I am trying again with Kale, using kale is a way of getting more cruciferous brassica vegetables into a the low fodmap diet. Why should that be important? These vegetables contain sulphur compounds such as glucosinolates, compounds that have been implicated in the prevention of colon cancer(1). These vegetables are also rich in nutrients such as vitamin C and folate – unfortunately these vitamins are water soluble so will be reduced by boiling in water. This is a bit of a problem as most kale is exceptionally tough to eat and needs a good amount of cooking! It does contain the fat soluble vitamin K, beta-carotene and leutine, which is retained. It is really important to eat a wide a variety of foods as possible when following the low fodmap diet to get as much good nutrition as possible. The following recipe is a good start! If you really don’t want to try kale in this recipe other low fodmap cruciferous vegetables are Bok Choy, white and red cabbage, turnip, swede, watercress and radish – not all suitable alternatives for this dish though. Enjoy!
Ingredients
200g Gluten free dried pasta
60 g grated parmesan cheese
2 heaped tablespoons of pine nuts
1 packet of basil leaves
100ml oil
2 chicken breasts
seasoning
Method
Make the pesto – blend together the pine nuts, basil, olive oil and parmesan.
Chop the chicken – take care not to contaminate surfaces with raw chicken – clean down well after chopping it, or buy chicken strips.
Add the chicken to a pan with 3 tablespoons of the pesto and cook till the chicken is cooked through
Start to cook the pasta in boiling salted water and add the chopped kale to the pan.
The trick with cooking gluten free pasta is to use the packet cooking instructions – overcooking will turn it to mush.
Drain the pasta and kale.
Combine the ingredients, add seasoning if needed the parmesan is quite salty so additional may not be needed
Serve, contains 2 portions
