Gluten-Free Way to Save: International Markets

Several months ago, when Gabriel and I attended a dinner for a grazier’s class, we were providentially seated with a family who, like us, are all too familiar with food allergies.

It was great, though! We spent the entire dinner comparing notes on which brands of gluten-free stuff we liked and where the cheapest places to get them were. I got to preach about how much you can save by grinding your own grain, and then we started talking about pasta.

I love pasta, but we don’t eat it much because gluten-free pasta is expensive. She told me that they had the same problem …until they found the International food market in Nashville. She informed me that gluten-free pasta could be had there for even less than regular, wheat-laden grocery store pasta.

Could this be real?!

Three or four times a year, I have (unfortunately) occasion to make the trek into traffic land (otherwise known as Nashville) for one reason or another. So made sure to check it out the next time I went.

Sure enough! There was a whole rack of gluten-free pasta!

Most of it is rice vermicelli; the first time we went, I decided to get brave and try some sweet potato starch spaghetti. It has turned out to be one of our favorites! This time (yesterday), I picked up a package containing mung bean flour. We’re looking forward to seeing how those taste.

You do have to be sure to read the ingredients – we have found the occasional wheat-rice mix – but the vast majority are gluten-free; we even found a brand that advertised as gluten-free!

A quick walk through the store also found rice flour, bean flour, and various starches are available for anywhere from $.99 – 1.49 per pound. That’s less than half the price of what I see at grocery stores that I normally frequent!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of grinding your own grain, but if that’s not feasible for you, this is a great option!

They also had a bulk grains section, but though they did have a great variety, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the prices.

Now, I assume that most cities will have large international food markets. The one in Nashville is called K&S World Food. By doing a google search of “international food market” + the name of a random city, I’ve found quite a few promising results.

If you or someone you know has wheat allergies, I highly recommend checking in to this option!