In recent years, before starting a low-histamine diet, my husband got me hooked on curry. It's the perfect dish for my cooking -- low effort, forgiving of mistakes, and you can throw in whatever happens to be lying around. Nutritionally, you can make super dense curries with meat or tofu for protein, dark greens for calcium and tons of vitamin C, carrots for vitamin A, and potatoes or rice for fiber. It's also so versatile that I could eat it every day and not get bored. When I began the diet, I assumed my days of curries were over.
BUT I have been experimenting lately and found a dish that works well!
MCAS challenges:
No spices (especially cumin)
No greens
No mushrooms (this was heartbreaking for me)
No leftovers -- can't make too much or it'll go bad!
Protein has to be chicken
Obviously, curry with these challenges needs to be a bit creative, but here's what I can eat at the moment:
Coconut cream (**only without guar gum)
Rice/rice noodles
Organic chicken
Potatoes
Acorn squash (a pain to chop up, but tasty!)
Possibly carrots (still testing it out) -- update: no such luck on the carrots
Himalayan pink salt
Olive oil
(Click for more details on these ingredients)
Cooking instructions
Step 1: Get the ingredients
If you have MCAS, they need to be as fresh as possible and, ideally, all organic. I'd
recommend small bags of carrots and the smallest acorn squash you can find -- leftovers accrue histamine, and it gets tough to finish this all in one meal!
Step 3: Saute the acorn squash in olive oil while chopping the potatoes and carrots
Step 4: Throw the carrots and potatoes in with the squash, add chicken after a few minutes
**I can't tolerate other veggies, but if you're not restricted, I recommend also adding mushrooms, broccoli/cauliflower, and a dark green like kale or spinach. If you have EDS and want to combat some of your joint pain (or just like extra flavor), add garlic and onion -- they are anti-inflammatory! Also, I recently tried cauliflower and, although it didn't work out for me, it is low in histamine,
salicylates, and oxalates, so it should be good for most MCAS folks! Cauliflower breaks the nutrition rule that more intense colors mean more nutrients; it has tons of potassium as well as vitamins C and B6.
Step 5: Once things are starting to soften,
throw in a can or two of coconut cream and let it simmer until the veggies are soft and the chicken is cooked all the way through
**MCAS note: meats need to be totally cooked inside, so no eating the chicken if it has any pink!
Step 6: Cook up some rice or rice noodles and add salt to taste in the curry
Enjoy! At this point, those of you who are not restricted can add whatever seasoning you'd like -- I recommend lots of turmeric (delicious and super anti-inflammatory), some cumin, and something spicy like cayenne pepper or hot sauce. You can also use pre-mixed curry powder.