This is a great side dish that’s full of fiber and turmeric, an antihistamine spice that can sometimes be difficult to incorporate into western pallets. I serve it over mashed potatoes or alongside roasted chicken. Make sure to use napa cabbage in particular, which is a more delicate variety than traditional cabbage.
You’ll need:
3 leaves napa cabbage
1 large or 2 small carrots, washed and peeled
1/2 white onion
1 clove raw garlic
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon honey (optional)
Prep your veggies: cut your onion into thin rings, mince your garlic, cut your cabbage leaves into 1/4-1/8 inch slices (leaves and stems included), and use a peeler to sliver off your carrots into long ribbon strips.
Melt your coconut oil in a stainless steel pan. When it’s liquid, add your onions and garlic and sautee over medium heat until translucent.
Sprinkle your turmeric and ginger overtop the onions and mix.
Add the cabbage and carrots to the pan. Continue to cook until the spices begin to form a paste at the bottom of the pan, but do not burn!
Add about a cup of water to the bottom of the pan and scrape up any stuck bits to create a rich yellow gravy sauce.
Add your honey if you’ll be using it. This isn’t necessary but adds depth of flavor.
Reduce your pan to low heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover your pan and check the mixture – if your gravy is too thin, let it boil off a little uncovered.
Traditional pasta salad is a glutenous, high histaminey stew of pickled and cured things left to be picked at in the fridge for days. For those on a low histamine diet it’s dangerous, but I’ve also missed it in the warmer summer months when eating hot meals feels hard.
This recipe is gluten free, vegan, low histamine, and good enough that I’ve had normal eaters give it the stamp of approval. I like it better than a plain old pasta salad with raw veggies, which I have a hard time digesting. The secret is in the ‘dressing’ you’ll make for the salad. The below amounts assume that you’re making it as a side or smaller meal for two people. I serve it alongside the protein of choice and some fresh greens. If you wanted to make it a complete meal, add in some low histamine beans of choice.
You’ll need:
6oz dry gluten free pasta – this farfalle is my favorite for this salad but tinkyada also works well. I’d stay away from anything corn or quinoa.
1 small zucchini, diced
1 generous red or yellow or orange pepper, peeled, deseeded, diced
1 bunch green onions/scallions, sliced and split into white and green parts
4-6 stalks of asparagus, sliced into thin rounds
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
Olive oil or oil of choice
2 cloves fresh garlic, smashed
2 teaspoons ground garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
White distilled vinegar (optional, if tolerated)
Salt to taste
Water
Fill your pasta pot with water and bring to a boil. Pour in your pasta and cook and drain. Spritz olive oil over top once drained to prevent the pasta from becoming a giant ricey goo clump. The idea is for your pasta to slightly cool while you cook your veggies. Don’t let the pasta sit in the fridge or out on the counter for hours.
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add all sliced veggies except for the green parts of the scallions. Stir them occasionally to prevent burning, but ideally you want them to brown just a little bit.
Add your fresh garlic to the pan and continue to cook.
Pour the water into the pan. It may hiss, which is fine, but make sure you stir up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan into the water. Use enough water that it doesn’t all evaporate off and remains deep enough to gently simmer your mixture, maybe 1/4 inch in the pan.
Let the pan mixture simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat, covered. If necessary, open half way through and add more water.
With a slotted spoon, strain all the veggies out of the pan and add them to your pasta, keeping the veggie liquid in the pan. This will become the base of your dressing!
Add 1/8 cup olive oil to the pan and stir it all together. Add dry spices. If you’re adding vinegar, this will give it a nice bite – I tolerate limited amounts and put in two tablespoons for this amount of salad. Add the vinegar and remove the pan from heat.
Chop your fresh basil and parsley into thin ribbons and add to the pasta mixture.
Add the raw scallion greens to the pasta mixture.
Pour your pan sauce over your pasta and stir it all to combine.
Getting an Instant Pot as a low histamine eater is honestly life changing. It’s one of the few appliances that I don’t mind giving space to in my tiny galley kitchen.
I put off getting one for the first 6 months of my low histamine diet – I didn’t grow up in a house that pressure cooked, and culturally we’re taught to fear and respect unattended cooking devices. When I did break down and get one, I got it like new off of Facebook marketplace. Turns out they’re a popular holiday gift, and there are lots of non-limited eaters out there who don’t want it and can’t wait to get rid of it.
But once I did get the hang of Instant Pot cooking, I started using it multiple times a week and bringing it with me on the rare occasion that I travel overnight. It’s excellent at time saving for some of my harder-to-cook staples and the best way to handle broth and soups.
Here are a few of my Instant Pot staple recipes that I can’t live without.
Combine 1 cup quinoa with 1 1/4 cups water in the pot.
Close the lid and set to pressure cook on high for 10 minutes.
Allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes, then vent the remaining pressure. Open and fluff with a fork. I like my quinoa well cooked and soft, and this amount of time fully opens the germ for easier digestion.
Wild Rice
Wild rice isn’t actually rice at all, but a kind of seed! It’s high in protein and freezes and thaws well. It can be pricey if you don’t know where to purchase it. Trader Joes sells bags for a reliably low price, as does Whole Foods’ generic brand.
Combine 1 cup wild rice with 1 1/4 cups water in your pot.
Close the lid and set to pressure cook on high for 30 minutes.
Allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes, then vent the remaining pressure. Open and fluff with a fork. Properly cooked wild rice will be soft and fully split open so that the lighter colored insides are visible. If your wild rice is still closed, don’t eat it.
Brown Rice
I’m that weirdo who always used to ask for brown rice at Chinese restaurants (back when I could eat at Chinese restaurants…) instead of white rice. It has more fiber, it holds you longer, and it has a nice nutty taste.
Rinse 1 cup of brown rice under water to allow the starches to drain, until the water runs mostly clear.
Combine the cup of rice with 1 1/3 cups of water in your pot.
Close the lid and set to pressure cook on high for 15 minutes.
Boxed or canned broth is off limits on the low histamine diet. Making your own with an Instant Pot is super easy, and also a way to ditch the sodium that a lot of pre-made broths carry.
Peel and roughly quarter two small or one very large white/yellow onion. Add to pot.
Add two stalks of celery snapped in half, as well as two larger carrots or several heaping handfuls of carrot peels, if you’re being thrifty.
Pour in 1 tablespoon of olive oil or your tolerated oil of choice.
Optional but nice – add the stalks from your shucked parsley, a bay leaf, and cracked black pepper to toleration.
Add 1 tsp of salt, or more to taste. Shake in a small amount of turmeric for color.
Seal your pot and set to pressure cook on high for 1 hour. Allow all pressure to release naturally.
Open the pot and remove vegetables and herbs. Your broth should be golden in color and have a nice neutral taste.
Beets are an anti-inflammatory superfood. I love how they taste but always hate the next day when you forget that you ate them and think that you’re dying when you go to the bathroom. *Gold Beets Have Entered The Chat* Like their purple siblings, golden beets are a root veggie with a nice earthy taste, but a little mellower. Best of all, they’re bright orangey yellow – no staining to your counter top or insides.
Peel your beets. If they’re larger, cut them into pieces. All beet pieces that go into your instant pot should be roughly the same size, maybe 3 inches across.
Place the metal trivet that came with your Instant Pot into the bottom of the pot, arms reaching upward towards the pot’s opening.
Pour 2 cups cold water into the bottom of the pot over the trivet.
Place your beets in an even layer on the trivet. Don’t stack them upwards.
Close the pot and pressure cook on high for 14 minutes.
Allow pressure to naturally release for another 15 minutes.
Manually release all remaining pressure.
Your beets should be fork tender. If they’re not, reseal the pot and cook for another 10 minutes. I’ve only had this happen once or twice, and I think it was due to under ripe beets because the cooked beets also had very little color or flavor.
Post COVID Kitchen 