WineLovers Discussion Group

I've been craving Mulligatawny Soup (stew?) for sometime, and since Len does not enjoy anything with curry, I thought I try making it for my bridge group Thursday night. One of the women in our group is gluten intolerant, so I'd like to make it gluten free for her.
The recipe calls for 3 TBSPs of flour that is stirred into the butter/veggie mixture toward the beginning of the process. Wondering what gluten-free product will act (and taste) most like all purpose flour. Anyone out there have any experience that would lend itself to this question?

Thanks!

Isn't corn starch gluten free?

I think the gluten-free flour will work fine. We use it all the time for gluten-free friends in recipes. I don't think corn starch is gluten-free.

The best gluten free pre-mixed flour alternative that we have found (my fiancée is a celiac) is Cup 4 Cup, designed by Thomas Keller's Buchon Bakery. It is the most texturally similar to AP flour and is handy because you can sub it out a cup of it for a cup of AP in recipes. We have tried everything on the market, and this is the best. It is pricey however - about $20-25 for 3 lb or roughly $100 for 25 lb. You can find it at Williams Sonoma and Amazon.com, among other places. Since you don't need 3 lb for the recipe you have, unless you plan on using more of it in the future, check out Bob's Red Mill products. They have decent GF mixes that should work ok. The trick is finding something with xanthan gum (the expensive part) in it, because this is what mimics gluten in the thickening process.

Thank you everyone! I'll report back with results.

Pure cornstarch is gluten-free. The problem is that cornstarch can acquire gluten contamination if it's made or packaged in facilities that also process wheat-containing products.

This website http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/Gluten-Free-Grains/f/Is-Cornstarch-Gluten-Free.htm lists brands that are and are not considered gluten-free.

-Paul W.

The traditional Indian mulligatawny is vegetarian and uses lentils (dal) or nuts (such as cashews) as a thickener. Completely gluten-free. It's a South Indian dish in the Rasam family of seasoned dal-based soups. Here's an example of a traditional-style recipe for it: https://www.google.com/webhp?rls=ig#q=mulligatawny+recipe&rls=ig.

Hope this helps.

-Paul W.

Thanks Paul, that looks really good and I love lentils, but I really wanted to make this one which seems closest to the one our club used to serve that for whatever reason they removed from their soup rotation.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mulligatawny-soup-i/
I found Bob's Mill All Purpose Gluten Free flour today, so will try with that. It's such a small amount, I can't imagine it will effect the outcome too much.
Thanks all!

Carrie,

The allrecipes.com recipe is the classic British Raj reinterpretation of the authentic South Indian dish. It's like chicken tikka masala--in the Indian style, but not something you'd ever find in India itself.

I'd think that gluten-free flour would do fine in a roux. For roux you're after the starch content of the flour, not the gluten.

-Paul W.