Is Tapioca Flour Gluten Free. Naturally gluten free, tapioca flour can serve as a wheat substitute in a variety of gluten free recipes. An ingredient made from the root of the cassava plant, tapioca is gluten free.
When you think tapioca flour gluten free likely springs to mind. Coconut flour is a great replacement to white and wheat flour. You can replace tapioca flour, also called tapioca starch, with an equal amount of potato starch, cornstarch or arrowroot powder (or a combination of these).
It also helps give things a chewy and/or crisp texture, especially in things like cookies and cakes.
For more on which ingredients are and aren’t gluten free, see our ingredients index. I use a little here and a little there in my bakes and when making sauces so although it is a flour you may use often, you rarely need vast quantities of it. Tapioca tastes mild and slightly sweet in flavor and this is one of the purest form available in starch. Tapioca is a type of starch extract that’s derived from the starchy vegetable called cassava root ( manihot esculenta ).
