gluten and ms

Gluten Free Sunflower & Thyme Oatcakes

Is there a link between gluten and MS? I don’t know, but I’m aware there are a lot of people who have opted out of eating gluten for various health reasons. As I have learned to prepare and cook most of my food myself it is very easy to go gluten free, too and so I try to provide as many of my recipes with a gluten free diet option. If you follow a special low saturated fat diet or have MS and gluten isn’t a problem or concern of yours you can obviously use regular oat flakes for the recipe below.

I always loved oatcakes. They are such a tasty, wholesome savoury cracker. As they are usually made with a high quantity of cheap fats when store bought they were out of bounds until I decided to make some myself. In this recipe I use cold pressed olive oil and buckwheat flour along with gluten free oat flakes. These oatcakes are made with some extra herbs, thyme and garlic and sprinkled with sunflower seeds. They are the perfect super healthy party food, a super luxurious snack for in between or accompany a light meal with humus, guacamole or other spread.

Ingredients: – Preparation time 15 min – Baking time 45-60 min

6 oz/175g buckwheat flour
6 oz/175g gluten free oat flakes
1 tsp salt
1 ½ baking powder
5 tbs cold pressed olive oil
1 ½ tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
5 fl oz/150 ml water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300˚F/150˚C.
2. Mix the buckwheat flour, oatmeal, thyme, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Add the olive oil and water and mix until you have a dry dough.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and kneed it on a lightly floured work surface. Cut the dough in half.
5. Roll each of the dough balls out to 1/3 inch/1 cm thickness making two circular flat pieces.
6. Sprinkle a handful of sunflower seeds over each piece and using a rolling pin roll the seeds into the dough.
7. Flip the pieces and place them on a non stick baking surface.
8. Sprinkle each piece with sunflower seeds again and press them in using the rolling pin.
9. Cut the dough into pieces before baking for 45-60 min until crisp but not browning.