Don’t Lose Your Favourite Recipes When Starting the Low FODMAP Diet! Foods Online Australia

07 May ,2019

Don’t Lose Your Favourite Recipes When Starting the Low FODMAP Diet!

By Alicia Thackray, APD - Live Well Dietetics

When you start to follow a low FODMAP diet, you may realise that some of your favourite recipes are not FODMAP friendly. The good news is that you don’t have to lose these meals from your diet completely. Try some of the following simple swaps to get your favourite meal back on the menu.

Garlic and onion are often used as a flavour base for meals and, when removed, a meal can often taste bland. Try substituting garlic with garlic infused oil or cook a garlic clove in oil, then remove prior to adding other ingredients. The same goes for onion - try onion infused oil, or you can cook larger wedges of onion in oil and remove it prior to adding the remaining ingredients. For onion flavour, you can also use the green tops of spring onion. The science behind why infused oils are FODMAP friendly is that FODMAPs are water soluble, not fat soluble so the FODMAPs do not dissolve into the oil, leaving flavour without the FODMAPs.

Let's look at wheat fructans. Pasta is often a base in meals - you can change pasta to gluten free pasta or gluten free gnocchi. If it is noodles you need to change, wheat noodles can be changed to rice noodles or rice is fine to use also.

If the meal still seems bland, add flavour with herbs such as basil and coriander. Be careful with spices - even if they are not high FODMAP ingredients they can irritate a sensitive gut.

Let's change up baking recipes: wheat flour can be changed to lofo flour or lofo baking mix instead of self raising flour. Milk added in recipes can be swapped for lactose free milk. If honey is used as a sweetener, substitute maple syrup or simply sugar. Removing FODMAPs can reduce your fibre intake, so adding in some oats or chia when baking can be a good way to increase fibre.