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artichoke
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 1208
Location: under the stairs
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 Posted: Jan 09, 2012 3:46 pm Post subject: Food allergies |
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| So, MrArtichoke is deathly allergic to onions, and guess what. They are in EVERYTHING. My cooking skillz are lacking, and I want to make him something yummy, but I also don't want to kill him. Add to the mix his allergy to tomatoes and my vegetarianism and things can get kind of difficult. We tend to eat a lot of the same meals because they're easy - mac and cheese, breakfast burritos, but it gets boring. I finally managed to track down boullion cubes made from garlic, so I can sometimes do soups. I guess I'm just here to vent while I search forlornly on Pinterest for things that both of us can eat tonight. |
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Sainte Eph
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 1544
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Jan 09, 2012 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Is he allergic to leeks as well? I use leeks in place of onion because I have a serious aversion to onions (can't stand them in anything) but I like leeks because they taste more garlicky to me and are not as harsh.
My own whine is that I am allergic to avocados and it just breaks my heart because I love them and I keep seeing all these great recipes that include them. But searing abdominal pain is not something I enjoy, so I must refrain from eating them. Wah!
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embroidery
Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Jan 10, 2012 4:48 am Post subject: |
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| Instead of onions you could use very finely chopped kohlrabies. It's spicy and juicy, but lacks the harshness of onions. It's nice if you cook it or fresh. for a general change in vegetarian nutrition I suggest the Arabic/Turkish cuisine. Apart from the meaty things which you will not like, it has many very nice vegetarian pastries with garlic or chili. The antipastis there are great too. Indish food is also worth a try due to their use of spices such as curcuma or curries. These can all very well replace the onion spice - and combined with rice or vegetables it's good for both of you. |
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themaverick
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 478
Location: Windsor, ON, Canada
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| Posted: Jan 10, 2012 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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Aw, artichoke, what a rough situation...I do have a couple of suggestions that might help, though!
You can always make your own vegetable stock for soup bases! You can throw just about any vegetable into it, and you can easily ensure that no onion or tomato gets in there! I've used whole fresh veggies, and scraps (like potato peelings, very clean ones, although potato peelings will make the stock a bit cloudy) to make vegetarian stock.
You could do one of my standby meatless meals (I'm an omnivore myself) - hummus with dipping veggies and falafel balls! There are a ton of recipes for baked falafels online (just eliminate the onion - I bet you could even grate up a little zucchini or cucumber to simulate the moisture added by the onion), and I really like this recipe for a white bean hummus:
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/04/recipe_white_bean_hummus_with.html
I make mine without tahini (I don't like tahini much) and I've made it with and without the spinach - delicious both ways!
Good luck! :)
- Aimee |
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artichoke
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 1208
Location: under the stairs
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| He isn't allergic to leeks, but he doesn't like them either. On top of everything else, he is kind of picky. I've never tried kohlrabies and I bet he hasn't either, so maybe that will work. Thanks! And I've never made my own stock - I always thought you HAD to use onions to make it. I'll look into that too. Thanks again! |
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bookselves
Joined: 23 Oct 2006
Posts: 2828
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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artichoke, can you just omit onions from what you'd usually cook? Double up on garlic/spices and I bet you'll be fine.
Do you have any luck making veg* subs for things he likes?
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meexie
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 5992
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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S is allergic to raw cucumbers, bell peppers, and melon. Not deathly allergic, but S will vomit and be nauseous allergic. It's a for-real thing, and S's Mom has the same reaction. It makes eating out a little more challenging - people don't seem to think it's true and don't take it seriously.
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artichoke
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 1208
Location: under the stairs
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| bookselves wrote: |
artichoke, can you just omit onions from what you'd usually cook? Double up on garlic/spices and I bet you'll be fine.
Do you have any luck making veg* subs for things he likes? |
That's where my lack of cooking skills comes in. Because onions are in EVERYTHING, I can't tell if onion serves a purpose other than flavoring and I don't want to screw something up and waste a bunch of food. If I can recognize it as just garnish or whatever, then I leave it out. But I had no idea, for example, as themaverick says onions in falafel serve as moisture to hold it together. And luckily, he's into subbing fake meat for real meat in everything. He usually only eats real meat when we go out to dinner.
meexie - yep. I started trying to get MrArtichoke to just tell servers that he's allergic instead of asking them to take that stuff off because half the time, his food shows up smothered in onions. Before dating him, I'd never heard of onion or tomato allergies. |
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caropop
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 7997
Location: tejas
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| meexie wrote: |
| S is allergic to raw cucumbers, bell peppers, and melon. Not deathly allergic, but S will vomit and be nauseous allergic. It's a for-real thing, and S's Mom has the same reaction. It makes eating out a little more challenging - people don't seem to think it's true and don't take it seriously. |
That's my reaction to provolone, though it comes out the other end, as it were. You get really weird looks from people when you say you can't eat provolone and ask for it to subbed for another cheese--most people who can't eat cheese can't eat any cheese. I mostly stopped trying to order anything that has it in it at restaurants because I don't want to check to deal with checking my food all the time nor do I want to spend the rest of the day in the bathroom. Provolone is a stupid allergy or intolerance of whatever my problem is. I feel sorry for people with seriously allergies.
I do have a friend who is deathly allergic to citric acid (talk about difficult) who downplays it in restaurants because she's been put in a situation where the chef gets freaked out and tells her there's nothing she can eat because they don't want to take any responsibility for the possibility of contamination.
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IrmaVep
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 4711
Location: Never far from my sewing machine
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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| meexie wrote: |
| S is allergic to raw cucumbers, bell peppers, and melon. Not deathly allergic, but S will vomit and be nauseous allergic. It's a for-real thing, and S's Mom has the same reaction. It makes eating out a little more challenging - people don't seem to think it's true and don't take it seriously. |
Ugh, the Capsicum one is horrid. I'm not that bad that I will vomit with it, but I feel nasty queasy for the rest of the day. It's in just about everything that doesn't have meat in (I'm not vegetarian, but I eat meat-free a significant portion of days for religious reasons). And the number of times I have asked for something to be made without it, and it still comes as the garnish.
Goat's milk on the other hand, will make me vomit. So I always have to check at fancy places what type of feta, or what cheeses are in their four cheese sauces. Cows milk is fine. |
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knittykat
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 10694
Location: Here & Now
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| Posted: Jan 12, 2012 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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You can certainly make stock without onions--I do. Maggie is sensitive to onions and I just plain don't like them so I make most things without onions. Then you can freeze it and use it as needed.
In vegetable dishes that have you saute onions, garlic, pepper, etc together, you can do, say, celery, garlic, pepper or celery, garlic, carrots, or whatever.
You don't always have to substitute something else in either; most of the time onions are strictly flavoring related, so you can adjust spices (but be careful with spice blends, which often contain dehydrated onions).
I'd like to recommend Penzey's for spices; even if you don't have a physical store they do a lot of catalogue business. Their spice blends are very nice, economical, and they are completely upfront about everything in each one (some other brands will say "proprietary blend of spices" which isn't helpful!). I really like their Arizona blend, and their lemon pepper puts all other lemon peppers to shame.
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