Tag: recipe

Turkey Enchiladas

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I had just got the hang of my turkey enchiladas before I got put on the low histamine diet. Now that I’ve got more confident with experimenting, I thought I’d give them another go. I’m not sure they can still really be called enchiladas, but they’re pretty tasty and add some great variety to my menu.

This is a pretty flexible recipe in terms of the vegetables. As you can see in the header, I used broccoli in that iteration, although I very much prefer kale or cavolo nero as the green part. It’s also flexible in terms of the spices. I started off pretty basic, and always make sure to keep the chilli level quite low. The fennel seeds are a recent addition, which I really like, and this is definitely something I’m still playing with. I’ve used a pinch of asafoetida in the past which works well too.

Ingredients

Cavolo nero from my garden
  • 300g turkey mince
  • 2 sticks celery, chopped
  • 1 tbsp turmeric
  • 2 tbsp ground coriander
  • 1/8 tsp chipotle flakes
  • 1 heaped tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 medium sweet potato, grated
  • 2 medium carrots, grated
  • 2 handfuls kale/cavolo nero
  • 1/2 small tin sweetcorn
  • A handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
  • 400ml nomato sauce (I use this recipe)
  • 4 tortilla wraps
  • Vegan cheese

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200C
  2. Heat up a large frying pan and put in 2 tbps oil
  3. Add the celery and cook over a medium heat until slightly softened
  4. Add the turkey mince, break it up and cook until browned
  5. While the turkey is browning, add the spices (whichever you can tolerate) and mix well
  6. Add the carrots and sweet potato, mix well and let sweat down, about 5 minutes
  7. Add in nomato sauce and kale, simmer 5 minutes
  8. Add sweetcorn, toasted pumpkin seeds, and vegan cheese if desired, and turn off heat
  9. Get wraps out individually and place in dish, then fill with 1/4 of mixture each before carefully rolling and tucking edges under
  10. Grate cheese over top
  11. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cheese is melted and tortillas are browned
Enchiladas in a baking dish

*You can serve this with rice/quinoa/the grain of your choice rather than baking with the wraps. If doing this, make sure the turkey is cooked through before serving.

Seitan Sausages

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I miss sausages so much. Sausages and ketchup is one of my favourite foods. With the no pork rule on my low histamine diet, and not being able to have tomatoes, this is a meal I can no longer have.

So, I started doing some research on meat substitutes. Most of these contain soya, or some kind of pulse, so that was a no for me. Even most of the recipes did too.

Then I came across seitan. While all of the recipes did contain chickpeas, chickpea flour, beans or lentils, I thought that rice would make a good swap. I’ve given this a few goes now, and I think I’ve got the balance of flavours right. The first batch was far too fennelly, but now I think it’s a pleasant undertone.

Cooking the rice in stock is a really important stage, as it adds flavour usually brought by things like tomato paste and soy sauce. I use chicken stock for mine, but you could easily use vegetable stock instead.

Seitan sausages on a white plate
Seitan sausages: cooked on a bun, steamed and still wrapped in foil

Ingredients

Seitan sausage on a white roll with lettuce

Makes 4 sausages

  • †1/4 cup basmati rice
  • 3/4 cup stock
  • 1/2 tablespoon oil
  • 1 stick of celery, diced
  • 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon stock
  • 1/4 cup fizzy water
  • 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten

Instructions

  • Cook the rice. Place rice and stock in a pan, bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat to cook for about 10 minutes. You shouldn’t need to drain it once it’s done as all the liquid should be absorbed.
  • Heat a pan over a medium high heat, and fry the celery in oil. If it starts to catch, you can add a little stock to the pan.
  • Once soft, add a drop more oil and add the fennel seeds. Let them cook until they start to pop, about a minute.
  • While the celery is cooking, assemble the other ingredients except the vital wheat gluten in a food processor.
  • When the celery and fennel are done, add them in too, and whizz until well mixed together. You don’t want the rice to be completely blitzed as this will add texture to the sausages.
  • Add the vital wheat gluten, and whizz gently until the mix all comes together. This will happen quite quickly.
  • Divide the mix into four and roll them into sausage shapes. It doesn’t matter if they’re not particularly neat, everything will even out in the steaming process.
  • Roll each sausage first in greaseproof paper then in foil, twisting the ends like a cracker. The greaseproof is important so the seitan doesn’t stick to the foil.
  • Steam the sausages over boiling water for 40 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
  • Leave to cool until you can handle them, then take off the wrappings.
  • Serve as desired. I like to fry mine up over a very gentle heat and slice them into a sandwich.
Foil wrapped seitan in the steamer

Tips

  • This recipe has an upped salt content as I have dysautonomia, so feel free to reduce if you’re not dealing with that too.
  • You could try switching the rice to another type, just follow the instructions for cooking.
  • There will be too much rice, but I’ve used the leftovers in summer rolls, or just doubled up this recipe. I decided it would be hard to cook less than 1/4 cup of rice.
  • You can freeze these sausages after steaming. To eat, thaw completely then cook as desired- fry, bake, grill until piping hot throughout.
  • You can double the recipe, but I’d recommend whizzing it in batches of 4 sausages so as not to clog the processor.