Tag: vegan

Staffordshire Oatcakes with a vegan filling

So, for those people following the low FODMAP UK method kidney beans are now allowed and I would advise you to use tinned and rinse them well prior to using them. Beans are an excellent source of iron and fibre for vegans. Plus I was very surprised at how well these pancakes turned out with no eggs or milk added – just oats and water. If you like a savoury breakfast these pancakes are just the ticket!

Ingredients

  • 85g Oats (use gluten-free for people with coeliac disease)
  • 85g gluten free plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • 350mls luke warm water
  • 250g tinned rinsed kidney beans
  • 250g chard or spinach works just as well
  • 1 teaspoon of Moroccan spice
  • 50g pumpkin seeds

Method

  • Toast the oats for 5 minutes in a non stick frying pan.
  • Add the oats to lukewarm water and mix with a hand blender for a few seconds, then add the salt.
  • Add the gluten-free flour sugar and yeast to the mix and leave to rise for 1 hour – or until you can see bubbles forming in the mix.the sugar is to feed the yeast and cannot be detected in the final mix.
  • Make pancakes with a small spray of oil and a hot pan. The amounts make approximately 5 pancakes.
  • Keep them warm.
  • Use another spray of oil in the pan and fry the dry spice mix. Then add rinsed kidney beans, chopped chard and pumpkin seeds and fry until cooked.
  • Add the beans mix to the pancake and serve.
  • Makes five servings.

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Vegan nut roast Low FODMAP

We are nearly in Veganuary and what could me more perfect than a vegan nut roast? Some people miss meaty flavours when they venture into meat free eating and this roast is stuffed full of umami flavours meaning you won’t miss meat flavour at all! The dish also contains low FODMAP fibre and this is great for people with IBS-C, who need good gut friendly meals that have fibre to help the bowel keep moving. This dish is stunning enough to use at a dinner party – can I tempt you to a vegan New Years celebration lunch?

Ingredients

  • 10g of dried oyster mushrooms
  • 15g white miso
  • 1 tablespoon of golden linseed’s
  • 150g walnuts
  • 200mls of water
  • 2 sprigs of Thyme
  • Small handful of Thyme
  • 100g pureed chestnuts
  • 80g of chestnuts
  • 140g gluten free breadcrumbs (fibre based if possible)
  • Seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon of hazelnut oil.
  • 100g oyster mushrooms
  • 1 carrot to decorate

Method

Boil the water and add the dried mushrooms, miso and golden linseed’s and allow the mix to soak for 15 minutes – this is the stock for the dish. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired

Make the breadcrumbs and chop the nuts and herbs.

Fry the oyster mushrooms in the hazelnut oil then combine all the ingredients together.

Coat a loaf tin with oil and add the carrot (sliced length-ways) to the bottom of the tin (this will form the decoration on the top of the loaf.)

Heat and oven to gas mark 6, 200 degrees C and cook till the ingredients are well combined – this took approximately 1 hour. At the end of the cooking time turn the oven up to gas mark 7, 220 degrees C and remove the loaf from the tin and place it on the top shelf to brown the outside.

Enjoy – serves 6-8.

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Carrot and nut cake – vegan and low fodmap

This cake is a real treat, it also has a good degree of fibre which should help people with BS-C – however do be aware of the fibre and introduce slowly if your bowel is not used to it. It is sweet, vegan, egg and wheat free and low fodmap.

Ingredients

50g ground flaxseed

100ml water

400g Gluten Free self-raising flour

125g chestnut flour

100ml water

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon of ground cloves

100g chopped pecan nut

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

150g castor sugar

200g brown sugar

500g carrots

150ml hazelnut oil

1 ¼ teaspoons gluten free baking powder

Method

Prepare 2, 7 inch cake tins

Mix the flaxseed with water and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients (flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and ginger) to a bowl

Grate the carrot using a food processor using the grating accessory and add to the flour – mix well.

Chop the pecan nuts and add to the flour, mix.

Add the flaxseed and water mix to the food processor using the usual blade and blend for 20 seconds.

Add to the processor the sugar and vanilla essence and blend for 20 seconds and then whilst the processor is mixing drizzle in the oil slowly.

Pour this mix into the flour, nuts and carrots and mix well. If too stiff add 100ml of water – the mix should look like a cake mix.

Add the mix to the two cake tins and bake at gas mark 3 (165 degrees C) until a skewer/cake tester comes out clean from the mix.

The cake will rise and may crack a little on the surface but trim off the and turn the cake upside down for decorating.

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Vegan ‘chicken’ and pumpkin couscous – low fodmap

An autumn favourite is pumpkin and numerous varieties can be found. When I was young pumpkin in the UK was unheard of – in fact we used to make Halloween lanterns with a swede! That certainly was a recipe for injury – although the pumpkin isn’t always easy to carve.

I have also decided to venture into a vegan recipe using vegan ‘chicken’ low FODMAP suitable products are based on soya protein or alternatively you could use Quorn ‘chicken’ pieces.

This was a fairly easy recipe to make and was lightly spiced – if you want a heavier spice then you can add more Ras El Hanout. Do check your spice mix has no high fodmap ingredients such as onion or garlic. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 200g Pumpkin
  • 30g Pumpkin seeds
  • 30g Pine nuts
  • 20g Sunflower seeds
  • 30g Course peanut butter
  • 200ml Water
  • 1 teaspoon of Ras El Hanout Spice
  • 200g Soya protein based chicken pieces
  • 250g Corn couscous
  • Spray oil
  • 30g mint leaves
  • Seasoning (salt and pepper) to taste

Method

  • Chop the pumpkin and boil in water till soft.
  • Spray oil into a frying pan and add the Ras El Hanout and fry gently with minimal oil to release the flavours, add the chopped mint leaves.
  • Add the peanut butter, seeds and water to the frying pan and cook till thickened
  • Add the ‘chicken’ pieces and cooked pumpkin
  • Weight the couscous and pour over the same amount of boiling water (250 ml) and leave to cook – run a fork through the mix to give texture to the couscous
  • You can either serve the ‘chicken’ sauce and couscous separately or mix the ‘chicken’ sauce through the couscous, as I have done.
  • Serves 5-6 enjoy!

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Broccoli

Broccoli is a newer addition to the low fodmap family – although particular attention needs to be made concerning which parts are low fodmap. Growing conditions and plant storage of FODMAPs affects the fodmap content of foods. A good example here is the ability to use the green parts of leeks and spring onions and not the bulb (the storage part of the plant.) The same is true for broccoli, the leaves and a small amount of stalk (less than 50g) are low fodmap – the stems alone above 50g per portion are not suitable. Testing individual components of food gives us more information about its fodmap content, and we are continuing to learn more about the diet with the valuable testing of the fodmap content of foods. It is thanks to the continued work by Kings College Nutrition department that has led to more information. Increased testing increases available foods and this makes the diet more varied, which is nutritionally more sound, but can add to the complexity of the diet making access to up to date information more critical. The best sources of information are dietitians who are fodmap trained, which is why it is recommended not to complete this diet alone.

What are the benefits of broccoli?

Nutritionally broccoli is suggested to be a powerhouse vegetable, although so are most others in their own way! The infographic above indicates that it has some good cancer-preventing properties via the content of sulforaphane – content of this chemical is affected by cooking time, and its benefits are debatable, as much of the evidence comes from studies in mouse models and cells in Petri dishes, one or two small studies in humans have been done, but certainly more information is needed. Broccoli provides dietary fibre content, which is always important for people with IBS. It contains good levels of vitamin A (more in the tops than the stalks), Vitamin C (but this will depend on how long the broccoli is cooked) and vitamin K.

What are the effects on the colonic microbiome? Well, in a small study broccoli consumption altered the variety of Firmicutes (reduced) and Bacteroides (increased) although it is really too early to say if this is beneficial in IBS or for those following the low fodmap diet. Interestingly Firmicutes have been found to be increased in people with IBS and reduction in the numbers of Bacteroides – perhaps this just represents people with IBS reducing consumption of those foods that are suggested widely on social media to increase symptoms, such as cruciferous vegetables. It would be interesting to know if including broccoli amounts recommended in the low fodmap diet improves these bacteria numbers and whether this is clinically significant.

What broccoli is unlikely to do:

  1. Detox your body – your liver, kidneys and lungs are all you need for this.
  2. Reduce ‘inflammation’ we don’t have enough information that broccoli has any effect for this unspecific term.
  3. Reduce pain in fibromyalgia

I suggest cutting off the stem of the broccoli as close to the head as possible and discarding (or using for other members of the family or feeding to rabbits), then trimming the stalks contained within the base of the head – you can then weight the stems and calculate how much to add to the dish per portion.

What other cruciferous Brassicaceae vegetables are good to include in the low fodmap diet? Pak Choy, choy sum, kale, white cabbage and red cabbage – so do include these as well as other low fodmap vegetables – remember variety in the diet is best!

Now for the recipe:

Vegan broccoli and pine nut pasta – Low FODMAP

Ingredients

300g Gluten free pasta

40g Pine nuts

1 head of broccoli

2.5 cm square of Vegusto Prosociano

1 Tablespoon of garlic infused oil

A few basil leaves

Seasoning to taste

Method

Chop the broccoli close to the head and then into small ‘trees’

Cook the pasta in boiling water using the packet directions adding seasoning

Add 1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil to a pan and roast the pine nuts.

Add the basil, cooked pasta and broccoli to the pan with a tablespoon of water the pasta was cooked in.

Combine and serve with a sprinkling of the cheese for each portion

Serves 4

https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/broccoli-and-breast-cancer/

https://modalitypartnership.nhs.uk/self-help/livewell/topics/superfoods/is-broccoli-a-superfood ,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30317146 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4317767/

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Meat free Sausages – Low fodmap

This recipe was devised as a result of trying to find low fodmap meat-free sausages and failing to find a suitable option easily. They are very tasty – although they do not taste the same as standard sausages – perhaps they are better as a result, give them a try and see! Just in time for meat-free Monday.

Ingredients

100g walnuts

2 slices of vegan gluten free bread

90g celeriac

190g roasted peppers

1/4 teaspoon of asafoetida

1/4 teaspoon of paprika

salt & pepper to taste

Method

Peel and chop finely or grate the celeriac. Add all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz till fine. This should be a thick paste texture, but it will depend on the size of the slice of bread, just add more bread if it is too thin. Dust gluten-free flour on your hands then roll handfuls of this mix into a sausage shape, or they can also be rolled into balls if preferred. Shallow fry in vegetable oil and serve. It couldn’t be easier really!

This recipe was made at the end of a day out at The Piece Hall at Halifax – as the pictures show below, we had a great day out, but it was freezing!

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