Eat and feel better with these simple substitutions in your kitchen.

Avoiding gluten isn’t just about monitoring what you eat. It’s also about making sure there are safe areas where you store, prepare, and eat food.

You don’t need to renovate your kitchen to ensure it’s free of gluten. Here are some helpful steps to make the area a safe zone for all—whether some or all of your family are gluten free.

Steps to a Gluten-Free Kitchen

1. Get Rid of Products

   If you’re going for a completely gluten-free kitchen, start by getting rid of the obvius.

   • Donate Unopened Products

     Donate any unopened gluten-containing foods to a food bank. Or give them away to friends, family, or co-workers.

     Common foods include:

     • flours
     • mixes
     • pastas
     • cereals
     • breads
     • cookies
     • crackers

   • Discard Opened Products

     Discard any gluten products that have already been opened.

     Handle items with care, so flour particles won’t become airborne and potentially swallowed.

   • Beware Cross-Contamination

     Keep in mind that opened gluten-free pantry items like sugar, baking powder, and baking soda may have been contaminated at some point with a measuring cup or spoon.

2. Clean Away Gluten

   This step is crucial for making a space safe for celiacs and gluten-intolerant individuals.

   Even a single lurking bread or cracker crumb contains harmful gluten proteins and can inadvertently end up on someone’s plate.

   To rid the area of gluten:

   1. Clear Out The Kitchen

      Remove all items from the cupboards, pantries, silverware and utensil drawers, and the freezer and fridge.

   2. Wipe Down Surfaces

      Wipe down surfaces with a mild soap solution. Rinse and then dry.

      Pay special attention to spots that are sticky or greasy, as flour and crumbs tend to stick to these areas.

      Don’t forget to clean the tops of kitchen cupboards and light fixtures as well as cupboard and drawer handles.

   3. Do The Kitchen Laundry

      Launder aprons, dish towels, and cloth napkins. Scrub the oven—including the racks and oven drawer.

   Mind Your Sponges

   Sponges can be a problem if they’re used to wipe up areas where there’s gluten.

   To safely mop up spills, assign one color sponge for gluten-containing messes and another for gluten-free zones.

3. Maintain It

   • Keep Items Isolated

     • Purchase a toaster that will be used only for gluten-free foods, since it’s almost impossible to clean an old toaster of all its crumbs. Store and use the gluten-free toaster in a separate area.
     • Use separate butter dishes, flour sifters, pasta colanders, and cutting boards for those eating gluten free.
     • You may also want to consider another set of roasting and baking pans, measuring cups and spoons, utensils, and can openers.
     • Be sure to purchase and label brand-new storage containers for all gluten-free flours.

   • Keep Appliances Clean

     Appliances such as bread makers and food processors can contain hidden gluten. Clean paddles, blades, and crevices very carefully.

     If possible, have a second set of blades or—even better—different machines.

   • Avoid Using Plastic

     Be wary of using old plastic bowls and utensils. They scratch easily, and the scratches can harbor tiny amounts of gluten.

     It’s best to discard or donate these items. Replace with stainless steel or glass bowls that are washed carefully between between uses.

Tips for Kitchens with Gluten

• Storage

  • Label Containers

    If it seems that some family members are (still!) dipping their gluten-containing utensils back into condiment jars, put Post-it notes or a label maker to use.

    Label which condiments are gluten safe and which aren’t.

    Label gluten-free flours and grains, whether they’re stored in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. Mark with the date of purchase and the expiration date.

  • Use Squirt Bottles

    Squeeze-top or squirt bottles of condiments make a good choice for avoiding cross contamination, and they’re some-thing every family member can use safely.

    Just remind everyone not to touch the bottle tips to gluten-containing foods.

  • Separate Items

    If some family members eat gluten, be sure to put their items on a separate, labeled shelf. Better yet, store these foods in a separate cabinet.

    Make sure everyone knows where their own snacks are kept, and make sure they return items to their proper place.

• Gluten-Free Kids

  For a fun family activity, let youngsters choose stickers of their favorite color or animal. Use these to label packaged items that are safe for them.

  When there’s a visitor or babysitter in the house who doesn’t understand the gluten-free diet, the stickers will help them identify snack items that are safe for each child.

• For Pet Owners

  Most pet food (including fish food) contains wheat, and if it’s stored and portioned out in the kitchen, particles can end up on counters.

  Keep it safe by storing it in a separate area away from where meals are prepared and enjoyed.

Extra Tips for Poaching Eggs

• Poached is the healthy way to eat eggs.
• Use free range organic eggs.
  • The fresher the egg, the easier to poach.
• Add a little vinegar to the water to make it a little easier.

Liked this kitchen hack? Check out Easily Open A Pomegranate.

How to Seed a Pomegranate

Watch the video above for an easy-open kitchen hack, and follow the tips below.

1. Fill a wide mixing bowl (wide enough to fit your hands in) half-full with water.
2. Cut the pomegranate in half.
3. Submerge the pomegranate halves in water and use your hands to separate the seeds from the inner membrane.
4. The membrane will float to the surface and the gems will sink.
5. Discard membrane and outer rind.
6. Skim the surface a second time to remove any small pieces of membrane.
7. Drain and the seeds are ready to use!

Pomegranates are an Antioxidant

An ancient fruit, the pomegranate has been found in Ayurvedic medicine, Egyptian tombs, Greek legend, Biblical verses, and Christian art. The juice-encapsulated seeds are both delicious and nutritious, if messy to extract. Rich in antioxidants, essential fats, including conjugated fatty acids, fiber, and lignins, which contain phytoestrogens, pomegranate seeds are well worth picking out of this fruit.

Whether you’re making Classic Tomato Soup, Garden Gazpacho, or Rice Congee Soup, it helps to remember that soup is a forgiving dish, making it one of the best ways to experience the magic of cooking.

Soup offers the opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of cooking, from sautéing to caramelizing to the blending of techniques, textures, and flavors, all with easy-to-follow steps.

Further, soup is flexible, meaning you can tweak it to your palate’s content. Nevertheless, it’s always important to begin by reading through the recipe, checking that you have all the necessary ingredients, and then gathering all the needed equipment for the task. And for even greater assurance of success, follow my top ten tips for enlightened soup-making.

Ten Tips to Make Great Soup

• Know Your Salt and Pepper

  Proper seasoning with salt and pepper is the key difference between a great soup and a humdrum soup. Salt is about as close to a magic ingredient as there is.

  Proper seasoning with salt doesn’t make a soup salty; rather, the myriad complex flavors of the brew come to the fore. But add too much, and all your hard work can be ruined. To keep this from occurring in your kitchen, follow this technique: when seasoning with salt to taste near the end of cooking, get in the habit of using your fingertips instead of a shaker.

  Simply place the salt in your palm or a small dish and pinch a small amount into the soup. This method allows far greater control of the salt added to the pot, and will also help you develop a tactile knowledge of how much is just the right amount. If you do over-salt your soup, there’s still hope: cut up a raw potato or two and drop it into the mix.

  It will absorb some of the salt and make it more edible. Fresh peppercorns are likewise key to creating great soup. They have tremendous flavor, especially when compared to the preground stuff. You can use your own pepper grinder or look for the new peppercorn bottles in the supermarket with the grinder built in.

• Cut the Fat in the Sauté Step

  Many soup recipes, including the ones I’ve developed here, begin by cooking and stirring aromatic vegetables—onions, garlic, peppers, ginger—in butter or oil.

  These basic mixtures go by different names in different cuisines—a French mirepoix, an Italian soffritto, or a Portuguese refogado—but they all provide a foundation of flavor to the finished soup. But while more traditional recipes call for multiple tablespoons—even 1/2 cups or more—of fat, the soups in this collection rely on 1 or 2 teaspoons or tablespoons, at most.

  The results are still delicious (the vegetables are softened and slightly caramelized), and the technique can be applied to other soups in your repertoire. (Note that if the vegetables stick a bit, simply add a small amount of broth or water to the pan.)

• Don’t Go Stir Crazy

  In the first phase of cooking the soup (i.e., cooking and stirring the onions, aromatics, and other vegetables), don’t stir the vegetables too often; once every two minutes or so is plenty. This helps them brown, caramelizing their sugars.

  That, in turn, will further enhance the flavor of the soup without adding excess fat.

• Puree Soup in Blenders, in Small Batches

  When making puréed soups, use a blender for the creamiest texture. A food processor will give a slightly grainy texture. Handheld immersion blenders are excellent when you only want to blend soups a little bit, but they are not effective for making creamy purées. Be sure to purée in small batches and crack the blender lid slightly (or remove the center cap from the lid).

  Steam can build up once you start blending, and if the lid is on tight or the blender is overfilled, it will spray hot soup all over you and your kitchen. For protection, cover the top with a dishtowel while puréeing.

• Steer Clear of High Heat

  As one who has scorched her fair share of soups in days gone by, I urge you to consider the following: keep the burner dial away from HIGH, even when bringing soup to a boil. It can take mere seconds for a soup to scorch if left unattended boiling on high heat.

• Handle Dairy Additions with Care

  Follow the directions carefully for adding dairy products to soup. Keep the heat relatively low to prevent the dairy product from separating; boiling will create an unpleasant texture.

  Most soups in this collection call for the addition of any dairy products at the very end of cooking, with no more than a few minutes of gentle heating to warm completely. And if you’re making a soup ahead of time, prepare it up to the point of adding the dairy, then cool and store.

  Reheat the soup when ready to eat, adding the dairy for quick heating just before serving.

• Give Yourself Permission to Use Ready-Prepped Ingredients

  Sure, fresh is best. But when you’re exhausted and hungry, my position is that a homemade soup made with a few shortcuts is still so much better—both in terms of taste and good health— than fast food. So go head and plan for those emergency moments.

  Check out my list of pantry ideas, but also consider stocking up on frozen chopped onions and peppers, frozen diced potatoes (stocked with the hash browns in the supermarket freezer case), and minced jarred garlic for those times when you’re too pooped to peel and chop.

  And don’t forget pregrated Parmesan cheese, prewashed greens, presliced mushrooms, and chopped vegetables from the supermarket salad bar, too.

• Cut Vegetables Small for Faster Cooking

  A ¹/₂-inch-size chop or dice needs no more than 10 minutes of simmering before it’s soft, speeding soup to the table in no time.

• Head to the Deli Counter for Cooked Meat and Poultry

  You don’t need to simmer meat and poultry for hours on end to pack a healthy, flavorful protein into soup. Head to the deli counter of your supermarket for a wide selection of fully cooked meats. Shred the meat from deli rotisserie chicken (discard the skin and freeze any leftover meat for future meals), or request thick cuts of roast beef, smoked turkey, and ham, then dice into small pieces at home. Because the meat and poultry are fully cooked, they only need a few minutes of warming in the final phases of cooking.

• Add Instant Dazzle with a Drizzle, Splash, or Sprinkle

  Elevate any enlightened soup, whether for everyday or entertaining, with a sprinkle or drizzle of one of the following: a few shavings of Parmesan cheese made with a vegetable peeler, flavorful oil (extra-virgin olive oil, hazelnut oil, toasted sesame oil), finely grated citrus zest, or ready-made condiments such as black olive tapenade, sun-dried tomato tapenade, or basil pesto.

  A small splash of citrus juice (lemon or lime), red wine vinegar, cider vinegar, or good-quality balsamic vinegar can brighten and enhance the flavors of many soups, too. Visit our Soups & Stews recipes for some of our favorites.