Tag: stir fry

White and Green Stir Fry


Serves 4
Time 30 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

400 g fresh beef strips (a)
2 sticks / 60 g celery (b)
100 g green beans (c)
200 g green drumhead cabbage (d)
120 g (1/2 can) tinned chickpeas (e)
200 g bean sprouts
20 g / 12 dark green tips of spring onions (f)
3 tbsp canola oil (g)
1/2 tsp salt, plus to taste
1/4 tsp citric acid
1 tbsp golden syrup (h)
1 1/3 cups of uncooked white or brown rice (i)
water

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(c) Green beans are low FODMAP at 14 beans (75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018). Frozen green beans can be substituted for fresh green beans and used in the same way.
(d) Green drumhead cabbage is low FODMAP at 1 cup (96 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018). The dense white part of the cabbage works well for this recipe.
(e) Tinned chickpeas, well rinsed, are low FODMAP at 1/4 cup (42 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(f) Tip: re-grow spring onions
(g) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(h) Golden syrup is low FODMAP at 1/2 tbsp (7g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(i) Avoid basmati, jasmine or wild rice which are moderate in salicylates (RPAH Elimination Handbook, 2011). Medium or long grain is best for this recipe.

Instructions
  1. Rinse rice and cook according to packet instructions.
  2. Rinse celery and spring onions and chop finely, keeping them separate.
  3. Rinse green beans, top and tail and cut into small chunks.
  4. Rinse tinned chickpeas throughly.
  5. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil on high heat in a large wok.
  6. Add the celery to the wok and cook for ~ 3 mins until it starts going soft. Remove celery from the wok.
  7. Turn down the heat to medium, add more canola oil and add the beef strips.
  8. Continually stir the beef strips until they are sealed. If the meat starts to stick the the bottom of the wok or brown, add a small amount of water.
  9. Add celery back to the wok along with chickpeas, salt, citric acid and golden syrup and turn heat up to medium-high.
  10. Stir fry for 5 mins and then add the green beans.
  11. Stir fry for another few minutes until beef strips are cooked through, then add cabbage, bean sprouts, dark green spring onion tips and 2 tbsp water. Stir the fresh greens through the mixture and then cover for 5 mins.
  12. Serve stir fry on rice and eat immediately or freeze immediately to avoid amine build-up.
Personal Notes

This stir fry is carefully balanced to be low FODMAP despite containing quite a few ingredients that would be high FODMAP in larger amounts – be careful if you adjust the quantities in the recipe. If you would like the stir fry to be sweeter, I recommend adding maple syrup rather than more golden syrup. A nice addition to the stir fry is sprouted mung beans, if you can find them – I find them quite elusive in shops and markets. Sprouted mung beans contain GOS if eaten in large amounts (95 g is low FODMAP but 200 g is high in GOS, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018), so if you include sprouted mung beans, reduce the amount of chickpeas.

Bamboo shoots can be added to the stir fry in any quantity, but personally I am not a big fan. An experiment went wrong; I had an empty fridge and made a creamy pasta sauce with bamboo shoots as the only vegetable and ever since I couldn’t stomach the taste. Chicken can also be used instead of beef strips. This recipe works equally well with rice noodles (only ingredients should be rice) rather than on a bed of rice.

This stir fry leaves you with half a can of chickpeas. They can be added in small amounts in salads or turned into low FODMAP, failsafe hummus such as can be found here on Everyday Nutrition‘s website. Use canola oil instead of olive oil as suggested and leave out the garlic and infused olive oil garnish. Still tastes delicious! Serve with plain sakatas or other rice crackers (check ingredients), celery sticks, (moderate salicylate) peeled carrot sticks and (moderate salicylate) peeled cucumber sticks.

I have called this stir fry the ‘White and Green’ stir fry because when I started failsafe + low FODMAP, and when I was really strict on salicylates, it felt like all of my food was white, green or brown. That was before I discovered red cabbage (low salicylate) which definitely makes a stir fry seem more appealing.

Colourful Stir Fry

serves 5
Time ~ 35 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

300 g diced chicken, or 3 skinless thigh fillets (a)
75 g or 2 sticks celery (b)
150 g green beans (c)
170 g bean shoots
150 g red drumhead cabbage (d)
150 g green drumhead cabbage (d)
9 dark green tips of spring onions (e)
2 tbsp canola oil (f)
1 tbsp homemade cashew paste (g)
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp citric acid
200 g thick rice noodles (h)
Water

Moderate salicylate optional additions

1 carrot

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(c) Green beans are low FODMAP at 14 beans (75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018). Frozen green beans can be substituted for fresh green beans and used in the same way.
(d) Red and green drumhead cabbage are low FODMAP at 1 cup (~90 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(e) Tip: re-grow spring onions
(f) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(g) Cashew paste (100% cashew) is low FODMAP at 2 tsp (10 g, FODMAP Friendly App). Commerical cashew pastes with lightly roasted cashews are moderate in amines.
(h) Only ingredient in rice noodles should be rice

Instructions
  1. Rinse celery and chop finely
  2. If using carrot (moderate salicylate), double peel and slice into thin strips
  3. Top and tail green beans if using fresh beans, and chop into small pieces
  4. Cut out hard stems of cabbage and chop finely
  5. Dice chicken
  6. Heat a wok with 1 tbsp canola oil on moderate-high heat.
  7. Add celery, carrot (moderate salicylate) and ¼ tsp salt. Cook for about 4 minutes until carrot and celery soften. Remove from wok.
  8. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil in wok, still on moderate-high heat. Cook chicken until sealed, about 4 minutes. If chicken is browning or sticking to the bottom of the wok, add a small amount of water.
  9. Return celery and carrot to the wok, along with green beans, cashew paste, maple syrup, citric acid, ¼ tsp salt. Stir until cashew paste is well distributed, then add 3 tbsp water.
  10. After a few minutes, add bean sprouts. Put the wok cover on and heat until water is simmering. Turn down heat and allow to steam until chicken is cooked through.
  11. Cook rice noodles according to packet instructions
  12. Rinse and chop or cut green tops of spring onions
  13. When chicken is cooked through, add red and green cabbage and green spring onions to the wok. Stir through and then steam for 5 minutes. Add additional water if necessary to stop stir fry sticking to the bottom of the wok
  14. Using scissors, cut rice noodles into small pieces, then drain and add to the wok and stir through
  15. As this meal contains meat, serve immediately or freeze immediately
Variations
  • Beef strips instead of chicken
  • Bamboo shoots (add at the same time as green beans)
  • Sprouted mung beans (add at the same time as cabbage), limit to 50 g
  • Peeled choko (add at the same time as celery), limit to 100 g
  • Serve with long-grain or medium-grain white or brown rice instead of mixing in rice noodles
  • Moderate amine: firm tofu instead of chicken or in addition to chicken
  • Moderate amine: commercial cashew paste (100 % lightly roasted cashews)
  • Moderate salicylate: peeled zucchini (add at the same time as green beans)
Personal notes

Stir fry is one of my favourite meals – relatively quick and always delicious. There are also so many variations depending on what is available at the shop/markets in a particular week. This recipe originally had chickpeas as well (as seen in the photo), but the GOS in chickpeas stacks with the GOS in cashew paste, so I have moved the chickpeas to a new recipe (White and Green Stir Fry). As there are so many vegetables that can be included, this stir fry can also be made vegetarian very easily – I have done this before and it works well. The recipe above (with carrot) is my favourite combination so far.