Struggling with your holiday menus? There is no need to panic! With some simple swaps you can convert your traditional recipes into tasty low FODMAP feasts!
Low FODMAP Swaps For:
- Onion used in stuffing, soups, stews, roasting trays can be replaced with chives, onion infused oil, green leek tips or spring onion (green tips only). I use about 1 cup of diced green leek tips for 1 small onion.
- Garlic used in dips, soups, and seasonings can be swapped for garlic infused oil. Try switching 1 to 2 tablespoons of regular oil for garlic infused oil in stews, soups, roasts, and casseroles (anything being cooked). In uncooked recipes (like dips) try adding ¼ to ½ tsp of garlic infused oil per clove of garlic. With dips it is better to add less, taste test, and then increase the amount as needed. Garlic infused oil loses some of its flavour as your cook and tastes stronger in dips. Wondering why garlic infused oil is low FODMAP? Read about more about garlic and the low FODMAP diet.
- Bread used in stuffing or puddings can be swapped for gluten free bread or low FODMAP sourdough bread. Not all gluten free breads or sourdough breads are low FODMAP, so make sure you check the ingredients for sneaky FODMAPs!
- Stock used in gravy or soup can easily be replaced with low FODMAP chicken or vegetable stock. Ask your low FODMAP guest what stock they prefer to use, as many brands contain high FODMAP ingredients. Otherwise try making your own low FODMAP chicken or vegetable stock.
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- Milk used in sauces, mash potato, puddings, and baking is high FODMAP. Try replacing it with lactose free milk or low FODMAP milk alternative.
- All purpose flour used in sauces, baking and desserts can easily be swapped for a gluten free all purpose flour (many of these can be used cup for cup). Sometimes you will need to add extra guar gum, xantham gum or a chia seed mixture to help the dessert or baking hold together better.
- Honey in glazing or being used as a sweetener can be replaced with maple syrup, rice malt syrup, sugar (white, brown, raw) or another low FODMAP sweetener. Check out our guide to low FODMAP sweeteners for more information.
- Avoid using pre-packaged salad dressing, seasoning mixes, and soups as these often contain onion and garlic (these can hide under ‘natural flavours’). Try making your own spice mixes at home instead.
Final Thoughts
Get into the kitchen and have fun converting some of your favourite holiday recipes. If you get stuck don’t forget to check out our low FODMAP holiday recipes.
Image credit: Graphics created by A Little Bit Yummy in Piktochart
Thank you for this handy chart, I’m going to save it on my phone so I can take a look at it and see how I can tweak my usual recipes!
Also, I was surprised (and excited) while browsing the app to see that rice syrup is apparently FODMAP free!
Does that mean I could use it with no concern to replace pure maple syrup in recipes (as it can be quite expensive over here)?
Or should I pay attention to specific things regarding its composition, the type of rice used and such?
I’ve never used rice syrup and don’t know how sweet it is, would that change the quantity of syrup initially needed as well?
Thanks a lot for your reply!
Hi Laura,
Thanks for commenting! Okay so yes you can use rice malt syrup – it’s really sweet so sometimes you might want to use a little less in recipes and it isn’t quite as flavourful as maple syrup, so just keep those in mind as you start to experiment with it. Most rice syrups shouldn’t have any high FODMAP sweeteners added so there is nothing extra to look out for.
I hope that helps!