Speckled Rice

A pretty salad, delicious when served with chicken, lamb or just alone! Make with or without fruit, depending on your tolerance levels.

Serves 4

2 cups rice, cooked

Handful of rocket lettuce

3 spring onions, green parts only, sliced

1 lebanese cucumber, diced finely

1/2 bunch mint, roughly chopped

1 pear, diced finely (optional)*

1 lime, juiced

150g fetta

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp garlic infused oil

3 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 lime, zested and juiced

½ tsp ground cumin

In a jar or small bowl, combine the garlic, vinegar, lime juice, lime zest and cumin. Whisk, then season to taste.

Prepare all the ingredients as required. Dice the pear and squeeze lime juice over the top to prevent browning. Combined rice, rocket, spring onions, cucumber, mint, pear, fetta, half the walnuts and dressing in a bowl.

Serve heaped rice with walnuts and an extra sprig of mint on top.


* Exclude pear for strict FODMAP (no fructose) diets.

Banana and Pear Oat Biscuits

These chewy biscuits are absolutely delicious and have a lovely balance of banana, pear and chocolate. I like the idea that they don't have that "gluten-free" consistency you often get with sweets using GF flour. For FODMAP-pers, I apologise - I made these biscuits thinking pear was okay when it's not. Will work towards more delicious FODMAP sweets soon!

Makes about 18

3 ripe bananas mashed
1 pear, cooked, mashed (enough to make 1/3 cup)
2 cups oats
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup lactose-free milk
1/2 cup dark chocolate bits (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Peel and dice pear. Place in a saucepan with a small amount of water (about 1/2 cup) over a medium heat. Cook until soft and slightly translucent (about 20 minutes), remove from heat and mash. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 180. Line a tray with non-stick baking paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another. Then, combine them together. Drop small piles of mixture on a tray. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool (they are a little sticky to get off the baking paper).

Duck, Pear, Fetta and Rocket Salad

Update: New dressing available for fodmappers (tahini is not FODMAP friendly, sadly)

I served this at home with a couple of slices of GF bread that had been fried in the residual duck fat in the pan while I was resting the duck. Z-OMG.

Serves 2


Duck, Pear, Fetta and Rocket Salad
After cooking the duck, pour the rendered fat from the pan into a sealable container and use for frying potatoes or pumpkin with your next meal.

1 large duck breast, skin on
1 pear (FODMAPs substitute for cucumber)
1 lime, juiced
Large handful rocket lettuce
Handful of green beans, blanched
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp Sesame seeds
100g fetta*

Preheat oven to 200C. Bring duck breasts to room temperature, pat dry and score skin lightly. Rub a little salt into the skin. Place duck breast in cold frying pan, skin side down. Place the pan on the stove and turn heat up to high and fry until the skin is golden. Turn and cook for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and place in the heated oven for a further 5 minutes**. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing into strips.

To roast sesame seeds, place on a plate and microwave for 30 seconds. Chop beans into 2cm lengths. Slice pear thinly and squeeze a little lime juice over pear slices to prevent browning.

Mix rocket, beans, pear, parsley, fetta and a splash of dressing in a bowl. Serve salad in bowls topped with slices of duck breast, drizzled sesame dressing and a sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds.


Dressing
Sadly not FODMAP friendly. Fodmappers can make an alternative light dressing with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar, a pinch of cumin, salt and pepper. Sesame seeds can still be added on top, though!

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 Tbsp garlic oil
1 pinch ground cumin
Salt, to taste
3 Tbsp Warm water

Whisk together all ingredients, excluding water, in a bowl. Add small amounts of water to dressing until you reach the desired (thin-ish) consistency. Let sit for 30 minutes before serving to let flavours settle.


* Exclude fetta for Paleo diets
** If using a plastic-handled frying pan, transfer the duck, skin side down, to a pre-heated baking tray.

Pumpkin, Roast Lemon and Fetta Quinoa

Serves 4


1 cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly
500g pumpkin, diced into 2.5cm cubes*
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
Large handful rocket lettuce
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
150g fetta

2 Tbsp garlic infused oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp cumin
Chilli
Preheat oven to 200C. Prepare a large tray with baking paper. Lay out pumpkin and lemon in a single layer. Place the tray in the oven, checking the pumpkin at 20-25 minutes and the lemon at 25-30 minutes. The lemon will release juices during the roast, then caramelise and turn a brownish colour. Once removed from the oven and cooled slightly, dice lemon rind finely. You probably want 1-2 Tbsp chopped lemon rind, depending on how much you like lemon.

Put 1 cup quinoa in a pot with 2 cups water. Bring to the boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked.

Combine garlic oil, vinegar, cumin and chilli in a small bowl. Whisk to combine. Season to taste.

Combine the cooked quinoa, lemon, parsley, lettuce, walnuts and dressing in a bowl. Combine. Add the pumpkin and gently fold through, being careful not to mash the pumpkin too much. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with fetta and a few sprigs of parsley for decoration.


* Japanese pumpkin is lower in FODMAPS than butternut, although the quantity of pumpkin per serve isn't particularly high, so most likely can be tolerated as a stand-alone item.

Egg and Jamon Butty

Amazing for hangovers

Serves 2

4 slices gluten free bread (or two gluten free bread rolls)*
2 eggs
3 slices jamon (or bacon)
1 tomato, sliced
2 slices low-lactose cheese (I used Maasadamer)
Olive oil

10 basil leaves, torn
2 Tbsp parsley leaves
2 Tbsp garlic infused oil
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
2 anchovies

Blend basil, parsley, garlic oil, parmesan and anchovies in food processor until combined.  Heat frypan to medium heat. Fry eggs, over easy. If using bacon, fry the bacon to desired crunchiness level. Remove eggs and place two pieces of bread in frypan to soak up any remaining oils.

Spread pesto over non-fried slices of bread. Stack on each sandwich: tomato slices, 1 1/2 slices jamon or bacon (I like it torn up a bit), 1 egg, 1 slice of cheese and the slice of fried bread (fried side down). Heat frypan to hot and put a little oil in the pan. Carefully place the constructed butty in the pan, pressing down with a spatula until the bread has turned golden. Flip (carefully) and repeat on the other side.

Remove from frypan and consume immediately.


Alternative Fillings
- Salmon, mayonaise, dill and tomato
- Roast capsicum, roast zucchini, pesto and fetta
- Pear, rocket and parmesan

* I used Gluten Free olive bread.

Salmon with Nicoise-Inspired Salad

Serves 2

Salmon
This isn't the most French method of cooking salmon, but it turns out pretty good. If you're French, use excessive amounts of butter and only cook skin-side down (no flipping). If you don't like the skin, still cook with the skin on and then remove it before serving, as the skin acts as an insulating layer in the cooking process.

2 skin-on salmon steaks, deboned
Olive oil
Salt

Let salmon come to room temperature. Dab salmon dry using paper towel. Rub a little salt into the skin. Preheat a frypan to a very high heat with a little olive oil. Place salmon, skin-side down, into the frypan and cook for one minute, pressing down on the fillet. Turn the heat down to medium and allow to cook for 5-8 minutes, or until the colour has risen half of the way up the side of the salmon. Flip the salmon and cook for 1 minute. If at any point you see white stuff (it's called "albumin") coming out the side of the salmon, it's over cooking and you should move onto the next step immediately.

Let rest for a few minutes before serving.


Nicoise-Inspired Salad
Yes, a traditional Nicoise Salad has the fish in it, but I like my fish on the side so ner. I also don't like potato.

Lettuce leaves
2 eggs, hard boiled, each sliced into 4.
6-8 cherry tomatoes, cut into wedges
Handful of green beans
2 Tbsp capers
1/4 cup parsley leaves, torn
Anchovies (optional)

Top and tail beans. Blanch (drop into boiling water for 3 minutes, then remove and immediately place into pre-prepared bowl of ice water. Remove once completely cooled). Cut into 2cm lengths.

Place leaves, cherry tomatoes, green beans, capers and a couple of tablespoons of the salad dressing in a bowl. Toss gently. Layer salad, egg and anchovies on plates, drizzle more dressing on top. Serve.


Nicoise Salad Dressing
If you're a dressing-fiend like me, this dressing is amazing on the salmon too! There's likely to be some leftovers - should keep in the fridge for a day or two.

1 spring onion, green parts only, chopped
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 bunch basil (about 20 leaves)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
4 anchovies
3 Tbsp garlic infused oil

Place everything into a food processor. Press go. Blend until smooth. If you don't have a blender (as I didn't when I made this), cut the spring onion, basil and anchovies as small as possible. Then combine all ingredients in a jar, seal the jar tightly and shake it like a polaroid picture. Shake it. Shake it, shake it.

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Zucchini, Salami and Fetta

Serves 2

Spiced Pork Tenderloin
You can adjust the spiciness of this recipe with chipotle powder. Also, for those with fructose tolerance, add a bit of honey into the marinade for extra noms.

350-400g pork tenderloin, trimmed
2 Tbsp garlic-infused olive oil*
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (or more if you like it spicy)
Two pinches of salt
Pepper to taste

Preheat an oven to 200C.

Mix olive oil, cumin, paprika, chipotle, salt and pepper is a small bowl. Cover pork tenderloin in mixture and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Bring the pork loin out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.

Heat a frypan to a high heat. Add a little olive oil to the pan. Brown pork loin all over. Transfer the pork to a non-stick oven-proof dish and place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees. If you do a test cut in the pork, it should be just pink in the middle.

Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Leftover pork can be used in a delicious sandwich or salad tomorrow.


Zucchini, Salami and Fetta
Delicious, light and simple. Be careful not to overcook the zucchini as it becomes a touch mushy.

1-2 large zucchini, sliced into thin ribbons**
100g salami, cut into strips or chunks
1 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
100g feta, crumbled
Garlic infused olive oil*

Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add salami. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add zucchini. Cook, tossing, for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Drain excess liquid and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add parsley, feta and salt/pepper if desired. Combine and serve.


* This is good for low FODMAPS. As a high FODMAP alternative, crush 2 garlic cloves and use regular olive oil
** This delicate-looking ribbon thing can be achieved using a potato peeler. If you don't have a potato peeler, go and buy one... otherwise you might end up with some kind of hodge-podge of bits and pieces from using the large side of a grater instead. Exhibit A: