Where to find cheaper gluten-free flours and pastas

                                         

Photo provided by Pastagigis.com

        Gluten-free foods can be expensive, especially if it's things like pasta, pre-made bread and pizza dough. But you can make these things yourself more cheaply with the growing variety of gluten-free flours available on the market. Many gluten-free flours have been around but haven't been made available to the general consumer population, and many still are not. Flours such as corn, brown rice and quinoa have been showing up more and more in the general big stores to satisfy the growing need of gluten sensitive diets. But what about other flours like soy, potato and chestnut? And where can you find cheaper pastas? Not everyone has a pasta press or maker at home. Where do you find these things other than on the internet at inflated prices, not to mention shipping costs?

        You have to go to certain types of shops in out-of-the-way places than the local grocery store around the corner on main street in your town. Such as international markets. Did you know they have gluten-free pastas made from rice, buckwheat, kelp, potato, tapioca, mung bean, soy and others that are shaped the same way as the ones you would normally find at the big box stores for a fraction of the price? These smaller markets have always had these things because that's what they've always been using around the world. Now you probably won't find a kelp pasta shaped like bowties, but you may find many others that will accommodate popular American pasta dishes such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. And you can get these pastas that cost so much less than you can at the big chain stores, like at least twice as much per pound.

    And the same goes for the gluten-free flours. There's more variety and it costs less to buy gluten-free flours from the international markets. So let down your guard a little and venture into an international food market place and explore all the other gluten-free things they have to offer.