couldn’t agree more, it tastes divine. Here’s a picture from our roving Guerrilla Mick, who is something of a gluten free beer connoisseur. Here’s his picture of CELIA ready to quaff it at home after a busy week.
Note - it tastes even better in a professional beer glass - see our Mick is a pro at this beer drinking malarky!
[Mick’s gluten free beer preparation]
Guerrilla Mick’s verdict is,
‘As a Coeliac I always feel I am missing out - will I ever taste a Czech beer that I used to love like Budvar or Staropramen? Well the good news is that CELIA lager hits the spot and fills that gap! No more feeling left out!’
How to get your paws on it
Currently Celia Gluten Free lager is only available from:
An award winning traditional fish restaurant in South East London, (every Tuesday it’s gluten free).
[Deleted - new suppliers coming soon]
CELIA lager are definitely ones to watch and we hope to see them in a supermarket near you very soon! If you want to as well then get emailing your supermarket to request them to stock it. Or perhaps if enough of us Tweet Virgin {@VirginTrains] & East Coast (@eastcoastuk) we may see it on a train very soon ?!
Daura Gluten Free Beer
W Estrella Damm website for Daura
T @DauraTeamUK
Comments
We’ve long been big fans of Daura GF beer. Their beer is from Barcelona in Spain and somehow with every sip it captures a memory of your perfect Spanish holiday. So if you’ve not tried it yet you are missing out! Currently their Gluten Free beer is available in ASDA, Waitrose, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s (look out for the crossed grain symbol on the bottles, don’t mistake the gluten version of it).
The great news is that Daura Gluten Free Beer is on special offer at many supermarkets in the run up to Christmas so get stocking up now!
- Asda in December £6.26 instead of £7.38 for a 4 pack
- Morrisons in November £6.28 instead of £7.40 a 4 pack
(find it in the normal beer aisle in Morrisons)
The Daura team have been working hard to get it into more bars and restaurants and it’s currently available in La Tasca, the chain that does gluten free tapas. If you’d love to see it in your local bar or restaurant ask your local place to stock it for you. In taste tests we’ve done we’ve friends the beer has been a huge hit with non-Coeliacs and Coeliacs alike!
Fria Gluten Free Food
W: Fria Gluten Free Food Website
T: @FriaGlutenFree
We’ve long been fans of Fria and their tasty gluten free products since the early days when they were available within the John Lewis Food Hall on Oxford Street. First there was ABBA and now these Swedes bring us great tasting frozen gluten free food from high fibre bread to great tasting chocolate cake – all of which is gluten free and dairy free!
Comments
Fria’s products are so good they won the Free From Food Award best bread category this year with their Grova Dark seeded sliced loaf,
‘Lovely nutty texture and malty flavour – a good alternative to granary.’
So said the Freedom Food Judges, they also liked the caraway seeds and thought it would make excellent sandwich bread.
We recommend you try their Grov Mini Baguettes (with seeds and high in fibre) which is great with soup. Also try their Kladdakaka Chocolate cake – which is billed as a chocolate brownie. But we’d say it’s much more like a chocolate torte, it’s great heated up for 30 seconds in the microwave and served with fruit and ice cream. We don’t have a sweet toothed coeliac amongst us but that cake hits the spot every time as it’s subtle and chocolate tasting without being cloying or too sweet or heavy. A real hit at parties in the Gluten Free Guerrillas treehouse ! Perfect for seasonal celebrations like Thanksgiving or Christmas.
[The Curious Baker tweeted us that they also loved Fria products]
How to get your paws on them
Thankfully you can now buy Fria’s lovely products from a variety of retailers:
Click here to view the full PDF selection of their great Gluten free and Dairy free products:
Freedom Deli
W Freedom Deli Website
T @freedomdeli
[The Curious Baker also loved Freedom deli as do we]
We’ve always wondered why no-one had seized the gap in the gluten free food market and created tasty and healthy gluten free meals.
Comments
Well, Freedom Deli have seized that gap in the market. They have a range of tasty gluten free ready meals. The Freedom range is handmade and all of it is gluten and wheat free and made with 100% natural ingredients. They also use locally sources ingredients with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
Nice to know some gluten free producers have an eye on sustainability and healthy eating unlike so many of the supermarket’s ‘Free From’ aisles packed with fat, salt and sugar. So look out for Freedom Deli products.
How to get your paws on them
Their website says,
The Freedom range of meals are available from our online store and in various independent retailers. A selection of our products are now also available in Ocado and other retailers soon so we will update this page regularly to let you know. If you run an independent outlet or restaurant and would like to stock the range please contact us or your wholesale supplier.
Yet again Ocado leads the pack on stocking up and coming gluten free products, where they retail at around £4.45 a meal. Gold star to Ocado!
So you know what to do Guerrillas - get emailing your supermarket and tell them you want to see them stocking Freedom Deli products soon!
GoodnessDirect Online Supermarket
W GoodnessDirect website
T @goodnessdirect
[Our roving Guerrilla reporter is also a mean photographer, Goodness Direct’s stall]
Comments:
GoodnessDirect leads the way in the widest range of Free From foods available from their online supermarket. It really is a one stop shop for any Free From products. So if you’re ever stuck on how to cater for a guest with allergies or intolerances then hunt down some great products on Goodness Direct.
We’re pleased to see they have recently added one of our favourite brands, Fria Gluten Free frozen products from Sweden. So do place an order and enjoy Fria’s GF and DF products. Our favourites are the chocolate cake, chocolate muffins, cinnamon rolls and the Grov rolls (great for making your own garlic bread).
Isabel’s Cuisine
W Isabel’s Cuisine website
T @IsabelsCuisine
[Lovely Isabel and some of her fab products, watch out the dough balls are very addictive]
Comments
We love Isabel’s dough balls and pizza mixes. She’s recently introduced more items e.g. Yorkshire pudding and batter mix. Sadly Waitrose recently de-listed them, more fool them!
How to get your paws on them
So spend your money with retailers that are supporting great small gluten free businesses instead like ASDA supermarkets and Ocado online.
If you’d like to see more supermarkets stocking Isabel’s unique and great tasting gluten free products then sign her petition online here.
Sweet Mandarin Sauces
W Sweet Mandarin Website
T @SweetMandarins
[The Sweet Mandarin stall, great friendly team]
Comments
Manchester based twins Helen and Lisa have created some epic tasting gluten free dipping sauces and we mean epic! You can choose from BBQ, Sweet Chilli or Sweet and Sour. They taste fab and it’s great to know their Gluten free sauces are all made without nasty MSG, artificial colours or flavourings! Hunt them down and beg your supermarket to stock them. They really will be a hit with everyone.
[Guerrilla Jan gives Sweet Mandarin her seal of approval!]
Coming to a Sainsbury’s near you before the end of November! They’ll also be available in Selfridges London and Manchester soon. Keep your eyes peeled!
As our Guerrilla Jan says,
How to get your paws on them
- Look out for them in all four Win Yip stores priced around £2.80
[Sweet Mandarin’s 3 delicious dipping sauces, hard to choose the best one!]
You can also buy a set of 3 of their dipping sauces directly from their website – a great idea for a Christmas present for any Coeliacs or foodie lovers.
Yes! You Can Bread
W http://www.robertsbakery.co.uk/yesyoucan/
[Yes! You can low fat Gluten Free brown and white bread]
We tried Yes! You Can gluten free bread a while ago and haven’t managed to fit in a full blog about it. So here’s our summary for you. Did you find that when you went gluten free you started putting on weight? Yep so did we. We couldn’t work out why until we looked at our GF bread and saw that some were 2.5g per slice so that’s 5g before you’ve added any spread or sandwich fillings! Depressing stuff.
Comments
The great thing about Yes! You Can GF bread is that it is lower in fat than other high street brands and it tastes great without falling apart. The holy grail for many Coeliacs is finding bread that tastes like their pre-diagnosis days. Well this brown and white bread did just that. We also found it was one of the best breads to toast from fresh.
The philosophy behind Yes! You Can bread is simple,
‘Why compromise? Just because you’re eating gluten free bakery products we don’t think you should have to forgo the delicious taste and texture of fresh, well baked bread. That’s why we have developed the Yes! You Can range – gluten, wheat and dairy free, but tasting just the way bread should!’
How to get your paws on them
You can buy Yes! You Can bread for around £2.95 (for a 600g loaf) at 700 Tesco stores and many Co-Op supermarkets around the UK.
See: http://www.robertsbakery.co.uk/yesyoucan/where-to-buy/
Other hits from the day were…
http://www.delidivine.co.uk/
Your views?
Let us know what products you loved and why..
Don’t forget to spread the word!
Remember to spread the word about great gluten free small producers and support them so you can see their products on supermarket shelves near you very soon!
