Vegan Avocado Toast+ Experimenting with Spelt!

Can we talk a little about gluten today?

I totally understand if gluten isn’t your favorite topic of conversation- feel free to scroll down for a tasty toast recipe! As you know, all of the recipes on The Colorful Kitchen are vegan and gluten-free and I’ve written about how my diet is roughly 95% gluten-free.

My pre-vegan days were filled with never-ending allergy symptoms, stomach aches and seemingly random digestive issues. I grew up thinking it was normal to feel sick after eating a meal and sneezing every time I went outside. When I was a sophomore in college it occurred to me that maybe feeling crumby all the time wasn’t normal and I set out to see what I could do about it. I studied Macrobiotics, following a text-book version of the diet, which included eliminating dairy. Within a month I was able to go off my multiple allergy medications and my stomach aches had been greatly reduced.

After six months of eating that way and feeling better than I ever had, I became interested in raw veganism and animal welfare (more about that here), which eventually led me to the plant-based, whole food, seasonal way of eating that I still love today.

About three years into eating this way I noticed that I still had stomach aches and weird digestive stuff happening at what seemed like random times. I saw a doctor and was tested for celiacs disease (among other things) but nothing turned up positive. I did a little research and  decided to try eliminating gluten for a month. Like magic, the aches and weirdness disappeared but somehow I ended up getting back on the gluten-train. I was still becoming comfortable with turning down non-vegan food at friends’ houses and I think at the time I felt like vegan and gluten-free was too much handle. Anyways,  the silly stomach stuff returned and about a year later I decided to quit gluten cold-turkey…well sort of. I would still eat things at restaurants that contain small amounts of gluten (like soy sauce) and not worry much about cross-contamination. Eating this way and generally avoiding gluten has worked out well for me for the past 4 years.

This summer I found myself in the cutest cooperative-run restaurant in Portland, Maine that carried vegan baked goods made with spelt flour. Spelt is wheat’s ancient cousin- it contains lower amount of gluten than wheat and I’ve always heard that some people who don’t do well with gluten are able to digest spelt more easily. I didn’t get any of the baked goods that day but the seed was planted in my mind that I should see how I do with spelt. Flash forward a few months and I’m buying ingredients to make Hippysauce Toast Spread. I noticed that the grocery store I was at carried 100% spelt bread from Bread Alone so I grabbed a loaf to try.

Over the course of a week I ate the bread and I’m happy to report no stomach aches were present. The reason I’ve written such a long narrative about my experimentation with spelt is because I’m curious if any of you lovely readers have had a similar experience? I would love to hear about others who don’t do well with gluten but are able to eat spelt.

That said, it’s only been a single loaf  and a short period of time so I’m still going to pay close attention to how I feel. For those of you who follow this blog for all the gluten-free goodness- don’t worry, I’ll still be posting tons of gluten-free recipes! I’m just excited to know that I now have spelt as an option, especially if I’m traveling or at a restaurant with limited options.

Moral of the story- listen to your body! Be willing to experiment and eat what feels right to you.

Whew, that was a long one. Now let’s get to one of my favorite easy snack and breakfast recipes- Vegan Avocado Toast! Any type of bread will work, I’m usually partial to Gluten-Free Brown Rice Bread for this recipe and I used this spelt bread in the photos.