Tag: Digestive Health

Posts relevent to Digestive health

Ginger, pumpkin and rice noodles Low Fodmap

This tasty recipe can be served with fish or chicken but it can be used as a lunch meal – hot or cold by itself, if you don’t eat meat. The noodles were ginger and pumpkin rice noodles – gluten and wheat free and suitable for a low fodmap diet, they are made by King Soba.

Ingredients

150g of noodles

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon of pine nuts

2 carrots

Spray oil or 1/2 teaspoon of garlic infused oil

A few drops of soy sauce.

Method

Cook the noodles till soft in boiling water with a small amount of salt.

Peel then trim the carrot till the sides are straight and peel down the length of the carrot to produce strips, then cut them in half lengthwise. This makes thin strips that can cook quickly in a wok.

Add the oil to a wok and fry the cumin seeds for a few seconds to release the flavour.

Add the pine nuts and pumpkin seeds and a few drops of soy sauce (ensure gluten free if you have both IBS and coeliac disease.)

Then add the carrot and cook till softened.

Add the cooked noodles and mix well, then serve.

Serves 2.

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I use these noodles regularly and the dish was made from stock from my store cupboard.

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Minted Boston runner beans

What on earth are Boston beans? I am, as many of you know, a down to earth Lancashire gal and labelling food with a new name to boost sales really doesn’t go down too well with me. Not impressed, however I am wrong, it seems – after a Google search – that Boston is a variety of bean which is a smaller variety and a plant which grows a good crop of French beans. A good crop – therefore these beans should not be expensive then, but they are a smaller bean, therefore exclusive? I also suspect that someone will label them a ‘super’ runner bean and a vegetable that you can’t possible live without. Anyhow, enough of me getting into a tizzy and being slightly cynical about the vagaries of available supermarket runner bean varieties. Some people might be very interested in the differences in crop variety, but it’s not for this blog, plus ordinary beans are just as super and will work just as well for this recipe. It’s mothering Sunday tomorrow and I will be cooking a chicken so this really simple runner bean recipe should go really well with it.

Ingredients

1 sprig of fresh mint

1 packet of runner beans

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 lemon sliced

Salt

Spray oil

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

Method

Spray the beans with oil and pour over lemon juice. Chop the mint and mix into the beans, then add a small amount of salt, roast for 15 minutes till soft. Spray lemon slices with oil and roast them at the same time as the beans. Garnish the beans with roasted lemon slices and sesame seeds. Serve – simple!

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Spaghetti Bolognese – Low Fodmap

This is a family favourite, a classic dish that is the stalwart of many family meals so we should look at modifying it to make it suitable for ALL the family – even those with IBS. Whilst I would not advocate everyone following a low fodmap diet if they don’t need too, the occasional meal where everyone can participate without faffing around cooking some items separately is a bonus. This will make the meal slightly more expensive using gluten free pasta but is maybe worth it occasionally. It is not likely to be harmful for others to eat gluten free pasta occasionally as long as people do not go fully gluten free or low fodmap without good reason (a diagnosis of coeliac disease or a diagnosis of IBS when coeliac disease has been tested negative on a gluten containing diet.)

Passata

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1 jar of roasted peppers (or roast 3-4 of your own, then skin them)

4 tomatoes

a handful of basil

1-2 teaspoons of dried thyme and basil

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Blend this with a hand blender till smooth – add some water if this is too thick.

Bolognese Sauce

1 dessert spoon of garlic infused oil

600g of lean minced beef*

Passata (above)

2 teaspoons of gluten free flour + water

method

Add the oil to the pan and fry the meat with 3 dessert spoons of the passata.

Add the remaining passata to a pan

Add two teaspoons of gluten free or corn flour and water mixed till smooth

Cook this till thickened and add to the meat.

Cook till tender.

Spaghetti

You do need to watch gluten free spaghetti and keep it moving when cooking to prevent it from sticking. Use the method advised on the packet and add to a large pan of boiling water. Keep testing it – it should be ready at the point it is still relatively firm but soft enough to eat, take care not to overcook it.

Add the spaghetti and bolognese to the dish to serve and top with a little grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 6

*If you find that red meat causes symptoms of IBS choose lean and a small portion – or you could also use 1/2 beef and 1/2 turkey to reduce the amount of red meat contained in the dish.

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Chapati and low fodmap curry – yum!

Chapati

150 g of gluten free plain flour

1 teaspoon of garlic infused oil

1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan gum

20 g of well chopped coriander

Salt to taste

Water to form a dough

Method

Weigh out the flour in a bowl and add the xanthan gum and mix well.

Add the oil, salt and coriander and water.

Add water slowly and bring the flour together to form a dough – the more you work this dough the better the results will be!

Roll the dough into a sausage shape and divide to make approximately 8 small disks

Roll these into a ball then roll out evenly as thin as possible.

Cook on a flat griddle till the flour turns a little opaque then hold the chapatti in a flame to finish the cooking add some spray oil to the pan if needed.

Serve immediately – they don’t keep well and are best eaten fresh.

Curry

2 aubergines

200g spinach

200g of potato

1 red chili chopped small

1 inch of ginger chopped

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1 teaspoon of cumin

3 cardamon pods, split

1 red pepper chopped

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

1/2 teaspoon of asafoetida

salt to taste

Method

Roast the aubergines till soft and remove the skin and chop.

Add the spices and chopped chili (you can omit this if it affects symptoms too much) to a pestle & mortar and grind.

Add the oil to a pan and fry the spice paste to release the aroma.

Add the aubergine, chopped potato to the pan and cooked till tender.

Add 4-5 pieces of frozen spinach and chopped red pepper at the end of the dish and cook for ten minutes.

Serve!

Turmeric potatoes

These small potatoes are easy to make, use 3-4 potatoes per portion of salad potatoes. I roasted them in the oven in their jackets till soft them sliced them and using 1/2 tablespoon of oil fried turmeric and coriander seeds to release the flavour and added this to the potato with salt to taste. You could use this recipe with older potatoes if you wished.

 

 

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Coriander carrots

My love of the carrot is growing – it really is a very versatile vegetable and the colour it provides to dishes adds a bit of warmth during the winter. Carrots partner very well with coriander and I have decided to use my gnocchi recipe to see if it works with carrot in place of parsnips – it appears that it does, but one word of warning – ensure you cook the carrots well and puree them before you add the flour to ensure you can roll them and they have the correct texture.

Ingredients

400g Carrots

70g of gluten free flour

2g of coriander stalks chopped finely

Coriander seeds to garnish

salt + pepper

Method

Cook the carrots till very soft and puree

add the flour, coriander stalks, salt + pepper and mix well

Roll into a 1cm width sausage on a floured board and cut even 1 cm strips.

Roll into a ball and flatten with a fork.

Boil till they float in water.

Serve

I thought I would add a picture of this little chap with his orange (red) breast – he was very friendly!

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Marrow – a tasty vegetarian meal

DSCF1685modThis is a really tasty recipe that can be quickly prepared for an evening meal.

Ingredients

1 Marrow (or as in the picture above 1/2 a green and 1/2 a yellow marrow)

400g of new potatoes leave on the skin for added fibre

1 tablespoon of pine nuts

1 tablespoon of chopped hazelnuts

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

a handful of fresh coriander leaves

1/2 lemon (juice only)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Wash the marrow and slice in half – remove the seeds from the centre of the marrow and discard.

Slice the marrow into 2cm thick slices.

Wash the potatoes and slice into 1cm slices

Chop the hazelnuts

Into a baking tray add the above ingredients, the pine nuts – add lemon juice to the garlic infused oil and season. Mix and pour over the ingredients and mix till the oil has covered all the vegetables.

Place in a preheated oven at gas mark 6 until soft.

Serve with a handful of fresh coriander leaves.

 

 

 

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