Allergic to peppers and onions but looking for suggestions
My husband is a diabetic lacto vegetarian who is allergic to any kind of pepper, eggplant, onions, or whole tomatoes (his throat swells shut). The exceptions being that he can have ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, just as long as there is no chunks. The only food in the nightshade family that has never seemed to bother him are potatoes. He can also have chives, small amounts of the green tops of green onions,and minimal amounts of onion powder. If it wasn't for his allergies he would make everything super spicy. He uses a lot of mustard powder, garlic, and cumin, and loves radishes (perhaps he's a Fraggle.)
Me on the other hand I'm a new vegan who loves cooked onions and peppers, and will eat tomatoes straight off the vine. I'm allergic to pineapple and honey (both give me hives) and food that's too spicy leaves me with constant stomachaches.
I find a lot of wonderful recipes full of veggies, but if I simply leave out the peppers, onions, and tomato chunks there's often not much left to make it worth making, and in my opinion, wouldn't taste like anything. The other problem is that leaving out the allergy foods means that a lot of the bulk of the meal goes with it. I have replaced onions with fresh garlic, but there is a huge size difference between a whole onion and two cloves of garlic. I'm really proud of him being a vegetarian, but I'm really getting frustrated that it feels like that the only thing we can eat together is vegan whole wheat pancakes. I really would like him to be eating more veggies, but I have been struggling to find new ways (and new veggies) to prepare them. Almost every meal feels like we have to cooking two and that is getting really old...
I really would like to know if anyone has any suggestions on other veggie replacements that I can use in recipes that call for them, or perhaps recipes that simply do not have them in it in the first place. I'm really tired of green salad all the time and I really miss veggie casseroles. I'm just feeling overwhelmed and stumped. I have been amazed at the vegetarian and vegan community as a whole, very creative in unconventional in finding better alternatives for traditional cooking. I'm still fascinated with the flax seed 'eggs'. :-D
Colcanon: mashed potatoes w/ saute'd cabbage
broccoli quiche
Asparagus/broccoli alfredo
There is also a VERY pungent onion tasting Indian spice called asafetida
A good "belly busting" dish I like to make is "cheese burger pie":
pie crust shell
ground beef sub
*egg*
ketchup
garlic
*onion* (asafetida in your case)
*cheese*
good luck!
Have you ever tried grilling peppers and then making paste from them and using?
Same thing can be tried with whole onions .
Grill/Roast onion on fire till the whole outer secondery skinn becomes black.
Remove the burnt skin and then make a paste of onion and use it in place of onion.
Same thing goes for Tomatoes.
It looks from your post that he might be allergic to raw form of Night shade family.
Try it. I am sure he would be OK .
NJA
It does seem that your husband is able to eat cooked versions of tomatoes which is not uncommon with food allergies. Doesn't that open up a lot of recipes involving pasta sauces?
Try roasting veggies for variation. I just tried roasting cauliflower that had been tossed with a mixture of olive oil and mustard, salt and pepper, then roasted in a 400 degree oven with bulbs of garlic. Incredible flavors.
Meat analogs (fake meat products) certainly allow for LOTS of creativity in creating dishes.
And really do check into the nature of the allergies concerning cooking or raw. I had a friend allergic to fruit ( can you imagine?) but only in the raw state. He could have anything cooked. Same with me and mangoes. I can have mango chutney ( it's cooked) but a raw mango sets my mouth on fire and swelling.
Best of luck.
The thing I would really miss is soups with diced tomato. Try things like broccoli bisque, butternut squash and apple soup, curried cauliflower, bean and mushroom. You can make veggie casseroles with a cheezy sauce that requires no onions http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=24192.msg238781#msg238781
Pasta with kale and beans. Cabbage with apples, roasted asparagus, sweet potatoes with gravy and fake sausage. Fajitas with mushrooms, zucchini, and seitan.
Honestly, I dont know what is in the nightshade family and what isnt, but here are my ideas based solely off the list you gave.
Replace the onion with leeks if possible. If not use celery and carrots to make up for the lost onion / pepper bulk. Mushrooms also add a lovely flavor and texture to most everything so use them when needed. Zucchini is lovely, along with yellow crookneck squash.
My ideas:
shepherds pie (plenty of recipes to choose from here!)
"Tuna" Mushroom casserole recipe from vegweb
Incredible, this will become your favorite Pot Pie recipe from vegweb
Any combination of rice and beans
Introduce greens into your recipes like Kale or Chard
Make stir fry with celery, carrots, broccoli, bok choy, snow peas, bean sprouts and tofu
Welcome seitan into your life (Seitan O'Greatness, any recipe from Vegan Dad's blog or Fatfree Vegan's blog)
Bulk from onions is tasty but can easily be compensated for with other veggies.
Have you ever tried grilling peppers and then making paste from them and using?
Same thing can be tried with whole onions .
He cannot be around cooking peppers or onions, we have to air out the house for 3-4 hours after they have been cooked because it still bothers him. He can frequently tell that there is pepper in pre-made food even before I can, and I try very hard to be careful. I found out one day that he can't even be around when I pick fresh tomatoes because of whatever bothers him is in the stems of the plants too. My mom was eating a fresh bell pepper like an apple once when he was visiting me before we were married. She was sitting across the room and didn't remember about his allergies and he had to go outside because it started to bother him so much.
I forgot that he doesn't like eggs (woops I guess I should have said he was a lacto vegetarian) although he will eat them, but won't be happy about it. He really hates the taste, other than the fact that they are eggs. His mom makes Danish Pancakes (similar to crepes) every Saturday morning, and I decided to make him some vegan ones that had silken tofu instead of the eggs and he thought they were better than his mom's because of the lack of egg taste. I have really been wondering recently how long until he will be vegan as well, I keep hoping at least. As for the quiche, I have found some tofu quiche recipes I've been meaning to try.
A lot of pasta sauces have peppers in them often with onions, and found out not too long ago that's why he doesn't like spaghetti. I hadn't realized it before then. Any suggestions for good pasta sauce recipes? Anything that can be frozen would be great! He would LOVE the roasted cauliflower! And we always have a lot of fresh garlic laying around because it's super easy to use but he really likes the bite. I could eat canned pineapple for a few years after I found out that fresh pineapple bothered me. Now it's all off limits, unless I really want to deal with a week of major hives. I hope your allergies don't progress, its horrible.
Any suggestions on what I could use as a replacement for the onions & tomatoes in dishes?
And thanks for the comments. ;)b
Find the book "Heaven's Banquet" by Miriam Hospodar either at the bookstore or at the library. It is an ayurvedic cookbook with all vegetarian recipes--some of them contain milk products, but not eggs. Ayurvedic cooking does not use garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms or eggplant. She actually does use red peppers and my favorite recipe in the book contains them, but there are other recipes that don't. We don't follow an ayurvedic diet but my husband is extremely intolerant of onions and anything onion-like, such as shallots or leeks, and there are a lot ideas in that book. You might try looking for other ayurvedic recipes as well.
PS: You should try to find a bottle of asafoetida. It is a spice that you add to the cooking oil before adding the other ingredients. It is common in Indian cooking. It adds much of the complexity of onions and garlic together. When I make tomato sauce I use good quality olive oil, brown a couple of garlic cloves for a minute or two, then add two large cans of crushed tomatoes with basil, a pinch of sugar or some grated carrot, and let it simmer for 45 minutes or so. It is the slow cooking that changes the taste of the pureed tomatoes to tomato sauce. You can add other ingredients, such as sliced mushrooms, if you like at the beginning of the cooking before you add the crushed tomatoes. My aunt swears by adding a can of tomato paste and some people like to put whole canned tomatoes through a food mill, but I think that is too much work. Whatever you do, don't use diced tomatoes because they will not soften.
the march/april issue of vegnews has a section on ayurvedic cooking & the recipes look good. the veg korma recipe does call for onions & tomatoes but the other recipes dont. theres recipes for zucchini & asparagus kitchari, savory chickpea pancakes, mango chutney, & chai rice pudding. maybe they have them online too or your library might get the magazine.
I can't do onions just due to digestion issues, but I can do small amounts of leeks or shallots and will often use them as an onion sub in things, though they are in the same family. The more cooked it is, the less it bothers me.
I do pasta sauce starting with garlic and olive oil, simmer it for a few minutes, add a couple cans of crushed tomatoes, some basil, oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper and simmer it down for a little while and it's done. Tomato sauces freeze very well. I freeze TONS of tomatoes at the end of the summer and use them until.. I run out.
Find the book "Heaven's Banquet" by Miriam Hospodar either at the bookstore or at the library. It is an ayurvedic cookbook with all vegetarian recipes--some of them contain milk products, but not eggs. Ayurvedic cooking does not use garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms or eggplant.
the march/april issue of vegnews has a section on ayurvedic cooking & the recipes look good.
Thank you very much for the info about the ayurvedic cooking. My husband was very happy to see somewhere he can look for more info in broadening what he can eat. Up until recently he hasn't been very adventuresome in how he cooked, but has really been doing well and branching out. We've been together since our sophomore year in high school and married almost 10 years, but I'm finally getting him to see all the things he CAN have despite his allergies. I've just grown exceedingly tired of constantly guessing what to use as replacements, because on his own he has some very unique spice choices that I often can't eat or it gives me stomachaches.
PS: You should try to find a bottle of asafoetida. It is a spice that you add to the cooking oil before adding the other ingredients. It is common in Indian cooking. It adds much of the complexity of onions and garlic together. When I make tomato sauce I use good quality olive oil, brown a couple of garlic cloves for a minute or two, then add two large cans of crushed tomatoes with basil, a pinch of sugar or some grated carrot, and let it simmer for 45 minutes or so. It is the slow cooking that changes the taste of the pureed tomatoes to tomato sauce.
Thank you very much Jkl and Hanashi for pointing out the asafoetida. We had never even heard of such a thing. I found out that I can find some on Amazon if we can't find it in town. Hubby was thrilled!
I asked him about the crushed tomatoes and he realized that he had used some in a homemade ketchup experiment about a month ago. YAY, now I can use some form of canned tomatoes and I really like the carrots in the pasta sauce. Sometimes we use a veggie peeler on the entire carrot to make them into long strips and add them along with the lettuce in sandwiches. Adds some really nice crunch.
I can't do onions just due to digestion issues, but I can do small amounts of leeks or shallots and will often use them as an onion sub in things, though they are in the same family. The more cooked it is, the less it bothers me.
I really love onions and peppers, but they are really hard on my stomach. If I do mushroom fajitas I have to nearly overcook the darn things and use tofutti sour cream along with it otherwise an hour later I have a massive stomachache. My husband jokes that I'm the most sensitive person he knows. Emotionally, HIGHLY sensitive skin, and my stomach doesn't tolerate anything too wild and crazy. I rarely eat ketchup and mustard because my stomach will start hurting.
I do pasta sauce starting with garlic and olive oil, simmer it for a few minutes, add a couple cans of crushed tomatoes, some basil, oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper and simmer it down for a little while and it's done. Tomato sauces freeze very well. I freeze TONS of tomatoes at the end of the summer and use them until.. I run out.
Another great pasta sauce! I really enjoy growing tomatoes, but hate to admit that I have no idea how to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes. It's probibly one of those things that stupidly easy like cooking dried beans... :-D
The pepper is in the family Sonanacea and includes potato, tomato, tomatillo, pepper not black but all peppers, and tobacco. The reaction can take up to 3 days before you experience ill effects. This can be in the form of mood disorders, anger, violence, depression. Or can exhibit as vision disturbances, eczema, rashes. He should eliminate these items from his diet for several weeks then try them slowly one at a time to determine his true allergies. With the throat swelling from eating tomatoes, he should NEVER eat them, because this can become life threatening at any point. Ditto with the onions. Cooking these foods does nothing to remove the alkaloids or proteins that are the actual culprits in the allergies. For more info go to www.allergiesexplained.com Dr. Brown is one of the world's leading authorities on allergies and gives many case examples of the diverse symptoms that can be exhibited from allergies to these foods. Good luck!
You might do well looking into Buddhist vegetarian food - no onions/garlic, and since most of it is based in East Asian cooking, you won't have too hard a time avoiding tomatoes. Peppers may crop up, but you can always substitute any other crunchy vegetable.
You could make all sorts of lentil soups flavoured with cumin, black pepper, etc. Nobody's going to argue that greens are good for you - and once you learn good recipes for things like roasted brussels, peanut kale, collard wraps, goma-ae, fresh salads with beans, etc, they're a great way to bulk out meals. Fill a roast squash with cooked grain and some nuts/dried fruit, or saute some mushrooms, aubergine, courgette, and spinach with black pepper...