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Pork loin with maple and mustard sauce – low fodmap

This is a great recipe for dinner parties with friends and is really easy to do! No one will guess that you are following a low fodmap diet at all. Often on the low fodmap diet people have a very dry diet without sauces so it is good to have an option that is less dry. You can serve this with boiled rice, new potatoes or low fodmap pasta choices and a green salad. I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

For the stock – 250mls of water

1 Inch of carrot chopped small

2-3 Celery leaves

A handful of black peppercorns

1 Teaspoon of asafoetida

salt

small 1 inch square of celeriac chopped small

1 bay leaf

For the rest of the dish

6 1 inch thick pork loin steaks

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

2 tablespoons of grained mustard

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Maize flour for dusting the pork loin

2 tablespoons of cream (suitable – but if you are very sensitive you can buy lactose free if you wish)

Grated lemon and tarragon to dress the dish

seasoning

Method

Add the water to a pan with the ingredients for the stock

Heat to simmering point and cook for 10 minutes

Drain off the solids and keep the liquid

Whilst the stock is simmering dust each loin in maize flour – add it to a plastic bag and shake

Fry the pork loins using the garlic infused oil till lightly browned in a frying pan

Add the stock and the rest of the ingredients (except the cream) to an oven proof dish.

Cover the dish and cook for 15 minutes then remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes to drive off some of the water.

Remove from the oven and rest the pork loin – add the cream to the sauce and mix well.

Serves 2-3 depending on your appetite!

Enjoy!




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Maple and muscat grape no bake cheesecake – Low fodmap

Love cheesecake and having problems with lactose intolerance? Then look no further – this recipe is for you! It is a simple recipe and other grape varieties can be used – but for a special dinner party then these muscat grapes do taste a little bit special and really marry with the flavour of the maple syrup used to sweeten this dish. The recipe is for occasional consumption as it is high in calories but as you will know from the other recipes on this website a small amount of the cheesecake can be consumed occasionally. Cheesecake is a wonderful flavour and dessert for a treat. Your dinner party guests will not suspect that you follow a lactose free or low fodmap diet.

Ingredients

2 tubs of lactose free cream cheese

50g maple syrup

1 packet of gluten free biscuits.

40g butter

2 sheets of gelatine

warm water

1 pack of grapes

Method

Crush the biscuits to a consistently sized small crumb

Melt the butter and add the biscuit crumb and mix well

Add to the bottom of a flan dish and flatten to form the base

Chill

Place the lactose free cream cheese in a dish and add the maple syrup (ensure that the maple syrup is free of added fructose syrup.)

Add the gelatin to cold water till soft

Remove and pour on some just boiled water 100ml – just enough to dissolve the gelatin.

Add the dissolved gelatin to the cream cheese mixture

Mix well

Add the cream cheese mixture to the top of the biscuit base and chill

Decorate with grapes and maple syrup drizzle.

Serves 8-10

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Maple Syrup

Canada-Day-–-Maple-Syrup

The Chemistry of maple syrup

A great infographic from compound chemistry about maple syrup http://www.compoundchem.com

Maple syrup is a sweet tree sap that is high in sucrose and low in other sugars, so it is suitable for the low fodmap diet. Maple syrup may be derived from a natural source but it is still a sugar and therefore should be consumed as a treat – more important perhaps when considering the cost! The syrup has lots of health claims attached to it and has been proposed by some to be a ‘superfood’ and to be superior to table sugar in nutrients. The additional minerals and vitamins that are found in maple syrup, when compared with table sugar, are also found widely in other foods consumed in the diet at much higher levels. So a healthy balanced diet does not depend upon maple syrup to provide vitamins and minerals. Maple syrup also will usually be used in small amounts therefore will not likely contribute massively to nutrient status. There is no such thing as a ‘superfood’- I have stated this before, some of you will be fed up with me harping on about it🙂. But I feel an overwhelming dietetic urge to repeat – superfood status is marketing concept to allow a high price to be attached to more unusual food items. Although maple syrup is derived in a way that might attract a higher price than other sugars, I don’t have too much of an issue with this – but please don’t call it super.

Other reported beneficial ingredients in maple syrup are Phenolic compounds, they are suggested to have an antioxidant effect – more evidence is needed to test out this hypothesis. Also, the recent proposed use of Maple syrup in prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, has only been shown in the test tube and animal models and not a randomised control trial (RCT) in humans – the gold standard method. Completing studies in the test tube is very different to the human body, which is much more complex. Therefore much more research in humans should be completed to study the benefits (or not) of the phenolic compounds found in maple syrup.

So my suggestion is – eat maple syrup if you want a low fodmap sweet flavouring and enjoy it for what it is – a flavoured liquid sugar, use it occasionally as a treat. The benefits are of course it’s low fodmap status and it does have a really nice flavour. Should you buy the pure version? Yes, using the pure version is advisable, cheaper varieties can contain fructose based sugars, so you should certainly check the label for ingredients prior to purchase.

Maple syrup is from Canada and is widely used in the United States but it is not so frequently used in the UK. Although with the development of the fodmap diet it is becoming more widely known. It can be used in recipes and goes particularly well with pecans, one of my favourite nuts! It is also commonly drizzled on pancakes and waffles.

What about other tree saps? Well birch syrup is produced from another sap that it harvested  – it contains fructose as one of its main sugars (42-54%) therefore this is not suitable for individuals with fructose malabsorption or on the exclusion part of the low fodmap diet.

pancakes with syrup

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