‘Free From’ Eating

I have a good friend from the UK who often comes to visit me here in the Netherlands. It is always a blast when she visits, we go shopping, enjoy a good catch-up and have a generally ‘gezellig’ time. The only challenge is feeding her!

My friend is vegetarian, which is no problem, plenty of recipes and places to eat that can cater for that, but she is also gluten intolerant and lactose intolerant. Those three factors combined makes finding somewhere to eat out in the town where I live impossible. Cooking food at home was a little tricky at the start, but now I know my way around the ‘free from’ aisles at the supermarket, it isn’t a problem.

Where to buy ‘free from’ foods

Most supermarkets in the Netherlands have a section for foods that are ‘free from’ certain ingredients. They usually cover gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, and sugar alternatives. The section is usually located near the medicines, or tucked away in some corner towards the back of the store. You will also find a wide range of dairy free alternatives for milk, yogurt, cheese etc in the chilled isles and by the long life milk, and bread options at the bakery.

You can also visit health food shops for a selection of ‘free from’ foods. For example Holland & Barrett (formerly De Tuinen), G&W Gezondheidswinkel and Ekoplaza.

In Groningen there is also a shop called BAAS Glutenvrij, they specialise in free from products.

What to look out for

Luckily, Europe has very good food labelling standards. On all food packaging there should be a clear list of ingredients (always in Dutch, and possibly other languages), and allergy foods are highlighted in bold.

Eating Out

If you are in Groningen then fortunately, there are quite a few options of places to eat out that have a variety of options of ‘free from’ food.

TOET – a nice lunch café offering a variety of food and cakes, including many which are gluten free. They have a handy card with allergy information for all their products.

Bagels & Beans – offer a gluten free bagel option which you can combine with all their menu items.

Elmers – a nice lunch / coffee shop that provides on request gluten free high tea.

Bla bla – vegetarian restaurant has great food. Ask the owner to the gluten-free options.

Ugly Duck – offers a separate gluten free lunch and dinner menu.

If you are not in Groningen, planning ahead is the best idea. Look up menus on websites, many restaurants are now starting to cater to gluten free with gluten free bread options on the lunch menu, and will often be happy to tweak a menu dish to exclude the dressing etc to make it suitable, just ask your serving staff.