My very first Balinese steps assured me I had found heaven on earth. The airport’s delightfully kitsch tourism ministry infomercials and the frosted mirrors transported me back to the 70s, not in a dingy, dirty way like it does in Bangkok’s seedy after-hours bars, but in a Brady Bunch meets the original Batman series, by way of the most beautiful spa you’ve seen.
Best of all? No chemicals used by the agricultural, um, industry. I don’t know if I’d call it an industry there, but I guess that’s the point. I began every day luxuriating in a chlorine free bath, followed by coconut oatmeal with fresh mango. Dinner was invariably spicy, served on a crappy plastic table, right on the beach. I’d wander into the water with my plate, eating as I waded through the ocean. Like I said, heaven.
Here on earth, we do the best we can to recapture those celestial aromas and flavours, usually on the kitchen stove, now with the benefit of knowing the effect of diet on our physical and mental well-being. So here’s my take on my Balinese favourite, Sambal, low histamine, for all us histamine challenged folks.
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Today’s lunch encompassed my favourite mealtime elements: this warm salad is anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine and prebiotic. I’m not devoting as much time as I should to getting the “perfect” shot of my off the cuff rummages through the fridge that are usually the result of either having forgot to go food shopping, or my uber healthy man getting to the veggies before I do! So I hope you’ll bear with me as I work out the kinks in my lunch-time photo shoots.
So here’s the salad breakdown: watercress has been show to have potent anti-histaminic activity, red chicory is both anti-histaminic and a prebiotic, which could help those of use with histamine intolerance or mastocytosis replenish our friendly bacteria supply without raising our histamine levels. Fennel is both a antihistamine and anti-inflammatory. This recipe is also high in Vitamin K which is our key ally in the fight against inflammation.
argan/almond oil (or your choice – olive works wonderfully)
2 tbsp almonds, lightly crushed
lemon (or lemon thyme), squeeze
PREP:
In a pan, heat a little argan oil. Sauté the garlic till fragrant, add in the chicory and fennel.
Squeeze in a little lemon (or some lemon thyme leaves).
If you have time…
Add in enough home made stock to halfway cover the food.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and let the vegetables finish cooking until tender. I like my veggies a little crunchy, but everyone is different. Once they’re good to go, remove the lid and raise the heat to high to boil away the rest of the liquid. Make sure to toss the veggies quite a bit, till you have a bit of a sauce. Garnish with thyme, watercress and almonds.
You can also serve this salad with warm goat’s cheese.
Non-low histamine modification:
Instead of almonds, warm up 1/2 cup of walnuts under the grill.
Add their choice of cheese.
Serve with the veggies.
It’s finally here! Man Food – a high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredient filled book geared towards guys, women who love to work out, yoga like they mean it, or just load up on healing nutrients. Features my personal shopping list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but feature a plethora of the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
My typical weekday breakfast is half a mango wolfed down on my way to the tube, so I usually go for broke on the weekends. Yesterday, however, the sun was out and we decided our top priority was to get out and enjoy it. I whipped up a batch of the DAO Support Book Breakfast Bars (recipe available in the DAO Support Recipe Book for sale in my online store) but added generous globs of homemade sugar-free blueberry jam in addition to the berries. They came out deliciously gooey!
Here’s the low histamine, sugar-free blueberry jam recipe that I added to the recipe book energy bars.
Low Histamine Blueberry Jam
Sugar free low histamine jam for DAO Support Breakfast Bars
1 cup blueberries
1 apple, grated
1/2 cup apple juice, fresh
1 tbsp lemon juice
Prep:
Place the washed blueberries and grate apple in a pot. Cover with apple juice and bring to a boil while stirring. Turn down to a simmer – liquid will thicken in about 5 mins. You can add some agar agar, about 1-2 tbsp depending on desired thickness. [shopeat_button]
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