Tag: courgette

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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Puff pastry topped with creamy courgette and walnut salad – Low Fodmap

Autumn days are really setting in now and we are entering my favourite time of year with lots of squashes and root vegetables to roast – great for sensitive digestive tracts. As we are entering the cooler days of the year I have decided to try a different approach to a salad – this might be a little unconventional but it was filling, tasty and a little more substantial than the usual salad fare. I have used very pretty fennel flowers as decoration, which strictly speaking are not fodmap tested – but you can get away with a small amount of fennel bulb (49g) a few flowers sprinkled on a salad shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We are lucky in Todmorden, we have incredible edible and lot’s of fennel in flower beds for anyone to harvest.

You can used bought gluten free pastry – but do be aware that some are based on chickpea or pulse flour, which is not suitable for a low fodmap diet. Tips for using gluten free pastry is to roll it between cling film to prevent sticking.

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Ingredients

1 packet of gluten free pastry mix

2 courgettes

4 tablespoons of lactose free mascarpone cheese

100g red cabbage

2 handfuls of walnuts

1 egg

seasoning

Fennel fronds (2-3 should be adequate.)

1-2 fennel flower heads (not an essential ingredient)

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Method

Roll out the pastry

Beat the egg with a fork and brush the pastry with beaten egg – this will improve the colour.

Cook in the oven using the manufacturers directions – mine is a little dark at one end! It might be useful to turn it whilst cooking to get an even bake.

Cool.

Wash and spiralize the courgettes – (you can also buy them pre-prepared at many supermarket outlets to save a additional step in the method.) Mix in the lactose free mascarpone and season.

Finely chop the red cabbage, fennel fronds and roughly chop the walnuts and add all the ingredients to the pastry base – serve with mixed green salad leaves.

Decorate with fennel flowers (not an essential item)

Serves 4-6

Lactose free mascarpone was purchased from Tesco and the ready roll puff pastry was made by Genius (gluten free and dairy free.)

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Christmas Eve special supper – spicy saffron red pepper and courgette/zucchini Quiche

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Low Fodmap, low lactose, wheat free + gluten-free.

Ingredients

200g of gluten free wheat free flour mix.

90g of milk free margarine

Pinch of salt

(or 1 packet pastry mix for gluten free, wheat free pastry – this can contain chickpea flour, so make your own if you have problems with lentils and chickpeas)

pinch of saffron

4 tablespoons of water

1-2 red peppers

1 courgette/zucchini

1 red chilli

4 eggs

1/4 teaspoon of turmeric

saffron-rex1/4 teaspoon of chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 oz of finely grated fresh parmesan.

Salt to taste.

Method

Place a tablespoon of just boiled water into a cup and add the saffron, leave for approximately half an hour to release the colour and flavour.

Weigh out the flour, add salt (if not a packet mix) and rub in the margarine, add the water and saffron mix to the pastry. Bring the dough together, work it well – the better it is worked in, the easier you will find it to use.

Roll out the pastry on a well floured (gluten and wheat free!) board or roll between two sheets of cling film. Line the base of a flan ring/dish. Cut out circles or shapes for the top of the flan.

http://animatedtoast.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/santa-imposter-gallery.html

Break the four eggs into a bowl and mix well, add chilli powder, salt and turmeric, mix well.

Use a small amount of the egg mix as a wash for the base of the flan and the cut out shapes. Bake these for 15-20 minutes in an oven set a gas mark 5 or 190 degrees C. Also add to the oven a baking tray containing sliced pepper, finely chopped chilli, sprinkled over smoked paprika and spray oil. Place the peppers at the top of the oven till roasted.

Slice the courgette.

Cool the pastry, grate the parmesan. add the courgette to the base of the flan, then layer on the pepper. Pour over the egg mix, decorate with the pastry discs and sprinkle over the cheese. Cook at gas mark 6 or 200 degrees C, for approximately 20 minutes. Exclude the chilli if you find it too much for your digestion. Check your spices are wheat and gluten free if you need to.

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