Can There Even Be A Gluten Free, Low Lactose and Fodmaps, Panzanella Salad?
Dying for a salad but scared to eat one because of gluten, fodmaps, lactose and insoluble fiber? What’s an IBS girl to do? Today here in CT, it is spring like and I feel like having a salad for lunch rather than the crushingly carb-loaded foods I craved during this terribly cold winter. So what is safe to eat without bringing on a miserable IBS attack that might keep me in “il bagno” for the rest of the day? Try this gluten free panzanella salad, low in lactose and fodmaps, but with all the crunch, breadiness and yummy dressing of a regular bread salad,
Use Gluten Free, Fodmap and Fiber Safe Ingredients
My salad has vegetables that are soluble fiber as well as other low fodmap ingredients. I use the Monash University App to check and avoid high fodmap food and Heather Van Vorous’s cheat sheet listing insoluble (unsafe) and soluble (safe) fiber foods.
Choose Safe Bread: GF or Sourdough
I have always loved a bread salad, so what type of bread would be safe? If you are gluten intolerant, use GF bread. I am fructan intolerant, so I use a bakery sourdough bread from La Brea bakery that is just delicious, fresh, and yeasty tasting without the yeast. There is something so delicious about adding fresh bread cubes to an amazing vinaigrette made with yummy extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar from my mother’s pantry. (Today I look for vinegar with the “mother” to give it that authentic flavor of fresh vinegar bottled at home.)
Cheeses That Are Low In Lactose
If lactose is an issue, you might try cheeses that have little lactose such as : brie, muenster, camembert, gouda, parmesan, provolone, and cheddar. I find goat cheese tolerable, but you might not, so choose what works for you.
Use Low Fodmap and Soluble Fiber Veggies
Yesterday, I found some beautiful spring radishes in the produce section (radish is low fodmap too). In the fridge I have boiled chicken breast from my chicken soup making on Sunday, a head of organic lettuce, a fresh cucumber, goat cheese from Trader Joe, kalamata olives, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, Fody Food spices, and a good garlic infused, extra virgin olive oil – all great ingredients for a gluten free. low fodmap, but still delicious salad.
I checked my Monash University Fodmap App for the safe amount of all my ingredients before I added them to my salad bowl, then tossed it with my lovely but low fodmap dressing that I made myself.
Honestly, it was so yummy even though it did not contain garlic or onion. I did use the green part of a spring onion, but not the white part where apparently the fodmaps lie in wait to hurt us.
I toasted one slice of the sour dough bread, cubed it and added it to the salad bowl. I was tested for gluten and I am not sensitive to it, but the fructan in wheat can still hurt me; however, sour dough starter, that is in sour dough bread, kills the fructan, making it possible for those of us not sensitive to wheat, but sensitive to fructan, to eat white sour dough bread. Thank God!. I cannot live without bread.
For dessert, I ate two homemade meringue cookies. Everything I had for lunch is low fodmap and IBS friendly and it is safe for anyone reading this post who has IBS issues.
That is my new focus here on IBS Kitchn and I hope I can be a resource for folks like me who suffer from chronic IBS and never know what foods are or are not safe to eat.
Gluten Free Panzanella Salad
INGREDIENTS:
1 small head of organic lettuce (lettuce is fodmap safe, but it is an insoluble fiber, so know your limits or just eliminate lettuce)
3 0r 4 cherry tomatoes (3 are fodmap safe per meal)
2 – 3 red radishes, sliced thin
1/2 a cucumber, seeded and diced (1/2 cup is fodmap safe)
5 pitted Kalamata olives (15 small olives is Fodmap safe)
1 Tbsp. goat cheese , crumbled ( 1.04 oz. or 1 tbsp. is lactose free. To be totally safe, instead of goat cheese, use parmesan that has been aged over two years.)
1 Tbsp. (14.7ml) red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp.(29.5ml) garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil
2 shakes of a lemon pepper spice
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tsp (5.4g) dijon mustard
1 cooked chicken breast, diced up
1 slice sour dough bread, toasted & cubed
1 hard boiled egg, diced (optional)
1/4 tsp (5g) of sugar or 1 packet of Equal
DIRECTIONS:
In a small bowl, pour oil, vinegar, spices, salt and pepper, dijon mustard, thinly sliced green part of spring onion, sugar or Equal. Whisk together until emulsified into a slightly thick dressing.
In a large salad bowl, place cut up lettuce, sliced radish, diced cucumber, cubed bread and all other ingredients. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss well until everything is coated.
Pour yourself a nice, cold iced mint tea and retire with your yummy lunch to the sofa where you can watch something fun on TV while enjoying this delicious and hearty salad. The crunch from the bread, the bite and creaminess from the feta, the tart olives, the sweetness in the dressing – it is all so yummy that I am not deprived just because there are only fodmap safe ingredients. Yay!
Gluten Free Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. (29.5ml) garlic infused Olive oil extra virgin
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (14.7ml)
Fody Food Lemon Pepper Spices, two shakes
2 or 3 red radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp. goat cheese (or aged parmesan cheese, grated)
8 kalamata olives, sliced (15 small olives are fodmap safe)
- 3 - 6 cherry tomatoes (3 per meal)
1 small, cooked chicken breast, diced up
1/2 small cucumber, seeded and diced up
1/2 cup (21g) chopped green part of a green onion or diced chives or both
1 slice of Gluten Free bread or sourdough bread, toasted and cubed
1 head of organic lettuce (lettuce is fodmap safe, but it is an insoluble fiber so be aware or eliminate it)
1 tsp (5.4g) dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 hard boiled egg, sliced (eliminate if egg yolk bothers you)
1 tsp (5g) sugar or 1 tsp honey or1 packet of "Equal" or similar sweetener
Instructions
- DIRECTIONS:In a small bowl, pour garlic infused olive oil, vinegar, spices, salt and pepper, dijon mustard, thinly sliced green part of spring onion, sugar or Equal. Whisk together until emulsified into a slightly thick dressing. In a large salad bowl, place cut up lettuce, sliced radish, diced cucumber, cubed bread and all other ingredients. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss well until everything is coated.Pour yourself a nice, cold iced mint tea and retire with your yummy lunch to the sofa where you can watch something fun on TV while enjoying this delicious and hearty salad. The crunch from the bread, the bite and creaminess from the goat cheese, the tart olives, the sweetness in the dressing - it is all so yummy that I am not deprived just because there are only fodmap safe ingredients. Yay!
