There’s a relatively new trend in food service these days which is a movement to provide healthy fast food. Snap Kitchen is one of the more recent establishments to join this market, and they have a lot to offer us. With their business model, you can choose to buy pre-packaged food items to take home or to eat there on site. Food is prepared daily using a lot of natural and fresh ingredients and many local ingredients as well. Menu items include breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrées as well as desserts, drinks, and some external-supplied snacks and grocery items.

The vast majority of their diverse menu items are gluten free, and they already have a specific gluten-free menu posted on their Web site. They also have information on their food as it relates to other diets (for diabetics, the Paleo diet, etc.) There is an on-site dietitian. In Austin this is Andrea Hinsdale, who is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. She and the other employees welcome customer questions at all times. Formal consulting is available as well.

Worth noting, and repeating, is the fact that all menu items are clearly marked with all ingredients at all times, with the exception of each ingredient in the sauces; however, those have all been checked as of this writing. And it is likely that all ingredients, without exception, will soon be noted on the packages, too.

The Chef, Ethan Holmes, an Austinite, is involved with every step of the process in the kitchens. He also has one of the cleanest, most organized kitchens you’ll ever see. All food is prepared, packaged, and labeled at the Triangle location.

All meat, poultry, and fish are bought in a natural state, with no added solutions or other ingredients. The pork is provided by Gourmet Ranch, the beef from Spring Hill Ranch, the bison is provided by Thunder Heart, the fresh chicken breast is from Holmes Farms, and straight-frozen ground turkey is from Butterball. The salmon is bought whole and filleted in house. Virtually all of the fruits and vegetables are fresh, with just a couple in frozen form with no extra ingredients added.

Breakfast options for us include everything on the current menu, from various egg or tofu scrambles with hand-formed sausage patties (and no adders), to their pancakes. All pancakes made at Snap Kitchen are gluten free, using a base of brown rice flour. They do include peanut butter or pecans, though, for those of you with nut allergies. All oats and flours on the premises are gluten free. Eggs are cooked with cholesterol-free egg whites. There is also a daily-made gluten-free muffin to consider.

There are two lunch and dinner items to watch out for. Avoid the “Chicken and Bulgur Wheat Salad” and the “Chicken and Broccoli Spaghetti.” The wraps are served on a wheat tortilla, so do not order them.

Also, the following items contain regular soy sauce so we must avoid them:

• Spicy Lettuce Wraps
• Asian Chicken Salad
• Quinoa “Fried Rice”
• Ginger Chicken Stir Fry
• Ginger Glazed Chicken and Salmon
• Spicy Sambal Tofu.

However, this still leaves an abundant number of choices for us from the rest of the menu.

Careful preparation is involved with the non-gluten-free items, to keep cross-contamination at an absolute minimum. For example, they have both Tinkyada brown rice pasta and regular semolina pasta in house. However, the brown rice pasta and the bulgur wheat semolina are double packaged (in their own package within yet another bin) prior to preparation, and dedicated water is used to boil the two different pastas. Also, Andrea has established a policy solely on our behalf to work with the gluten-free and non-gluten-free noodles on opposing days.

Work surfaces are cleaned with soap and water in a three-sink cleaning scenario after each menu item is prepared, and one individual takes the process from start to finish.

There are quite a few house-made sauces used in their recipes. Andrea and I went through all of the ingredients. We cannot have those with a soy sauce base, as they use a regular soy sauce:

• Peanut Sauce
• Ginger Soy sauce / glaze
• Asian marinade on the flank steak
• Red Chili and Agave Emulsion, and
• Mirin-Ginger dressing.

But all of the other sauces are fine for us as of the time of this writing (September 2010.)

Acceptable Sauces and Marinades include:

• Raspberry Beet Vinaigrette
• Red Wine Dijon Vinaigrette
• Caper Raisin Vinaigrette
• Citrus Marinade
• Oven Roasted Marinara, and the related Spicy Marinara
• Herbed Cheese Sauce for the vegetarian “lasagna”
• Chimichurri sauce
• Edamame Puree
• Avocado coulis
• All Chutneys and relishes (tomato chutney, green apple chutney, cranberry caper relish)

The “Crispy” on Crispy Scottish Salmon is from searing the salmon; no adders are involved.

In the Snack Section there are three items to avoid:

• Tabouleh, made with bulgur wheat
• Pita Crisps, made from a wheat tortilla
• Maki Rolls, which have soy sauce.

Snacks that are gluten free include tasty quinoa bars, hummus, babaghanouj, small salads, a variety of nut blends, and more.

Currently there are at least five desserts we can have, most viable even for folks with dairy, soy, and/or egg allergies as well. The custard uses Adams Vanilla Extract, which is gluten free.

The spices have been verified to establish that they involve pure ingredients. As often noted, though, they are milled in a facility that is not dedicated as a gluten-free site.

Additional areas of question may include the following, which also have been verified as safe:

• Candied walnuts, which involve only pure spices, and
• Toasted pecans, which have no adders.

The blue cheese is from Stella / Saputo Cheese. There is some debate under new guidelines as to whether it is officially gluten free, but one can make a decision based on all the research that is out there currently.

Overall, the Snap Kitchen employees will gladly tell you what is in any of their food offerings. They expect this type of questioning and are educated on their food. Furthermore, they have an open kitchen, visible as you walk in, and the ingredients are stored in plain sight.

One can “grab and go,” as advertised. Or you can eat right there in their airy, bright eating area. They’ll even take food to your car, or deliver food, if needed. The folks at Snap Kitchen aim to please.

And be sure to try my favorite, the Peanut Butter Cheesecake! (OM 09/10)