This month is dedicated to creating awareness around endometriosis. There are millions of women in the world who suffer from this condition, I am one of them. Diet and lifestyle form an extremely important part in managing and trying to keep symptoms away. So since I have a food blog I thought what better way to help educate people around what an endo diet looks like. This month I am sharing some recipes that I use to help me manage my symptoms of inflammation and pain.
The recipe that I am about to share is one that I use quite frequently because it is a blend of warming and healing spices and also contains a good amount of protein with the addition of the salmon. It is ofcourse optional and you can leave it out if you are vegetarian and you could substitute with lentils of your choice.
The most important thing with following an endo diet is that you want to have as much as possible organic ingredients from the spices to the vegetables to the meats that you eat as well.
Here we go, what you will need is the following ingredients: -
(Serves 4)
All organic ingredients (most of which are available at a health food store):-
1 dry red chilli, soaked in hot water and roughly chopped
1/2 fresh red chilli finely chopped, (keep the other half for garnish)
1 Garlic Clove finely chopped
1/2 inch of ginger finely chopped
1/2 onion finely sliced
1 medium sized zucchini finely sliced or use a julienne grater
1 handful of kale finely chopped stalks removed
1/2 punnet of button mushrooms finely chopped
150g of salmon cut into chunks (or you could use smoked salmon as well this takes it to a whole new level in terms of flavour)
1 can of organic coconut milk
2-3 kaffir lime leaves
3 stalks of lemon grass, (1 finely crushed into a paste using a mortar and pestle)
1 Tsp of chilli powder
1 Tsp of Tumeric
1/2 Tsp of Shrimp paste (optional)
Salt to taste
The juice of one lime
3 Tsp of Fish sauce (make sure the fish sauce is gluten free) If you are veg you can use Soy Sauce preferably gluten free as well
Method: -
Place a deep pot onto the stove over a medium heat. Place about a TBLS of olive oil and fry the onions, chillies, ginger, shrimp paste, and lemon grass paste. The combination of aromas will literally have you salivating... Once this has cooked for about 1-2mins add the chopped veggies and cover until the veggies start to release water. You want to add about half a cup of water to the veggies to start forming a stock. I usually add the chilli powder, tumeric and salt now to start cooking with the veggies and also add half a tin of coconut milk. What you want to do is simply bring it to a light boil and add the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass stalks (whole) as you will remove this before serving.
Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Now add the salmon pieces and let them poach through. If you are using smoked salmon you want to add it only before you are ready to serve otherwise your salmon will become really tough and not as enjoyable. Now is the fun part of trying to balance the flavours, you have to do this with the fish sauce and the lime juice. You want to get a kind of tangy salty flavour happening. Once you have this remove the lemongrass stalks and kaffir lime leaves and serve warm with some chillies to garnish. Enjoy and be amazed at the flavours you will taste. Much Love CC :)
