Comfort food is a nebulous term. Merriam Webster defines it as, “Food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal,” but what that looks like on a plate, however, varies from person to person. It’s personal. The recipe that sparks warm memories of simpler times and happiness is influenced by our history and our experiences. For you, it may be a dish of gooey mac and cheese. For someone else, it might be a familiar bowl of Bubbe’s chicken noodle soup, Nonna’s meatballs and ziti, or Abuelita’s birria.
There are some common traits of comfort dishes. These recipes tend to be melty, gooey, tender, and filling. These are meals that excite your taste buds and tap into nostalgia. And as they tend to include a lot of melty cheese and carb components, they can be a challenge for those managing food allergies.
The good news is, comfort foods can be allergy friendly, too. Experiment and adapt. You’ll find the right recipes that spark warmth from the pit of your belly. We’ve put together a collection to get you started.
Speaking of Birria
Birria is a traditional slow-cooked stew that yields juicy, tender, fall-apart beef with a rich red chile broth. This recipe from Isabel Eats can be made ahead of time and stored up to 3 months in the freezer (and 5 days in the fridge). It can be served as a stew, used in tacos, or scooped up with tortilla chips and an assortment of toppings that work for your specific allergy needs.
In fact, you’ll find specific taco directions from Real Food Real Healing. Beef not your thing? Try this recipe for chicken birria from Dish by Dish. The recipe does include add-ons of cheese and sour cream that you could swap out for dairy-free versions. You could also skip the meat altogether and try this jackfruit and mushroom variant from Dora’s Table. This recipe is vegan so it avoids dairy. It uses corn tortillas – typically wheat-free, but double check your packaging.
Meatballs Without the Allergens
Maybe you don’t think about meatballs being a concern for those with wheat allergies or celiac. However, breadcrumbs are a common component in many recipes. It acts as a binder to help hold the meat together with a tender, light texture. Leaving them out of a recipe can result in denser, rubbery meatballs, and no one wants that. Common recipes also often include dairy from grated cheese and cream and egg. It’s not exactly a top-9 free dish. Unless, of course, you find an adaptation like this one from Real Food Whole Life or this one from Food by Mars.
Alternatively, you can use a standard recipe and swap in gluten-free breadcrumbs that rely on rice flour and other wheat-free blends. Swap the cheese for nutritional yeast, the cream or milk for a flavorful broth or your favorite milk substitute. A simple flax egg (1 tbsp of ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp of water per egg) can work in place of the standard egg.
Comforting Chicken Soup
The basic components of chicken soup – the flavorful broth, the tender chicken, the bright colored bits of veggies – are free of the top 9 allergens. The challenge comes when you start to add in that last component. Whether you lean into noodles or matzo balls, the dish can become a challenge for those with wheat allergies. Kibitz Spot offers some wheat-free options including a gluten-free mix for matzo balls, and noodle substitutes like rice and quinoa.
Some wheat-free matzo ball recipes rely on ground almond flour. If you’re avoiding tree nuts, you could also try these coconut-flour based matzo balls from Comfy Belly. If egg is on your allergen list, you’ll need to pull together a few flax eggs or other substitute for this one. Keep in mind that coconut flour absorbs liquids differently than other flours. Follow the directions closely and if you opt to substitute a different flour you may need to toy with the other ingredients to find the right balance. Another option, of course, is this potato-based ball from Strength and Sunshine.
Allergy-Friendly Mac and Cheese
If there’s a dish that feels impossible to recreate without the top 9 allergens, it might be mac and cheese. It’s nothing but dairy and wheat, right? And even if we start swapping out for non-dairy options, so many “cheeses” are nut-based. Here’s the good news, you’ve got options. In the pasta aisle, there’s a range of choices from chickpea pasta to corn & rice blends. When it comes to cheese, you’ll find some dairy-free suggestions (and a mac & cheese recipe!) from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring.
