The lunch break for many is synonymous with a sandwich on the fly. A choice that turns out to be impractical when you discover you are celiac, unless you use bread and dough prepared with gluten-free flour. But a bit of organization is enough to solve the problem: cooking the day before you can prepare delicious dishes, ready to eat comfortably at home or even to take to the office.

Salad: not just rice

A classic in this sense is the rice salad, enriched with the ingredients we like most, from vegetables to ham, from boiled eggs to cheese. A similar result can be obtained with the quinoa: rinsed and cooked for about twenty minutes, it should be cooled under water and seasoned to taste. Some idea? A mix of cooked and raw diced vegetables; cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and black olives; tuna in oil, green beans and spring onion.

Excellent as a base for salads is also the mile, to be boiled for about twenty minutes in boiling salted water and to be seasoned to taste: try it with mixed grilled vegetables, anchovies and capers. And then the legumes: delicious and satiating single dishes can be prepared starting from chickpeas, beans and lentils. Without forgetting the traditional "salads": An example of all, the nicoise, with green salad, tomato, green beans, tuna, olives, anchovies, onion and boiled eggs.

Savory pies? Yes thanks

Why give up the goodness and comfort of a savory pie? It can be made from pasta crust gluten-free, readily available in supermarkets, or preparing the dough at home. In this case it will take 500 grams of gluten-free flour and 250 grams of butter, to be kneaded quickly with a pinch of salt. After getting a bunch of crumbs, add 180 grams of very cold water and knead. The dough should be left to rest, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator before rolling it out and using it to taste: for the filling the only limit is imagination! Ricotta and spinach, tomatoes, ham and basil, radicchio and taleggio, up to the classic quiche lorraine. You can also prepare the brisée by replacing the wheat flour with rice flour.

Oriental spaghetti

An idea for a quick lunch comes from the East: spaghetti of rice or soy they do not contain gluten and cook very quickly. For a complete and tasty dish, simply sauté them in boiling water, in a non-stick pan or in the wok, with a drizzle of oil, spices and ingredients to taste: filleted vegetables, peas, beaten eggs and diced ham, cubes of tuna and zucchini, chicken breast with strips and peppers, just to give some ideas. For a truly oriental touch, a few drops of soy sauce: on the market it can also be found without gluten, but as always, pay attention to the ingredients (and check that the crossed ear symbol is present).

Instead of bread

Instead of bread and wraps one can prepare one gruel, with 500 g of chickpea flour to be diluted with a liter and a half of cold water poured flush, mixing well with a spoon; add the mixture and let it rest for at least four hours, then remove the foam that has formed on the surface with a slotted spoon and mix the mixture, which is then poured into a generously oiled baking pan; sprinkle with chopped rosemary, then cook in the oven at 200 ° for about 20 minutes. Again, you can prepare one polenta classic, with the very thick yellow flour, let it cool and then cut it into thick slices and grill it.

At the restaurant

The lunch break at the restaurant is not to be banned, far from it. We need only pay attention to the choice of the venue, which offers sufficient guarantees. A good guide is represented by the site of theAIC, Italian Celiac Association, where you can find the addresses of the local members of the project Home feeding: http://www.celiachia.it/DIETA/ricercaStrutture.php

In any case, it is not enough to order gluten-free dishes, such as a grilled steak or a risotto: it is necessary to point out the problem to the staff, so as to avoid contamination of any kind.