Lactose-free Thanksgiving help
I am a long time reader but first time poster in need of recipe suggestions. My dear husband has discovered he's lactose-intolerant. I need to bring a few dishes to his family's Thanksgiving and want to make sure he can eat them! Clearly there are lots of delicious dairy-free sides, but I am looking for the Thanksgiving classics. Can anyone recommend a lactose-free pumpkin pie recipe that actually tastes good? And this may be asking too much, but how about a lactose-free version of my own childhood favorite, the reviled Campbell's soup green bean casserole?
Thanks for any suggestions...
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10 Comments:
For green bean casserole, you could do a white sauce with lactose-free milk instead of the cream of mushroom?
If you're willing to do your own pie--pumpkin pie is very easy to do with a pre-made crust--you could try replacing the evaporated milk with Silk (soymilk) half-and-half.
renzata at 12:10PM on 11/22/08
Definitely the pumpkin pie can be done with Silk half and half - now I am not sure if Lacteeze makes a half and half equivalent, but depending on the size of the city you live it, you might find something like that. Even a rice milk equivalent?
Depending on how sensitive your hubby is, check the crust ingredients too if you choose to use something premade.
My sister was lactose intolerant as a child and still managed one piece of pie (made with evaporated milk) with special occasions with no major side effects. We lived with mashed potatoes with no milk and butter for years. Not my favourite way of serving them, but hey, you can always add your own butter. I should think that sweet potatoes would be more flavourful done with broth and margarine and maybe maple syrup than regular potatoes sans milk and butter. Sadly, my mother didn't like sweet potatoes!
Green bean casserole - again, I would make my own mushroom-based roux with Silk or Rice milk or Lacteeze. It may not react PERFECTLY but if you sauteed up mushrooms, did it with maybe a bit more flour, lots of seasoning, and then the liquid, I think it would be OK. Maybe not quite as creamy, but certainly tasty. Perhaps a few chopped red peppers added to the mix would bump up the flavour - and a few extra of those fried onions.... Good luck - there are lots of websites to assist folks who are lactose intolerant - and I have to believe that many of them are addressing the "Thanksgiving question" right about now.
Maureen at 12:39PM on 11/22/08
Since soymilk is something of an aquired taste (I've known people who had to use it, and after years, still didn't like a lot of the brands or didn't like it in specific recipes) maybe you'd be better off doing something different with the beans, rather than trying to mimic the old recipe. Otherwise, you could end up making something that in theory your husband could eat, but that might disappoint a lot of people. (If this was supposed to be a special side dish just for him rather than for the whole gathering, ignore this).
I'd suggest maybe making something completely different, like green beans with an italian tomato topping. Or with a basil (or some other herb) pesto. Or you could do a creamless mushroom sauce using a roux made with oil and flour, and instead of a creamy sauce, make it with a vegetable or chicken stock and then lots of mushrooms.
dbcurrie at 2:51PM on 11/22/08
To carry on dbcurrie's idea, you could also do some classic green beans sauteed with bacon and garlic, and top with the crisp onions to garnish. You'll hit most of the flavor notes, without trying to pass it off as dairy.
However, I think that, if everything else is very flavorful, with salt and mushrooms and onion, then it's unlikely people will notice. Try mixing a good bouillon cube into the sauce.
renzata at 7:35PM on 11/22/08
Some members of my family are lactose-intolerant but can eat yogurt (up to 3-4 cups a week) without problems. If your husband can tolerate yogurt, it can be used to make pumpkin pie or mixed into mashed potatoes with roasted garlic/ green onions. Greek yogurt is especially creamy and can be used to sub for sour cream.
A quick google turns up Alton Brown's pumpkin pie: http://www.recipezaar.com/Alton-Browns-Yogurt-Pumpkin-Pie-44288
Also, some relatives have success taking Lactase (over the counter pills) which allows them to eat full dairy products without problems. Lactase is generally very safe.
darkchocolatefan at 9:36PM on 11/22/08
I make the potatoes without a recipe but here's one off of Google - you can find anything off the net these days.
http://www.diannesdishes.com/2008/03/greek-yogurt-smashed-potatoes.html
darkchocolatefan at 9:40PM on 11/22/08
I agree with most of the suggestions given here... I once had to ban most dairy products from my diet and these ideas helped:
- Substitute milk for any lactose-free milk brand - I personally like parmalatt's zymil brand. It keeps well in the pantry and tastes really good.
- Use yogurt to sub any sour cream or even cream cheese - I drain the yogurt to make yogurt cheese and works just the same as cream cheese/sour cream.
- If you want to use soymilk, I personally prefer Silk brand - the others I have tried taste a bit off... Silk, in regular or vanilla works awesome in recipes. I use it often to make a bechamel sauce for my white lasagnas.
- At healthfood stores you'll find a great variety of dairy-free substitutes - like tofutti cream cheese, soya kaas cheeses, etc. It's a trial and error process, but I am sure you'll find some ideas to cheat your husband's tastebuds while he gets used to his new diet.
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 8:58AM on 11/23/08
Thanks for all the suggestions! This has been a small challenge for cheese-loving me, but DH is worth it. Happy Thanksgiving!
mrsfoodissues at 5:30PM on 11/23/08
I make a sweet potato pie with nothing more that a grahm cracker crust roasted mashed sweet taters silk nog and powdered geletin, SO and I both love the flavor of the nog mixed with the sweet potatoes. and the soy nog tastes much better than plain soy milk to alot of people.
huneybumper at 5:41PM on 11/23/08
Just FYI, some people who are lactose intolerant can eat yogurt (which is a dairy product) as well as aged cheeses. Some can't, though. And some do better with things like goat's milk cheeses than with regular cheeses.
It might take some experimentation to figure out what things he might be able to bring back into his diet, but if dairy is completely forbidden, then yogurt isn't a good choice.
dbcurrie at 8:30PM on 11/23/08