Pão de Queijo with a Twist from Soft Sage
Being on a FODMAP diet is no fun - not even at this year's Allergy & free-from Show, Olympia, where a vast amount of the food either contained soya, coconut or dates. 
So, as I walked around with a very rumbling tum, while my wonderful food editor, Sarah sampled all the delights on offer, I can assure you it was with great personal delight that I stopped at the Soft Sage stand.
Pão de Queijo, a variety of small, baked, cheese-flavoured rolls, a popular food in Brazil was being baked in an oven and freshly heated for all to try and buy. My first reaction was dismay as I hastily scanned the ingredients list for any forbidden foods. My second was sheer euphoria, as I discovered I could eat the plain balls, then the cheese balls too.
Trust me, when even the humble apple is deemed unfit for your tum, the idea of dough balls being on the menu is heaven. Helena Carre, founder of Soft Sage was on hand to make sure that when the balls came out of the oven, two had my name on them. And I again declare - sheer euphoria!
Having missed breakfast in the rush to get into the show I was by now ravenous and the Soft Sage Plain Vegan were music to my stomach, in a big way.
I think a good doughy bread is one of the main food items I have missed in being free-from, and especially cheesy bread. Many companies make bread but not so many achieve something that actually feels and tastes good enough. Aside from the Fria poppy seed rolls, little has hit the spot like the Soft Sage Dough Balls.
Because of the hard cheeses used in the cheesy variety they are also compatible to the FODMAP diet and we came away with a few bags to cook at home.
Armed with a plate of Heinz gluten-free pasta (because it tastes like the real deal) and a tomato sauce, it was with great delight that evening that we tucked into a plate of hot pasta, complete with Soft Sage to mop up the spills.
"Soft Sage was born when I was living in Canada. My son Ken was ill and after seeing many doctors, a Consultant suggested that Ken may have an intolerance to gluten. So we did what all good parents would do. We hunted high and low for great tasting gluten free products. We soon discovered that what was on the market lacked texture and taste. Ken wasn't impressed and neither were we! Being optimists at heart we continued our search.
By chance whilst taking a break from our gluten free search in our local Italian Café we got chatting to a friendly staff. Whilst I was sipping my Espresso the staff mentioned that years ago they used to sell some Brazilian products that were a hit with Coeliacs. I asked them to tell me more and they explained that the products were made with Cassava Starch. This was when I had my light bulb moment! I decided that if I couldn’t find any healthy and tasty gluten free food products for my son then I'd make some myself.
Luckily I was born and raised in Brazil so this made tracking down authentic Cassava starch from Brazil a lot easier. Fast forward a few years and the result is our Soft Safe gluten free dough balls, lovingly made with Brazilian Cassava starch. We hope you like them as much as Ken does!"
Helena Carre
For more information visit www.softsage.co.uk