Red Dot Kitchen Blog — healthy snack ideas
9 Top Gluten-Free Snack Ideas: Our picks for the best healthy snack recipes 0
It’s quite the challenge to find healthy snacks that are low calorie, protein packed and still can satisfy that hunger craving. Imagine tossing in an additional gluten-free label onto the criteria, and you might think you are stuck with an impossible snack task. But all you gluten-wheat-free eaters fear not! Whether you suffer from celiac disease, have a pesky wheat allergy, are sensitive to gluten, or just simply feel like you need to temporarily break up with a wheat-based diet, here are nine of the best gluten-free easy snack recipes from some of our favorite food blogs.
9. White On Rice Couple's Spring Rolls
There's something about a spring roll that just screams ultimate freshness. It's one of those healthy low carb snacks where you can fill it with a Marry Poppin's purse of flavor combinations -- you can go the Southeast Asian route with a traditional Vietnamese style roll, or maybe a Caesar salad direction, and possibly even down a bacon, lettuce, tomato, turkey path. Todd Porter and Diane Cu, the remarkably talented photog-foodie duo at White On Rice Couple, are all about this delectable gluten-free snack. They even posted a very handy tutorial on how to fold those delicately hard to handle rice paper wrappers. We filled our version with fresh salmon, avocado, cucumber, cabbage, carrot, lettuce and served it with a spicy Sriracha mayo.
8. 101 Cookbook’s Pomegranate Yogurt Bowl
Quinoa puffs, pomegranate and Greek yogurt all rolled up in one? Yes please! Heidi Swanson aka the culinary genius over at the food porn mecca food blog 101 Cookbooks makes this all-natural gluten-free treat. A low cal super food that’s also a great snack for kids, think creamy Greek yogurt topped with tangy pomegranate, a sweet honey drizzle and crunchy quinoa puffs – really the perfect bite of popping flavors and textures.
7. Smitten Kitchen's Creamy Hummus
A favorite dip amongst the wheat allergy world, hummus is an awesome healthy snack that's packed with protein. While there are plenty of variations like coriander, roasted red pepper and sun-dried tomatoes, Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen makes a simply flawless smooth Tahini version. Serve it with a medley of raw vegetables or some gluten-free crackers and you have yourself quite the wheat-free snack!
6. Steamy Kitchen’s Crispy Roasted Garbanzo Beans
Four ingredients, forty minute cooking time and an insane amount of snack lovin’ spice, we absolutely HEART Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen’s fast, fresh and simple take on roasted chickpeas. It’s one of those guilt-free snacks where you can easily get down and dirty with an entire batch in one sitting. Chickpeas, olive oil, salt and seasoning, we are mildly obsessed with this crunchy, all natural snack.
5. Simply Recipes' Perfect Guacamole
A Mexican food favorite, there's something special about a massive bowl of homemade guacamole. Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes makes a pretty immaculate version by combining ripe avocados, salt and lime juice with some cilantro, chiles, onion and tomato for that extra umph. Serve it with corn tortilla chips and you won't miss any of your favorite wheat-iful snacks.
4. The Picky Eater’s Garlic Parmesan Kale Chips
All hail the kale! Kale chips might have been a mega (slightly annoying) food trend during 2011, but there’s a reason behind all the Team Kale madness. They’re crispy. They’re addictive. They’re oh-so-delicious. An extremely nutrient-packed leafy green, this superstar vegetable might just be one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. We are kinda obsessed with this Garlic Parmesan Kale Chip recipe from Anjali Shah over at The Picky Eater. Crunchy, salty, flavorful and ready in under 20 minutes – it really the perfect healthy low cal snack.
3. Rasamalaysia’s Curried Popcorn
Popcorn has been a long friend of wheat-free snack lovers, but these days it’s pretty necessary to add that extra punch to kick it up a few gourmet notches. If you are a fan of Asian street food, or even just any type of Asian food really, Rasamalaysia should still be your go-to food blog. Author Bee Yinn Lo gives us her creative Indian-influenced version of popcorn by adding a simple blend of curry spices.
2. Elana’s Pantry’s Rosemary Crackers
We all get those glutinous wheat-filled cravings, even when on wheat-free diet. Luckily Wweat-free crackers are much easier to make than you may think. Elana Amsterdam, of Elana’s Pantry, is the queen of gluten free eating, and the goddess of almond flour. In her cookbook “The Gluten-Free Almond Flour” cookbook she highlights a wonderful recipe for rosemary crackers that call for almond flour, sea salt, rosemary, olive oil and an egg. Yup, it’s that easy. She also shares nine more gluten-free cracker recipes, with wheat-free flavors like sesame, almond grain and even her take on wheat thins. We like to mix it up a bit by experimenting with a whole myriad of toppings and flavors.
1. Lil’ Red Dot Kitchen’s Bak Kwa Lettuce Wraps
Okay, so I guess we are a lil’ bit biased about our Bak Kwa lettuce wraps – but they are just too delicious not to include in our list of best gluten-free snack recipes! Our new spicy Chipotle Beef Bak Kwa (that only has 60 calories per serving!), these lettuce wraps are a super easy, low cal and
all-natural snack. You can really fill up your lettuce wrap with a load of fillings. We added bean sprouts, red pepper, carrot and our own strips of freshly grilled bak kwa, and served it with a soy ginger and spicy chili sauce. Healthy, crunchy, meaty, sweet, savory -- it hits the tastes buds in all those important parts!