A Gut feeling

Gut Health Blog, Gluten Free and Grain Free recipes

Easy to make immune boosting Kimchi

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Optimise your gut health and regularly eat kimchi!

Koreans have been enjoying the spicy lacto-fermented vegetable condiment known as kimchi for hundreds of years. More recently, kimchi is being gobbled up by gut-health enthusiasts all over. Why? Because kimchi is teeming with gut-boosting, microbes, otherwise known as probiotics. 

Eating kimchi regularly is a simple strategy to boost your immune system and optimise your gut health. Find the study here.

You could say that kimchi is a cousin to sauerkraut, for the benefits of cabbage and lacto-fermentation are the same. You can read all about gut healing sauerkraut here. Kimchi has more pow, more zing and more wow on the palette than your typical sauerkraut however. With generous amounts of ginger, garlic and chilli, kimchi has a distinguished Asian pungency. Make it a little bit spicy or a lot spicy; it’s up to you. Don’t be afraid to experiment, lacto-fermentation can absorb a lot of spice…. 

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I can’t bare to be without my yoghurt maker.

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Do you have an appliance in your kitchen that you consider absolutely essential? Something that you feel NQR without? Something that you would simply have to pack and take with you – even for a weekend away? For me, that’s my Luvele yoghurt maker.

Right now, I’m feeling it. I’ve been a few weeks without it! During a wonderful 3 weeks in Thailand, I missed homemade yoghurt more than any other food. More specifically, my gut missed homemade yoghurt.

Sure, I could have bought a kind of yoghurt in the local mini mart. The sweet, desert-like variety was in plentiful supply. However, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ve been missing the 24 hour fermentation, healing kind. My day does not get properly kick started without it. You can read all about homemade 24 hour yoghurt here…. 

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The best dairy free, gut loving, coconut milk yoghurt recipe.

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If you are dairy intolerant or paleo, you can get all the awesome probiotic benefits of 24 hour yoghurt, making it from coconut milk.

This isn’t any ordinary coconut yoghurt you can buy in the store by the way. Based on the science of the Specific Carbohydrate diet (SCD), 24 hour coconut yoghurt is a powerful healing food that must be homemade. Read a description of the many health benefits of SCD yoghurt here and here.

With the addition of one super ingredient, the steps are virtually the same as the dairy variety and just as easy. I say ‘easy’ now but I didn’t always consider coconut yoghurt that way. I have been on the hunt for the perfect, failsafe recipe for years and through batch after batch of runny attempts, I know homemade coconut yoghurt to be a tricky beast…. 

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Preserved Lemons

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Middle Eastern Preserved Lemons.

There is nothing more exquisite than biting into a piece of preserved lemon that’s been lovingly cured for weeks in your home pantry. Simply sublime. They are a rush of zesty pleasure that can’t be substituted. A Moroccan Tagine is just not the same without them!

Preserved lemons are an ingredient used to impart an intensely acidic note to a dish. A little bit goes a long way. A key ingredient in many Northern African and Indian dishes, preserved lemons are sadly another lacto-fermented condiment that many people put in the too hard basket or prefer to buy, over-priced in specialty gourmet shops. It needn’t be the case.
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Lacto-fermented Fruity Beetroot Pickle

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Lacto-Fermented Fruity Beetroot Pickle.

Spruce up your bacon and eggs with a little magenta magic!

As a child, we always had homemade pickled beetroot in the fridge. My dad was a big fan of this plate staining addition to his daily ploughman-style lunch. He sliced them up in big batches as if they were straight from a ‘Family circle’ can. Although not quite as sweet, they were also a vinegar and sugar based pickle.

Sure this method preserved the beetroot and meant my dad could enjoy his beloved beet out of season, but it did little in the way of preserving nutrients. Beetroot are the bomb! They are crazy healthy. I’ve detailed that in this Roast Beetroot post. What a shame dad’s method lost much of the health promoting juice down the drain after he cooked them.

Like sauerkraut, beetroot pickle needs nothing other than salt and water. (Or whey if you have it) Old fashioned lacto-fermentation preserves and enhances the beetroot raw. No cooking is required!… 

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Learn how to make gut healing sauerkraut in simple steps

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sauerkraut_17 Gut Healing Sauerkraut. 

It has taken me a long time to write about sauerkraut. Some might wonder why it wasn’t one of my first posts. It’s because I’ve been nervous, probably as nervous as anyone who is considering fermenting for the first time. But thankfully I can now dispel your sauerkraut making fear. It’s easy!… 

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It’s been plaguing me for a while now. Is Rice ok?

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Rice, Innocuous or Not?

It’s been plaguing me for a while now. Is Rice ok? 

Should I or shouldn’t I eat it? If you’ve read a little bit about me you’ll know that I used to have a stomach ache most days. In fact, I pretty much had a stomach ache for about 20 years – give or take a few good months. I did the best I could to eat without upset but this was (in hindsight) entirely impossible because I was profoundly addicted to sugar and flaky pastry.… 

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Home made Ginger Ale

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Lacto-Fermented Ginger Ale.

Aahhh, refreshing ginger ale!

Sometimes water just doesn’t satisfy me on a hot day. Carbonated water with a slice of lime, nearly hits the spot but still I’m not really quenched! Do you feel this way? Home-made lacto-fermented ginger ale is my answer. 

Alcohol and gut healing aren’t good companions, but ha, I’ve got a weak spot for a glass of bubbly!! Champayne is sadly full of preservatives and sugar so one social drink can sabotaged all my good work.

Ginger Ale saves me. This is the summer of Ginger Ale mock-tails and I’m addicted. Home-made Ginger ale is actually a digestive aid, so I’m onto a good thing.… 

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Lacto-Fermented Tomato sauce that your kids will love!

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What would we do without it? AKA ketchup, it is the sauce that defines how and what many families eat. A possible accompaniment to almost every meal. I know, if my daughter were allowed, she would spoon it straight from the bottle! And she can, because lacto-fermented tomato sauce is a winner in her little tummy.

Many of our simple, common pantry items have come from wise food traditions. Not surprisingly, ketchup was once a fermented sauce. It’s hard to imagine that our store bought, sugar loaded, preservative laced tomato sauce was once a health promoting condiment!… 

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Kids Favorite Cultured Buckwheat Crepes

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buckwheat_crepes_09 Cultured Buckwheat Crepes.

These crepes are a weekend staple; synonymous with slow mornings and holidays in our little family nest.

Surely everyone in the world makes them? Don’t they? But I know that’s not true. For buckwheat isn’t all that common a flour grain. It gets a pretty bad wrap (pardon the pun) for it’s a rather earthy taste. 

Whatever it was that I didn’t quite appreciate, I’m sure now that what I was tasting (disliking) was the toxins (the anti-nutrients) that are part of this unique buckwheat, seed package.

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