Two years ago, I found out that my then-six-month-old baby had at least ten serious food allergies, including dairy, egg, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, and several fruits. He hadn’t even tried any of these foods, since he was still mostly exclusively breastfeeding, but he was so sensitive that he’d been dealing with horrible allergy symptoms just from the foods I was eating. (On a scale of 1-100, his sensitivity to several of them was an immeasurable >100!)
Since I was determined to stick with breastfeeding for as long as I could, I decided to change my diet—dramatically—overnight.
With the internet’s help, I gave myself a crash course on allergy-friendly eating, learning how to read labels and experimenting with safe alternatives like flax eggs and nutritional yeast (for cheese).
Then came the holidays. I more or less assumed that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything on the menu, except maybe the meat and some butter-less potatoes. My family was incredibly thoughtful and accommodating, but we were all a little out of our league.
Today, I’m no longer breastfeeding (not that son anyway—now it’s his younger, and thankfully allergy-free, brother) and my son is too young to care that his holiday meal doesn’t look like everyone else’s. But I’m already thinking about the day when he might care, and when it will make more sense for me to remove his allergen foods from the meals our entire family eats, rather than always making something special (read: boring) for him.
Luckily, I’ve come a long way since butter-less potatoes. Now I know that there are tons of allergy-friendly options out there, if you’re willing to get comfortable with a few ingredient swaps and, maybe, to rethink what your idea of a “holiday meal” is.
In case anyone else is looking for some help in accommodating food allergies this holiday season, I put together a roundup of recipes that are all free of (or can be easily made free of) the “top 8” most common food allergens:
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Soy
- Wheat
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts
- Fish
- Shellfish
Even if you’re not accommodating food allergies, these recipes are all fabulous, and would make excellent additions to your holiday menu!
Appetizers
- Grinch fruit kabobs
- Apple cinnamon bacon bites
- Crispy green bean chips
- Bacon wrapped dates
- Cranberry salsa
- Mini hot dog bites
- Caramel corn
- Chicken zucchini poppers
- Easy guacamole unlike crackers, tortilla chips are usually gluten-free and allergy-friendly
Entrées
Meat-based entrées are often naturally allergy-friendly, or very easy to make allergy-friendly (the most common swap is butter for a dairy/soy-free butter alternative—I use Earth Balance). Here are just a few ideas…
- Roasted chicken with bacon and rosemary
- Apple pomegranate pork loin
- Slow cooker honey balsamic pork roast
- Beef tenderloin with balsamic glaze use gluten-free flour
- Pumpkin and black bean casserole
- Maple tempeh with herbed quinoa skip the walnuts for nut-free
Sides
- Apple cranberry stuffing
- Cornbread stuffing
- Stuffing with pancetta sage sausage
- Cranberry sauce
- Sweet potato biscuits
- Sweet pumpkin cornbread muffins
- Pumpkin apple walnut harvest rice skip the walnuts for nut-free
- Sweet potato casserole skip the pecans for nut-free – ok to add marshmallows!
- Maple butternut squash apple casserole
- Baked apple and brown rice casserole
- Mushroom sage risotto
Veggies
- Ginger citrus maple roasted beets and apples
- Citrus maple glazed roasted carrots
- Roasted fingerling potatoes and brussels sprouts with rosemary and garlic
- Mashed cauliflower with roasted garlic and chives
- Bacon and onion green beans
Desserts
- Soft molasses cookies
- Butterscotch bars
- Sugar cookie cut-outs
- Snowman cookie pops
- Chewy coconut sugar cookies
- Chocolate fudge
- Peppermint fudge brownies
- Frosted chocolate peppermint cookies
- Chocolate candy cane cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Apple crisp + coconut whipped cream
If you have any questions about allergy-friendly cooking, feel free to leave them in the comments!
Wonderful list! The cranberry salsa sounds so good:)
It does!!
This is great! My twin boys have a protein allergy so I have been dairy, soy and egg free for months since I’m nursing. I’m getting tired of eating the same things so this is great! Thanks!
So glad you found it helpful Ali! Hang in there! You’re doing a great thing for your boys. 🙂
I appreciate this so much! My son is allergic to dairy, egg, peanut, cashew, pistachio, and shellfish (and used to be allergic to sesame and all other tree nuts as well). I’ve found some national resources, but it’s really nice to see attention to food allergies locally (I’m in Madison too). It’s so overwhelming at first, it’s so great to be able to learn from each other! Wishing everyone a happy (and safe) Thanksgiving!