Newbie !

[daisyjayne]

Hi All,

Stumbled across this site whilst looking for info on food intolerances and thought maybe someone could help.
I was diagnosed a month ago as been intolerant to both dairy and soya. I've managed to cut out most most foods by getting ingredients listings from the supermarkets but I've lasped a couple of time due to craving something sweet, especially deserts and chocolate !
I make most of my meals from scratch so I was wondering if anyone had any recipies or tips for making sweet treats that would curb my cravings a little.
I enjoy Rice Dream on my cereal but haven't attempted cooking with it yet.

Recipies for any other meal type would be helpful too !

Hope you can help
Thanks in advance
Daisyjayne

[Pam]

Hi Daisyjayne, welcome to the site. There are one or two people here who need to avoid both dairy and soya so hopefully someoone will be able to help.

If you do a search you might be able to find some threads about dairy free/soya free chocolate as I know it has been talked about in the past. Green & Black told me a few years ago that their mint chocolate bar was free from both but I don't know if this is still the case - they will reply to e-mails if you use the contact us button on their site. Duchy Originals also do some dairy free chocolate but again, you'd have to check the ingredients (and they are expensive). Plamil do a dairy free bar that uses sunflower lecithin rather than soya - but again, you need to check that they haven't changed their recipe. There's another one that begins with K but I can't remember the name - I'll do some scouting around for you.

There are lots of milk alternatives that don't include soya eg. oat, pea (White Sun), potato (Vance's Darifree), chuffa (Tiger White), almond/hazelnut/quinoa (Ecomil). Oat is quite a good one to cook with as it is a bit thicker than rice milk and you can make custard using custard powder.

Pure do a sunflower spread that is both dairyfree and soya free and available in most supermarkets. Sainsbury's allegedly do one too but we are in dispute with them at the moment over their poor labelling on various products so proceed with caution if you buy anything from there.

There are a couple of brands of rice dessert that contain neither milk or soya but you would probably have to order them specially from a health food shop.

Edit: I forgot to say, you any normal recipes but substitute milk and butter with suitable dairy/soya free alternatives. They mostly work just as well.

[Pam]

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=368&highlight=duchy+originals

This is a thread that starts off talking about dairy free/soya free chocolate (and moves onto other subjects as our threads often do). I hope it helps.

[matt]

there have been lots of receipes given on this site and i'm sure if you ask for a specific pudding then one of us will be able to help. what sort of thing do you miss the most?


asite worth a visit: www.foodsmatter.com (http://www.foodsmatter.com)

welcome to the site:D

[daisyjayne]

Thanks for your replies !

Pam - thanks for the other alternatvies to milk, I will make sure I try those aswell. Do you know if I could buy them from health stores like holland and barret?
The link was great too, I'll definatley be trying the plamil milk chocolate as that is one of the things I miss the most.
I'm using the pure spread already but forgot to mention it as I dont really use it much.
I'll also look into the other types of chocolate too.

Matt - I miss anything with chocolate or toffee in it ! Particulary milk chocolate, cheescake and icecream, since cutting dairy and soya out of my diet I've suddenly realised what I sweet tooth I have ! Thanks for the link too !

:D

[Bet]

Hi, my daughter is dairy and soya free. There are a few choc recipes I have tried under the recipe section which are really nice. Pams choc chip cookies are very moreish and yummy. The choc muffin cakes I make regularly for my daughter and the Georgeous choc cake (Vegan recipe) is also really nice altho I often make only half as ends up very big. The choc sauce in this recipe I have also used to cover the top of the choc muffins for an extra treat!

First Glace ice cream is also soya free - they make choc, strawberry, vanila and fudge swirl flavours which are very nice and I think choc ices altho' havnt tried these. Most good health food shops would be happy to order these in for you.

most choc has unfortunately soya lecithin in it (E322) but Pam is right about Duchy originals - I have bought their mints for my daughter in the past at enormous expense (£5 a box) and she then didnt like them because they were too bitter!

Marzipan is nice as a treat as well.

How are you getting on with bread / rolls as most of them nowadays contain soya flour in them?

[daisyjayne]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply, would I be better going to a chain like Holland and Barrett or a small health food store to order products such as the ice cream? Sorry if its a silly question but this is all new to me !
I live near Leeds in West Yorkshire, does anyone know of any really good Health Food Stores nearby? Its ok if I would need to drive to them.

Where do I find the recipies, do I just search the forums?

I can't believe how much stuff has soya in it, I've tried some dairy and soya free mint chocolate but like your daughter found it too bitter.

I'm quite lucky with the bread, I dont eat much anyway but i have found a small bakery near my home that bakes all their bread on site and is soya and dairy free. Their granery bread is lovely and tastes much better that supermarket bread and is generally still warm if I buy it in a morning. Other than that I buy the Duchy-Originals seaded bread.

I love marzipan but never thought of having it as a sweet treat, thanks for the tip !

Also, i went on the plamil website to try and order some chocolate but the delivery charge was £10.00 ! Does anyone know if I can get this through a Health Food Store ?

[cnc]

Hi, I also live in the Leeds area, Holland and Barratts in the Bond street centre isn't too bad, not sure what soya free stuff, (they do stock the swedish glace and in a few flavours as well) they have but the staff in there seemed quite helpful.
The Green Health food shop in Cleckheaton as recommended by Pam is also very good- they will order things in.
Which bakery is it??

[Bet]

The health food shop I use is independent but I think in general you just have to go to all until you find one thats happy to order the ice cream in. Its £1.99 a small tub so I normally buy three at a time and the shop is probably more than happy then to order and sell this to me!

Meant to say also that rice milk is good for making pancakes with - my daughter loves these with maple syrup! Also makes OK yorkshire puds.

[Pam]

We're getting up quite a memebership from West Yorkshire now. I don't know about shops in Leeds, I do most of my shopping for dairy free stuff in either Huddersfield or Cleckheaton.

Holland and Barratt can order stuff in for you but I don't know how far they are prepared to go or whether they have a limited list. Independent shops are much better and the staff are generally friendlier. If you are anywhere near the jewish areas in Leeds you could try their deli's as kosher foods are dairy free but obviously you'd have to be selective about the soya free part of it.

Tesco sometimes sell Plamil chocolate, but I think only the organic varieties are soya free and you must check the labels on those too. (or e-mail plamil for confirmation). Health food shops usually carry a limited supply of Plamil chocolate, but they come in packs of 6 so a shop won't be lumbered with huge amounts if they order it in just for you (and some warehouses will also split a pack).

There is a recipes forum in and amongst the rest of them, you should find it if you go to the forum index page. If you have any good recipes you could add them yourself. Put the recipe title in the header bar and then everyone can see at a glance what the recipe is for. You can search for older recipes by altering the "show recipes from...." option.

[cnc]

I never managed to get to any of the independent health food shops in the city centre itself, although there are a few, just remembered that I searched Yell for a list, which I can email/ pm to you if you want?
I couldn't find any specific healthfood shops anywhere but the city centre really.

[Bet]

Forgot to mention earlier, if you go to Forum, click on the title 'Dairyfree recipes', click on search this forum (top right corner) and then type in chocolate, it will come up with the most important recipes of all!

Enjoy!!

PS Does anyone else come from Hertfordshire? I'm feeling quite left out! I dont think I can remember anyone on this site mentioning in the past they come from this part of the country?

[matt]

ok, bread...might be worth getting a bread maker, really easy to use and you know exactly what's going into the bread then. no chance of cross contamination and you can satisfy savoury and sweet cravings, easily frozen results presliced.

the choc that was too bitter....melt it, add sugar poor into small moulds to make your own sweets. bit of effort but again the end results worth it.

health food shops, become a regular customer of one or two and they will get better and better at getting stuff in for you. also order larger amounts so that they don't get lumbered with stock they can't sell.

google is a good search engine, type in soya free etc and see what comes up you should produce some usefull links.

waitrose do sorbets which i think are soya free. several flavours.

again go inot the health food shop, explain the situation and see what they suggest.

[daisyjayne]

The bakery that I go to is near my parents in Horbury Bridge, Nr Wakefield, its called Grotts Bakery.

I'll go into Holland and Barrett at the weekend and see what they can get. I had an appointment with a nutritionist last night who advised me what supplements to take so I need to go there anyway.

I'll have a hunt for some recipies too as Im planning on having a weekend of experimental baking. I'll try melting down the chocolate with sugar too!

Thanks for all your help and advice !