Gluten free Bolivian street food

So two weeks in Bolivia have been a mixed bag food wise. There are lots of delicious things, but there are also higher contamination risks- both gluten and normal. Still, with reasonable care you can eat very well.

Due to the patchiest Internet so far, I’m having a lot of trouble uploading posts. To combat this I’ve decided to do shorter posts, this first one focussing on street food.

This is going to be my first post with photos, so I apologise for the quality and guess you’ll understand why I haven’t included any until now. Hopefully things will be a bit more visually interesting at least.

I’ll start with my favourite, sonso.

Sonso is street food, a savoury snack cake thing made from yuca (cassava) and meat. The more traditional ones are yuca and cheese, which the boyfriend liked.The meat was described to me as beef jerky, but is different and much nicer. Also at only 5 Bolivianos (45p) it isn’t going to break the bank.

Api and tojori are two drinks made from corn and a whole lot of sugar. They cost around 2 or 3 Bolivianos, and are very filling for drinks. Locals may have one for breakfast or supper. Api can be made with purple or yellow corn, with slightly different flavours, and while you can ask to have them separately, the standard is to have a mix. Tojori is made from white corn and is much chunkier. It also has a strong anise flavour. If you ask ‘para llevar’, to takeaway, your drink is decanted into a plastic bag with a straw. For me this made it even more enjoyable.

Humintas are pretty much identical to humitas in the rest of South America; hot corn ground up and wrapped in the leaves. In Bolivia it is commonly mixed with cheese. A handy snack and on most street corners.

My ultimate go to snack were these peanut honey bars that all the street kioscos sell. They are between 1 and 2 Bolivianos, so really cheap, and a great snack that will keep in your bag without melting or freezing. Ingredients are just peanut and honey, simple and safe. I always kept a couple of these in my bag.

This is a bit of a bad habit, but I love pork crackling. All the salty, fatty goodness. There are stalls that just sell cones of pork crackling in La Paz, and it is delicious.

Finally, along the streets of La Paz there are many women preparing jelly and cream and others selling it in individual cups in the centre. Whilst I didn’t find a time to try this, I did see it being prepared and it looks gluten free to me!

And things to avoid:

Papas rellenos (stuffed potatoes) are a nibble I read about in The Lonely Planet and was looking forward to, but when I found a seller and enquired they are covered in flour before they are fried. A no-no, I’m afraid.

Similarly, the chocolate covered goodies, marshmallows and strawberries, that are sold in the evenings around San Francisco church aren’t going to do you any favours. As I mention in most posts, there is nearly zero gluten free chocolate so they are almost certainly not safe.

Gluten free tips for organised tours

I am not a really big fan of tours; anything where someone else is controlling my time and experience really gets me grouchy. However, the reality is that all around the world there are incredible sights that cannot be seen without signing up to a tour group. Not the majority, but some. Some could be done in a hire car or your own car, but our experience is that if public transport doesn’t go there, you will need a 4×4, and it’s normally prohibitively expensive on a backpacker budget. For these reasons we have done some tours. Half day tours, full day tours, but nothing overnight; that seems to be my limit.

Aside from the awfulness of being shunted around in a minibus (I know, sorry, some people like tours), for us, there is a food aspect to consider as well. So here are my tips:

1) Check what will be provided

Clarify with the company exactly what they provide, and what they expect you to bring. Sounds obvious, as many things do, but when it is the fifth company that you’ve spoken to (comparing prices, important!), your spanish is stretched to it’s limit and all you want to do is shower after a long journey, it is very easy to just pay and run away, only wondering later if you need food.

2) Request special food

Don’t be afraid of making a fuss, or having people stare at you like you grew a second head. If they are providing food, you have a right to be able to eat it. Not a legal right, but a moral one. (NB this rarely works-it’s a tour, it’s preset and they deviate for no man, woman or coeliac).

3) Pack enough to keep you going

My favourite personal rule- take more, not less. You can always bring leftovers back and it is awful being forced to watch others eat when you can’t. Even if you don’t want the food, you know you have an option.

4) Take a lot of water

Not much to do with being gluten free, but a valid point none the less.

5) Don’t pick around the gluten

Own up, come on. Who’s guilty of this. Wanting to join in, not wanting to cause offence, you casually nudge the bread rolls to the side to eat a bit of the salad they have contaminated. I know you’re hungry, I know it looks tasty, but if it’s not kept seperate from gluten it is poison. Walk away. Those crisps that they are serving as snacks whike you watch sunset with a pisco sour (real life example), do they have the packet? No? Then don’t touch them. Or go ahead, as I did, and feel awful later.

6) Try to get a discount

Why not? Nine times out of ten that food is included in a tour you will not be catered for and they will not offer any replacement. Haggling is the norm in many places anyway, so use this in your favour. At least you won’t end up out of pocket.

So these are my tips. Do you have any of your own? Let me know!

hostel cooking with… avocado

One of the great joys of travelling is discovering new foods. Another is discovering that familiar foods are much cheaper! Hence my much higher rate of consumption of avocado; fresher, tastier and so much cheaper, I have had more avocado to experiment with than ever before. In particular, Chile, Brazil and Bolivia have very easy on the budget avocado; buy the unripe bags if you plan to stay somewhere long enough for them to ripen- you’ll save a fortune.

In this instance, the ‘cooking with’ title is a bit of a misnomer, as none of my favourite ideas involve heat at all.And I’d imagine it goes without saying that if you can get your hands on some gf nachos you HAVE to make guacamole. But ignoring that, let’s dive in.

Green tea ice cream

I got inspiration from another blog here (Oh, I can’t find it again. No scratch that, it may have been the Guardian’s food waste challenge. Either way, thanks). I saw someone making ice cream with only a banana and honey, and thought that avocado’s creaminess would make that even better. Green tea is always refreshing and I thought it would make the colour less alarming in a cheaper way than pistachio!

Ingredients
One medium avocado
Two small bananas
Two green teabags
Honey

Method
First, prepare the green tea. Add three tablespoons of boiling water to two green teabags and leave to cool.
Then blend the avocado, bananas, cool tea and one tablespoon of honey.
Stir to remove any lumps and blend until smooth.
Pop into a freezer-ok container (with lid) and stir once every half an hour. After 4 stirs/2 hours you should be ready. (I tried this with and without stirring, the stirring is crucial unless you want ice cream that’s heavy on the ice!)

Alternative – Lime chocchip ice cream
Swap green tea for the juice and zest of one lime and some chocolate chips (you can never find these so just bash up a gluten free chocolate bar!) 20g should do. This is my current favourite! Just so tasty.

Mash-a-mole

So christened by the boyfriend, mash-a-mole is beefed up guacamole; for when all you can afford extra to your basic guac ingredients is a potato or two. It isn’t pretty, but it’s filling and healthy.

Ingredients
Two avocados
Two tomatoes
One large onion
A lime
Two potatoes

Method
Chop all the guac ingredients as you would for normal guacamole whilst either: 1) the potatoes are baking in the microwave or 2) if there is no microwave, the chopped potatoes are boiling.
Once the potatoes are cooked either scoop out and mash if they were baked, or just mash of boiled and then mix through the guacamole. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Avocado, pear and walnut salad

Avocado makes almost every salad happier. This is a well established fact. This is my favourite; quick simple and nutritious.

Ingredients
One avocado
One pear
A handful of walnuts
Salad leaves oil for dressing (almost always some kicking around the hostel)

Method
Slice the avocado and pear so that they look pretty. Wash and dry the salad leaves. Pop leaves on a plate, artfully arrange avocado and pear, scatter the walnuts over the top and dress. Easy peasy.

Breakfast smoothie

So easy, so fast and so nutritious and delicious, I only discovered how good this is by chance. Only yesterday I sat down to
discover that breakfast was our hotchpotch of leftover food: a bit of an avocado, some strawberries and a banana. The boyfriend was merrily making interesting sandwiches and I got to thinking I must be able to do something better than eating this straight. Strawberry and banana is one of my favourite smoothie combinations, and as I didn’t have milk, in went some creamy avocado. Just perfect. The quantities below are for an ideal world, but really anything works.

Ingredients
half a medium sized avocado
one medium banana
handful of strawberries
Splash of water for blending (more for smoothie consistency, less for yoghurt)

Method
Chuck everything in a blender and blend until it looks good. Simple

Why I love being a coeliac

This may seem like a strange post; what kind of weird person likes having a disease? One who looks on the bright side I’d say! We didn’t choose to be coeliacs, but that’s life and I think we do pretty darn well.

I’ve been a bit fed up with all the negative ‘being gluten free will ruin your life’ stuff that’s floating around in the media at the moment, so I figured now was a time to count my blessings. These are only my good things, as you read it will become apparent that I was a bad eater; junk food and takeaways were close, personal friends! So,feel free to add your own personal positives as well!

1) For the first time in my life I actually think about what I’m eating. I found myself prompted to think about food differently; is it safe, is it organic, is it fair trade, is it in season? I now want the best relationship with food I can have, in terms of not hurting myself, the planet, or anyone else. It’s hard, and I’m certainly not there yet, but I’m working on it.

2) I eat so much healthier now! I feel better and bouncier and happier and lighter.

3) I found out I love baking, and I think I’m quite good at it. I used to love cooking before I was diagnosed, but hate making desserts. I thought it just wasn’t my thing. The lack of gluten free cake type options in South America really forced my hand and now I’ve discovered not just a hidden skill, but a passion.

4) I don’t drink beer anymore (and I used to get so hungover!)

5) I save money. By not buying all the foods I would previously impulse buy (I was a terrible shopper before! Fishfinger pizza anyone?) I have money to only buy the food that I really want and need.

6) I found a great community of gluten free eaters online, and I really enjoy sharing tips and recipes with all of you!

7) I appreciate food more. Appreciating the good things in life makes me happier, and now I have more things to appreciate; finding a great cafe, a new food, or an understanding waiter.

Being glutened; Five South American mishaps

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while, but having not left South America it felt premature. Having spent the best part of today feeling truly pants due to a very stealthy glutening (and without Internet- the horror) I realise that that was flawed logic. I should share my disasters as I go, maybe I can help someone else avoid the same fate!

So far these have been my big fat gluten mistakes:

Breakfast

I’m not completely daft; I’m aware that a bread heavy traditional South american feaUst won’t do me any favours. I come armed with rice crackers. It took me longer to start scrutinising the condiments as well. I thought that an untouched looking communal pot of jam was safe. It wasn’t until I worked in a hostel and saw the mother pot, in all its crumb filled glory that the penny dropped. No sharing with the gluten people! Unless you know that jam is from a fresh pot, steer clear.

Chocolate and sweets

I have a sweet tooth. I’m not ashamed of it. You’re probably already aware of it as, reading this, you are statistically my boyfriend or my mum. I am a bit ashamed that the last products I started examining the labels of closely were these delicious junk foods. Something in my subconscious couldn’t see a risk until it was explicitly pointed out. And, especially in South America I think, there are very few uncontaminated brands. I’d been digesting (or not) sneaky gluten in this manner for about two months of my travels, and gluten free life.

Local foods that you KNOW are safe

I didn’t actually make this mistake (yay) but it’s well worth mentioning. There is so much joy when you discover a naturally gluten free food. You see it, ask what it is and what’s in it, Google it to be sure, and then gobble it down whenever possible. This at least is my path, and there is no better example than the delicious milcaos from the island of Chiloe (you can see how much I loved them in a great blog post by my boyfriend here: http://www.englishmuffinandegg.wordpress.com). Milcaos are gluten free. Everyone knows this. Every recipe I’ve seen knows this. They’re just potato. Except when they’re not. Before I had a chance to find a recipe, but had already tried one trustingly at a friend’s, we found some on a stall. Not having verified by collective Internet wisdom their safety I quizzed the seller and found they did contain flour! This nearly put me off altogether but I persisted and that is the only flour containing milcao I’ve ever heard of. The lesson however is to always ask. Because if she had been the second, or fifth, or hundredth seller, I wouldn’t have asked and would have had a nasty shock. Now I ask each new stall, restaurant and cafe, because people do like to experiment and I want no surprises. At least not of that kind.

Thinking ‘just chicken’, means just chicken

It never does. Unless you specify, and then deal with the incredulous looks, the chicken will either come breaded or battered. The same is true of fried fish (always in batter ). Al horno is roasted, which is fine and obvious rotisserie place will also be ok.

Assuming a product will stay gf across borders

I didn’t even look at the wrappers of products I knew to be safe when I travelled on to new countries. It was only when bored on a bus and playing with a packet that I saw it had gluten in! Completely safe in ones country, poison in the next. Different factories I assume. Same rule as always, check first and e at later.

Foody walking tour in La Paz – gluten free travel heaven

Today brought a very special kind of treat. We have just returned from a three hour walking tour, sampling the best local gluten free food in Bolivia. I have not eaten so well since being diagnosed; it was amazing.

Our tour was with The Red Cap tour company (http://www.redcapwalkingtours.com). Here in La Paz they are best known for their free walking tours of the main sites in the city, and it was through doing this tour that we found out about the foody walking tour. Now I’ll say right away that it is not normally a gluten free tour, to be honest that would be a very strange thing to find. But I explained we really wanted to try the local cuisine, but I can’t eat gluten (and explained in detail all the things I couldn’t have) and boyfriend is vegetarian. The guide thought for a moment before saying this was no problem! The tour is only run on demand and, as such, it can be a bit bespoke.

I was nervous, but we met our guide at six and so commenced the most filling and delicious and interesting three hours. I had no need to worry, our requirements had been fully taken into account and we were the only people, so we had a fantastic private tour all for 200 Bolivianos each (around £17, including all the food).

As soon as we met Maya, out charming guide, we started to eat, in total stopping at five stalls or restaurants and trying well over twenty new foods including 2 full meals! I’m writing this now because I can’t move.

The beauty of the tour from a coeliac’s point of view is that you can find all the food you can safely eat, and there is a lot. Even though I would normally ask questions, there are some things I would assume are unsafe and walk straight past and Maya showed me what I’d been missing. Also, it felt like a treat to have someone else do all the research so I could just relax and enjoy the food (although I have to confess to googling some of the dishes- I just couldn’t believe I was so lucky to find all this naturally gluten free food!)

I don’t want to spoil the surprise of exactly what you taste (and I will do a separate post on Bolivia for coeliacs) but will say we tried lots of  quintessentially Bolivian food, starting at a food stall and ending in an English pub! (The chef is Bolivian and prepares dishes not on the menu especially, apparently she’s the best in La Paz, wasted cooking fish and chips all day). It was in the pub that I got to try peanut soup. This dish I will mention, as it was made specially for me. Usually, this soup has noodles in it, but for me they did it with rice. This was a highlight of the tour as it was only possible really because they were only cooking for us; usually in a restaurant it would be in a big batch with the noodles inextricably tangled up. I’d been wanting to try it and it was so good. One of the best things I’ve eaten in South America, for sure.

Everything else was delicious too, and not only that but we learned more about Bolivia as a country, its food and traditions, and I picked up some amazing and simple recipes.

We also got to get behind the bar and make our own singani sours (cocktails, rather like pisco sours but with Bolivia’s national spirit, singani) which we enjoyed as an aperitif before our two course meal, finishing the tour. We then waddled home.

It was an amazing experience, with the best food and a knowledgeable, local guide. I’m so happy we tried it and now I have lots more food that I can eat around La Paz. I believe I shall leave much fatter, yay!

WWOOF and Workaway – volunteer abroad gluten free

We have been very fortunate to do a lot of work exchanges whilst we’ve been travelling, by which I mean we do a few hours work in exchange for accommodation and food. Although it is so much more than that. For us it has been a way of travelling slower, meeting more local people, improving our Spanish and learning new skills, as well as the obvious goal of helping people out. And we have had a huge amount of fun, as you can see here.

The snag is the food that is on offer, and I could understand people being dubious about being understood and catered for accordingly. The good news it is no barrier to having a great experience, there are only a few little tips that should make it easier and less stressful.

1) Explain. In detail. In advance

This is so obvious I am embarrassed to write it, but at the beginning it sort of slipped my mind in the excitement of searching through the incredible opportunities that were on offer. We arrived at one couple’s house geared up to teach them English, but had completely neglected to tell them I had any dietary requirements. Luckily, they were the nicest people in the world, and pretty aware of what being a coeliac meant, so we had a lovely week eating safe, delicious meals and I made them a lot of gluten free desserts to say thank you! Generally you have to give people a window to say if they can’t accommodate you (for example in a hotel, if you will be eating the same as the guests, it may be to hard for them to change everything for you). And also, if you discuss what you can and can’t eat in advance, you will feel a lot more comfortable rocking up at their home or business for a while.

2) Don’t assume the food you’re given is gluten free

Sadly, whilst explaining is a good start, people forget, or get confused, or just plain don’t think. It doesn’t make them evil, just human. So yes, I have been served breaded chicken (covered in sauce-sneaky), beef bourginon, bechamel sauce and so much bread. I like to get involved with the cooking (because I enjoy it anyway thankfully) so then there’s more control.

3) Don’t be afraid to say you can’t eat something

Following on from point 2, if you do get something questionable, don’t panic and eat it anyway or just starve; explain why you can’t have it. You may be worried about an awkward moment, but usually people are very understanding and if anything just feel sorry to have given you food you can’t eat.

4) Learn how to explain your diet in the native language of the country you are in

You don’t need to be fluent, but this is so useful. Even very good speakers of English might be confused when you start explaining in detail about your diet. They may never have spoken or thought much about it in their own language, so in English it is even less likely. If you don’t feel confident with this, then there are great coeliac language cards available on the internet that you can print and carry with you, such as these.

5) Be prepared to feel a bit sad

Lots of the places we stayed at my boyfriend could eat great food made with produce from the farm we were on, or exciting local dishes, or delicious home baked treats. The number of times I could do the same has been considerably lower. Sometimes it is hard when you are used to cooking quite well for yourself to have quite plain food, especially when everyone else I’d tucking in to something much better. But I just remind myself that it’s only food; I’m healthy, in good company and in an amazing place. It is worth the sacrifice.

6) Bring snacks!

This follows on from above again really; this seems to be considered an additional food and as such people don’t tend to provide a gluten free replacement. We stayed at one farm with a really nice couple running it, and every ten minutes they would bring around cookies for the workers and despite them catering for me really well at all other times, I never had anything. And I wanted a snack too! So I take my own. Sometimes this is more important than others. At a remote farm that was struggling to make ends meet, most people were filling up on bread and there was no money for an alternative for me. Having my own nibbles meant I wasn’t hungry and no one felt bad.

7) Opt for a host that doesn’t provide food

Plenty of hosts, on both Workaway and WWOOF lists, will take people to work less hours and only receive accommodation. Or you can contact people and ask if this would be possible. Great experience, compete security!

What I’m basically saying is go for it! You will have an amazing experience and, in all likelihood, no food based problems.

Here are the websites for the organisations I have talked about:

http://www.workaway.info

http://www.wwoofchile.cl

http://www.wwoofargentina.com

Hostel cooking with…equipment!

I realise I may have jumped the gun a little with my polenta post; many coeliacs have doubts about cooking in hostel kitchens, so let us address contamination worries.

Now being relatively new to being gluten free when I started travelling, there were many things that I was naive about, too many to list I suspect. So when I wanted to eat I avoided most restaurants and food stalls and buckled down in the kitchen, little thinking that there could lurk gluten in every nook and cranny. Since then I have read many questions from other coeliac potential travelers questioning whether even being in the vicinity of bread makes travelling dangerous. So I have become older, wiser, and stricter and here are my thoughts after nine months on the road.

I don’t think there is any need to bring your own equipment with you. There! That’s my bold statement and I’m sure many will disagree and think it’s foolhardy. But I have my reasons. Firstly, taking reasonable care, and cooking and baking a lot, I have not been glutened in a hostel. Secondly, I think some people have gone far too extreme. I have seen it said that you need any of the following items: saucepan, chopping board, knife, sponge, cutlery and bowl/plate. Some saying you need to carry all this. To be honest, I don’t want to, I don’t have space and I think I might have more trouble crossing borders. But I’ll take them one at a time:

Saucepan- this I find easiest to dismiss. A nice stainless steel saucepan should not be hiding any dark secrets.

Chopping board- this is a more understandable concern, those porous wooden boards, or a plastic one with scratches all over it could be a gluten terrorist. But I just don’t use them. Half the time you can’t find one anyway. A decent size plate will do the same job with a nice, wipe clean surface.

Knife- frankly the thought of carrying a decent knife around terrifies me; there seems danger in carrying around large, pointy things. I wouldn’t do it at home, so I don’t do it here. Again, in most hostels the knives are blunt or in use and I have adjusted into using normal table knives for every purpose. More arduous, yes, but you build up those arm muscles!

Sponge- I think this is my only grey area. Small, cheap and easy to carry, maybe I should add one to my backpack, but… I suppose I don’t like the thought of the wet, germy sponge in my bag, and it would have to be replaced so frequently. From the point of view of whether it is useful, I think probably it would be, although I haven’t had problems, I could just be lucky and I always avoid anything that looks old or unclean. I would not discourage anyone who felt more comfortable with their own though.

Cutlery- maybe I have been disingenuous, I do have cutlery and honestly it isn’t much effort to carry (clearly). But mine is used for eating on the go; lunch on day trips, food on buses etc. Of course I could use it at all times, but I don’t see the need to rummage round in my bag when I wouldn’t take my own cutlery to a restaurant!

Bowl/plate- broadly the same argument as the saucepan. I can’t see the problem with a clean plate, free of cracks. What I do carry is a Tupperware box, which I use for storing leftovers, soaking pulses and transporting lunches. It is endlessly useful.

So my essential packing list is: cutlery and Tupperware.

Short and sweet. Obviously there are some people who are more sensitive than others, and if anyone is concerned about using the hostel things you could prepare all of your meals in the Tupperware, and eat from it, with your own knife and fork. This would really reduce opportunity for contamination, without weighing your bag down. And I hope it goes without saying that I wash everything before I use it, just in case the person before wasn’t that careful (but I’d probably do that even if I had no gluten issues).

As regards contamination from other people’s food, I store my dry food with my pack, and anything that needs refrigerating is carefully sealed and wrapped in a carrier bag (most hostels require this anyway so you can label your food). During the actual cooking, I have found it very useful to cook at the quieter times; with a little planning you can have the kitchen to yourself. Either way, wipe down the area you are going to use before you start, and explain to people that they need to keep their distance if you are feeling worried.

I hope this is useful. I would emphasise that these are my experiences, and not applicable to everyone. Coeliac we may be, but we are all different! I hope that some people gain the confidence to travel, and eat without fear. It only takes a small amount of preparation to set you up for a wonderful experience.

Hostel cooking with…polenta

Welcome to the first in what (I hope) will become a series of posts on cooking in hostels, gluten free.

DISCLAIMER these are recipes for minimal equipment, budget and space. This is not haute cuisine! Although I personally really enjoy all these recipes, I am always limited by time, space and money. Most of the things I cook I try to choose only one pot, as normally I’m competing for hobs with 6 other hungry people! That being said, I would happily “pretty up” these dishes and eat them when we return, just maybe not as often!

Polenta is widely and more importantly cheaply available across Argentina and Brazil. It’s a bit harder to get in Chile but if you try looking for chuchoca in the baking section of the supermarket, and not polenta, you’re off to a better start than me! It will set you back around 30p, maximum £1, for a big bag of the cheapest brand.

I’ve found it to be very useful for speedy (and less speedy) cooking here in South America. Here are some of my favourite hostel-kitchen-friendly recipes.

Corn porridge

This is one I discovered by chance, having run out of anything else whilst on a farm, in the middle of nowhere I tried polenta for breakfast. Being lazy I cooked it in a pan I had been making jam in, and voila! Perfect, easy gf breakfast. And it was a pleasing pink colour (cherry jam).

Ingredients

Half a cup polenta

Lots of boiling water

Jam – almost always included in that hostel breakfast you can’t eat. If they give you individual sachets save them and use for all sorts of other things!

Butter (optional)

Milk (optional)/ cream (positively indulgent)

Method

Boil some water using the stove kettle (no one has an electric kettle here, be patient). Put around two cups into a saucepan with one tablespoon or so of jam and stir until dissolved. Sprinkle the polenta in (like rain) and stir. If it’s a bit thick add more water, too thin add more polenta- very simple. Don’t let it catch and stick, you have to wash that pan before you can go eat! Add a splash of milk or knob or butter for a more creamy flavour. I finish with another teaspoon of jam swirled through the middle and then enjoy.

Polenta chips

These are for when you have a bit of time on your hands, stranded by rain or bus times maybe? The polenta is cooked, set, then sliced and fried. Delicious.

Ingredients

Half cup polenta per person

Boiling water

Gf stock cubes (easy to find in Argentina)

Any other herbs or spices the hostel has lying around that you think might be nice

Half a butternut squash (optional)

Method

Boil the water and then add to a saucepan with the stock cubes (follow the packets for quantity, varies with each brand I find). Add herbs if you are luckly enough to have some. When the polenta has thickened (4 mins maybe) remove from heat, pop into some receptacle (preferably rectanglular, we use our Tupperware box) and once at room temperature stick it on the fridge until firm. The longer the better, a minimum of an hour, up to 2 days! (This works well for leftovers). To cheat you can pop it in the freezer, just don’t let it freeze. Then remove, slice into chip shapes and fry in a reasonable amount of oil until starting to turn golden. Drain on kitchen towel if you have it and if not just eat them! For a healthier option they can be baked but they crisp up less and many hostels have no oven.

Using the squash

This is for a really luxurious testing chip, and only if your hostel kitchen is equipped with a blender (a surprising number are!) and oven.

Peel, remove seeds and slice into one cm half moon shapes. Lay on a baking tray with some cloves of garlic and drizzle with oil. Bake until soft, around 30 mins depending on oven. Blend in batches until you have a smooth delicious puree. Now mix this with your cooked polenta, place into your receptacle and follow the recipe as above. There’s a bit more work here but they are so good!

Polenta casserole

Now this is a really cheap, easy, filling recipe. And it tastes good. But it neither looks, nor sounds pretty. So no judging, please.

Ingredients

Polenta one cup per person

Gf stock cubes

Boiling water

Veggies of choice ( including onion, obviously)

1/4 Tin of corned beef (or other meat if you find this appalling/can’t find any)

My favourite thing about this is how easy it is. First, chop all the vegetables and fry the onion until soft. Add the veggies and very for a couple of minutes. Season and sprinkle on stock. Pour on boiling water and then sprinkle in polenta until you are happy with the consistency, (seriously, this can be done with 1 tablespoon or one cup depending on my mood and hunger), stir constantly. Turn down heat, add in chunks of corned beef and enjoy simple comfort food.

So I hope you found this useful, for me it had been trial and error. Any other suggestions, let me know and I’ll give it a go!

Torres del Paine- gluten free trekking

This is just a brief post to address what, for me at least, was a massive concern regarding Torres del Paine, namely, will i be able to eat?! 

Torres del Paine is one of the most spectacular national parks in South America, and a must see stop on many itineraries down here. Lots of photos to tempt you are over here, on my other blog- have a look if you need convincing! It is possible to see areas of the park in day trips, but the far more common and rewarding option is to undertake some multiday trekking. The W trek must be one of the most hyped treks on the continent, but it really does live up to everything that is said. Average completion is four days, so how to guarantee you won’t wilt from malnutrition?

Accommodation

Broadly speaking, backpackers have two options for the trek: all out camping, or refugios.

Now if you are to camp (which I did not) in many ways you will find this easier. This is because you will have a stove, and therefore a world of cheap and exciting possibilities that derive from rice! And beans, and soup. I shan’t elaborate on this to much, as it is pretty obvious and breakfast and dinner will be a cinch for you. Lunch is the only meal that is more tricky as you can only use stoves in designated camp sites, so if you are on a long section of trail you need to have OE prepared food (again though, pretty simple- leftovers, anyone?).

Refugio trekkers are a bit different. Note I know that most people doing the trek camp, however the refugios are consistently full, so there are lots of people like me who either aren’t sure they are capable of carrying all that stuff, or just lack experience and don’t want to miss out. The refugios mean you don’t have to carry anything beyond clothes. You can get all three meals prepared for you (lunch bags included). And whilst I was worried, the good news is they will cook gluten free! I notified them in advance, but actually I met one other traveller who only told them as he arrived and wet both enjoyed gf fare. We were the first two apparently! I only ordered evening meals, as I was worried what would happen if I completely relied on the refugios and they weren’t ok, but the other guy had all three meals and one hostel even made him gluten free bread for breakfast! You CAN therefore get all your meals and not give it another thought. But the food isn’t great. At all. And neither is it that nutritious. Most of the time you will be served a version of the ‘normal’ food, minus the gluten element, so it is very plain.

Breakfast and lunch- without a stove

This was so much harder than I thought it would be; food that does not need refrigeration or cooking, and will survive in a backpack. In the end I settled on very simple food supplemented by tasty, energy boosting snacks.

Rice crackers and jam were enough for breakfast, with fruit on the first two days. A previously hostel had helpfully provided individual sachets of jam, which I squirreled away to avoid carrying a whole jar.

Lunch was more rice crackers, but this time with salame and hard cheese. I also had a carrot each day, which survived the bashing around in my bag.

For snacks I had lots of trail mix (home made so it had some nice treats in, like dried strawberries my favourite. There are lots of places to buy dried fruit in Puerto Natales), gf biscuits leftover over from Argentina, crispy puffed corn bars also from Argentina (like compacted sugar puffs) and chocolate.

Tips

Normally that far south in Chile, you are likely to have been in Argentina recently. Stock up on dry goods there, as it is easier and cheaper than in Chile.

If you are worried about cross contamination, obviously camp all the way. Then you have complete control. That being said I did not get glutened and think they made a lot of effort for us tricky people (considering they are up a mountain).

Bring lots of snacks either way, better to have too much than too little.

El Living restaurant in Puerto Natales is perfect to treat yourself when you get back from your trek (or before), with a special and delicious gluten free menu.

Just go for it! Being a coeliac is no barrier to this incredible experience.