Trout with salad – Low FODMAP, dairy free, gluten free

IMG_1801We are heading towards the end of Summer, early in the morning it certainly feels like Autumn is on the way. However there is still time left to enjoy a cold salad with a small glass of chilled white wine for our evening meal.

Today’s activity was a run around my home town, nestled in the middle of the Pennines. We certainly have our share of wet weather and today was no exception. However the skies were bright enough for me to manage an hour without getting too drenched. This summers weather has still resulted in flooding in the next village, despite the weather being hotter than usual, the deluge of rain was severe enough to wash away the road. I would not want to live anywhere else though, as we have beautiful countryside and the steep wooded valley’s add to the overall atmosphere. Have a look at the pictures and see if you agree.

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If you wish to make the meal above the recipe is as follows:

Salad

Small handful of miniature plum tomatoes (about 8-10)

Small handful of green olives

Small handful of mixed leaves (rocket, spinach and watercress)

1/2 an orange pepper

1 tablespoon of pumpkin and sunflower seeds

2 teaspoons of fennel seeds

1 small piece of celery

2 inch slice of cucumber.

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

1/2 lemon

1 bunch of fresh thyme

Chop all ingredients finely and add spices, seeds and lemon juice

Season and toss well. Serves three

Rice

3 cups of basmati rice

1 cup of neroli rice

1/2 an aubergine

salt

Chop the aubergine and add to the rice, cover with water season and cook till tender. Cool

Plus 1 fillet of trout per person, grilled and cooled.

Serve

Pork loin, Low FODMAP, dairy free, lactose free, gluten free

The following recipe is for lovers of Thai flavours, I am not really a huge fan, I always feel that coriander tastes a bit soapy.  I was tempted to call this Soapy Pork Loin, but thought better of it – plenty of people love coriander though! (I don’t mean to offend my readers in Thailand, you will have to let me know what you think of my recipe.) I have sacrificed my tastes to make you a gut friendly recipe – I hope you like it.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of low-fat peanut butter

1 tablespoon of tamari soy sauce (gluten-free)IMG_1792

2 star anise

2.5cm (1 inch) stick of fresh ginger

15 g of fresh coriander

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

100 ml Stock (home-made, vegetable or pork)

1/2 lime (squeezed)

Salt (to taste!)

1 pork tenderloin trimmed and cut into strips

3 Pak-Choi (chinese cabbage)

2 carrots (peel in strips with a potato peeler)

Sesame seeds to decorate.

Method

Trim and cut the tenderloin and place the pieces in a dish

Add the star anise, peeled ginger, peanut butter, oil, soy sauce, coriander and stock in a strong blender and blend well to make a sauce. If you wish you can add chilli or chilli powder if your stomach can stand it.

Pour this over the pork, add lime juice, salt and leave to marinate at least two hours.

Cook the pork mix and sauce in a pan until tender, then add to a wok with the carrot & pak-choi, cook with the vegetables still al dente.

Serve, sprinkle over sesame seeds and serve with boiled rice.

Serves 3

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 forIMG_1762 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.img102 img084 img072

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 nutsimg146

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!

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.

IMG_1744Ingredients

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/

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

IMG_1732 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.

IMG_1735Choose 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 PaprikaIMG_1733

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)IMG_1734

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.IMG_1736

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.

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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.

IMG_1741

A low-fat tasty dish that is not too hard on your digestive tract, just the ticket for a Saturday night meal.