I am not one to purchase a lot of premade allergy friendly food. It is expensive, and often not that healthy. But I recently found wheat free, egg free waffles at Trader Joe’s and thought I’d try them out.
They pretty much tasted like Eggo’s at least as best as I could remember. The nice thing about them is that they are also yeast free and rather bland tasting. It might be weird to say “bland” is a good thing, but in this case I think it is. They kind of absorb the flavor you put with them. That is why we sometimes use them as “sandwich bread.” When used with maple syrup, they taste like waffles. But we have also used them with barbecue beef/pork for sandwiches and they sort of absorbed the barbeque sauce taste. I have also made “grilled cheese” with them and it worked well too. This is a good option for gluten free people who also cannot have yeast. I do not recommend doing this often as they are not that healthy…high in starch and low in whole grains.
Not everyone has access to Trader Joe’s. Whole Foods, and now a lot of regular supermarkets, carry Van’s Natural Foods Wheat/Gluten Free Waffles. This brand line carries several flavors. We have tried these as well and they are similar in taste to Trader Joe’s Waffles.
So I thought I would bring you a side by side comparison of Van’s Natural Foods Wheat/Gluten Free Waffles and Trader Joe’s Wheat Free Toaster Waffles. I chose Van’s “Flax” variety because when reading the ingredient list they were the most similar to Trader Joes. They both contain several starches as well as gluten free flours, but both use water as their main ingredient as it is listed first. Here is a chart showing a lot of information if you want to decide between the two. (Or just for fun!)
Trader Joe’s Waffles Van’s Waffles Flax Flavor
Yes Gluten Free Yes
Yes Wheat Free Yes
Yes Yeast Free Yes
Yes Dairy Free Yes
Yes Egg Free Yes
Yes Peanut Free Yes
Yes Tree Nut Free Yes
No Soy Free No
Yes Preservative Free Yes
Yes Fruit Juice Sweetened Yes
Yes Cane Sugar No
No Use of gums Yes
230 Calories per serving 230
7g Total Fat 7g
g Trans Fat 0g
0g Cholesterol 0g
460mg Sodium 370mg
41g Total Carbohydrate 37g
1g Dietary Fiber 2g
5g Sugars 4g
1g Protein 3g
0% Vitamin A 2%
0% Vitamin C 4%
4% Calcium 4%
2% Iron 4%
8 Number of waffles/box 6
