I luuuurve liver. I'm not even ashamed. Given that it is easily one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet, I aim to incorporate it into my meal plan on a weekly basis. If you are following an AIP diet you will already be aware of the importance of consuming organ meat for its rich nutritional value, but this is one element of the diet where it can be easy to turn a blind eye. Understandably there's something about consuming organs that has the power to turn even the  strongest stomach. As the self proclaimed most squeamish person on the planet (believe me - I cant even sit through an episode of casualty) If I can handle a packet of liver, anybody can.
This is so super simple to make but absolutely packed to the rafters with scrumminess. Trust  me - you won't even remember what it is you are eating but your body will thank you for it.

Serves 2-4

You will need:

A food processor

Ingredients

For the Pate:

400 grams organic chicken livers
1 generous tablespoon of coconut oil plus extra for frying
1 tablespoon of dried thyme
A generous pinch of Himalayan salt

For the Jam:

1 cup of fresh organic blueberries
1 tablespoon of water
Generous pinch of ground ginger

Method:

To make the jam, add the blueberries, water and ginger to a medium saucepan and turn the heat to high. Bring to the boil and let this bubble for 4 minutes. As they soften, mash the blueberries down with a fork. Reduce the heat and cook on low for 7-10 minutes until the liquid is reduced and you have a thick jam. This will thicken further on standing.  Reserve this to one side to cool completely.

To make the pate, cook the livers in a little coconut oil over a medium/high heat. The livers should be nicely browned on the outside but still tender. Once cooked to your liking, transfer the liver to a food processor. Add the coconut oil, salt and dried thyme. Blitz the mixture on a high setting until it forms a smooth pate consistency.

Transfer the pate to a sealed jar or ramekin dish and top with a generous layer of the blueberry jam.

You can chill this in the refrigerator but I think it tastes best served immediately :) Enjoy

For the first time in about 4 years I am actually looking forward to sitting down to Christmas dinner. I have the whole affair mapped out from Christmas eve to Boxing day with military precision. The fact that I will be able to sit down and enjoy a dessert with everyone excites me the most, and yes I will be doing a different dessert for each of the three days. Making puddings is a rare treat for me so I intend to savour every maple sweetened second.

With Christmas wrapped up and firmly under control, my thoughts have turned to New Years Eve. For which I am not prepared at all. Unsure what people typically eat on New Years Eve, I came to the conclusion that it is mostly scaled down versions of regular foods on oversized plates. Finger food, party snacks, bite size morsels on tiny sticks.  I started to compile a list of the mini foods I fancy for the festivities and decided that having had 'make a quiche' on my AIP to do list for some time, mini quiche would make the shortlist. I would be lying if I said I hadnt impressed myself with the result.

I'm so proud of how it turned out that I kept calling my husband into the kitchen to say 'but just look at my quiche one more time'. It's rich, sweet, savoury and creamy without even the faintest sniff of an egg or dairy product in sight. Its also very adaptable for vegetarian or vegan versions and you can play with filling combinations to your hearts content.

I hope to see miniature versions of these popping up at AIP New Years Eve parties everywhere.

Oh, and while I have you, today is the last day to vote for me at the UK blog awards! If you haven't already you can find my competition entry here - I really appreciate your support. And if you have already - huge huge thanks :) Emma

You will need:

A blender
Loose bottomed quiche tin (mine is 18cm)
Baking paper or cling film

Ingredients:

For the custard
1 cup of courgette peeled and cubed
1 cup of swede peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon of gelatin powder (See my favourite brand below. Sub with agar agar for vegan alternative)
1/2 a cup of water
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Himalayan sea salt


For the chicken and sage filling
3 free range organic chicken breasts diced into chunks
A generous handful of fresh sage leaves
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 generous handful of chopped spring greens
1 tablespoon of coconut oil (see below)
2 tablespoons of garlic oil
Himalayan sea salt

For the pastry

1.5 cups of sifted tiger nut powder
1/2 cup of arrowroot powder (see below)
1/2 a cup of beef dripping (I bought mine from Waitrose. For vegan sub with coconut oil)
1/4 cup of ice cold water
A good pinch of Himalayan sea salt

Method:

To make your pastry

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for fan assisted, 200 for conventional.

Add the sifted tiger nut powder, arrowroot and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add the beef dripping and use your fingers to combine the fat and flour breaking down any lumps as you go. Slowly start adding the ice cold water a little at a time until you are left with a dough. Wrap this in baking paper and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge. You can either roll this out and transfer to your tin or, to avoid crumbling pastry press directly into your tin. You want the pastry to be around 4mm thick all over. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork and bake in the centre of the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes. remove this from the oven and set to one side.

To make your 'custard' filling

Steam or par boil your cubed courgettes until tender. Add to the blender with the lemon juice, a good pinch of salt, 1/4 of a cup of water and a tablepoon of coconut oil. Blend on high speed until completely smooth. Remove from the blender and reserve this liquid to one side.

While you are making your courgette mixture, boil the cubed swede in salted water until they begin to soften and you can easily pierce them with a knife. Once soft, add these to the blender with 1/4 cup of water and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Blend on high speed until you have what resembles a thickened custard. Add the courgette mixture back into the blender with the swede. Add a good pinch of salt to taste and leave in the blender as you will return to this later.

For the chicken and sage mix

Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the diced chicken pieces. Once these have begun to cook add the sage leaves, rosemary and a pinch of salt. When the chicken is about 5 minutes from being fully cooked through, add the chopped spring greens and  garlic oil and stir throughly to combine the flavours. After about 5 minutes the greens will have wilted. Make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked through before removing the pan from the heat. Remove any stalks from the rosemary and pour this mixture into the pastry case.

To the mixture in the blender add 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatin and blend until everything is fully combined.

Pour this custard over the chicken mix in the pastry case.

Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until both the pastry and the custard mixture is golden brown.

Once ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool. You can enjoy this warm and the filling will be soft and creamy. Alternatively leave this to cool then refrigerate to set your custard and serve chilled.

​Enjoy :)

As the evenings get darker and the days get colder, there's nothing quite like a warming bowl of nourishing soup. What baffles me is how simple it is to make with only a few tasty ingredients.  If I were to stroll into the supermarket and try to pick one off the shelves it would have more ingredients than you can shake a stick at, most of which I can't eat. Making it yourself is so easy though, it almost seems too good  to be true. What's more you can batch cook it and freeze individual lunch portions or even have it for dinner and chuck a few meatballs in (yes that is a thing).

This soup is sweet, spicy, nourishing and full of digestive healing goodness.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

750g of organic carrots, washed and sliced into quarters lengthwise
3 heaped teaspoons of ground ginger
1.5 tablespoons of dried coriander leaf
Himalayan sea salt
5.5 cups of water or bone broth
Tablespoon of coconut oil
Fresh coriander

You will need:

A blender

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for fan assisted - 200 degrees conventional.

Place the carrots on a large roasting tray with the coconut oil and a good pinch of salt. Roast these until very soft and slightly caramelised - this will take about an hour.

Allow the carrots to cool and transfer to your blender. Add the ground ginger, dried coriander, a good pinch of salt and your liquid. You can use bone broth but I choose to use water as I struggle with the histamine in broth (It still tastes just as good with water  though).

Blitz the ingredients on a high setting in your blender until you have a thick rich, soup.

Transfer to a large saucepan and warm through over a low/medium heat.

To serve stir through fresh coriander.

How easy was that?

Spain is one of my very favourite places. Aside from the beautiful countryside and Mediterranean coastline, I find the people so warm and welcoming. I feel totally at home there and find eating out so much easier than I do in the UK. The restaurants are incredibly knowledgeable about coeliac disease and food intolerance and it's never any effort for them to adapt dishes. In the UK I often dine out in fear. If I request a meal to be adapted I am frequently met with a blank stare, the rolling eyes of disgust or am outright told they cannot accommodate me.  I think I better move to Spain.

Part of the reason I feel other European countries can handle dietary requirements better than the UK is that the food is fresh and simple. They don't dress a dish up with a multitude of unnecessary ingredients in order to create flavour. They just prepare fresh produce and use simple herbs and seasonings to enhance its natural flavour.

Prior to my diagnosis I would adore sampling different tapas dishes -  I couldn't get enough of the oily crispy textures of patatas bravas. In between courses I would devour slice after slice of bread smothered in aioli until I could barely breathe. Alas, those days are gone. With my potato and garlic consuming days nothing but a mere memory, I have recreated a couple of my favourite dishes and made them FODMAP friendly and AIP compliant. I have tried to capture the essence of the dishes as best I can and utilise simple ingredients full of natural flavour.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the lamb
2 grass fed lamb chops (I buy all my grassfed meat from athleat - see below for a discount code!)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
A pinch of himalayan salt or sea salt

For the patatas bravas
If you are low FODMAP and not AIP you can use 3 large potatoes peeled and diced into small cubes
For AIP use one whole swede, peeled and diced into small cubes
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil if you are feeling extra decadent

For the aioli
1 cup of drained canned artichokes
half a courgette
1/3 cup of garlic oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
A generous pinch of salt


Method:

Place your lamb chops in a sealable container or dish. Add the olive oil, thyme, rosemary and salt and ensure that the chops are thoroughly coated in the seasonings. Cover tightly and transfer to the fridge to marinade for a minimum of one hour.

While the lamb is marinating, par boil your potatoes or swede over a medium heat until tender and soft around the edges. They are ready when you can easily pierce them with a knife. Drain them throughly.

Heat your coconut oil in a large frying pan over a medium/low heat. Once this is really hot add your swede or potatoes to the oil and let them fry. For an extra decadent oily, crispy texture add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Keep stirring to ensure they are coated in the oil and do not stick to the bottom of the pan. They should take about 20 minutes to fry over a medium/low heat. 

While your potatoes are frying you can make your aioli by adding all the ingredients into your blender and blitzing thoroughly until you are left with a smooth, thick creamy sauce. You want this to be as thick as mayonnaise. Add more garlic oil to taste.

Remove your lamb chops from the fridge and heat a drizzle of olive oil in another frying pan over a medium heat. Once this is hot add your lamb chops and cook to your liking and brown on each side. I served mine pink in the middle, cooking for three minutes on each side. 

Serve the lamb, patatas bravas and aioli with a fresh green salad or my mediterranean kale.

I don't actually miss a great deal of foods containing gluten. For one it's been so long now that I just don't crave it anymore, and secondly I don't wish to eat anything that leaves me feeling heavily sedated and partially inflated. But every now and then I find myself longing for a warming bowl of pasta, oozing with sauce and some rich meaty morsels. I'm not going to lie, a substitute pasta is never going to taste like the real thing, but with the right combination of flavours you can recreate something just as satisfying and more nutritious. Win win.

This AIP, low FODMAP pasta with meatballs is a quick and easy one to throw together after work. The sauce is my AIP courgette and basil pesto which you can make in advance at the weekend and store in the fridge for up to three days. 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

AIP courgette and basil pesto sauce

For the meatballs:
500 grams grass fed beef mince. I buy all my meat from athleat. If you want to give these guys a go please see link below for a new customer discount.
One generous handful of fresh chopped oregano leaves
One tablespoon of mixed dried italian herbs
A generous pinch of sea salt
A drizzle of garlic oil
A teaspoon of coconut oil or grass fed duck fat

For the spaghetti:
I have used courgettes for this particular dish but there are many alternatives. My favourites are parsnip and carrot tagliatelle. You do not need a spiralizer to make these. For thick tagliatelle strips simply use a veg peeler to peel your vegetable into wide ribbons.

Courgette option:
1 KG of courgette (250g per portion) peeled into thick ribbons or spiralized.
Half a tablespoon of coconut oil or grass fed duck fat

Method:

In a large bowl add your beef mince, fresh oregano, dried herbs, salt and drizzle with a little garlic oil. Mix these thoroughly with your hands to combine the herbs evenly throughout the meat. Heat your teaspoon of fat in a large frying pan on a medium heat. Once hot add the meatballs and fry for 15 minutes or until golden brown all over.

​While the meatballs are cooking warm your half tablespoon of fat in a saucepan on a low/medium heat. Add your courgette pasta and cover the pan with a lid. Vegetable pastas have a tendency to stick so add extra fat where needed and don't have the heat too high. The courgettes will take about 15 minutes to cook and will create a lot of liquid. Once cooked drain in a colander to get rid of excess liquid.

​Once the meatballs are nicely browned add them to your courgette spaghetti and pour the pesto sauce over the top. Combine over a low heat to ensure the pesto is warmed through and is evenly coating the pasta and meatballs. Bellissima. 
​