Allergy-friendly recipes for children living with allergies
Try these recipes for delicious allergy-friendly meal options!. They’re fun to prep, delicious to eat and most of the recipes are adaptable to cater for specific allergies. With these quick and easy to prepare recipes, children can enjoy tasty, healthy allergy-friendly food.
Find out more about food allergies and diagnosing allergies in children
Meatball spiders
25 minutes | makes 12
Ingredients
- 1 gluten-free roll
- coconut oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 600g mince
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1 tbsp chopped basil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- red and green bell peppers, sliced into strips, for serving
- mayonnaise, for serving
- capers, for serving
Method
- Roughly chop the roll and soak in warm water. Heat the coconut oil in a pan and gently fry the chopped onion and bay leaf until the onion is soft, but not browned.
- Remove the bay leaf and mix the onion with the squeezed-out bread roll.
- Add the mince, egg, mustard, basil and salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Using wet hands, form into small meatballs and gently fry on all sides in coconut oil until cooked.
- To serve, arrange the meatballs on plates. Attach strips of the peppers to form “spider’s legs”, make eyes from dabs of mayonnaise and capers, and a mouth from a triangle of bell pepper attached with mayonnaise.
This allergen-friendly recipe is gluten- and dairy-free, but does contain egg as a binder (this can be replaced with an egg replacer). Use egg-free mayo for egg-allergic children. Allergens: egg
Raspberry yoghurt with dairy-free dark chocolate chip ice-cream
40 minutes, plus 4 hours freezing | serves 8
Ingredients
- 400g raspberries
- ¾ cup natural yoghurt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ¾ cup icing sugar or equivalent stevia granules
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 100g dairy-free dark chocolate chips
Method
- Wash the raspberries, then drain well. Purée with the yoghurt and lemon juice, and add the icing sugar to taste.
- Fold about ½ cup cream into about 1/3 of the raspberry purée.
- Mix the remaining cream with the rest of the raspberry purée. Pour the lighter raspberry cream into 6–8 clean yoghurt cups. Freeze for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the cups from the freezer and place a wooden stick in each.
- Pour in the remaining raspberry cream and dairy-free dark chocolate sprinkles. Freeze for 3–4 hours.
- Shortly before serving, place the yoghurt cups into hot water then carefully push the ice-cream out of the yoghurt cup onto a plate. Serve immediately.
This is an easy-to-make yummy nut-, egg- and gluten-free dessert. To make it dairy-free, replace the yoghurt with soya yoghurt and the cream with Orley Whip. Allergens: dairy
Pavlova pudding
1 hour 35 minutes| serves 4 to 8
- 375g + 2 tbsp castor sugar
- 6 large egg whites
- 2½ tsp cornflour
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp rose water
- 300g strawberries, chopped (adding blueberries optional)
- 6 granadillas, halved and pulp strained
- 300ml double cream, or dairy-free Orley Whip
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Add the castor sugar to the egg whites gradually, while whisking fast. Fold in the cornflour, ground black pepper, white wine vinegar and rose water.
- Draw a ± 22 cm circle onto wet paper. Dollop the meringue mixture onto the circle. Smooth the sides and top, and place in the oven. Immediately turn down the heat to 150°C and bake for 1 hour.
- Add the chopped strawberries to a bowl, then pour over the granadilla juice, add the additional 2 tbsp castor sugar and mix.
- Whip the double cream or Orley Whip and smooth on top of the baked meringue base. Spoon over the strawberry mix.
This recipe is allergy-friendly except for those with an egg allergy. The recipe will always contain egg and there is no replacement for this ingredient. YOu can use Orley Whip to make it dairy-free. Allergens: dairy and egg
About the book
Allergy Sense – for families: a practical guide contains over 70 easy and quick to prepare recipes using simple, allergen-friendly ingredients. Compiled by Meg Faure, Dr Sarah Karabus and Kath Megaw, the book is an excellent guide for all those living with food allergies. Published by Quivertree Publications, the book is available at leading bookstores.
