Hi I'm Michelle the irritable vegan I'm here to share my vegan low fodmap
journey and hopefully take some of the BS out of IBS now today I'd like to
share with you some pantry staples and recipes for using up whatever you have
to hand now I'm going to try and make these tips as general as possible so
that they apply to every vegan low fodmap kitchen whenever you might be
watching this but I also want to make it specific enough that it's gonna be of
some real help to you in these very unusual times that we find ourselves in
now before we begin I just want to say that in no way am I encouraging you to
rush out and buy everything that I'm gonna show you today rather what I want
you to do is think about experimenting with possibly the things that you find
at the back of you cupboards that you may not have had the confidence to use
before or that you may not be overly familiar with and also to come up with
maybe some new ways of using up ingredients that you may find yourself
needing to cook with day after day after day practically everything that you see
here today are items that I already had in stock and that's just due to the
nature of the types of videos that I make here on youtube and also to my
normal eating preferences I didn't purposely go out and buy any of these
things solely with the intention of making this video and everything I'm
gonna show you today are things that I use on a weekly if not a daily basis I
last visited my local Aldi just over a week ago and I have to say they were
fantastically well stocked and I really do think they're doing a marvelous job
here in the UK we've had some strict measures put in place to avoid the
likelihood of people panic buying and I for one am genuinely really grateful for
those measures even though they came a little bit too late in my opinion so
please make sure that wherever you are wherever you're watching from you're
taking advice from your local government and you're acting accordingly so with
all that being said let's get into it before we get started I just want to
explain a little bit more about how this mini series is gonna work
this was originally filmed as one video but ended up being way too long so I
decided to break it up into sections each section will feature different
types of pantry staples with low fodmap tips and recipe ideas for how to make
the best of them I'm hoping to release one section per day for the next week so
by the end of the week we'll in effect have an entire pantry staple tour broken
down into sections by doing it this way it's going to be much easier for you to
find the section that applies to the ingredients that you have available now
because this was intended to be one video each section will feature the same
intro and outro and that's because each section in the series needs to work as a
standalone video because some people may only ever watch one episode it all needs
to make sense if you'll be watching more than one video in the series and I
really hope that you do I'll pop a timestamp in the description box so that
once you've seen the intro on the first video you can skip straight to the
content on the rest the only thing that you do need to know is that the video
clips playing over this part of the intro will change depending on what
we're talking about so if you prefer seeing some visual inspiration for
recipes you might still want to watch this part as the series progresses make
sure that you check the description box because as each video releases I'll be leaving
a link to it below and also the recipes videos and resources that are
linked to will change to reflect the ingredients featured each day I hope all
that makes sense and I really hope you find this series helpful and now let's
get into it so now we're moving on to the flavourings now it's quite
interesting because although this is not an essential category of foods that you
really should have on hand at this minute it will make all of the
difference to your cooking and eating over the next few weeks it's really no
good having your pantry stocked full of pulses rice and pasta if you're gonna be
eating them plain so although these are not really
considered essential foods in some cases they really are because they're what's
gonna help you enjoy the essential foods that you do have in stock now to begin
with I'd always go for dried herbs this is a simple selection here I've got
thyme, rosemary and oregano oh my thyme is nearly out there I've used up
the last of my dried basil so that would be something I'll be looking to
replace at some point in the future it's not essential but as long as you've got
some dried herbs on hand obviously you can buy the mixed mixed dried herbs are
very popular here in the UK and they are typically just a mixture of herbs
I know sometimes the Italian seasonings do have other things in there possibly
like garlic onion and peppers but generally if you can find herbs you're
I'd look to either supply a small quantity of individual herbs or some mixed dried
herbs in terms of spices I'm never without five spice so something like
that actually contains cinnamon fennel star anise black pepper and cloves all of
that in one little jar again something like a garam masala this is coriander
cumin cassia ginger black pepper and cloves so again that you've got all
those different spices just in one pinch of this a FODMAPs safe curry powder
obviously without the use of garlic one thing to bear in mind is that these
blends are probably gonna be sold out quicker than the individual spices just
because they're easier they're more convenient and particular ly for people
that having to learn to cook from scratch which are not used to doing it
before then it's much easier to have something pre-blended than it is to
begin blending your own so these are the ones that are likely to sell out
quickest so if you don't have access to these types of blends then just a very
small selection of one or two herbs of one or two spices is really gonna serve
you well something like a low fodmap stock powder is essential for getting
flavour into lots and lots of meals I've got lots and lots of different videos on
this channel one's a homemade low fodmap stock powder I've got a curry
powder I've got sauces I've got pre-made spice
blends which suit different types of meals
please do make sure you take a look at those they are all in my stay home stay
safe playlist which I'll leave a link to down below my pantry is also never
without asafoetida that should be in every low fodmappers pantry it's a
fantastic alternative to garlic and onions it's got really pungent allium
aroma and it really does lift dishes it's particularly good in things like curries
and very strongly flavoured savoury dishes and also smoked paprika which I think
helps to give a really meaty robust flavour to to whatever it is you're
cooking so I've always got those two on hand in my pantry something else that I
find quite essential is acidic ingredients so I always have balsamic
vinegar and apple cider vinegar and if at all possible you need to make sure
that you're buying that with the mother you may not be able to see that but it's
basically the cloudy solution at the bottom and that way you know that
it's raw it's unfiltered it's unpasteurised it really is the best best
quality vinegar obviously adds an acidic touch it can add quite a lot of body
to a dish I regularly use vinegar to deglaze the pan if I'm frying in water
rather than oil if I'm doing a water saute then I will use a few splashes
of vinegar I often use vinegar if I don't have any wine in for cooking so I
quite often use balsamic vinegar in the place of red wine I do have a white wine
vinegar as well or I'll use an apple cider vinegar in place of a white wine
you really don't need much but especially if you put it in at the saute
stage just to help deglaze the pan it really does get loads and loads of
flavour into your food something else acidic we've touched on before is a
tomato puree you only need a really tiny amount of
that I think two tablespoons of that is considered low FODMAP
two tablespoons of that in any meal is going to give you a really
really deep flavour and that can be really easy to easily diluted with
lots of water lots of stock then you'll still end up with a really really
flavourful broth another flavour that I like to consider is salt or umami so
one of the ways I get that into dishes is with soy sauce now obviously not
everybody can tolerate soy sauce so whatever soy sauce alternative you
usually have whether that be tamari or coconut aminos it's a really good way of
getting some depth some salt and some umaminess into your dishes
speaking of umami I've always got a jar of this on the go now in the Monash
app there's only Vegemite that's actually been tested in there and I
think it's either one to two teaspoons of that is considered safe I've been
using the supermarket own brand which is basically a thick yeast extract paste
for a very long time and not had any ill effects from it that doesn't mean to say
that you won't but it's just something to bear in mind if you can't get hold of
the branded Vegemite but again this is got a really rich umami and I think a
really meaty flavour so that's really good in savoury dishes soups stews broths
that kind of thing you only need a really small amount it does last a
really long time and it does give a really really big boost of flavour
I actually really like to drink this I put a teaspoon of that in hot water mix it up
really really well and have it is a really nice soothing hot drink staying
with the yeast and umami every vegan's favourite is the nutritional yeast flakes
I was buying these from Aldi for quite a long time they had quite a good selection
of these in I don't think you can get them from there any more so I probably
will go back to buying them online luckily these are the kind of thing I
buy in bulk so I do have several of these still available to me and this obviously
gives really really deep cheesy flavour to a
lot of sauces it's fantastic in scrambled tofu makes a really really
authentic scrambled egg I like to blitz it up with with a firm tofu and
make almost like a mayonnaise or like an egg based bechamel sauce so that is a
really really nice ingredient to have it is low fodmap I think at one to two
tablespoons possibly it is also a source of b12 again with the acidic flavours I
always tend to have mustard on hand my go-to is always dijon mustard but I
think most mustards have a low fodmap safe serving and that can just add a
little bit of a kick to sauces the only thing that I don't have here which I
would suggest getting hold on if you can is either a bottled lemon or a bottled
lime juice obviously if you can get hold of the fresh limes and lemons then they
would be a good thing to have but again they can really lift soups and sauces
just give them that little bit of kick quite often if you if you taste the
sauce and you're not quite sure what it's missing it's either gonna be
missing acid or umami so sometimes if you if you taste something and you just
think it feels a little bit heavy then just a little bit of lemon juice or lime
juice will just lift it so currently I don't have any of the bottled variety but
that would be something that's really good to have on hand they do tend to
last for really really long time obviously they'd last much longer than
fresh lemons or limes now just with this small selection here I'm perfectly happy
that if I had nothing else in my cupboards just using a variety of these
no matter what I'm cooking I would be able to get a really really
good flavour in there so if you're the type of person who's starting from
scratch if you're a little bit worried about about stocking up on things that
you may not necessarily use you really don't need a lot to make a big
difference to your cooking and if you're the type of person that buys really
random herbs and spices uses them once puts them to the back of the cupboard and
forgets about them now would be a really good time to dig all those out and
figure out the best ways to use them in your cooking
make sure they don't go to waste a lot of these things will last an incredibly
long time if they're stored correctly so it's probably worth digging out some of
those herbs and spices that you never usually get round to using and see how
you can add them into your meals so finally on to the last category of foods
we've got the snack items now we're all grown-ups here we're all fully aware
that these are not considered essential food items and that we'd be perfectly
able to survive without them but the reality is that many of us are probably
going to be doing a lot more snacking at the moment than we would usually now
that can be because we're stress eating we're comfort eating we're eating out of
boredom or just because we've got better access to them at the minute now the way
that I always tackle this not just in a quarantine isolation situation but
generally is that I only buy the stuff that I'm actually happy to eat
there is no point stocking your shelves absolutely chock-full of sugary salty
sweet moreish fatty snacks that are gonna leave you with a bigger sense of
regret than they do with the sense of comfort you get from eating them so the
best thing to do is to stock up on the snacks that you really are happy to eat
and that you don't mind indulging in so some ideas for snacks include things
like rice cakes now these are really good very simply with either some peanut
butter or some melted dark chocolate drizzled on them I also particularly like
them with sliced strawberries or sliced bananas there they've got quite a decent
amount of protein in them but they're not overly moreish they're not really
the type of thing that you're going to sit down particularly the plain ones
you're not going to sit down and you're not likely to eat the full packet but they
are just a really nice snack to have on hand another one for me is homemade
popcorn now I much prefer savoury varieties so I flavour this up with
nutritional yeast salt and freshly ground cracked black pepper and that's
my favourite way to eat this I've always got these on hand if you do prefer them
sweet then you could possibly add in some cinnamon some maple syrup or even
make just a very basic sugar syrup to coat them in but I would always have
these and they have a really generous low fodmap serving size
I think it's several cups so you know you really can indulge on those and not
feel too guilty about it I've also always got some dark chocolate to hand I
do prefer the flavoured varieties this is the Aldi Moser Roth brand and they do
several flavours this is the mint they also do a really nice salted variety
which it's quite hard to get hold of on a normal week and they do a
chilli version what I really like about these is that they come in individual
packs so they're already pre-portioned for you so I think it's quite unlikely
that you're gonna eat several I think that's quite nice it's quite a decent
size that is actually a low fodmap portion size of 30 grams and I think you
can have that amount you know you've had it you can really enjoy having had it
but if that was a full bar of chocolate where you have to break it off yourself
and decide yourself how much you're gonna eat I think you're much more
likely to eat more I know some people will have an issue with the extra packaging
but for me I think that is a fabulous way of self-regulating your portions
another really nice snack to have on hand is some plain or low fodmap safe
corn tortillas they're really nice to snack on and they can obviously also be
included as part of the main meal so you could do like loaded nachos you can
make tortilla soup you can crush them up and use them in place of bread crumbs as
a topping on something like a stew and so that's something that I typically
have on hand I don't have any at the moment I'm not going to be
rushing out to buy any but I do like to keep them in when I'm able to for all of
these things something that I tend to do quite a lot anyway is if I've got a big
value pack a big family size bag of nachos
I will actually portion out one small bowl I won't take the whole packet with
me into the living room same with a cookie a biscuit
I will take my portion out of the packet and purposely put the packet away and
sit down with the portion that I've allowed myself and that way I feel like
I've had something but I don't then risk mindlessly just reaching into the packet
and finishing them all so that might be a good tip if you do find that you're
snacking a lot more than you generally used to at the minute that could also be
a good tip it is to either put them up on a high shelf or put them away just
take out the portion that you're happy to eat at any one time so there you have
it now I've really tried to make sure that all of these tips apply to your
vegan low fodmap pantry whenever wherever you're watching this from but
obviously at this moment in time I really hope that these tips they're
gonna serve you well please take care of yourself and your family buy only what
you need and what you're realistically gonna use over the coming weeks I think
we can all agree that our retail workers at the minute are doing a hell of a job
please let's not make their job any harder than it needs to be I'm pretty
certain that most of them would much rather be at home safe and sound with
their loved ones please reach out to me in the comments below to share your tips
with the rest of our little community and also to ask for any recipe advice
any meal ideas or inspiration that you may need you can check out the other
videos and playlists that I have available I really think that some of
them are gonna be useful to you now and in the future as always thanks so much
for watching and I'll speak to you soon byeee
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