Book Review: 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP by Christina Feindel

Low FODMAP AIP Sherpherd's Pie

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through the product links, I’ll receive a small commission to support my time in reviewing the product, although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own. 

When I first learned about the e-book 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP by Christina Feindel,  I was super excited that I am not alone eating off of this seemingly limited menu. For the past few months, I have been stumbling along the AIP ( autoimmune protocol ) path, looking for low FODMAP friendly recipes and it hasn't been easy. Like Christina says in the introduction of her book " As if no grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, nightshades, nuts, seeds, or alcohol wasn’t daunting enough, you’ve also decided to try eliminating FODMAPs from your autoimmune protocol diet. " I did feel like I was crazy trying to embark on a more limiting diet than AIP, but I started to feel the difference after only a few days eliminating the high FODMAP foods like garlic and onions out of my diet. So the low FODMAP journey here I come! 

Instead of only telling you how delicious the recipes are in this book ( that will come later) I want to outline what I have learned about how to enjoy AIP low FODMAP cooking. 

• Use new herbs, garlic greens might not be as easy to find but are worth the search, no garlic? no problem, use the greens
• Explore and combine more vegetables; parsnip can beat potato hands down, it is our new stable root vegetables in the house
• Plan your meals; improving time management means less stress and more satisfied taste buds and happy bellies.

The more I learn about tweaking my healing diet, the more I have to be open to trying new things in the kitchen. As much as I am pretty open to new cooking ideas, I have my comfort zone that is sometimes hard to break out of... who doesn't? In the book, Christina showed me how to uses herbs and spices that are compliant and compliments each other very well. 

The recipe I chose to try in the book is from the "One Pot Meal" section. Running a family is busy business and as much as I am all about starting my healing in the kitchen, it is nice not to be tied to it all the time. Christina talks about batch cooking and meal planning which are key factors in making a busy family run smoothly.

 Sherpherd's pies is a fond childhood dish of mine. This was my go to family meal but as my healing diet changed, more foods had to be eliminated. Glutens was easy to replace, I used tapioca starch instead of corn starch or flour to thicken the mix, then with AIP, I replaced Worcestershire sauce with Apple cider and balsamic vinegar, but when FODMAP came into the picture, I was starting to loose my enthusiasm moving forward with my cooking. After all, how can I make anything tasty without garlics and onions on top of the void of nightshades.

Enters Christina's 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP book.

In Christina's ebook, a wide variety of root vegetables like turnips, parsnips and taro are used to create interesting textures and flavours. Using the greens of garlic, leek, green onions and more herbs means there is no shortage in flavor in these truly flavourful dishes.

Now comes the part that I tell you how delicious the Sherpherd's pie turned out.

Before dinner, my son asked me whether this Sherpherd's pie was sweet or savory, "... is it a dinner or dessert?" I answered that it is savory, but by the time I was trying not to finish the whole pan at the dinner table, I realized this recipe created the effect of a dessert sweet pie. I think the magic comes from the carrots, parsnip and turnip combination. These root vegetables are naturally sweet and pair with my himalayan pink salt flavored grass fed ground beef from my favourite biodiverse farm, the result is almost addictive. I had to remind myself that I wasn't having an off rail ( food cheating ) moment when trying not to polish the whole pan. I was also pleasantly surprised that no thickener was used and the dish did not get soupy. The one thing about the recipe that confused me a little was the topping, I almost missed the part that the cooked turnips were to be food processed smooth and used as the top layer.

I wish I had found this book earlier when I started my FODMAP journey, but then I might not appreciate it as much. I probably would have taken for granted all the hard work Christina had done with organizing the shopping list and meal planning for 28 days. If you are interested in watching out for FODMAP foods to help heal your gut and rest of your body, I highly recommend this book. It will make your life easier. Here is the link for your copy of the ebook.