“You Still Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!” by Roben Ryberg

About a decade ago, when I went gluten-free, I was shocked when I heard about “the tower of flours” that people had in their cabinets to bake gluten-free.  For quite a few years, it just seemed to get worse, with most cookbook authors seemingly vying for the title of “most number of flours used in one mix.”  There has always been an exception.

Many of you know Roben Ryberg (and if you don’t, you really should!).  Her first cookbook, back in the early 90s, The Gluten-Free Kitchen, used only potato starch and cornstarch as the flours in the whole book.  Not the healthiest, but it was certainly the easiest gf cookbook on the market (and super tasty – those are still my favorite rolled sugar cookies).  I had gotten to know her by way of the Delphi forum, and when she started working on You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!, I tested tons of recipes for her (about 50 before the book had gone to print) and we had become fast friends. Since then, she’s published The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book (during this book, the little boy I watched on Wednesdays thought of me as the great cookie lady because we tried a new recipe every week), Gluten-Free in Five Minutes (microwave cooking/baking!), and wrote the recipes for Eating for Autism.

Due to the rigors of grad school, I didn’t get the opportunity to test very many of the recipes in this book prior to print, but we’re making our way through it now.  🙂

You Still Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free focuses on using healthier flours: mostly either brown rice or sorghum (with the occasional recipe using both or adding a specific need like cornmeal or gluten-free oats).  You don’t need that tower of flours here.  By the way, Roben always thought that was a joke until the first time she opened my kitchen cupboards.  I’m working my way out of them…

The MOST IMPORTANT recipe for me to make, in Carter’s eyes anyways, was fried onion rings.  Now, Roben’s newest onion rings are not the heavy type, but the kind with that light, crispy batter that crinkles as you eat it.  Aldi had a super duper sale on red onions, so that is what we used.

Oh my gosh, these were amazing.  I had to pry the children off them to leave some for Martin (and because I had made a triple batch and that’s a lot of fried food!).

Pumpkin pancakes have become a fall/winter favorite around here.  The sorghum flour pancakes are a staple, and made the basis of Corice’s birthday dinner (I made 2 quadruple batches).  Martin uses the leftover pancakes as hot dog buns all the time, so there is always room for leftovers.

Cranberry bread, alfredo pasta, and dinner rolls have also been favorites.  There are quite a few recipes that we’re dying to try (5 days to graduation): lemon crabcakes, tempura veggies, black bean burgers, Popeye’s-style pan-fried chicken…  The children make lists for me.  Maybe one night I can get rid of Martin and Braden (who don’t like shellfish), and the two littles and I can make shrimp pasta in a light cream sauce.

Go check out Roben’s new book.  And please excuse me while I go rescue the remainder of the leftover pancakes from a hungry girl.  🙂