Everyday dinners
Gluten-free bread sauce
A creamy bread sauce with gently spiced milk, gluten-free breadcrumbs and butter, ready to spoon alongside a roast.
Free guide: thirty gluten-free dinners, with the shopping lists
Bread sauce makes a comforting addition to a roast dinner. Onion, cloves and bay gently flavour the milk before soft gluten-free breadcrumbs thicken it.
Use crumbs made from a plain gluten-free white loaf, rather than dried coating breadcrumbs. Different loaves absorb milk differently, so keep a little extra milk ready to adjust the sauce. This recipe is in development and has not been kitchen-tested.
The recipe
Gluten-free bread sauce
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total*
- 30 min
- Makes
- 6 side servings
*Estimated development timings. Allow another 30 minutes for the milk to infuse off the heat, making about 60 minutes elapsed time. No standing time is needed before serving.
Ingredients
Tick things off as you go.
For the infused milk
To finish
Equipment
- Use a medium heavy-based saucepan with a lid.
- Have a sieve and a heatproof measuring jug ready.
- Use kitchen scales, a knife and a clean chopping board.
- Use a food processor or grater to make the breadcrumbs.
- Stir with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.
Let’s make it.
- 01
Prepare the bread
Pulse or grate the bread into small, soft crumbs. Break up any remaining pieces with your fingers so there are no large chunks.
- 02
Warm the milk
Press the cloves into the onion halves. Put them in the pan with the bay and 500 ml milk. Heat gently for about 8 minutes, until steam rises and small bubbles appear around the edge.
- 03
Let the flavours infuse
Remove from the heat, cover and leave for 30 minutes. Strain into the jug, discarding the onion, cloves and bay. Check that no whole spices remain.
- 04
Thicken the sauce
Return the milk to the pan and stir in the crumbs. Cook over a low heat for 8–10 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the base, until the crumbs are soft and the sauce falls slowly from the spoon.
- 05
Finish and serve
Stir in the butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper. If stiff, add the extra milk a tablespoon at a time. Heat for another 2 minutes, or until steaming hot throughout and creamy enough to spoon. Serve straight away.
Ingredient checks
Choose bread explicitly labelled gluten-free and suitable for someone with coeliac disease; ordinary wheat, barley and rye bread are unsuitable. Check the loaf and every packaged ingredient for all 14 UK declarable allergens and any relevant precautionary warnings. Use clean equipment, including the food processor or grater, and keep ordinary breadcrumbs away from the preparation area. Use soft bread crumbs rather than dried packaged breadcrumbs, which absorb liquid differently.
Allergens: Contains milk from the milk and butter.; Gluten-free bread may contain eggs, soya, sesame, lupin or other declarable allergens; check the chosen loaf's label.; Some gluten-free bread contains gluten-free wheat starch, which must still be declared as wheat and is unsuitable for someone with a wheat allergy.; The remaining ingredients do not inherently contain any of the 14 UK declarable allergens, but check all packaging and cross-contact warnings..
Make it work for you
Semi-skimmed milk can replace whole milk in the same quantities, giving a less rich sauce.
For a dairy-free version, use an unsweetened gluten-free plant drink and a dairy-free block alternative to butter in the same quantities, and choose bread without milk; soya or tree-nut drinks introduce those allergens.
Plain gluten-free brown bread can replace the white bread by weight, although the sauce will be darker and may need a different amount of the extra milk.
For another day
Divide leftovers into small, shallow containers, cool promptly and refrigerate within 1–2 hours; keep the fridge at 0–5°C and eat within 48 hours.
If freezing, cool promptly and freeze in sealed portions; the texture of this gluten-free version after freezing has not been tested.
Defrost frozen sauce in the fridge and use within 24 hours of fully defrosting.
Reheat only once, stirring frequently over a gentle heat until steaming hot throughout; use a little of the listed extra milk if needed to loosen it.
Exploding food
What goes in.
The ingredients, seen a little differently. This image is an illustration of the main ingredients; use the written recipe for the full list and quantities.
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