Safety-First Salads
*please note: These recipes may or may not be good for you and your personal situation with Inflamatory Bowel Disease. Its trial and error and we are all different. I do hope they will go over well for you!!
Eating salads is something I miss dearly since my Crohn's diagnosis in May of 2009 and I’m sorry but pasta salad and potato salad just don’t cut it! I was determined that i would NOT give up the foods i love. When I’m not suffering from too many bathroom trips, these are the salads I can enjoy. I call them my Safety First Salads. It is mostly the skin of peppers and tomatoes that I cannot digest, so you will find easy ways to remove this skin in the recipes below. The best thing about these recipes is that the ingredients are interchangeable; you can mix and match your favourites. There may be some ingredients that you know you gut can’t handle, so feel free to swap one ingredient for another. If I’m really sick, well I can’t really eat anything, especially a salad. But when I’m feeling decent, for the most part I can eat these without any problems. Use the processing guidelines below to take the skin off your veggies
Hope you enjoy!
To roast bell peppers: Rub the red pepper with a little bit of olive oil. Bake in the oven at 375 for 20 -30 minutes or until its cooked. Nice and soft. Take it out of the oven and leave it too cool. Once cooled. Peel the skin off the pepper and remove all the little annoying seeds. Dice it up. You can use yellow and green peppers too to add more color and flavour.
To peel your tomatoes: you will need: a pot of boiling water and a bowl full of ice water. Make an X with your knife on the bottom of each tomato, drop tomatoes into the pot of boiling water making sure they are covered completely. Boil for about 30 seconds. Remove the tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon and place directly in the ice bath. (This will stop them from cooking) Once they are cooled about 3 minutes—you will notice the skin has started to peel off where you have made the X. Peel the skin of and cut each tomato in half and then in half again to make quarters. With your finger, remove all the seeds. Then cut them into bite sized pieces.
To Make Croutons: Dice up your favourite bread (gluten free bread can be used). I usually use the heels of the bread, to use them up. In a bowl, toss your bread with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and your favourite herbs. Garlic powder can be used, but is optional. Bake at 250 for about 20-25 minutes on a cookie sheet, stirring half way through. If they are not crunchy enough, cook a little longer, checking every five minutes. Cool and enjoy.
Safety First Chicken, Cucumber and bell pepper salad with Honey yogurt dressing.
Salad
1 chicken breast, seasoned and baked, then cooled.
1 long English cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped up.
2 bell peppers roasted, peeled and seeded. (Using the method above)
Couple handfuls of croutons—make with wheat bread or your favourite Gluten free bread. (Using the method above)
Dressing
¾ cup of your favourite yogurt or soy yogurt. I use fat free plain yogurt.
2 tablespoons of honey.
1 tablespoons of wine vinegar (red or white—sometimes I use sherry vinegar, lime or lemon juice can be used as a substitute)
Salt and pepper to taste.
The easiest way to incorporate the honey is too put the honey and vinegar in a small bowl and microwave it for 20 seconds then whisk it together. Add the honey and vinegar to your yogurt and season it to taste.
Add as much dressing as you like to your salad ingredients, and VOILA! You have another safety first salad.
Safety first Greek salad
Salad:
3 tomatoes peeled and seeded.
1 long English cucumber peeled and seeded.
2 bell peppers, peeled with a peeler, or roasted with the above method.
Crumbled feta cheese
Dressing:
½ cup of olive oil
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
¼ tsp chopped garlic (more if you want)
1 tsp of dried oregano or 1 tablespoons of chopped fresh oregano.
4-5 kalamata olives pitted.
1 tablespoons chopped red onion (optional)
I peel my raw peppers with a vegetable peeler. It must be sharp. There are always some pieces of pepper that you can’t get the skin off. I put those pieces in my boyfriend’s salad and save the peeled pieces for myself. If you prefer you can use the Roasted red pepper method above. (You will just lose the crunch). Cut into bite sized pieces.
Cut cucumbers into bite sized pieces.
For the dressing. Place all ingredients into blender or food processor. Blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. The olives should be ground fine enough that they will hopefully be okay. If they don’t work for you, they can be left out. If you find the dressing too tart. Feel free to add a tsp of honey to balance it out. Mix all the veggies and pour the desired amount of dressing on the salad Toss, and top with your favourite feta cheese.
Crohn's Chef Safety First Chopped Salad
1 chicken breast, seasoned, baked, cooled and chopped into bite sized pieces. (or turkey breast)
1 hardboiled egg diced up
½ an avocado diced.
Ham or bacon diced up.
2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded, using the method above
2 bell peppers roasted, peeled, and seeded using the method above.
½ a long english cucumber peeled and seeded, and diced up.
Aged cheddar cheese, grated. (you can use any cheese you want—goat, soy, blue, swiss.)
A couple handfuls of croutons. Can be made with gluten free bread.
Mix all the ingredients together and use your favourite dressing to toss it with!!
Safety First Grilled Veggie Salad
*This salad can be served hot or cold. As a side dish or an appetizer.
1 eggplant peeled
2 portabella mushrooms.
1 green or yellow zucchini
2 bell peppers.
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Tsp of chopped garlic
Feta cheese or grated parmesan
Salt and pepper
Asparagus if you can handle it.
Peel the eggplant, and slice into slices. Slice pieces of zucchini, the same thickness as your eggplant, roast your peppers using the above method. Cut the ends off your asparagus if you are using it. Take the stems off your mushrooms. Toss your zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant and asparagus (if using it) in a bowl with some olive oil, lemon juice and garlic then season with salt and pepper. Grill your veggies to on your BBQ on medium heat until they reach your desired tenderness. If you are serving this salad cold, remove from the grill, spread out the veggies and let them cool. Chop everything up and then add the roasted peeled bell peppers. Toss with more olive oil, lemon juice if needed. Season to taste, and finish it by sprinkling with crumbled feta cheese.
