Setting Up a Gluten-Free Kitchen

If you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, you’ll want to make some immediate changes to your kitchen set up. These changes will ensure you’re able to stick to your gluten-free diet and avoid getting sick – aka glutened – in your own home. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosures.

After my celiac disease diagnosis, I found it essential to set up my kitchen in a way that kept me healthy and safe.

Gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats, was lurking everywhere, even in the tiny hidden bits of spaghetti clinging to the inner depths of my colander.

When setting up a gluten-free kitchen, you can go one of two routes.

The first and preferred option is to make your kitchen 100 percent gluten free. This is ideal if you live alone or if your family will be going gluten free together.

I know many families that decide to make their kitchen a dedicated gluten-free kitchen even if just one member of the family has celiac. I love this “we’re all in it together” attitude!

However, a more realistic route is to figure out how to navigate a shared kitchen, as most of you will be sharing your kitchen with those who still eat gluten. There are a few simple adjustments you’ll need to make to ensure a safe shared eating and cooking environment.

For the first four years of my celiac journey, my house was a shared household. But as time passed, and my husband began to recognize how difficult it was for me to feel safe even in my own home, we made the decision to make our kitchen a dedicated gluten-free space.

If you’re able to make your home a dedicated gluten-free home either now or one day, do it. In a world full of gluten, I know I’m always safe at home and that has done wonders for my mental health and sanity.

Regardless, I’ll help you figure out how to approach setting up a gluten-free kitchen whether you’ll be setting up a dedicated gluten-free kitchen, or sharing one with the gluten eaters in your life.

Step #1: Audit Your Pantry and Fridge

Auditing your pantry and fridge can feel like the hardest step because you’ll have to quickly get up to speed on what is and isn’t gluten free. You’ll quickly learn how confusing and difficult many food labels are to read.

I recommend sorting all the food in your pantry into three piles:

Gluten Free
Gluten
Not Sure

You can then research all the “not sure” items at once and decide what you feel safe keeping, and what has to go. If you’re sharing your kitchen with gluten eaters, you’ll of course save those gluten-y items for them to enjoy.

You’ll want to do the same audit in your fridge.

I highly recommend reading, Learn How to Decode Food Labels, to help you understand how to read food labels and sniff out gluten. You may also want to refer to my article, Is Yeast Extract Gluten Free and 20+ Other Confusing Ingredients, to help you decode food labels.

Remember, never assume something is gluten free just by looking at it. Licorice “looks” gluten free, but I assure you, it’s not.

Step #2: Set Up Your Pantry and Fridge

After wiping down all surfaces to remove any lingering gluten crumbs in your pantry and fridge, it’s time to set up your pantry and fridge. Assuming you’re sharing your kitchen with gluten eaters, you’ll want to designate the top shelves (2-3 shelves) as gluten free. Create signage or labels that clearly states, “These shelves are gluten free – do not touch.”

You want the top shelves for two reasons. First, the top shelves are just out of reach for most people, so your roommates or family won’t be tempted to sneak one of your gluten-free Oreos if they can’t see it.

Second, if something spills, like an opened cereal box, it won’t fall onto your gluten-free foods if your foods are on the top shelves.

I also recommend labeling your foods, especially if your roommates don’t have clear boundaries about what they’re allowed to touch. You don’t want them putting their gluten-y hands inside your chip bag and contaminating the entire bag.

Step #3: Purchase New Food Items

After setting up your pantry and fridge, you’ll want to replace a few condiments as well as stock up on some gluten-free food items.

The following items should be purchased fresh and used only by you. Label these containers carefully, and ask your family and/or roommates to not use the food items labeled “gluten free.”

Sticks and tubs of butter
Mayonnaise
Peanut butter
Jelly
Sugar, baking soda, baking powder and other baking items that might get cross contaminated with flour when baking
Any other container where you use a knife to spread the item on bread (crumbs can linger and make you sick)

While at the grocery store, you’ll also want to purchase more gluten-free foods. Naturally gluten-free foods, like fruits and vegetables, will always be the safest bets, but you can enjoy plenty of gluten-free labeled packaged foods as well.

Here are a few articles to help you figure out what to buy at the grocery store:

Remember to keep all your items on designated gluten-free shelves and boldly label any items that could easily get confused.

Also, before heading to the grocery store, be sure to download the Fig Food Scanner & Discovery app on your phone. Once you set up Fig to understand your dietary needs, you can simply scan a product’s barcode and Fig will give you a full report on whether or not that item is safe for you. Read my review of Fig and/or download the app to your phone for free.

Step #4: Replace a Few Kitchen Items

While you will want to replace a few kitchen items, tools and appliances with new items, you don’t need to replace everything. In fact, items washed in the dishwasher, like plates, utensils and glasses, can be shared among the gluten-free and gluten-full people. I also think knives can be shared and washed easily before and after use.

That said, the following items pose the greatest threat for cross contamination and should be dedicated for gluten-free use only.

I recommend shopping at HomeGoods, Target, Costco and/or Amazon to find inexpensive items for your gluten-free kitchen.

What You Need:

Pots: You’ll want a pot for cooking pasta and a skillet pan for making your own eggs.

Colander: Bits of gluten can get stuck in colanders that are used to drain wheat pasta. Invest in a new one and designate it for gluten-free use only.

Spatulas: Purchase a couple of spatulas (spoon and flat) as spatulas often has gluten-y bits stuck on them even after washing.

Measuring cups and spoons: You’ll likely be baking often, so you’ll want a designated set of cups and spoons for gluten-free use only.

Baking sheets: You can share a baking sheet, but cover it with foil if you do. Or just invest in a clean one of your own for extra sanity and safety.

Cupcake pan: If you want to make cupcakes and muffins, you’ll definitely need a clean cupcake pan.

Cutting board: A lot of gluten can seep into wooden cutting boards. Invest in a new one, just for you.

Toaster: Toasters are notorious for harboring gluten bits, so invest in one of your own and store it out of site so others don’t mistakenly use it.

Gluten cross contamination in the toaster

Hand mixer: If you’re going to be baking (and I bet you will), you’ll want to invest in a new hand mixer. Gluten-y bits get stuck in the crevices of a mixer, posing a gluten risk in your baked goods.

Standing mixer: Standing mixers (think Kitchenaid) are expensive, so it’s difficult to replace when you’re on a tight budget. If you have a standing mixer, run it for a few minutes to knock out any gluten bits and carefully clean it. Use it for gluten-free baking from here on out. If others will be using this standing mixer to bake foods with gluten, then you’ll need to invest in a dedicated standing mixer just for your use.

Food Processor: If you use a food processor (Cuisinart) for making breads or homemade pasta (I do!) you’ll want to clean all the parts in your dishwasher and designate it for gluten-free usage from now on. If others will be using the food processor, you may want to invest in a dedicated food processor of your own.

Hand towels: A lot of gluten crumbs can linger in kitchen hand towels, so invest in some of your own. Store your hand towels in a separate place.

Sponges: You’ll want a dedicated gluten-free sponge for cleaning dishes. You can color code sponges to help everyone know which sponge is for gluten-free cleaning. In my house, pink was for cleaning gluten-free dishes, blue was for cleaning gluten-full dishes.

Step #5: Invest in a Few New Appliances & Tools

If you have the money, I highly recommend investing in these appliances (if you don’t have them already):

Rice Cooker: Rice is a staple gluten-free ingredient you can enjoy in plenty, and I think rice tastes best when cooked in a rice cooker. Invest in a rice cooker – you won’t be sorry.

Slow Cooker: If you have a slow cooker and can designate it for gluten-free use only, do it. If not, invest in a new one. I know my slow cooker has some stains and “seasoning” on it that I can’t get rid of, so if yours isn’t looking good, get a new one. You’ll enjoy using it to cook up delicious meals that you can come home to at night. I use mine all the time to cook up turkey meatballs and my chicken enchilada soup. Yum!

Juicer: I talk a lot about how juicing helped me heal my body in the aftermath of my celiac diagnosis. You can read more about the benefits of juicing and find juicing recipes in this article. I highly recommend investing in a juicer if you’re serious about healing and if you like the taste of green juices.

High-Speed Blender: Alternatively, if you don’t love juicing, you could invest in a high-speed blender instead. I love my high-speed blender because I can use it to make smoothies, like my Blueberry Banana Spinach Smoothie, but also because it has a spiralizer feature so I can make homemade zoodles (zucchini noodles) in seconds.

Storage Containers: You may want to invest in a few storage containers to store your gluten-free flours, sugar and other baking supplies. I recommend these storage containers from Oxo.

I also recommend investing in other organizational tools and containers to help keep your pantry tidy. You can find storage container options at HomeGoods and The Container Store.

Step #6: Communicate

Finally, after setting up a gluten-free kitchen, you’ll want to call a family/roommates meeting so you can communicate your new set up and discuss how the entire household can help keep you safe. No one wants you to feel sick all the time, do they?

Remind them to not use any items labeled “gluten free”, including tubs of butter and peanut butter, due to the potential for cross contamination.

Remind them to leave your toaster, hand towels and special appliances and pots alone as these are designated for your use only. Color-coding and labeling your items, as well as keeping your items in designated gluten-free areas, will help prevent any mishaps or confusion.

Remind them to use the blue sponge for cleaning dishes that contain gluten, while leaving the pink sponge for cleaning gluten-free items only.

Step #7: Don’t Sweat It

The process of setting up a gluten-free kitchen can feel overwhelming, but remember, once you set everything up, the hardest part is behind you.

It will take time for you and your family or roommates to adjust, but with time, it will feel like second nature to everyone.

Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as you get started on the gluten-free diet: