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Dear cyberceliacs,
 
I have fallen in love in Indian food after my CD/DH was diagnosed seven
years ago since it is healthy and based on vegetables--I am vegetarian.  I
have been going to Indian restaurants about once every two weeks, but
lately I have been cooking some Indian food, too.  Sometime ago I went to
the local Indian grocery store with my friend of Indian descent to buy some
basic ingredients like spices, beans, lentils etc.  During that visit I
learned that WHEAT is used at least in one of the main spices called
asafetida/asafoetida.  It is used mostly in dishes containing lentils,
beans and peas etc. to alleviate their 'airy' effects.
 
I found two different brandnames of asafoetida which both contained wheat
flour!!  (Unfortunately I did NOT write the brandnames down.)  Most likely
a lot restaurants use it as a really good spice so watch out!  The owner of
the store sold me one piece of solid asafoetida of which only a small piece
(smaller than a pea) is used for one dish.
 
According to my cookbook 'The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking' by Yamuna
Devi (Bala Books Inc., Poway, CA) asafetida is:
 
"Known as hing.  Obtained from several species of Ferula (fennel-related
plants), asafetida is a dried gum resin, virtually odorless in its solid
form.  When the stems of the giant perennils are cut, a milk-like sap flows
out which is sun-dried into a solid mass.  The intensity of flavor and
color varies considerably from its source, but generally the fresh resins
are pearly-tan-colored and, with age, darken to a chocolate-black.
For the most part, only two types [of asafetida] are available in the West:
a finely-ground mustard-yellow powder: and a courser, sandy-brown grind.
Both types are combined with small quantities of __rice, WHEAT or BARLEY
flour__ as well as gum arabic to prevent lumping and to cut the strong
flavor."
 
I am sorry to tell you such bad news but it is always better be safe than sorry.
 
Birgitta
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- a Finn living a GF life in the San Francisco Bay Area