Sausage and watercress conchiglie pasta – gluten free and low fodmap

This dish is really easy to make and can be incorporated into your low fodmap recipes for working week nights, plus you don’t need to use fresh herbs – dried are just as good but maybe use a little less as the flavour is more concentrated in dried herbs. I don’t eat sausages often, and I do find gluten free ones generally have a higher level of meat so you tend to get what you pay for. Pricking and grilling them does remove some of the fat but they are still relatively high in fat – although 1 1/4 sausages for each serving is not too much! Check the sausages are gluten free but also free of onion – sometimes local butchers are the best option to buy.

Ingredients

300g of dried gluten free pasta

1 pack of watercress

6 gluten free sausages

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

2 sprigs of fresh oregano

drizzle of oil

Seasoning

2.5cm block of grated parmesan

fresh oregano flowers to decorate

Method

Prick the sausages with a fork and grill for 15 minutes till cooked

Put a pan of water to boil add a small amount of seasoning and add the dried pasta

In a pan add a small drizzle of oil and add the herbs and fry to release the flavour, then add the watercress and heat till wilted

Slice the sausage, drain the pasta

Add all the ingredients to the pasta and stir well

Serve

Add a sprinkle of parmesan to each dish

Decorate

Serves 4 with a green salad!

Pork loin with maple and mustard sauce – low fodmap

This is a great recipe for dinner parties with friends and is really easy to do! No one will guess that you are following a low fodmap diet at all. Often on the low fodmap diet people have a very dry diet without sauces so it is good to have an option that is less dry. You can serve this with boiled rice, new potatoes or low fodmap pasta choices and a green salad. I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

For the stock – 250mls of water

1 Inch of carrot chopped small

2-3 Celery leaves

A handful of black peppercorns

1 Teaspoon of asafoetida

salt

small 1 inch square of celeriac chopped small

1 bay leaf

For the rest of the dish

6 1 inch thick pork loin steaks

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

2 tablespoons of grained mustard

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Maize flour for dusting the pork loin

2 tablespoons of cream (suitable – but if you are very sensitive you can buy lactose free if you wish)

Grated lemon and tarragon to dress the dish

seasoning

Method

Add the water to a pan with the ingredients for the stock

Heat to simmering point and cook for 10 minutes

Drain off the solids and keep the liquid

Whilst the stock is simmering dust each loin in maize flour – add it to a plastic bag and shake

Fry the pork loins using the garlic infused oil till lightly browned in a frying pan

Add the stock and the rest of the ingredients (except the cream) to an oven proof dish.

Cover the dish and cook for 15 minutes then remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes to drive off some of the water.

Remove from the oven and rest the pork loin – add the cream to the sauce and mix well.

Serves 2-3 depending on your appetite!

Enjoy!

Chive salad – for low fodmapers missing onion.

This salad has onion flavour as it’s base and uses chives to achieve this. It can be made without the chive flowers but if you can get them they do make a really pretty addition to this dish. I am really lucky where I live as we have the Incredible Edible scheme. This is a organisation that has planted lots of edible herbs and fruit trees around the town that are available for all residents and visitors to sample for free – as long as you know what you are looking for and what flowers are edible and can be used. I have gathered the chive flowers (the light purple ones – see image below), fennel leaves and borage flowers (the deep blue ones that I have used for garnish.) So for me this recipe was reasonable in cost because the herbs were free. There was also a pleasure gained in going for a walk and gathering my own food.

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You can modify this recipe to make it more simple by just using chive stems and any green/red salad leaves to base the salad on, plus the borage flowers are not a necessary ingredient for the integrity of the dish. I produced this recipe without dressing as I felt the chives added plenty of strong flavour but you can add some if you wish- do check the label for fodmap ingredients. If you struggle with resistant starches then serve the rice whilst it is still slightly warm.

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Ingredients

75g of cooked wholegrain and red rice

4 chive flower heads and stems

4 chard leaves and stems

1/2 packet of low lactose mozzarella

2 sprigs of fennel leaves

seasoning

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Method

Chop the chive stems and chard stems into small pieces

Rip the chard leaves into small pieces

If needed cook the rice by covering in cold water and bringing it to the boil – season then cool and drain.

If using the chive flowers cut the individual flowers from the flower head

Rip the low lactose mozzarella into bite size pieces

Pull the fennel leaves into small pieces

Combine everything and serve

Serves one – enjoy!

 

Elderflower and blueberry pavlova – low fodmap low lactose

Imagine you are going to a party and have no time to prepare a dessert. If you have made the elderflower cordial recipe then you can whip up this beautiful dessert to take to a summer party and impress your friends! It will take just ten minutes to prepare. I have used frozen blueberries – cheaper than the fresh variety, when defrosted they are softer and have more juice than the fresh varieties. Forgive me for also using a purchased pavlova base – again another time saving tip. This dessert is again another treat to have occasionally in your diet – there are plenty of healthy eating recipes on my blog, sprinkled with the occasional dessert. I have not added any sugar to the blueberries as the pavlova contains plenty. It is important that people who have to follow free from diets know how to produce all recipes in my opinion – so that people can make a choice in their diet. The only concession to the ‘free from’ isle is the lactose free mascarpone cheese, which is divine.

 

Ingredients

1 Shop bought pavlova base

200g of frozen blueberries

1 tub of lactose free mascarpone cheese

70ml of Elderflower cordial

Method

Add the elderflower cordial to the lactose free mascarpone cheese and mix well

Add this to the pavlova

Pile the blueberries on the top of the pavlova

Enjoy!

Serves 6

 

 

The pavlova base was purchased by me from Morrisons, the lactose free mascarpone cheese from Tesco and the pavlova was decorated with elder flowers and borage flowers – these are not an essential addition to the dish.

Elderflower Cordial

On a walk this afternoon I gathered a handful of elderflowers. This recipe is based on a recipe from the book Hedgerow Cookbook. The elder is a wonderful bush although it generally doesn’t look that way when you find one. It is generally a wizened looking gnarled tree with moss growing on it but it produces the most wonderful flowers and fruit – the only decision to be made is whether to pick the flowers or save them till the berries arrive later. Or you could pick a smaller amount and save some berries for later in the year, if you can get to them before the birds do. Making this squash fills the whole house with the odour of elderberry blossom and is a wonderful treat – don’t forget this is concentrated squash and yes it does contain some sugar – but this can be drunk occasionally as a treat.

 

Ingredients

12 elderflower heads

18g citric acid

1 unwaxed lemon

400g granulated sugar

3/4 pint water

 

Method

Wash the flower heads under running water and add to a bowl with lemon peel and sliced lemon.

Add the water to a pan and then the citric acid and granulated sugar.

Heat the water till the sugar and citric acid has dissolved

Pour the liquid over the flowers and lemon and leave overnight to steep.

Strain off the liquid and put it into bottles.

This will keep a few days in the fridge.

Warm Potato Salad

This potato salad is great for a summer barbecue and really easy to make. I have used lactose free plain yoghurt with mayonnaise to keep the calories lower and chives to flavour the salad. If you serve it slightly warm the mayonnaise soaks into the potatoes and also it means that if you have a problem with resistant starches you can avoid these too. I used Jersey potatoes – the best, but any salad potato will be suitable to use. It really couldn’t be easier to make!

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Ingredients

450g small jersey potatoes or small salad potatoes

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

1 tablespoon of lactose free plain yoghurt

Chopped chives

Salt and pepper to taste

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Method

Boil the potatoes in salted water till soft.

Drain well.

Add the yoghurt and mayonnaise to a dish, season and add finely chopped chives.

Mix with the warm potatoes.

I decorated with some thyme leaves and chopped chard stems.

I hope you enjoy it!