Bonsoir mes amis voules-vous des Madeleines sans gluten? Milk free, low FODMAP.

IMG_1818 These little plump cakes are easy to make and are just the ticket if you want to have a little something sweet but don’t want to go overboard on calories, they are gluten-free, low fodmap and milk free. The secret is to eat one! I love France, particularly Paris I have been twice and still would love to go back. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

130 g  Castor sugar

2 medium eggs

Grated rind of 1 lemon + juice of 1/2 lemon

225 g of gluten-free self-raising flour

120 g of dairy free margarine

Horse statue outside the Musee d’Orsay

Method

Add the castor sugar, lemon juice and eggs to a bowl. Whisk over a pan of warm water until at least double the volume.

Melt the margarine and add the grated lemon rind, pour into a measuring jug.

Drizzle the margarine slowly into the batter and continue to whisk, then add the flour and mix slowly with a metal spoon until it is fully incorporated.

Allow the batter to cool and put a heaped teaspoon of batter into a Madeleine tray. Cook at gas mark 6 until risen and golden.

Remove from the tray and cool – makes about 18.IMG_0923

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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.

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

Self care for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

As of last weekend the Self Care Plan for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is free access for those people with the condition and for those who might feel their symptoms are down to IBS, but are unsure and wish to know what to do next. Check it out here:

http://www.theibsnetwork.org/the-self-care-plan/

As the UK charity for people with IBS we felt it was important to have this information for everyone to access. I know of no other site that has information on symptoms, medical treatments, dietary treatments and psychological symptoms such as anxiety and depression that often follows this diagnosis, in one area and including tools that can help

such as the bowel relaxation recording. It also has information on alternative treatments and how useful these are for symptoms. It has been checked by the IBS Network team of advisors including gastroenterologists, psychotherapists and dietitians to ensure the information is as comprehensive and evidenced based as it can be. We also requested members to comment as the best people to advise us are people who are living with this condition. The plan is still open to comment so do please get in touch if you wish to make any compliments, suggestions or constructive criticism, we do wish to continue to improve this tool.

http://www.theibsnetwork.org/contact-us/

The plan is also useful to health practitioners to aid patients in clinic, I use it when I am in clinic. We have 10-20% of the population in  the UK living with IBS at any one time so self-care is going to be vital to help people to manage, we hope the plan will be a tool that people are happy to use and perhaps more importantly happy to recommend to others to spread the word.

We still need membership to help us to continue as a charity – membership includes the self-care plan symptom checker, access to ask health professionals questions, the help line, can’t wait card and travel translation card.  Well worth joining, also to help us to continue to provide help and support for people with this condition.