Low FODMAP Dinner Ideas

How to build a low FODMAP dinner

Most dinners run into trouble before the main ingredient goes in the pan. Onion and garlic sit at the base of nearly every sauce, marinade, stock and spice blend, and both are high in fructans. The fix is a swap rather than leaving them out: cook in garlic-infused olive oil, since fructans do not dissolve into oil, and use the green tops of scallions or leeks for onion flavor. A pinch of asafoetida adds more depth if you have it.

Plain meat, poultry, fish, eggs and firm tofu have no FODMAPs to count, so the protein is rarely the problem. Watch what it is cooked in instead. Store-bought broth, sausage, marinated meat and most seasoning packets carry onion or garlic powder. A batch of homemade chicken broth in the freezer and a jar of marinara made with garlic oil cover most soups, stews, pastas and braises.

Rice, potatoes, quinoa, polenta, rice noodles and gluten-free pasta are all low FODMAP at a normal plate portion, so build the plate on one of those. Vegetables are where serving sizes matter. Carrots, zucchini, green beans, bok choy, spinach and green bell pepper are easy to use generously. Red bell pepper is low at about 43g per serving, broccoli heads at 75g, a common tomato at half a medium one (65g) and cherry tomatoes at 3 per plate. Canned coconut milk works in curries at about 1/4 cup per serving.

Portion size is the other lever. Several low servings of different foods on one plate can add up, so a dinner with a modest amount of a few moderate vegetables sits better than a big pile of one. Every recipe on this site lists the serving it was built around, and the low FODMAP food list has the rating and tested serving for each ingredient.

Cooking once for the week helps too. Most of the dinners below reheat well, so a pot of chili, a tray of sheet pan chicken or a batch of meatballs becomes two or three meals, and a stocked freezer means you are not reaching for a jarred sauce or takeout on a tired night.