a guide to gluten-free hot pot 🍲

'of rice & yams' no.4

One of my favourite meals to enjoy as a fam during the winter is hot pot—an interactive dining experience where everyone gathers around a simmering pot (or two) of flavourful broth. The table features an abundance of quick-cooking ingredients such as thinly sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, and starches. These ingredients are then dunked into the bubbling broth using a slotted ladle and served with rice, alongside each person’s unique concoction of dipping sauce.

Navigating hot pot as a gluten-free eater may seem daunting at first, but with a few thoughtful considerations, you can transform it into a celebratory experience that brings everyone together around the table. Once you’ve done the prep, there’s ample room for you to slow down, savour the moment, and truly enjoy the company around you.

Crafting a gluten-free hot pot experience involves selecting the right broth and dipping sauce ingredients, double-checking items like fish balls for variable gluten content, and communicating with fellow diners to avoid wheat noodles and dumplings until the very end or altogether.

With this guide, I’ll show you how to achieve gluten-free hot pot at home.

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THE EQUIPMENT

1. Induction Burner – While there are dedicated hot pot devices, I find a tabletop induction burner to be more versatile for various cooking needs. We have the Duxtop 8500ST, which is great at maintaining a steady simmer. If your dining table lacks an outlet nearby, be sure to get an extension cord.

2. Induction Compatible Pot – If you opt for an induction burner, any pot that attracts a magnet will work. We use our 5.3L Le Creuset dutch oven, although a slightly shallower pot would be ideal for easy access.

3. Slotted / Mesh Ladles – Key to the entire hot pot cooking experience! This is what you’ll use to dunk and scoop up any ingredients from the pot of broth.

4. Chopsticks – Keep two pairs of different colours handy—one for handling raw meat and the other for cooking and eating.

5. Rice Bowls – Essential for serving both rice and dipping sauces.

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THE BROTH

For gluten-free hot pot, homemade broth is the way to go as many pre-packaged soup bases incorporate soy sauce or similar flavourings derived from wheat. The base for traditional Chinese hot pot broth can be as simple as a chicken, beef, seafood, or mushroom stock, flavoured with a couple slices of scallions, garlic, and ginger. If you’re going to use store-bought stock, be sure to check the ingredient labels, as some may contain sneaky sneaky yeast extract (barley).

For a spicy variation, add your favourite gluten-free chili oil to the mix. Right now, we’re all about Holy Duck Chili Oil, made with rendered duck fat; it’s so ridiculously savoury and decadent. Alternatively, you can create a Tom Yum-style broth by adding Thai red curry paste, shrimp paste (or anchovies), along with aromatics like lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and galangal. Coconut milk is optional.

This is our go-to broth for hot pot:

Miso Kimchi Broth
Makes over 12 cups/3L of broth

Ingredients
1 tbsp dried wakame (seaweed)
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 (10g) piece dried kombu (kelp)
3 scallion whites, chopped (save greens for dipping sauce)
1/4 cup gluten-free kimchi
12 cups water
2 tsps yuzu paste (optional)
1 1/2 tbsp gluten-free miso paste

Instructions
In a pot, bring together wakame, shiitakes, kombu, scallion whites, kimchi and water, allowing it to simmer for 15 minutes over medium heat. Incoporate yuzu paste and miso paste, stirring well. Transfer the broth to your hot pot device or induction compatible pot, adding water as needed.

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THE STAPLES

I won’t delve too deep into the standard vegetables and proteins unless there’s a noteworthy mention related to gluten.

Vegetables 🥬
Besides a good mix of Asian greens (bok choy, Chinese broccoli, choy sum, napa cabbage, snow pea leaves) and mushrooms (beech, oyster, king oyster), root veggies and squash play a crucial role in gluten-free hot pot as a healthy and filling form of starch (lotus root, taro, potato, sweet potato, yam, butternut, kabocha, pumpkin).

Meat 🥩
Thinly sliced beef, pork, lamb or chicken specifically for hot pot, can be found frozen at your local Asian market, or you can ask your local butcher to slice them for you. There is no need for marinated meats, as some marinades contain gluten and there’s already enough flavour in the broth and sauce. Beef and pork balls are common hot pot ingredients, but double-check for added wheat.

Seafood 🐟
Fillets of fish and shrimp are delicious options. Check for gluten in products like fish balls and fish tofu.

Soy Products 🌱
Most should be gluten-free, but double-check ingredients in products such as marinated tofu, tofu puffs, and bean curd sheets or rolls. These ingredients are great for absorbing all that tasty broth and sauce.

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THE SAUCE

The flavour bomb of the meal: don’t skip out on the dipping sauce. In individual rice bowls, combine a mixture of the following gluten-free condiments and prepped ingredients –

• Tamari/Gluten-Free Soy Sauce

• Rice Vinegar/Balsamic Vinegar

• Gluten-Free Chili Oil/Chili Paste (Sambal Oelek)

• Toasted Sesame Oil

• Tahini/Peanut Butter/Other Nut Butter

• Grated Ginger/Minced Garlic

• Chopped Scallions/Cilantro

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THE GF ALTERNATIVES

A rare gluten-free udon find!

Noodles 🍜
Rice noodles, mung bean noodles, and sweet potato noodles benefit from a soak in cool water for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Gluten-free rice cakes, 100% buckwheat noodles (soba), and shirataki or konjac noodles can be cooked as is.

And if you can find them gluten-free 🥟
Sweet potato or taro balls – delicious little chewy bites.

Egg-wrapped dumplings – with thinly cooked egg as the wrapper, these are naturally gluten-free! (just be sure to check the filling.)

Gluten-free dumplings – look for ones that can be boiled.

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BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

• Set up your dining table by arranging all the necessary equipment. Consider using side plates for temporarily holding hot food, and a tablecloth for easy clean-up.

• Put on a pot of rice

• Create the soup base

• Soak any noodles that need soaking

• Set up a station for making sauces

• Prep greens and herbs (cutting off ends, rinsing, spinning, chopping as needed)

• Peel and slice root veggies and squash

• Slice tofu products

• Defrost/devein shrimp as required

• Slice fish

• Pull sliced meat from the freezer at the last minute (they don’t need to fully defrost)

• Arrange everything on large plates or platters, make dipping sauces, serve rice, get the pot of broth bubbling on the table, and dig in!

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I hope this guide helps you bring gluten-free hot pot to life this holiday season. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions 😊

✌🏼 Peace, love, and good food,
Jannell