When you’re lactose intolerant or gluten-intolerant, knowing what you can substitute in a recipe is the key to both eating well and maintaining your sanity. This graphic from eReplacements.com is a handy guide to what to use when you run out of a basic ingredient. And while it’s not all gluten-free or dairy-free, some of the suggestions are very good, including using puréed prunes, squash or potatoes in place of eggs or margarine, tofu to thicken dips or soups, unsweetened (dairy-free) chocolate plus a bit of sugar to taste in place or semisweet (often dairy-ful) chocolate, and how to make your own baking powder with baking soda and cream of tartar.
Substitutions are often quick and easier than you think. And below the chart are my gluten-free modifications. Scroll on.
Gluten-Free Substitutions Guide:
Bread Crumbs: Gluten-free oats or quinoa flakes, blended in a blender or food processor.
Buttermilk: 1 cup dairy-free milk (almond, rice, hemp) + 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
Corn Syrup: throw it out. Use honey or light maple syrup or brown rice syrup or fructose syrup or agave.
Cream: coconut milk or cream
Self-rising flour: Gluten-free all-purpose flour blend plus baking powder, baking soda and salt
Milk: Use almond milk for baking, unsweetened rice or flax for cooking (or soy if you handle soy well), and coconut milk if you need something to be really thick and creamy. Or rice or flax or soy plus a little earth balance for richness.
Sour cream: 1 cup cultured almond or coconut unsweetened, plain yogurt plus 1 tsp lemon juice.
Yogurt: cultured almond or coconut unsweetened, plain yogurt.
Sugar: demerera, unrefined cane, palm, rock or turbinado sugar (these should be light brown or dark brown unrefined sugars. They still hit your blood stream like any sugar, but they’re not as intense as refined white sugar or corn syrup, and they have more minerals and layers of flavour). Also try coconut sugar, which has a lower glycemic index. It’s more expensive, though. Often you can replace crystal sugars with liquid, and then you can use honey, maple syrup, agave or brown rice syrup. I find Stevia has a bad after taste, but if you can find the fresh plant it’s nice for sweetening tea. Sometimes I use Xylitol for my mom, which is a sweetener made from the birch tree. It’s a little hard to digest and I only use it in very small quantities. It has a very low glycemic index and is low calorie. I’ve yet to find a good way to replace confectioners sugar for icings. I’ll often make a 7-minute whipped frosting in a double-boiler instead. It’s way more work.
When I need confectioner’s sugar, I put the sugar I want to use in a coffee grinder to pulse it up nice and small. It works super well with Xylitol but I haven’t tried it yet with coconut sugar. I’m hoping it will work just as well!