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I am looking to make latkes and want to avoid glutinous flour but also have to avoid almond and nut flours. What is your recommendation for a possible 'flour' option?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Recorded

This event was on August 18, 2026

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Nolan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Roy L. Cox

I am looking to make latkes and want to avoid glutinous flour but also have to avoid almond and nut flours. What is your recommendation for a possible 'flour' option?

Answer

My brain immediately jumped to chickpea flour. The one thing about chickpea flour, before you use it with anything, I personally think it needs to be seasoned really well, and I will season it with garlic powder, onion powder, et cetera, so that the taste of the chickpea flour will be overridden with the spices that you use. So I think chickpea flour. You could use tapioca flour. I would say if you live near a grocery store that sells alternative flours in bulk, I might go and buy a quarter of a pound and try the ones out that you like the best rather than spending $5 or $6 on a bag of flour that you might not like. And I think that the other thing, I thought about oat flour as well, but oat flour can be very gooey, for lack of a better word. But you might want to also try oat flour, which you can make yourself by simply putting it into a high-speed blender and getting the texture that you want. I always like to sift it before I use it just in case there is something left in there that I don't want.

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

Char Nolan is a serious crusader for plant-based education, armed with a degree in public health from Philadelphia’s Temple University. She teaches nutrition and plant-based cooking throughout Philadelphia, and in many underserved communities. Char holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification course in 2015. In 2019, Char completed post-graduate course work in social media marketing at the University of the Arts. When she is not cooking or teaching, she manages social media accounts for several plant-based influencers. Char prides herself on learning everything she knows about cooking from growing up in her grandparents’ Italian restaurant. Her favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and kale, of course. Char originally hails from Queens, NY, but has lived in Philadelphia most of her adult life. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.