Category: recipes

Ramen Eggs – low fodmap

These mini ramen eggs are great for a party as a snack food, they have a strong umami flavour and taste great! The eggs were free range, which is obviously really important to ensure the quail that laid them are able to forage and live as far as possible as they would in the wild. They are also just the right size to add to a Bento lunch box salad and are used in Japanese cuisine. I bought mine at a farmers market a few days ago. They are very simple to make and can also be made using hens eggs if you prefer to do that. Tamari is made without wheat and is therefore gluten free if you are also have coeliac disease, but do check the label before you purchase just in case.

Ingredients

  • 12 Quail eggs
  • 200ml Mirin (japanese sweet wine wine)
  • 100ml Tamari dark soy sauce
  • 2 star anise
  • Black and white sesame seeds – you only need a small amount to decorate the eggs when finished

Method

  • Add the mirin, soy sauce and star anise to a pan and heat till boiling and cook for five minutes to impart the star anise flavour.
  • Allow the marinade to cool
  • Add the quail eggs to a pan and warm to boil and cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add the eggs to a pan of cold water to stop the cooking.
  • Tap the base (the more rounded end) on a surface and peel the egg under a tap – take care as you should avoid damaging the egg surface if you can as this will be more obvious after the eggs are marinaded.
  • Marinade the eggs for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
  • Cut each egg in half and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  • The marinade can be used again and makes an ideal marinade for salmon or tuna too!

Serves 3-4 as a party hors d’oeuvre to serve with drinks.

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Ratatouille – lowfodmap.

Ratatouille is a really healthy dish and the best way to make it is to roast each of the vegetables separately. This might appear to be a bit of a faff, but it does ensure that you can taste all the individual flavours in the dish. It is a dish for those days where you feel like pottering about in the kitchen and have time to prepare a meal. I find cooking relaxing and I enjoy it – but it is also worth mentioning that some people don’t enjoy it at all and find meal preparation a chore, there is tinned ratatouille available but most will contain onion which is a fructan’s, so if you can tolerate fructan’s by all means have the tinned variety instead. (I don’t have an issue with tinned vegetables – they are perfectly acceptable and contain good sources of nutrition.)

The above infographic from Compound Interest https://www.compoundchem.com/ shows the colours of peppers and how this develops with ripening. Yellow and red peppers are the sweetest so are best for this recipe. Note that I have not removed any of the skins from the roasted pepper – this is what I would call a faff and why would you want to remove a source of fibre from the dish? The Mediterranean diet is good for health and this classic French provencale dish is a Mediterranean stew that ticks all the boxes.

Ingredients

  • 1 courgette
  • 1 aubergine
  • 2 packs of mini sweet peppers or 300g yellow or red bell peppers
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • 1/4 teaspoon of asafoetida
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • a few springs of fresh thyme (or a tablespoon on dried)
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • Salt

Method

  • Wash the vegetables and chop
  • Add each vegetable to it’s own tray, drizzle with olive oil, thyme sprigs and season with salt.
  • Add the trays to the oven and roast until soft on gas mark 6/200 degrees C. Watch carefully to avoid burning.
  • Whilst the vegetables are roasting add a tablespoon of oil to a pan and fry the asafotida for a few seconds to release the onion flavour then add the tin of plum tomatoes and mash them. Add the teaspoon of sugar to reduce the acidity of the dish and then add the oregano. Reduce the tomatoes by boiling to a half in volume.
  • Combine all the ingredients and serve.
  • Serves 4 and tastes lovely with fish!

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Colcannon (low fodmap)

I haven’t written anything for some time – do forgive me for that, I think I perhaps needed a break but now I am happy to continue with this blog with new vigor.

This heartening meal is a traditional Irish dish that is made from simple ingredients and is cheap and filling. Potatoes are an excellent low FODMAP staple food and white cabbage in the place of the more traditional savoy cabbage means it is suitable for a low fodmap diet.

This dish is lovely served on it’s own or is suitable to be served with gammon or grilled sausages and will brighten up any dreary rainy day!

Ingredients

Serves [4]

  • 200g white cabbage
  • 500g potatoes (floury potatoes work best – Maris Piper, King Edwards, Desire)
  • 15g butter
  • 60g spring onion leaves (don’t use the white part as this contains fodmaps)
  • 200ml lactose free milk
  • 15g chopped bacon

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Wash the potatoes and remove the outer leaves from the cabbage (or you could just wash it.)
  • Boil the potatoes in water until soft, keep the skins on as this is a good source of fibre and will keep the potatoes from going soft in the water.
  • Chop the cabbage and bacon.
  • Fry the cabbage, spring onion leaves and bacon with the butter until soft.
  • Mash the potatoes with lactose free milk and season well, then mix the cabbage and bacon through the potato
  • Serve hot

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Madeira cake low fodmap gluten free

I haven’t posted anything to my blog for a long time but this recipe is perfect for a bank holiday weekend. This is a lovely cake for a treat. Its texture improves after a couple of days in a cake tin and is just about right. It is also a great base for a trifle but it might not last log enough to make it! Try it and see if you like it.

Ingredients

150g butter

150g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

1/2 grated lemon rind

1/2 teaspoon Xanthan gum

100g gluten free self raising flour mix

Butter for the baking tin

1 500g loaf style baking tin

Method

Heat the oven to 170°C, Fan150°C, 325°F or Gas mark 3

Butter the baking tin well

Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and cream till pale colour.

Sieve the flour in a separate bowl add the xanthan gum and mix well.

Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mix and beat well after each one. If the mix appears to be curdling add a tablespoon of the flour mix

Add the grated lemon rind

Add the rest of the flour mix slowly till it’s incorporated fully.

Mix well and add to the baking tin, smooth the top and cook for one hour or until a cocktail stick pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Enjoy! If you can leave it a couple of days before you eat it, do as the texture does become more moist.

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Vegan nut roast Low FODMAP

We are nearly in Veganuary and what could me more perfect than a vegan nut roast? Some people miss meaty flavours when they venture into meat free eating and this roast is stuffed full of umami flavours meaning you won’t miss meat flavour at all! The dish also contains low FODMAP fibre and this is great for people with IBS-C, who need good gut friendly meals that have fibre to help the bowel keep moving. This dish is stunning enough to use at a dinner party – can I tempt you to a vegan New Years celebration lunch?

Ingredients

  • 10g of dried oyster mushrooms
  • 15g white miso
  • 1 tablespoon of golden linseed’s
  • 150g walnuts
  • 200mls of water
  • 2 sprigs of Thyme
  • Small handful of Thyme
  • 100g pureed chestnuts
  • 80g of chestnuts
  • 140g gluten free breadcrumbs (fibre based if possible)
  • Seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon of hazelnut oil.
  • 100g oyster mushrooms
  • 1 carrot to decorate

Method

Boil the water and add the dried mushrooms, miso and golden linseed’s and allow the mix to soak for 15 minutes – this is the stock for the dish. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired

Make the breadcrumbs and chop the nuts and herbs.

Fry the oyster mushrooms in the hazelnut oil then combine all the ingredients together.

Coat a loaf tin with oil and add the carrot (sliced length-ways) to the bottom of the tin (this will form the decoration on the top of the loaf.)

Heat and oven to gas mark 6, 200 degrees C and cook till the ingredients are well combined – this took approximately 1 hour. At the end of the cooking time turn the oven up to gas mark 7, 220 degrees C and remove the loaf from the tin and place it on the top shelf to brown the outside.

Enjoy – serves 6-8.

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Pecan and maple syrup marzipan – low fodmap

Ok, so why do we need a marzipan based on pecans? Well, marzipan is based on almonds and these are limited on the low fodmap diet, it also contains honey – it would be very difficult to know how much FODMAP sugars are ingested with most Christmas marzipan containing dishes – so I thought I would see if I could make an option where amount consumed doesn’t matter (from a FODMAP content anyway!) Now, although Italians probably would balk at this statement but I think my version is actually better than the original. It is really tasty and a good treat for a Christmas winters evening whilst avoiding the winter weather. Or gift wrapped for friends or family – everyone likes a home made treat.

This dish is certainly not a healthy option – despite being high in nuts and containing a natural sugar – maple and ‘brown sugar’ – it is a sweet and should be treated as such. Too many people on Instagram post recipes for ‘energy balls’ and state they are healthy because they are based on natural ingredients – sugar is sugar – despite the source. Eat sparingly and Christmas is a good time to partake.

Ingredients

  • 200g finely ground pecans
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 3 Medium egg yolks
  • 2 tsp liquid glucose
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp glycerine
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Grind the pecans in a food processor until smooth and place them in a bowl with the sieved icing sugar – then mix together.

In a saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, egg yolks, glucose, maple syrup, glycerine and vanilla, then cook over a low heat whisking constantly until pale, light and boiling. Take care as this is HOT.

Pour the above liquid over the pecan mixture and stir well to make a smooth paste. Leave to cool, then wrap in cling film.

Makes 20 balls – I have coated them in gold and silver powder to make them great for a gift. They are just as nice eaten with a bit of hygge – curled up in front of a roaring fire with a good book . Enjoy.

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