Adventures of a Gluten-Free Foodie

Last week, I wrote about my experience with Whole Foods‘ seafood department and their prepared  salmon burgers. I was able to get a gluten-free version of the burger, which turned out to be delicisio.

But of course the biggest challenge for those of us that are gluten intolerant, is what do we serve our burgers and sandwiches on?  I have tried for a while to find a suitable hamburger bun, and have not been very successful. I actually used to eat the Ezekiel/Food For Life brand of hamburger buns that contain sprouted wheat in them, because I was told that once the wheat has sprouted, there is no more gluten in it. I trusted, but did not verify this information. I used to eat their sandwich bread as well, and loved both the bread and the buns, especially toasted. I did not seem to have an issue with the sprouted grain, as far as I could tell. But then, I am not a celiac, just very intolerant of gluten. Anyway, then Ezekial began putting actual wheat gluten in their sandwich bread as an ingredient. I hadn’t checked their ingredients list probably in years, because I didn’t think I had to. I was wondering what was making me so sick. When I finally discovered wheat gluten in their sandwich bread, I became utterly and despondently depressed because I had been eating this bread once a day, every day for as long as could remember, and it meant that it would be a good several months after taking this bread out of my diet, before I would begin to feel totally better again. I didn’t realize I had been doing this to my body. Not only that, I felt that my sandwich and burger eating days were over.

Incidentally, Ezekial does not put wheat gluten in their hamburger buns at last check. But I have since checked the celiac.com website for the list of safe and unsafe ingredients and sprouted wheat is on the unsafe list.  And since Ezekial does not brand itself as gluten-free anyway, I have decided to avoid it all costs, and focus on trying to find a brand that does sell itself as gluten-free.

So, as I was roaming the aisles of Whole Foods, my mouth already watering from the prospect of grilled tequila-lime salmon burgers, I knew I had to find something to put them on. Yes, of course, there is always the option to do a salmon burger ‘platter’, as I often do when I have no other course of action. But a burger isn’t a burger (salmon or otherwise) without the bread to mop up the juices of the burger and the sauces used as toppings.

Luckily, I found these hamburger buns in the frozen foods section of Whole Foods, grouped with the other gluten-free items that they carry. I thought I would give it a try, although, I have to say they didn’t look like the kind of bun that I am looking for. For a gluten intolerant person, I am super picky about my breads. Too bad for me! But the only other option that I came across was the Chebe bun dough that I tried once before and which resulted in failure. So it was these buns, or nothin’, honey (hmmm, sounds kind of cheeky, doesn’t it?).

As it turns out, the buns were almost exactly as I thought they would be, based on how they looked. That is, they were dense and bready.  They still had decent flavor, and soaked up my homemade tartar sauce pretty well. They were not sweet, a quality I don’t like in bread, unless it is meant specifically for dessert.  But they are still not the perfect gluten-free sandwich bun, so I will be continuing my quest on that front. However, all is not lost. The buns actually reminded me of biscuits, like the kind you would eat with gravy. So, I decided to use them for eggs benedict the following Sunday morning (recipes and pics to follow), and they were perfect for that!