Category: Meat Dishes

Lamb Chops


Serves 3
Time: 40 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

6 lamb loin chops (a)
2 leaves of leek, dark green tip only (b)
1 tsp dried chives
1/4 tsp salt
1 small piece of parsely

Foodnotes

(a)Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Dark green tops of leeks are low FODMAP. They are also slightly higher in salicylates than the white part although suitable for failsafe elimination. Tip: re-grow the leeks.

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
  2. Boil a kettle full of water
  3. Trim the excess fat off the lamb loin chops
  4. Rinse the dark green leek tips and chop coarsely
  5. Choose a baking pan that will fit the 6 lamb loin chops packed cloosely and that is at least 3 cm deep
  6. Place coarsely chopped leek at the base of the pan and cover with lamb loin chops
  7. Sprinkle salt, parsely and dried chives over the lamb chops
  8. Cover the chops in hot water from the kettle
  9. Bake the lamb chops for 25-30 min until cooked through
  10. Remove chops from the oven, drain and serve. Either eat immediately or freeze immediately to avoid amine build up
Personal Notes

Lamb chops are best served with either roast vegetables or mashed potato/potato chips and steamed vegetables (green beans, two brussel sprouts, red cabbage and sweet carrots if you tolerate moderate salicylates). I am a fan of doing roast vegetables as the oven is at the same temperature and so I can cook everything at once.

This recipe is inspired by the way my Mum cooks lamb loin chops – baked with a bit of water and french onion soup mix. The leek and chives are intended as substitutes for the soup mix. A lot more water is required in this recipe to prevent the lamb chops from browning and increasing in amine content, so it is more of a cross between baking and steaming. I have not tested the lamb stock that is produced, but I imagine it is quite high in amines because of all the fat from the chops. Thanks for the inspiration Mum!

If you use cold water instead of boiling water, it will take about 40 mins in the oven to cook the lamb chops.

Roast Chicken

Serves about 5
Time 2 hours
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low or moderate amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

1 size 16 chicken (a)
1/2 bunch dark green tips of spring onions (b)
1 tsp salt
1 cup of cooked rice or 1/3 cup uncooked rice

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Tip: re-grow spring onions

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
  2. Rinse and cook rice, if not cooked already. I use a 3:4 ratio of long grain white rice and water, simmered on the stove for 10 minutes.
  3. Rinse dark green tips of spring onions and chop finely.
  4. Mix rice, dark green tips of spring onions and salt.
  5. Spoon the stuffing into the chicken and fold the skin over the opening.
  6. Place the chicken in a roasting dish and cook. For each 500 g of chicken, cook for 30 mins.
  7. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 mins.
  8. Pour out the fat (high in amines) and peel off the skin and discard.
  9. Carve the chicken and eat immediately or freeze immediately.

Personal notes

This recipe is based on the roast chicken from Sue Dengate’s The Failsafe Cookbook, which has been adjusted to be low FODMAP, so I have assumed it to be failsafe. However, the levels of amines in stuffing and meat cooked over a long time may be too high for some people – please discuss with your dietician.

If you are not eating the chicken on the day it was cooked, it can be frozen in thin layers wrapped in alfoil. The chicken is then easy to break up to the desired size and defrost quickly. I have successfully used the frozen pieces of chicken in sandwiches and fried rice or reheated with roast vegetables. A sandwich in Well and Good bread with iceberg lettuce and a fried egg is really good after a soccer match or for a light lunch.

My favourite side with roast chicken is roast vegetables and steamed green beans as it is really easy to cook the roast vegetables at the same time – put the vegetables in when there is 40 mins left on the chicken. Another good combination is roast chicken with chips and coleslaw.

Roast chicken is a staple of my diet, but it is time consuming – it really has to be bought on the day you cook it, and it is useful to make chicken stock from the carcass when you are finished. I tend to roast a chicken about once a month and then enjoy making all the recipes that need chicken stock in the next couple of weeks. Roast chicken is also a really good failsafe, low FODMAP meal that can be shared with others and is familiar to “normal” people. The stuffing is easily tastier than commerical (or supermarket) stuffing and is much less dense. I have had a group of friends over for dinner and served roast chicken, and have also brought a roast chicken, chips and coleslaw to a party where everyone else was getting pizza. The chicken went down really well, and an option that catered for quite a few dietary requiremements at once was definitely appreciated.

Chicken Schnitzel

Serves 4 large or 6 small
Time 20 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts sliced (by the butcher) into either 2 or 3 schnitzel cuts each (a)
2-3 eggs
quinoa flour
rice crumbs
canola oil (b)

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)

Variations

Use brown rice flour instead of quinoa flour
Use quinoa flakes instead of rice crumbs

Instructions
  1. Break eggs into a shallow bowl and beat with a fork
  2. On one plate, pour flour; on another plate pour the rice crumbs
  3. For each piece of chicken, covering in flour, then egg (wiping off the excess egg), and then crumbs
  4. Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat and add canola oil
  5. Pan fry schnitzel, flipping once and adding canola oil as necessary
  6. When the schnitzel is cooked through and golden on both sides, take it out of the pan and rest on a piece of paper towel.
  7. Eat immediately or freeze immediately.
Personal notes

Schnitzel is one of my staple meals – it doesn’t take too long and is easy to vary with a range of sides – usually roast vegetables, steamed vegetables or coleslaw. In the picture above I served it with steamed green beans and brussel sprouts (limit to 2), and roast potato with moderate salicylate roast carrot and sweet potato (limit to 1/2 cup uncooked).

It is easy to do several schnitzels at once and then freeze. Quinoa flour and rice crumbs is my favourite combination for a traditional schnitzel taste and golden appearance. Brown rice flour is an acceptable substitute. Quinoa flakes on the otherhand make quite a different schnitzel – more like a crispy coating – and instead of going golden, they go from cooked to burnt quite quickly. That said, quinoa flakes are still good and I have found them in Coles/Woolworths supermarkets while rice crumbs usually require going to a health food or gluten free store. I tend to use Orgran rice breadcrumbs or Casare rice crumbs. Watch out for gluten free bread crumbs which often contain soy flour (high FODMAP), maize flour (contains salicylates) or other off-limits ingredients.

The smaller chicken schnitzels are perfect in a chicken-iceberg lettuce-egg sandwich (with Well and Good bread). Extra (but not necessary) additions to the sandwich could be bean sprouts and choko chutney. I have these sandwiches often on the weekend when I have fresh bread on hand. The sandwich is particularly good to have after a sports match, when lunch is late and I’m really hungry and can’t wait to get home. If you put the chicken schnitzel in the sandwich in the morning, it should be defrosted by lunch… unless kept in a fridge or esky. I have spent more than one road trip defrosting my schnitzel on the parcel shelf in the car!