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Stress-Free Catering for Special Diets
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the prospect of catering for friends on special diets? Like there are so many off-limit ingredients in your usual cooking repertoire that it’d be chaos to invite those particular friends over? Or maybe your family and friends feel like you are just too hard to cook for and you always have to take food along so there’s something you can eat?
Allergies, intolerances and special dietary needs are so common now that falling back on the good old ‘spag bol’ might not cut it anymore. But cooking for a crowd with special diets doesn’t have to be a huge challenge!
I was recently interviewed by Good Food AU about ‘How to Cater for a Smallish Crowd in the Age of Special Diets’ and have shared some of my tips and tricks in the article, which you can read here. You’ll also find three tasty, easy and flexible recipes that can help take the stress out of a dinner with family or friends on special diets:
- Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
- Moroccan Cauliflower ‘Cous Cous’ Salad
- Chocolate Gingerbread Slice
These three recipes are real ‘crowd-pleasers’ and can be enjoyed by many, without making a big deal about what the meal does or doesn’t have in it. Check out the recipes here.
You will also find plenty of great allergy-friendly, special diet recipe ideas for parties and get togethers here on my blog, and in my cookbooks, Quirky Cooking and Life-Changing Food.
“It’s a matter of focusing on what you can have and then being creative with those ingredients.”
In this interview I talk about keeping food simple, focusing on what ingredients you CAN use rather than what you can’t, keeping foods with known allergens separate to minimise cross-contamination, communicating with the guests who have dietary needs, labelling meals with ingredients cards, and adapting your favourite recipes to suit special diets.
Along with the recipes listed above, mentioned in the article are a few of my simple and easy suggestions for snack foods and desserts that can be enjoyed even by the most restricted eaters.
Catering for special diets doesn’t have to be difficult, stressful, or not worth the trouble – just make sure everyone is aware of who can or can’t have certain dishes, and most importantly, keep it simple!
Click the button below to read the article by Good Food.
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