Why throw a gluten free party?

You’ve probably seen me talk about how frustrating it is going to a party or other gathering when you’re celiac/coeliac in a number of my “diary” posts. While that’s definitely true, we had a chance to throw our own party with gluten free appetizers after we moved into our new house right after Christmas.

This housewarming showcased some of our best cooking, and it was inclusive not only for my food sensitivities (celiac disease, corn allergy, soy allergy, dairy allergy, lactose intolerance, shellfish allergy, chocolate allergy), but our friends who were vegan, vegetarian, or had nut allergies could also enjoy what we made.

How do I make sure the party is 100% gluten free?

Now there were some things that we did that also helped us make this go smoothly. When we sent out the invite on Facebook, we specifically put in the description that no one was allowed to bring any food. Even though we were making all kinds of things that I could eat, cross-contamination is a huge concern.

While we’ve had plenty of family gatherings where I have my own food or I take food first to prevent this problem, I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it was for me (and Peter) to not have to watch everyone like a hawk. If I could eat everything at the party because we had gluten free appetizers and everything met my dietary needs, then it meant that I could actually enjoy the party myself.

How do I keep costs down?

When we decided we were going to throw our own housewarming party, we realized that feeding everyone involved (around 30 people total) could be expensive. Not to mention, gluten free food does not run cheap. Now, we’ve talked about some of our biggest tips for saving money day-to-day, but a party is a whole other deal.

We decided that the best approach was to make everything from scratch. This is because things marked as “gluten free” in stores tend to be pricey, while the ingredients to make them that are naturally gluten free aren’t so bad. Take freezer fries and potatoes. While a small bag of Alexia fries (which we still like) can run you up to $5 US, you can buy a whole bag of potatoes for that price and make 4 times as many fries.

How much time will it take to make all of these gluten free appetizers?

Honestly, this can take a lot of planning depending on what you make. The prep work went on over a couple of days before the party when we had time after work. Because the recipes we made were mostly new to us, this took longer than it otherwise would have. The day of, everything was actually pretty easy to prepare and we started on food prep an hour or so before the first guests arrived.

We actually had about a 6 hour window for our party so that people could drop by anytime during that time, sort of like an open house. This worked out really well because it meant that we could keep heating/cooking some of the food as we went, rather than having food for 30 people ready all at once.

How do I make sure that everyone is included?

What we did to approach throwing out own allergy-friendly, gluten free party was to have options. You’ll see when we get to the gluten free appetizers that we served that we had some variations. For example, we had vegan versions of a couple of dishes. We also made sure that if something could be free of an allergen or it could be made vegan or vegetarian, that it was. We made sure to ask our guests in advance about their dietary restrictions, and at our housewarming we made sure to direct them to what they could or couldn’t eat.

What are the best gluten free appetizers to serve?

We realized that the best approach to this party was to have finger-foods, and things that could be eaten easily with just a fork. With the limited seating in our house and the number of guests throughout the day, we decided to keep things simple, easy to eat, and super tasty.

For our main gluten free appetizers, we made a build-your-own poutine station, bruschetta dippers (a great option if you love bruschetta but you don’t want to top all of it yourself), and pulled pork and vegan pulled pork. For dessert, we made two kinds of cookies because we could make them in advance. We also had a vegan cookie option (this is a good option if you’re not worried about nut allergies).