Low FODMAP Pork Stir-fry

If you don't tolerate any amount of soya whatsoever substitute the soy sauce for white wine vinegar. Beansprouts are low FODMAP but not everybody can digest them, if that it's your case try using water chesnuts instead.

Ingredients:

• 300g pork fillet, cut in thin strips
• 1 small red pepper, cut in julienne
• 1 carrot, cut in julienne
• 100g pineapple chunks
• 10g ginger
• 40g beansprouts (or water chesnuts)
• 1 spring onion (green part only), sliced

For the sauce:

• 2 tblsp Tamari (wheat free) soy sauce (or white wine vinegar)
• 150ml pineapple juice
• 1 tsp cornflour

Method:

Season the pork strips with salt and pepper. Prepare the sauce mixing all the ingredients. Heat a wok with a little oil. Once hot add the ginger and the pork. When the meat starts to brown add the pepper, spring onion and carrot. Cook for a few minutes, then add the beansprouts and the pineapple. Stir in the prepared sauce, mix well and let it thicken for a few more minutes.

Serve with rice or brown rice vermicelli noodles.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

Sweet Corn Semolina

If you have read the recipe for polenta this is just a sweet version using fine corn semolina (polenta is coarse cornmeal). You can find it in the Polish shops. It reminds me of a Spanish dessert called “membrillo” made with quinces. I wonder if quinces are low FODMAP... Anyway, I love having a slice of this semolina paste with a cup of coffee whenever I'm craving something sweet.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 cups of rice milk
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup of dairy-free margarine
• 2 cups of fine corn semolina

Method:

Pour the sugar, milk and water into a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Melt 1 cup of butter in a second saucepan, add 2 cups of semolina and stir over a medium heat until is golden brown. Combine the milk mixture and the semolina. Cool.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

Macaroons

Macaroons are so easy to make... If the mixture is too sticky to handle chill it in the fridge for half an hour. Don't overcook them or they will become very hard, they will still taste lovely but I prefer them chewy in the middle.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 175g ground almonds
• 175g caster sugar
• a few drops of almond essence

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold in the almonds, sugar and almond essence. Roll the mixture into small balls and arrange in 2 baking trays lined with baking paper.  Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

You can substitute the almonds for shredded coconut, a mixture of ground almonds and coconut or ground almonds and ground walnuts.
Note:  I have read somewhere that they taste better if you preheat the oven to 130C and bake it in a very low oven for approximately 40 minutes. I haven't tried it yet, though.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

Courgette and Walnut Cake without gluten or dairy

I have been wanting to make a bread using courgettes for ages. There are lots of recipes on the internet but I settled for this recipe adapted from the book “Sweet Food”. This cake didn't go down well with my son, he didn't like it, and my husband didn't even want to try it once he found out there were courgettes in it! He doesn't have a problem with carrot cake though... But I do have to say that carrots are a lot sweeter than courgettes. I quite liked it but the next time I will try to make a bread rather than a cake.

Ingredients:

• 150g chopped walnuts
• 500g grated courgettes
• 250ml sunflower oil
• 330g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 310g self-raising flour
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C. I used a 2lb silicone loaf so I wouldn't have to grease any tins and there was so much dough left over I made muffins as well.

Put the courgettes, oil, sugar, eggs and 100g of walnuts in a big bowl. Mix well. Add the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour the mixture in a tin and scatter the rest of the walnuts on top. Bake for 1 hour. Leave to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before cooling onto a wire rack. 

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

 

Gluten & Dairy Free Chocolate Custard

This chocolate custard tastes just like the Alpro custard I used to buy but without the soya! It's delicious...

Ingredients:

• ½ litre almond milk
• 3 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 2 tblsp dairy/gluten free cocoa powder

Method:

Whisk the eggs with the cocoa powder. Pour the milk, sugar and egg mixture in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then simmer on a low heat, stirring all the time, for 3 or 4 minutes until it thickens (don't worry if it doesn't look very thick, it will get thicker as it cools). Leave the custard to cool, stirring from time to time. Divide it into 4 cups and let it cool in the fridge overnight.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

Dairy/Egg/Gluten/ Nut Free Cake

Yesterday was one of those days when there was nothing in the kitchen. I didn't have any biscuits, cakes or even eggs to make some! I really wanted something sweet so I decided to try this dairy, egg, gluten and nut free recipe from the back of a self-raising gluten free flour packet. I use Doves Farm flour because it doesn't have any soy flour and it's also very reasonably priced.

The cake turned out to be quite small and a little on the tough side but still tasty. The recipe recommends to cut it in half horizontally after cooling it and spread on half with jam, place the other half on top and sieve icing sugar over the top. I think the next time I make this recipe I will make it into scones...

Ingredients:

• 125g sugar
• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• ½ ripe banana
• 150g gluten free self-raising flour
• 4 tbsp water
• 1 tsp oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C. Lightly oil or greaseproof line a 18cm round cake tin. In a bowl beat together the sugar, oil and vanilla. Peel and mash half a banana then beat this into the sugar mixture. Add the flour and water and mix well. Turn the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Bake in a preheated oven for 35 minutes. 

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

 

Low FODMAP Celery and Potato Soup

A few days ago I picked up a whole head of celery for 10 cents! It was obviously marked down because of its “use by” date but it was still very firm and of a dark green colour. So I bought it even though I already had some at home. I was looking at all that celery today, wondering how to use it up before it went yellow and soft and I decided to make a soup. It was lovely. My son ate all his soup but I made sure I sieved it to get rid of any stringy bits.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole head of celery, roughly chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 carrot (optional)
• 1 litre of water
• salt and pepper

Method:

Bring the water to the boil and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes. Blend.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

Lazy Low FODMAP Vegetable Curry

I have to confess that I have a bit of trouble getting my 5-a-day. Now and again I will make a vegetable curry just to make sure I eat some! And because I like my veggies covered in creamy sauces...

This curry is very mild but feel free to add more spices or chillies if you like your curry hot.

Ingredients:

• 1 courgette, diced
• 1 aubergine, diced (I peel my aubergines because I find the skin a bit tough but you can leave it on)
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1x400g chopped tomatoes can
• 200ml coconut milk
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tblsp paprika
• 2 tblsp fish sauce
• 1 cup of stock or water
• salt

Method:

Pour all the ingredients into a big pot and cook for half an hour or until the vegetables are soft. Rectify the seasoning if necessary.

www.meandmyibs.blogspot.com

Lemon Polenta Cake

I made this cake last week but the weather has been so nice that I haven't got near a computer until today. We don't get sunshine and heat very often in this country so when the sun comes out everything else must wait, you never know when it will happen again!

I have seen several versions of this cake on the internet but this one is from a book called Healthy Gluten-free Eating from Darina Allen. It keeps well and it's very rich so a little goes a long way...

Ingredients:

• 225g dairy-free margarine
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g ground almonds
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, ligthly beaten
• grated rind of 2 lemons and the juice of 1 lemon
• 110g fine cornmeal (polenta)
• 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• pinch of salt
  Method:

Preheat he oven to 160°C. Brush a 23cm spring-form cake tin with a little butter and flour the tin with rice flour. Cut out a round of parchment paper for the base of the tin. In a large mixing bowl beat again until light and creamy. Stir in the ground almonds and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, a little at a time, and beat thoroughly between additions. Fold in the lemon rind and juice, cornmeal, gluten-free baking powder and salt. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and remove the paper.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

 

Tahini Paste

I've had a jar of sesame seeds in my cupboard for ages. I have tried using them as a coating for chicken goujons but they always burn and leave a bitter aftertaste. So I decided to make my own tahini paste. Tahini paste is normally used in hummus which is of course out of limits if you are on a low FODMAP diet as it uses garlic and chickpeas, but there are other uses for it:

• use it instead of peanut butter
• make a sun-dried tomato “hummus” with sun-dried tomatoes, tahini, oil and lemon juice (see pic)
• make Baba Ghanoush with pureed aubergine, tahini, lemon juice and oil
• make tahini sauce: combine ½ cup of tahini paste, 1 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of fresh parsley, salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Add water and lemon juice to the mix to your taste and until you get the desired texture
• use it as a sweet spread: mix the tahini paste with sugar
• use as a dip with crudite or roasted vegetables

Here is how you make the tahini paste:

You will need 3 cups of sesame seeds and ¼ to ½ cup of olive, peanut or vegetable oil but don't use extra-virgin olive oil.

Spread the sesame seeds out on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes to lightly roast the sesame seeds. Stir the seeds once at about 5 minutes and stir again when you remove them from the oven. Do not brown the seeds or they will taste bitter. Most of the commercial tahini is hulled tahini and therefore less bitter (the seeds are crushed and soaked in salt water to remove the hulls, maybe I'll try this someday...). Pour the toasted sesame seeds into a food processor with the knife blade and on a high speed. Then pour in the olive oil and blend until smooth, adding more oil 1 tablespoon at a time if the paste seems too thick. The blending took about 10 minutes and I had to scrape the edges every couple of minutes or so. Store it in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com

www.meandmyibs2.blogspot.com