Author: Jules_GastroRD

I am a state registered dietitian. My speciality is dietary treatment of gut disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, coeliac disease, lactose & fructose malabsorption and multiple food intolerances. I have had lots of experience in other areas of dietetics and I wished to start this blog to spread the word about evidence based dietary treatments and dispel much of the quackery that is common with these diseases. All information on this site is of a general nature and is based on UK based treatments and guidelines. Please see your healthcare practitioner should you need more country specific information.

Saharan Harissa spice mix for Moroccan Chicken, Low FODMAP.

Harissa is a spice blend used in North Africa and the following recipe is Low FODMAP version, another example that it is possible to have rich flavours without the addition of onion and garlic. It is a special recipe, so quite expensive to produce so I would save it for those occasions when you want to cook something a little different for friends and family. The recipe serves approximately six people. It also takes some time to prepare, but I think you will find that nobody will recognise the recipe is good for someone who has IBS and problems with their digestion. If you are sensitive to hot spices then replace hot paprika with mild paprika and omit the chilli from the recipe.

Ingredients 1 – Spice mix

5g Cumin

5g Hot Smoked Paprika

2.5g Coriander Powder

2.5g Coriander Seeds

2g Ginger powder

2g Tumeric

Use 1 heaped tablespoon per dish.

Ingredients 2 – Main dish

12 Skinless chicken thighs

100g Lemon & Coriander flavoured green olives

1/2 Lemon (squeezed)

1 preserved lemon

2 teaspoons of Rose Water (not sweetened!)

2 large pinches of Saffron

1 tablespoon of Garlic infused olive oil

250g Red and Yellow Pepper

300 mls water

salt

Ingredients 3 –Carbohydrate

100g Red Quinoa

100g Broken Basmati (cheaper version of basmati – works just as well)

100g Red Camargue Rice

50g Pine nuts

Salt

Serves 6

Add 1 tablespoon of the spice mix to a dish, mix with 2 teaspoons of rose-water, 1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil, the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Pour the spice mix over 12 skinless boned chicken thighs, rub in well and leave covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Roast the pepper in an oven till soft, and chop.

Add the chicken to a cooking pot or tagine and add the preserved lemon, olives, pepper, saffron, salt and 300 mls of water. Cook for 1.5 hours at gas mark 5 till ingredients are soft and tender.

Near the end of the cooking time add red rice, basmati rice and salt to a pan cover with water and cook for 20 minutes. Add quinoa and salt to a separate pan cover with water and cook for 15 minutes. Drain these, mix them together and add the pine nuts.

Drain off the cooking juices from the Moroccan chicken, if you wish at this point drain off the fat floating on the surface of the cooking liquor. In a large serving dish place the rice mix in the dish first and pour over the remainder of the cooking liquor. Pile on the rest of the ingredients on the top of the rice – then enjoy!

July 25, 2013

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Sunday morning walk in pictures

July 7, 2013

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Potato and salmon rosti

This recipe uses the tandoori spice masala mix made in the last blog (see the bottom for a link.) This dish is low-fat, suitable for those who are looking to manage their weight whilst having tasty filling Low FODMAP food.

Ingredients

1 Large potato

1 egg

2 small salmon steaks

1 dessert spoon of low fodmap tandoori spice masala

Salt & pepper

For the green salad

Finely sliced celery – ensure less than a small stick per serving

Alfalfa

finely chopped cucumber

Method

Cook the salmon steaks and flake them.

Peel and grate the potato

Add the flaked salmon to the potato and bind together using 1 egg

Mix in the spice, salt & pepper.

Spray oil on a baking tray and cook the rosti in the oven

Serve with green salad. Makes 6

https://clinicalalimentary.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/low-fat-tandoori-chicken-made-with-low-fodmap-spice-masala-contains-lactose/

July 6, 2013

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Low fat tandoori chicken – made with Low FODMAP spice masala!

It is intensely frustrating following the Low FODMAP diet and visiting the supermarket and looking for an easy sauce or dry powder spice mix when lots of the sauces and spice mixes contain onion and garlic powder. How on earth are you to make a flavoursome dish with gut friendly ingredients? Make your own perhaps! The following recipe is a masala mix for tandoori food. For a tasty spice mix use the following recipe – it makes about 140g of mix that can be stored for up to six months in an airtight container. Some tips on shopping for spices before we start with the recipe – check out your local asian supermarket and purchase spices in large packets, this is much more cost-effective than buying small jars. If you are following a completely gluten-free diet check all spices for gluten including your asafoetida (some spices can be adulterated by addition of fillers such as wheat flour.) It might be better to purchase spices from suppliers that do label their mixes with allergens and suppliers that understand that even small amounts of gluten can be problematic for coeliac, for example.

Choose sweet paprika if your gut is sensitive to spicy food and you may want to use a mild heat chili powder too, or omit it all together. Use smaller amounts of the powder in your recipe, if you find that spices tend to increase your IBS symptoms.

Ingredients for the dry masala

40 g Coriander

30g Cumin

20g Paprika

20g Ginger

15g Dried Mint

5g Asafoetida

10g Chilli powder

Mix the dry ingredients together and store in an airtight tin.

Tandoori Chicken

Two dessert spoons of dry masala powder (above)

Juice of 1/2 lime

150g lactose free greek yoghurt

4 skinless chicken breasts

Salt & pepper to taste

Weight out the yoghurt and squeeze half a lime into the yoghurt and mix well.

Dry fry the spice mix till the aroma is released, cool and add the powder to the yoghurt.

If you want to have the authentic indian restaurant colour you can add red food colouring the mix (as I did.) Ensure that the food colouring is not based on beetroot powder, this is a fodmap.

Don’t be tempted to try the uncooked mix – it really needs cooking to bring out all the flavour, it doesn’t taste nice raw – believe me!

Spread the yoghurt onto both sides of the chicken breasts and leave to marinade in the refrigerator for a few hours or at the very best overnight.

Now time for cooking………

Scrape off excess yoghurt from the chicken breasts and place in a hot oven and cook for 30 minutes till cooked through. Serve with boiled rice (add some turmeric and cassia bark to your boiling rice to add colour and flavour) and Low FODMAP salad.