3 Alpha-Gal Safe Recipes
Learning what is safe to eat and what isn’t is one of the most difficult parts of life with Alpha-Gal Syndrome. As a general rule of thumb, you can safely use vegan recipes. However, even vegan recipes sometimes use ingredients that are made using mammal byproducts, like white sugar.
To get you started on your food journey, today I’m sharing three Alpha-Gal safe recipes. I am not a nutritionist, and I cannot guarantee that these recipes will be 100% safe for you to eat. However, they have been safe for me.
Crock Pot Pinto Beans
When first diagnosed with Alpha-Gal Syndrome, sticking to a simple diet is best. The fewer the ingredients, the less chance you have of accidentally overlooking an ingredient with mammal.
Ingredients:
1 pound dry pinto beans (2 cups)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt divided
7 cups water
3 slices of your favorite poultry bacon (turkey, duck, chicken). I talk more about meat options in my 4th of July recipes.
Instructions:
Place the pinto beans in a large colander. Thoroughly rinse them. Pick the beans over, removing any damaged or clearly misshapen beans and discarding them. Transfer the rinsed beans to a 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Add oil, salt and water. Then cover and cook on HIGH for 8 to 10 hours, until the beans are tender. All slow cookers are different and can heat things differently, so if yours tends to run hot, check it earlier on.
Homemade Cast Iron Brown Butter Cornbread
Cornbread is a staple of the South, so living where I do in North Carolina, this cornbread recipe gets whipped out quite often. Substituting the ingredients to make it Alpha-Gal safe is not too hard, as long as you replace all of the dairy ingredients with non-dairy alternatives. I use a cast iron skillet, but you could adapt this recipe if you prefer to bake cornbread in a glass baking dish.
Ingredients:
2 cups plain cornmeal
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup dairy-free butter substitute (1 stick)
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg
1 cup dairy-free milk substitute (you can even use plain water)
(add 1TBSP of white vinegar to make it more like butter milk if desired)
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Melt the butter substitute in a 10" cast-iron skillet while the oven is heating. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the dairy-free milk substitute, eggs, and honey. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until combined. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter into the hot cast-iron skillet with melted butter substitute. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, and the top is crispy and golden brown.
Homemade Cream of Chicken Roux/Soup
A good chicken roux can be paired with so many different food items! You can pour this roux over chicken or potatoes, use as a base for a chicken and vegetable soup, pair with biscuits (dairy-free of course) or much more.
Ingredients:
¼ cup butter substitute or vegetable oil
¼ cup flour or gluten-free flour substitute
½ cup of dairy-free milk substitute, unsweetened & unflavored
½ cup of chicken stock
2 tsp of salt or season salt
Instructions:
Heat the butter or oil over medium heat. Then put all other ingredients, except the chicken stock, in a mason jar. Seal the lid tightly, and shake vigorously until smooth. Pour the liquid from the mason jar into the hot skillet, stirring continually. As the liquid starts to thicken, slowly whisk in the chicken stock until the correct gravy-like texture is achieved. It should take 2-5 minutes depending on the pan.
If roux becomes too thick, slowly thin with water.
Taste of Home also has a good recipe for dairy-free cream of chicken soup. Click here to view the recipe.
For more resources on Alpha-Gal safe food, head over to my blog on grocery shopping with Alpha-Gal.