4-minute read ---
You may have noticed the growing number of restaurants adding gluten-free menu options to their menus. This comes in response to growing customer demand for wheat-free items, usually from health-conscious customers allergic to wheat-based products.
In addition, recently many restaurants have begun moving away from wheat-based items as they face higher costs due to supply chain shortages, caused in part by droughts in U.S. regions where wheat is grown and harvested.
Fortunately, growing demand for and production of gluten-free ingredients has made it easier for business owners to quickly adopt wheat alternatives in their restaurants. As prices for wheat continue to change over the next several months, here are some reliable wheat-free alternatives that business owners can incorporate into their restaurant menu.
Whole Grains
Surprisingly, not all grains contain gluten, leaving restaurant owners many options when planning their kitchen inventories. Many grains commonly found at grocery stores and from suppliers offer a similar alternative to wheat-based items. Many of these items are processed and available as flours, offering a non-wheat solution that is easily incorporated into baked goods, sauces, and soups. These include:
Additionally, whole grain oats can be used in place of wheat in cookies and cereals. But be aware that oats can be contaminated with gluten as they are processed, so if your restaurant is adding new items to cater to health-conscious customers, be sure to purchase whole grain oats that are specifically labeled as “gluten-free” and avoid all cross-contamination of these items in your kitchen.
In addition, recently many restaurants have begun moving away from wheat-based items as they face higher costs due to supply chain shortages, caused in part by droughts in U.S. regions where wheat is grown and harvested.
Fortunately, growing demand for and production of gluten-free ingredients has made it easier for business owners to quickly adopt wheat alternatives in their restaurants. As prices for wheat continue to change over the next several months, here are some reliable wheat-free alternatives that business owners can incorporate into their restaurant menu.
Whole Grains
Surprisingly, not all grains contain gluten, leaving restaurant owners many options when planning their kitchen inventories. Many grains commonly found at grocery stores and from suppliers offer a similar alternative to wheat-based items. Many of these items are processed and available as flours, offering a non-wheat solution that is easily incorporated into baked goods, sauces, and soups. These include:
- Quinoa
- Brown rice
- Wild rice
- Buckwheat
- Sorghum
- Tapioca
- Amaranth
- Arrowroot
Additionally, whole grain oats can be used in place of wheat in cookies and cereals. But be aware that oats can be contaminated with gluten as they are processed, so if your restaurant is adding new items to cater to health-conscious customers, be sure to purchase whole grain oats that are specifically labeled as “gluten-free” and avoid all cross-contamination of these items in your kitchen.
Growing demand for and production of gluten-free ingredients has made it easier for business owners to quickly adopt wheat alternatives in their restaurants
Rice
Rice in particular is a life-saver for restaurants avoiding wheat purchases. This includes rice-based items such as noodles, puffs, and syrups. Rice is affordable and ultra-flexible, served in restaurants in soups, stir-fry, alongside proteins and vegetables, or as a flavor-soaking base to many dishes. Plus, with many rice varieties on the market, this ingredient lets cooks be very creative with their entrees and flavors.
Potatoes
Like rice, potatoes are often used as gluten-free starches in soups, breads, and entrée items, and sold as the base of wheat-free flours. Whether roasted, boiled, baked, mashed, or deep-fried, potatoes offer a great alternative to toast, rolls, and cereals in restaurants, making a great wheat-free addition to nearly every menu category.
Aldelo Express makes it easy for merchants to track existing and new menu ingredients for effectively expanding and managing a dynamic menu. The inventory module ensures that ingredients are tracked and maintained for optimum freshness, and to trigger subsequent inventory orders at the appropriate time.
Provide Transparent Menus with Masa+
Masa+ digital menus, ordering, and payments from Aldelo Express Cloud POS offer restaurants a transparent menu solution that supports simple and complex modifiers, allowing users to easily edit their menus to experiment with wheat-free offerings.
Masa+ is a full-featured, native, integrated web-based solution for restaurants, pizza places, bars, food trucks, and more. Masa+ solutions and features can be used in-store to streamline customer-driven ordering and payments, or online to expand a business’ customer base. When used with Aldelo Express Cloud POS, restaurants increase their sales by an average of 8.3%.
Learn more by contacting an Aldelo representative today at [email protected] or 925-621-2410
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Restaurants that use ultra-competitive Aldelo Pay or Aldelo Partner Merchant Services obtain access to a Centralized Multi-Store Restaurant Technology Platform that includes Masa+ Online Ordering, Unlimited Software Releases, Unlimited Software Upgrades, and 24/7 Technical Support! *** Please contact an Aldelo representative today for more details, including a free Aldelo Express POS demo trial [email protected] | 877-639-8767 | [email protected] |
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