Having a daughter with severe allergies to certain types of food has presented an additional challenge to parenthood. In annual testing, her reactions to peanuts and eggs are off the scale and when it comes to dairy products, things are not much better.

Eating Out

This state of affairs can sometimes be problematic when eating out, but we are well aware of the potential risk areas. Things fried in groundnut oil and the presence of peanuts mean that eating at oriental restaurants is not something that we do or have done. Kids menus need to be scrutinised to ensure that the fish fingers are not coated in eggs first or that burgers/meatballs/sausages are not bound with the same. But on the whole it has not been too traumatic.

The big chains are reliable in this regard. Allergen menus are commonplace and reputations so keenly protected that staff proceed with extra caution. Pizza Express is our go-to for a quick and hassle free lunch or dinner. Our daughter can have a full three courses, each one egg and dairy free.

I have also been impressed with Carluccio’s who once went the additional step of refreshing their pasta water to ensure that any traces of egg pasta cooked in there would be removed. I wasn’t sure whether this was entirely necessary but the effort was appreciated.

Eating In

My daughter has a good appetite, takes enjoyment out of food and is inquisitive about it. So the challenge for both my wife and I is to try and ensure that, as far as possible, she doesn’t miss out. We’ve experimented with replacement foods such as diary free cheeses or oat cream substitute. On the whole, she has preferred to simply go without (and, having tasted them, I don’t blame her).

When cooking main meals offending foods can be easily substituted or simply omitted. Olive oil or sunflower spread for butter, oat or coconut milk for cow’s milk/cream (within reason). Egg as a binding agent can be left out altogether as I have done with the Accra recipe.

Take this Nigel Slater recipe for sage and onion stuffing. It is a staple recipe but it contains butter and eggs so needs adapting. I substitute olive oil for butter and leave the eggs out entirely.

My one addition is chestnut mushrooms, the stalks finely chopped and the caps cut in half, sliced and chucked in with the softening onions. They absorb the olive oil and give the breadcrumbs something else to cling on to.

The mixture is packed into a dish rather than shaping it, so the omitted eggs are not missed. The end result still has those nice crispy bits on top and will hold its shape when serving. In short, you can’t really tell the difference. My daughter loves it.

The Sweet Tooth Problem

A tougher challenge comes with puddings/desserts, and the fact that my daughter has a sweet tooth makes this even harder. But allergies like this are commonplace and with the current fashion to go either gluten and/or dairy-free, there are quite a few places and people to turn to for inspiration and recipe suggestions.

Fortunately, this is not my domain. My wife has always been a keen and accomplished baker so it has fallen to her to come up with desserts that our daughter can eat. And she hasn’t disappointed in that respect. I mean, who would have thought that chickpea water (or “aquafaba” to give it its proper name) would form the basis of a vegan meringue, almost indistinguishable from the real thing?

This weekend, with a good crop of different types of fruit coming through in our back garden, my wife mentioned aloud the prospect of a fruit pie. It was a good idea, something for the coming weeks but my daughter immediately latched onto the word, thrilled by the prospect. Delaying this to another weekend was simply not an option. My wife agreed to make it that day.

In the blink of an eye, the kids had their crocs on and were dispatched into the garden, bowls in hand, to pick raspberries. I was ordered out on apple and blackberry detail. We came back with a good haul, more than enough for the pie even after my son had helped himself to a fair few (eating fruit from the garden is, without doubt, his favourite thing – there is simply no stopping him).

The Answer

Time for some quick thinking on my wife’s part. Out came the Allergy Free Family Cookbook by Fiona Heggie and Ellie Lux. She was straight to the page containing a recipe for a chocolate tart, something she’d made numerous times before which, to date, has not disappointed.

Then it was onto the internet for a fruit pie filling, ignoring Delia’s suggestion of putting the filling in raw. A short while later, the filling was bubbling, the pastry prepared and soon the pie was in the oven. 

The end product was golden and appetising. It was finished off with a dollop of soya custard on top – the exception to the rule that replacement products are to be avoided, but solid proof that throwing enough sugar at something can compensate for a lot.

Even better was the fact that we were all able to enjoy this pudding as a family. No special measures were required. I won’t lie and say that it was as good as the real thing but that is to miss the point. For my daughter, that comparison means nothing, she’s never had a pie made with butter and glazed with egg whites before. But she got her pie and she loved it and, as parents, that is good enough for us.