Tag: vegetarian

Fried Potato Omlette


Serves 1
Time: 15 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

1 large white potato (a)
1 tbsp canola oil (b)
2-3 eggs
3 cm or 7 g celery (c)
25 g dark green tips of leek (d)
1 pinch citric acid
1 pinch salt

Foodnotes

(a) Use white brushed, coliban, sebago or kennebec potatoes, or other large white potatoes with white flesh. Check the colour before buying brushed potatoes because they can come in yellow.
(b) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(c) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(d) 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. Thickly (double) peel the potato and then slice thinly
  2. Rinse the dark green tips of leek and celery and chop finely
  3. Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan on high heat
  4. Fry the thinly sliced potato until all the potato has started to go transparent and some is lightly browned
  5. Add the green tips of leek, celery, salt and citric acid to the potato and cook until the celery begins to go soft
  6. While the potato is cooking, separate the eggs into whites and yolks
  7. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy and then gently fold in the egg yolks
  8. Pour the egg mixture over the potato and spread evenly
  9. After a couple of minutes, flip the omlette
  10. When the egg is cooked through, remove from the pan and serve immediately
Personal notes

Usually the omlette falls apart in the flipping stage, probably because my frying pan is much larger than my egg flip, but even if it does, it will taste good.

This is my go-to meal when I’m short on time or resources, or cooking at someone else’s house. I’m actually surprised it’s taken me this long to get it up on the blog, but I guess I must have been more organised in the last few months! It’s good because the ingredients are things I almost always have in the house (especially now I grow my own leeks) and most of my family and friends have them too. If not, eggs and a potato are very easy to pick up at the shop. If citric acid and celery are not on hand, they can easily be omitted; likewise, if fresh chives are on hand, they make a nice addition. So the ingredients are readily available, it’s fast to cook and it’s filling – can’t ask for much more in terms of convenience! I most often have this for lunch on a Saturday morning when I’ve run out of food before doing the weekly shop, or as a light dinner if I’ve flown in late to visit my family and they haven’t had a chance to get to the butcher and buy some fresh meat for me.

I actually made this particular omlette a couple of weeks ago as I had a choir concert on in the evening and I wanted to bring a light dinner with me that wouldn’t require refrigeration for the day. I only managed one bite before the concert as everything was a bit hectic, but it was very welcome immediately afterwards. Because of the eggs, the omlette should be eaten the day it is cooked rather than as leftovers. Cooked eggs build up in amines if left for a day or longer.

This week I need to use up lots of eggs as one of my friends has given me some of her chooks’ eggs and I’m going away soon. I actually made quiche last week, so it might be too soon for another quiche, but perhaps some salads… Last time I tried to make an egg salad I decided to boil all the eggs at once and then freeze the last. I discovered that hard boiled egg whites do NOT freeze well. While the yolk maintains it’s original consistency, defrosted egg white turns rubbery and is quite unpleasant – an experiment that doesn’t need to be repeated. The quiche recipe won’t be appearing here any time soon either as I am liberalising some salicylates back into my diet and so the quiche was filled with high and moderate salicylate vegetables like jap pumpkin, zucchini, carrot and sweet potato (low FODMAP at 1/2 cup or 70 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App 2018). It was delicious though, and I don’t seem to have reacted!

Jacketless Potatoes


Serves 1
Time 1 hr 40 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~ vegetarian ~

Ingredients – potato

1 large white potato (a)
1/2 tbsp canola oil (b)
1 tbsp Nuttelex Original
1/4 tsp salt

Suggested toppings

15 g / 1 iceberg lettuce leaf
22 g / 1 red cabbage leaf (c)
8 g / 2 dark green tips of spring onions (d)
1 tbsp chives
12 g / 1/4 stick celery (e)
15 g / small handful of sprouted mung beans
20 g / small handful of bean sprouts
1/4 cup tinned chickpeas, well rinsed (f)
30 g / 5 green beans (g)

Foodnotes

(a) Use white brushed, coliban, sebago or kennebec potatoes, or other large white potatoes with white flesh. Check the colour before buying brushed potatoes because they can come in yellow
(b) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(c) Red drumhead cabbage is low FODMAP at 1 cup (89 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(d) Tip: re-grow spring onions
(e) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(f) Tinned chickpeas, well rinsed, are low FODMAP at 1/4 cup (42 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(g) Green beans are low FODMAP at 14 beans (75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C
  2. Thickly (double) peel potato
  3. Cover potato in canola oil and then wrap in alfoil
  4. Bake the potato in the oven at 160 deg C for 1 h 30 mins, or until a skewer passes easily through the potato and it is soft all the way through
  5. Allow the potato to cool slightly and then peel off the alfoil and cut up
  6. Place the Nuttelex on the hot potato and allow it to melt. Sprinkle with salt
  7. Rinsed and chop desired toppings and serve with hot potato
Personal Notes

This recipe is very versatile and can really be anything you choose. I’d suggest picking and choosing the toppings depending on what is available as they are not all necessary to make a good sized meal. I have also adapted this recipe several times – a particularly successful adaption has been to swap the chickpeas for left over (defrosted) roast chicken pieces – just be sure to defrost and add the chicken immediately before eating. Do not try and freeze the whole meal as the potato does not usually freeze well (speaking from experience!). If you want to make leftovers, I suggest storing the combined toppings and potato separately and in the fridge. When you are ready to eat it again, heat up just the potato and then add the toppings.

My favourite thing about this recipe is that is can be easily done with family and friends or while travelling. It is pretty hard to mess up if you have family or friends that want to cater for you. If you are camping, you can cook the potatoes in the fire (if it is fire season) and the vegetarian toppings mean you don’t have to worry about amines. If you are camping but it is fire ban season, or you need a quick and easy meal, boil the potatoes instead and serve with Nuttlex, salt and the same toppings. I had boiled potatoes with toppings on a recent Easter camping trip (photo below) and it worked really well.

Vegetarian Pasta Sauce


Serves 5-6
Time: 1 hr
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

80 g / 3 sticks celery (a)
2 large white potatoes (b)
270 g swede
170 g choko (c)
50 g dark green tips of leek (1 leek) (d)
250 g green drumhead cabbage (e)
180 g snake beans (f)
150 g of tinned lentils (g)
1 tbsp chives
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp citric acid
2 tbsp gluten free cornflour (h)

Foodnotes

(a) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(b) Use white brushed, coliban, sebago or kennebec potatoes, or other large white potatoes with white flesh. Check the colour before buying brushed potatoes because they can come in yellow.
(c) Choko is also known as chayote, see photos here. Choko is low FODMAP for fructans at 1/2 cup (84 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App, 2018)
(d) 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.
(e) Green drumhead cabbage is low FODMAP at 1 cup (94 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(f) Snake beans are low FODMAP at 1 cup (90 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(g) Tinned lentils, well rinsed, are low FODMAP at 1/2 cup (46 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(h) Use gluten free cornflour, also known as cornstarch, which is a fine white flour. Corn flour from wheat contains wheat and gluten while yellow corn flour or maize flour is higher in salicylates.

Instructions
  1. Peel potato (double peel), choko and swede, and chop into small 1 cm cubes.
  2. Rinse dark green tips of leek, dark green tips of spring onion, chives, celery and cabbage and finely chop, keeping them separate.
  3. Rinse snake beans and chop them into 2 cm lengths.
  4. Drain tinned lentils, rinse well and weigh out 150 g.
  5. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil in a large pot on medium-high heat.
  6. Sauté celery for about 2 minutes until it goes soft.
  7. Add potato, choko and swede to the pot and cook for about 3 mins.
  8. Add dark green tips of leek and the lentils. Cook until leek goes soft. If ingredients stick to the bottom of the pot, add more canola oil.
  9. Add salt and citric acid to the pot.
  10. Cover the vegetables with water and then cover and bring to a simmer for 20 mins.
  11. Uncover and cook for another 5 mins, until the potato is soft.
  12. At this time start cooking the pasta/spaghetti according to the packet instructions.
  13. Take 1/4 cup of liquid out of the pot and mix with cornflour to for me a slurry before adding it back to the pot.
  14. Add the cabbage to the pot and cook for 5 mins. At this point the sauce should be thick with not much extra liquid.
  15. Stir through the spring onions and chives and cook for another minute.
  16. Serve with pasta or spaghetti for your choice. As there is no meat in the sauce, it can be stored in the fridge for about 5 days, eaten immediately or frozen.
Personal notes

My favourite pasta is the Ceres Organics Rice and Quinoa range which has spaghetti, penne and fusilli. I think they have the closest taste and texture to wheat pasta. The Casare brand wheat free brown rice spaghetti is also good, as are other brown rice spaghettis, if you can find them. Gluten free stores or specialist shops in the markets are usually the best place to look. At the supermarket (Coles and Woolworths in Australia), I have found the only failsafe, low FODMAP, wheat free/gluten free pasta to be Orgran Buckwheat spirals. These are ok fresh, and not so good on reheating or defrosting. Unfortunately, they also look like a plate of brains! Not very appealing. I use them as a back-up if I don’t have a chance to go to a specialty shop.

I dislike the taste of swede on its own. If you have a similar problem, try chopping the swede into really small pieces to hide its flavour.

This is the first time I’ve used snake beans. They’ve just recently been approved as low FODMAP at 90 g, and are lower in FODMAPs than green beans. Snake beans are not a strong flavour and I think they worked well. The pasta sauce is also not really full of flavour, but it is packed full of vegetables!

Roast Vegetables

Serves as much as you can fit in the oven!
Time 50 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

large white potatoes (a)
choko (b)
brussel sprouts (c)
canola oil (d)
salt
Nuttelex Original

Moderate salicylate options

carrot
zucchini
sweet potato (e)

Foodnotes

(a) Use white brushed, coliban, sebago or kennebec potatoes. Check the colour before buying brushed potatoes because they can come in yellow.
(b) Choko is also known as chayote, see photos here. Choko is low FODMAP for fructans at 1/2 cup (84 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App, Feb 2018)
(c) Two brussel sprouts are low FODMAP for GOS (The Monash University Low FODMAP App, Feb 2018)
(d) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(e) Sweet potato is low FODMAP at 1/2 cup (70 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App and FODMAP Friendly App, Feb 2018 – inconsistency on which FODMAPs)

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
  2. Thickly (double) peel the potatoes, and peel the choko and (moderate salicylate) carrot, zucchini and sweet potato.
  3. Chop all vegetables into large chunks.
  4. Microwave the carrots and sweet potato for 1-2 mins depending on quantity.
  5. Microwave the potato for 3 min.
  6. Mix the vegetables in a bowl with canola oil and salt to taste.
  7. Place the vegetables in a roasting tray lined with baking paper.
  8. Using a teaspoon smear Nuttelex on each Brussel sprout and wrap up all Brussel sprouts together in alfoil.
  9. Bake all vegetables for 40-45 mins, until Brussel sprouts start to brown and the other vegetables become crisp on the outside.
Personal Notes

Watch out for overloading salicyates and stacking FODMAPs when you choose to combine multiple salicylate or FODMAP-containing foods (see Foodnotes). I usually have a full serve of potato and steamed green beans, two brussel sprouts and only a few pieces of zucchini, carrot and sweet potato in total. I don’t eat more than two small or one large piece of sweet potato. Unfortunately chokos are out of season until the cooler months, but at the end of last year, I was having just a 2-3 pieces as part of a meal.

In the last 5 minutes of roasting the vegetables, put some green beans (fresh or frozen) on to steam. Green beans are a great addition to a plate of roast vegetables. I like to use roast vegetables as a side to schnitzel or roast chicken, and use them in salads and quiches. Roast veggies are also great when you get home from work and want a mostly-healthy snack before cooking dinner.

Roast chicken with roast vegetables, showing my usual combination of vegetables (include moderate salicylates). The plate was made by Sarah Schembri Ceramics.