This Was My First IBS Kitchn Post

This is my first post on my new ibskitchn.com website. How I wish I was posting a glorious pizza rustica or chicken scallopini, family favorites I happily wrote about in my old food blog. The same blog that didn’t admit that I, the happy blogger, ate not a single bite of anything I posted without rushing to the loo to suffer embarrassing repercussions. My recipes that dripped with olive oil, rich tomato sauce, garlic, onions, ricotta cheese was in fact, a death trap for my tummy.

Past Litany of Foods I No Longer Eat

So now, I have a new food blog, one that is as new to me as it is to you. I have put away the lovely semolina pasta, creamy cheeses, and fat cloves of garlic pressed into everything, while I try new dishes more tummy friendly and safer for us IBS folks. So here I am, along with you, on a website devoted to IBS safe and low-fodmap cooking. No more denial, which is now just a river in Egypt. lol

How Does This Compare with Chinese Takeout?

This low fodmap fried rice is mildly flavored compared to fried rice I get from takeout, but it fills that craving for Chinese takeout that comes over us all on occasion. If you are like me, you can’t have takeout fried rice because it is loaded with fodmap chemicals and fat that can cause an IBS flare, so I adapted this recipe from Eating for IBS, a cookbook I often reference for IBS food ideas.

Why This is Your New Go To Fried Rice

Everything about this recipe makes sense for us IBS folks. It is rice based – a soothing tummy ingredient that can cushion whatever insoluble fiber veggies you might want to add to it; veggies can be switched out to suit individual preferences; the liquids added for flavoring can be whatever works for you, or omitted and replaced by your own mixture without affecting the integrity of the recipe instructions. For example: I prefer using sushi rice, but I have used whatever is in my pantry when that was all I had and it worked out fine.

Lose the Bad; Keep the Good

Also, the original recipe calls for garlic and onion, which is not low fodmap, so I infuse my oil with sliced garlic and then remove the garlic and completely omit the onion. (The Monash University fodmap app gives directions for doing this.) I do add sliced spring onion, but only the tender green part and not the white. I desperately wanted to use the white part, but not so much when I remembered the inevitable trip to the loo. Use those visuals ,people, to keep on track.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (380g) cooked white or Brown Basmati rice (or your own preferred rice)

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced (used to infuse oil, then discarded)

2 Tbsp. (30ml) olive oil (or canola)

1/2 – 1 cup diced carrots

2 baby bok choy, medium inner leaves with white stem, diced up (fodmap safe)

15 frozen cooked shrimp, de-thawed

1 egg or 2 organic egg whites

1/4 cup fish sauce (use gluten free and low fodmap type)

3 Tbsp. (or more to taste) Gluten Free soy sauce (or just use all soy sauce)

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. (or more to taste) grated ginger

2 scallions or small spring onions, green parts only, diced

Dash or more dried chives

1 tsp sesame oil

DIRECTIONS:

Gather all your ingredients before starting the stir fry part.

Scrape the carrots. Then dice them into small dice. Set them aside in a small bowl.

Clean the scallions and peel the outer layer to expose the bright green and clear white of the under layer. Using only the light green part of the stem, slice into thin rings. Set aside in a small bowl.

Take out two inner stalks of the bok choy and clean them under cold running water. Dry them with paper towels and then dice them up and set aside in a small bowl or add them to the carrot bowl.

Place the frozen shrimp in a colander and run under cold water for five minutes. Next, pat the shrimp dry with a paper towel. You are going to stir fry them briefly, so they need to be dry to brown a bit. Set them aside in a small bowl.

Separate the eggs and save the yolks for something else. Place the egg whites in a small bowl and beat lightly with a fork until slightly foamy. Set aside.

In a measuring cup pour the fish sauce, GF soy sauce, brown sugar, grated ginger and sesame oil. Mix with a fork until slightly foamy. Set aside

Bring all your ingredients next to the stove where you can access them easily as you make your fried rice.

In a nonstick 10″ skillet, on medium high heat, heat the 2 tbsp. of oil until it is shimmering. Toss in the sliced garlic and with a wooden spoon or spatula, stir it around until you can smell its essence and it is slightly golden. Remove the garlic. Add in the diced carrot, and bok choy. (I substitute diced zucchini if I don’t have any bok choy.) Stir the vegetables for five or so minutes until they soften a bit. Add a bit more oil if you need to.

When the bok choy is wilted and green, and the carrots look softer (several minutes), add in the shrimp and stir them around in the mixture until hot. Don’t really cook them again since they are already cooked. (If you decide to use fresh uncooked shrimp, then stir fry the uncooked shrimp until they turn pink.) Stir in the scallion rings. Save a few for garnish.

Low Fodmap Shrimp Fried Rice ibskitchn.com

Add the fork beaten egg or egg whites to the bottom of the skillet and let them cook until slightly set. Then stir them into the mixture tossing everything around until you see the egg appears throughout the mixture somewhat like pieces of omelet.

Add in the rice and spread it over the entire pan pressing it down on the mixture and letting it stay pressed down using a spatula so it will brown a bit and stick together. Do this for 3 or 4 minutes. Then turn the rice and press it down again for 3 or 4 more minutes.

adding in the rice to shrimp fried rice pan

Adding the soy sauce to shrimp fried rice

Pour the liquid mixture all over the rice in the skillet and turn the rice until everything is coated and the color is a rich brown. Keep stirring until the rice mixture is nice and hot.

Take it off the heat and serve. Keep leftovers in a Tupperware in the fridge. Heat it up in the microwave the next day for a great lunch. This recipe serves one or two. Double it to serve 6.