Category: Recipes

Summer is here, gardens are flourishing, and it’s the perfect time to enjoy a wide variety of salads. With the right energy-dense, low histamine foods, salads can even be the main event. After all, sometimes it’s just “too hot to cook.” While some may be thinking, rabbit food? Is she serious? After all the fun foods I had to take out, now she’s pushing salad on me. 

You’re absolutely right, I am.

Having antioxidants at every meal is really important for preventing histamine inflammation, and along with juicing, is largely responsible for my being able to add so many foods back to my diet.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY SALAD

Yasmina’s Notes: If you don’t tolerate lemon juice, use your “sour” of choice. Add your favorite protein to make this salad a stand-alone entree.

INGREDIENTS

• Mixed mesclun leaves
• 1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Turmeric Dressing

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Mix or shake together dressing ingredients. You can also blend them together if you want a smooth dressing. Serve or drizzle with dressing. Enjoy!

BRAISED RED CHICORY & FENNEL SALAD W/WATERCRESS

INGREDIENTS:

1. 2 red chicory, cut into quarters
2. 2 fennel bulbs, halved and sliced
3. 1/2 cup watercress
4. 1-2 cloves garlic
5. olive oil
6. lemon (or lemon thyme), squeeze

PREP: In a pan, heat a little olive oil. Sauté the garlic till fragrant, add in the chicory and fennel. Squeeze in a little lemon (or some lemon thyme leaves).

PEACHES, BASIL, AND RED ONION

Yasmina’s Notes: If you don’t tolerate lemon juice, use your “sour” of choice. Serve this over mixed greens along with grilled chicken to make a full meal.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 peaches, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil (leaves torn if large)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Toss peaches with red onion, basil, lemon juice, salt, and some pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.

FENNEL SALAD WITH MINT VINAIGRETTE

Yasmina’s Notes: Sub the sugar with your favorite tolerated sweetener. If you don’t tolerate lemon juice, use your “sour” of choice.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large fennel bulb (or 2 medium bulbs)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon organic De Louis Dijon mustard (optional – higher histamine ingredient)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• 2 teaspoons minced shallot or onion

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a blender combine lemon juice, shallot, mustard, salt, sugar, and mint. Pulse to combine.
2. While the blender is running, drizzle in the olive oil until emulsified.
3. Using a mandoline or knife, shave the fennel into 1/8 inch slices starting from the bottom of the bulb. Chop a few fennel fronds and toss with the salad.
4. Pour the marinade over the fennel and toss.

GINGER CILANTRO SWEET POTATO SALAD

Yasmina’s Notes: If you don’t tolerate lime juice, use your “sour” of choice.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons lime juice 
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• ¾ teaspoon salt or more to taste
• ½ cup sliced scallions
• ½ cup chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring 2 inches of water to a boil in a pot fitted with a steamer basket attachment. Add sweet potato and steam until tender when tested with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove steamer basket and spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet to cool quickly about 15 minutes.
2. Whisk oil, lime, ginger, and salt in a large bowl. Add the potatoes, scallions, and cilantro and toss to coat. Refrigerate to cool completely, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

A FEW ADDED SALAD TIPS

• Use mixed greens/salad as a base to lay pasta on.
• Don’t forget about red lettuce. It has added polyphenols due to the rich color.
• Serve in individual bowls for European style.
• Run romaine hearts through the food processor for a French chopped salad style.

WE CANNOT LIVE BY SALAD ALONE

Well, we could, but variety is the spice of life. If you’d like to go beyond salads and get other recipe ideas, check out my complete histamine reset with recipes and lifestyle strategies to balance histamine levels and get your body on the path to healing: 28-Day Histamine Reset.

Sometimes we just need a snack. But with histamine intolerance and chronic inflammation, a lot of the usual go-to snacks out there aren’t a good idea. Packaged and processed foods add to the inflammation load and “healthy snacks” like yogurt cups, pickles, beef jerky, and dark chocolate are likely going to cause our histamine levels to skyrocket. What’s a person trying to heal histamine to do? Well, here are some great (and gourmet) low histamine snack ideas to get you started.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SKINS WITH ROSEMARY

Butternut squash suppresses IgE antibody production, thereby exerting antihistamine qualities. Also possesses anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory, and antidepressant action.

Cut a washed and de-seeded butternut squash into ½” long slices with the skin. Toss in a large bowl with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and 1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (1 tsp dried). Place on a lined baking sheet and add salt to taste. Then place in a 400 F (200 C) oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Take out and turn the slices over, and then put them back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

PLANTAIN CHIPS

These you can often find packaged, but I always make mine fresh. The ingredients should just be plantains, palm oil, and salt. Plantains are a good source of fiber and are considered a “safe starch” (lacking significant anti-nutrients) by researcher and MIT- and Berkley-educated astrophysicist, Paul Jaminet. I make them at home, cooked in olive oil. Just very thinly slice a couple of green/unripe plantains, toss them with some oil and salt, and place them, single-layered, on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 F (190 C) for 20-25 minutes, cool, and enjoy.

ROASTED CHICKPEAS WITH HERBS

Chickpeas are a good source of plant-based protein. If you sprout them, they’re also a good plant source of diamine oxidase (DAO), which is the enzyme that helps break down histamine. They are also a good source of anti-inflammatory compounds.

And did you know there are other colors of chickpeas besides beige? It’s true. Chickpeas can also be found in green, red, rust-colored, yellow, cream, brown, gray, and black. Researchers found that the richly-colored varieties of chickpeas have up to 13 times more polyphenols, 11 times more flavonoids, and 31 times the antioxidants compared to the traditional cream or beige colored chickpeas. 

Roasting chickpeas is easy. Just toss a can of chickpeas (drained and dried as well as you can) with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, sea salt or garlic salt (if tolerated), and your choice of low histamine fresh or dried herbs. Chopped fresh rosemary is great, or try dried oregano. Bake at 350 F (176 C) for 45-50 minutes.

Save the chickpea water. It’s called aquafaba, and it can be used as an egg substitute for those with egg allergies, vegans, the frugal, and the unprepared (not an egg in the house). You just use 3 Tbsp chickpea water per egg needed and blend it up using a hand mixer. Voila, an egg. You can also try it in my healthy marshmallow cream recipe, found here.

LENTIL CHIPS

If you don’t mind a little kitchen time (which turns out to be essential if you have histamine intolerance), these pita-style chips are well worth the effort. As with all my recipes, these chips are not only low histamine approved, they are packed with all kinds of healing ingredients. There’s antihistaminic quercetin in the onion, garlic, coriander, thyme, and basil and additional anti-inflammatory compounds in the onion, garlic, coriander, thyme, basil, and olive oil. These lentil chips are a great accompaniment to an antihistamine soup or salad. Find the recipe on this post.

SWEET POTATO SHOESTRING FRIES

Sweet potato is high not only in the antihistamine flavonoid, quercetin, but also in histamine-lowering rutin, and it has been shown to be protective against ulcers. You can find sweet potatoes in the traditional orange or Okinawan purple potatoes. This recipe would be fun with a mix of both so that you get purple and orange shoestrings.

Sweet potatoes can either be spiralised, if you have a spiraliser, or simply julienned (hand sliced in really thin strips or using a julienne kitchen tool). Allow one large sweet potato per person. When the sweet potatoes are in strings, toss them with olive oil, season with thyme, just salt, or your choice of herb, and bake in a 350 (190 C) or 400 F (200 C) oven (hotter if thicker slices) for 15 minutes in a single layer. Take out, toss them/move around a bit, and bake for another 15 minutes until done but not burned. Let cool a few minutes and enjoy.

ANTIOXIDANT RICH POPCORN

Nope, not a typo, I said popcorn. Unless you have an allergy, or a cross reaction with another food group, blue or purple antioxidant rich popcorn made at home in an air popper could absolutely work for you. I do not include corn in my diet, with this one exception, and only maybe once every few months.

I use an air popper, then I lightly spray the popcorn with a little olive oil so the Himalayan salt and a little onion powder (I don’t use this in cooking, just on my popcorn) will stick to it. I brown bag this stuff to the movies! My friends think it’s hilarious thankfully, and there’s always a few stray hands dipping into my bag, so I must be doing something right.

Can’t emphasise enough that this is a treat, and I did not do it in the first few years of being on the diet. But it was my choice to be super duper strict, and I don’t know that I’d chose that path again.

You can order blue and purple popcorn online, I get mine delivered from an Amish farm in California.

COCONUT CREAM WITH BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients:

2 young Thai coconuts, meat scraped out and water separated

OR 2 cans of coconut cream/milk turned over and chilled overnight and 1/4 – 1/2 cup young Thai coconut water

optional

pinch salt (brings out the sweetness)

pinch raw vanilla powder (is fermented but a pinch was always fine for me)

Fresh blueberries as a garnish and extra quercetin boost

1/4 cup coconut nectar or your choice of liquid sweetener

Directions:

Place the young Thai coconut meat in a blender with the water, pinch of salt, and vanilla and process for about five minutes till smooth. You can also do this in a food processor.

If using canned milk, remove cans from the fridge and flip over. Open the can and scrape out the hard coconut cream and place in a blender with the rest of the ingredients.

Top with a few fresh blueberries and enjoy.

CAULIFLOWER FLORETS IN PESTO

Toss cauliflower florets in the following pesto sauce and roast at 400 F (200 C) for 15 minutes. Then take out, stir, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and enjoy.

Antihistamine Pesto Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil (or other tolerated oil)

1-2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup pine nuts or almonds

salt and pepper

Directions:

Grab your blender’s spice mill attachment if you have one; otherwise, use your food processor. Add the washed basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, and nuts. I was told pine nuts are alright histamine-wise, but I would advise trying a couple first unless you have had anaphylactic episodes – in which case, be safe and go nut free! Pulse the mixture until it’s still a little coarse.

Because I’m most interested in food’s healing properties, I’ll often use holy basil instead of sweet/European varieties. Read all about holy basil here.

———————- REFERENCES ————————

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:8031259

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16390172

http://www.functionalfoodscenter.net/files/50426782.pdf

Along with histamine issues can come a lot of digestive distress, including acid reflux. Recent research revealed that histamine and acid reflux are linked, and that diet works better than medications at resolving it (read the post here). Seems like a great time to share my favourite “nip acid reflux in the bud” tea made up of some wonderful ingredients that you can easily find online or at your local organic grocery store. 

ANTIHISTAMINE & ACID REFLUX FIGHTING TEA

Please bear in mind that a cup of tea is unlikely to resolve acid reflux. What’s needed are real diet changes and a commitment to nutrition, as well as identifying possible repeat triggers. And remember, we can react to anything, so please check with someone before adding anything new to your diet if you’ve had moderate to severe reactions in the past.

This tisane (herbal tea) is made up of:

1) Pukka Herbs’ “Three Tulsi Tea.” This herbal blend is made up of Green Rama Tulsi Leaf (45%), Purple Krishna Tulsi Leaf (45%), and Lemon Vana Tulsi Leaf (10%). While other brands will certainly do, I’ve found this one to be the best tasting and so I scoop up massive quantities of it when I travel to London. You can order it online, but Organic India in the US make a very decent tea. 

2) Fresh ginger root slices (to taste)

3) Nigella sativa whole seeds

BENEFITS OF TULSI TEA

I’ve talked about tulsi (otherwise known as holy basil) in previous posts as one of my favorite go-to anti-inflammatory and antihistamine herbs: Holy Basil! Anti-inflammatory and Antihistamine Superstar. I love using the fresh herb in cooking but the dried herb as a tea is equally delicious and restorative.

Beyond being a potent antihistamine that has been shown to be comparable to the antihistamine drug, Ranitidine (trade name Zantac), this “Queen of Herbs” also has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The essential oil distilled from tulsi showed strong antioxidant effects in studies due to its high eugenol content — the same constituent that is high in clove bud essential oil.

Other compounds found in tulsi were found to be super anti-inflammatory substances. In fact, depending on the dosage, tulsi is comparable to the Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), Ibuprofen, Naproxen, and Aspirin. And while aspirin can cause stomach ulcers, tulsi can prevent them. I like the side benefits of tulsi much better than the side effects of those drugs. And besides all that, it’s absolutely delicious — a great addition to a nutrient-rich, whole foods diet.

BENEFITS OF GINGER

Ginger is another wonderful natural anti-inflammatory food to include on a regular basis. Studies indicated ginger is as effective as the NSAID, Diclofenac sodium (trade name, Voltaren), for pain. Not only does ginger not have the digestive discomfort that Diclofenac can cause, it’s actually soothing to the digestive system. 

Ginger is a well-known natural remedy for nausea and stomach upset. It has also been shown in scientific studies to be effective for acid reflux. While some people may choose to eat ginger chews, I don’t need the extra sugar. I love the spiciness it adds to the tulsi in this blend.BENEFITS OF NIGELLA SATIVA SEEDS

Nigella sativa is one of my favorite culinary solutions to histamine intolerance. These little seeds pack a powerful punch of anti-inflammatory, antihistamine constituents.

Nigella sativa, or black cumin seed, has been used in Middle Eastern folk medicine for over 2000 years as the “cure for every disease except death.” 

A short list of its properties includes: balancing blood sugar, as an anti-cancer agent, balancing the immune system, pain control, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, relief of spasms, increasing airflow to the lungs, liver support, kidney support, and stomach support.

In fact, studies show that a high dose of thymoquinone (TQ), a major active chemical constituent of nigella sativa essential oil, had comparable effects to the acid reflux medication, omeprazole (trade names include Prilosec and Zegerid). Not bad! That’s why these seeds are an important component to this tea blend.

You can read more about the many benefits of nigella sativa on these previous blog posts:

Nigella Sativa Seeds Treat Nasal Allergies Better Than Steroid Spray

Nigella Sativa For Allergies, Osteoporosis And Flatulence

RECIPE

Anti-Reflux Tulsi Ginger Tea  

1 bag Three Tulsi Pukka Tea

2 Tbsp sliced ginger

1/2 tsp nigella sativa seeds

Place all ingredients in a cup and pour freshly boiled water over the top. Steep for 15 minutes. Strain and enjoy!

For more delicious recipes with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties check out my cookbooks: Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook. 

Or even better, to do a complete reset with recipes and lifestyle strategies to balance histamine levels and get your body on the path to healing, I highly recommend my comprehensive 28-Day Histamine Reset.

————REFERENCES—————

Ahmad, A., Husain, A., Mujeeb, M., Khan, S. A., Najmi, A. K., Siddique, N. A., … Anwar, F. (2013). A review on therapeutic potential of Nigella sativa: A miracle herb. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 3(5), 337–352. http://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60075-1

Chaieb, K., Kouidhi, B., Jrah, H., Mahdouani, K., & Bakhrouf, A. (2011). Antibacterial activity of Thymoquinone, an active principle of Nigella sativa and its potency to prevent bacterial biofilm formation. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 11, 29. http://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-11-29

Drozdov, V. N., Kim, V. A., Tkachenko, E.V., & Varvanina, G. G. (2012). “Influence of a specific ginger combination on gastropathy conditions in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip.” Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, 18(6):583-588. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22784345

Kath, R. & Gupta, R. (2012). “Comparison Of Efficacy Of Ocimum Sanctum Against Gastric And Duodenal Ulcers In Animals.” The Internet Journal of Gastroenterology, 11(1).

Retrieved from: http://ispub.com/IJGE/11/1/14310

Kelm, M. A., Nair, M. G., Strasburg, G. M., DeWitt, D. L. (2000). “Antioxidant and cyclooxygenase inhibitory phenolic compounds from Ocimum sanctum Linn.”

Phytomedicine, 7(1), 7-13. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10782484

Sridevi, G., Gopkumar, P., Ashok, S., & Shastry, C. (2008). “Pharmacological Basis For Antianaphylactic, Antihistaminic And Mast Cell Stabilization Activity Of Ocimum Sanctum.” The Internet Journal of Pharmacology, 7(1).

Retrieved from: http://ispub.com/IJPHARM/7/1/6038

Trevisan, M. T., Vasconcelos-Silva, M. G., Pfundstein, B., Spiegelhalder, B., Owen, R. W. (2006). Characterization of the volatile pattern and antioxidant capacity of essential oils from different species of the genus Ocimum.

Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. 54(12), 4378-4382.

Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16756370

Yeh, A. M., & Golianu, B. (2014). Integrative Treatment of Reflux and Functional Dyspepsia in Children. Children, 1(2), 119–133. http://doi.org/10.3390/children1020119