High fibre gluten free recipes are everywhere. The trick is knowing what foods are high in fibre and being able to incorporate them into the way you eat. That's why I'm sharing these recipes and ideas during Nutrition Month in the form of a challenge.
This post is not health advice. Fibre and the gluten free diet is an important topic that should be discussed with your health care team. If you want to dive deeper into the topic check out the two resources I link to at the bottom of this post.
Bonus Tip - Follow dietitians who specialize in the gluten free diet for a steady stream of helpful information. Shout out to my friend Selena Devries at Healthbean Nutrition. Find her on Instagram at celiac_dietitian and watch for her Tuesday Q&A.
This post is a round up of high fibre recipes, some healthier than others, plus ideas to inspire you to get out of your comfort zone. Making small changes to add more fibre to every meal will pay off over time.
Why do I need more fibre on a gluten free diet?
Experts tell us everyone in North America needs more fibre in their diet. A gluten free diet typically has less fibre and nutrition because of the low-fibre, processed flours used in baking. There are healthier gluten free flours out there but rice flour is still the most common ingredient in many gluten free baked goods.
Finding a flour blend that works for most of the things you bake is a game changer. The next game changers are understanding when a flour blend won't give you the best results and getting set up with different flours to make anything you want. To learn more on this topic check out my 12-part series on How To Use Gluten Free Flours starting with How To Use Rice Flour.
High Fibre Challenge for Gluten Free Eaters
The goal is simple, eat more fibre. That isn't a measurable goal but if you increase your awareness of fibre rich foods and work them into your everyday choices I'd call that a win!
3 Ways To Get More Fibre Rich Food in Your Diet
- Incorporate one new food (grains, legumes, nuts, seeds etc.) into your diet three different ways.
- Intentionally choose one high fibre food in every snack and meal for a whole week.
- Buy a new gluten free flour (quinoa, teff, coconut, almond, sorghum or buckwheat) or grain (quinoa, teff, sorghum or buckwheat) and try it in three new recipes.
I've divided the recipes into meal categories to give you lots of ways to easily add more fibre to the way you already eat.
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How To Get More Fibre for Breakfast
Fibre is easy to add to breakfast whether it's hot or cold, eaten at home or on the run. Pick one idea that jumps out at you and try it. Find the quinoa or nutritional yeast you have in the back of the cupboard or buy the chia seeds you keep seeing in the grocery store but haven't bought yet.
- Quinoa (the grain or the flakes) and buckwheat (groats or flakes) both have more fibre than oats and can be cooked in similar ways.
- Nutritional yeast is common for a dairy free diet and used as a substitute for cheese. Sprinkle it on cereal or toast, in pancakes and muffins or even smoothies and beverages.
- My Overnight Oats can be served with raspberries or other fresh and dried fruit to increase the fibre.
- Pistachio Apricot Granola can be made with different nuts, seeds and dried or fresh fruit.
- One tablespoon of chia seeds has ten times more fibre than most other nuts and seeds. If you've never made Chia Pudding now's the time. You can also use chia seeds in breads, pancakes, muffins, bars and cookies.
- Increase the fibre in gluten free waffles and pancakes by using high fibre flours or adding nuts and seeds.
More Fibre in Weekend Breakfast and Brunch
There's no fibre in meat, fish, eggs or cheese but you have lots of options to add fibre. Consider adding grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables (avocado, spinach etc) and beans to add fibre and enjoy your favourite breakfast dishes.
- Breakfast Power Bowl can be made with a high fibre grain like quinoa.
- Try Savoury Buckwheat Crepes for a change.
- Boost the fibre of Avocado Toast with Poached Egg by choosing grainy bread for toast.
- Buckwheat Blini are little pancakes made with high fibre buckwheat flour.
How To Add Fibre to Soups and Salads
High fibre gluten free recipes abound in the soup and salad category. Legumes and beans star in many soups and salads but you can add nuts and seeds to boost the fibre even higher.
- Leek and Split Pea Soup or Lentil and Red Pepper Soup are my top picks for fibre packed soups made with legumes.
- Easy Bean Salad is a high fibre favourite for lunches like quinoa salads. I portion my Southwestern Quinoa Salad and Apple Quinoa Salad with Feta right into jars when I make it.
Everyday High Fibre Dinners
- Vegan Buddha Bowl with peanut sauce can be made with cooked quinoa to increase the fibre.
- Zucchini Tomato Yellow Split Pea Dal is my favourite side dish for an East Indian meal. It's also a reminder that I need more variety in this category to up the fibre in my diet.
- My Santa Fe Salad has black beans, avocado and seeds plus peanut butter in the dressing to make it a perfect choice for a high fibre meal.
- Persian Chicken Stew gets a fibre boost from both chickpeas and pomegranate seeds.
High Fibre Gluten Free Snacks and Treats
Snacks should be healthy and treats...well they're supposed to be a treat. I'm not judging the way anyone eats so I clump these together. The idea is eat more of the ones that are loaded with fibre.
- Popcorn is a high fibre snack and sprinkling it with nutritional yeast will further boost the fibre.
- An Easy Edamame Bean Snack is fun to eat from the counter while someone's making dinner.
- If you haven't made Roasted Chickpeas yet try it! I do this when I make a recipe that doesn't use a full can of chickpeas. Eat them as a snack, toss them on a salad or include them in a Middle Eastern Bowl.
- Nuts have fibre! Homemade Hot and Spicy Mixed Nuts are a great snack anytime and a nice change from plain nuts.
- Coconut Date Energy Balls or Fruit and Oat Energy Balls are great snacks. If you're keen on counting grams of fibre then alter these recipes to include the nuts and seeds with the highest amounts.
- Black Bean Dip and all bean dips are excellent high fibre recipes to enjoy with raw veggies. Plus canned beans keep in your cupboard so try something you don't usually buy.
- Lemony Hummus, Roasted Carrot Hummus and any variation of hummus is probably the most common use of fibre packed chickpeas.
- Falafel Balls are another popular use of chickpeas that can be served many ways.
High Fibre Gluten Free Baked Goods
The fibre content in baked goods doesn't magically make them healthy. On the other hand, there's no down side to choosing ingredients with more nutrition.
Experiment with different flours, nut butters, nuts, seeds, dried and fresh fruits. Vegetables can also be used in savoury versions of muffins, biscuits and scones too!
- These Peanut Butter Cookies and my Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza are both made with quinoa flour (and sugar).
- My recipe for Granola Bars is filled with nuts and seeds. I switch up the flour when I make these to learn how the flour works and tastes.
- This Double Chocolate Banana Bread is made with chickpea flour. It's moist and delicious and you'd never guess it was.
- Try socca, that delicious pancake-like flatbread made from chickpea flour. It's sold as a snack on the streets in the south of France and can easily be made on the stove or in the oven. Once you perfect the technique it can be used as a wrap or a pizza base.
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Resources For Fibre and the Gluten Free Diet
- An excellent resource from Alberta Health Services: Fibre and the Gluten Free Diet.
- Spotlight on Dietary Fibre includes the amount of dietary fibre recommended for adults and children on a gluten free diet as well as food lists of high fibre foods from the Canadian Celiac Association.
Organize To Easily Add Fibre To Your Diet
Getting organized in the kitchen is the best way to guarantee success. If any of these ideas sound like they would work for you act on them now.
- Mason jars of all sizes to hold nuts, seeds, legumes and more. Learn about my system of 2 lid sizes for 7 jar sizes in this post, Organize For Success with Mason Jars.
- Add a new flour or grain to your pantry and try it! Quinoa, quinoa flour or quinoa flakes, buckwheat groats, flakes or flour and on and on. (Buying buckwheat groats has been on my imaginary grocery list for ages. I can safely say that imaginary list is not working for me!)
- A Dymo letratag label maker is perfect for learning about gluten free ingredients. I use mine to add labels to containers that tell me how to use that ingredient. The label on my jar of chia seeds says 1 tablespoon / ½ cup yogurt. On my xanthan gum bottle it says ¼ teaspoon / 1 cup flour. You can find more ideas like this in my post, Organize for Success with Labelling.
Let me know in the comments below if you found a new recipe or idea you're excited to try. If you already use quinoa flakes or buckwheat groats I'd love to hear what you do with them.
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