A gluten free & low FODMAP Christmas
Are you planning a gluten free Christmas that also needs to be low FODMAP? In my family I am gluten free and my brother is low FODMAP, so quite a bit of thought has to go into making a safe meal!
This is for an Australian summer meal, so if you are in the Northern hemisphere, save this post for when summer hits! There is more detail below (including links to recipes), but hopefully this menu will give you some inspiration:
Nibbles to start
- Bocconcini with cherry tomatoes & basil
- Cold meats
- Smoked salmon pinwheels
- Dip & rice biscuits
Main course
- Chicken with sundried tomato & olive topping
- Ham off the bone
- Grilled zucchini & eggplant
- Carrot, cumin & coriander salad
- Summer millet salad
- Bread rolls
Dessert
- Christmas pudding (GF but not low FODMAP) with brandy butter
- fruit santas (strawberries, grapes, banana), raspberries and blueberries
- Cheese if any room left!
Drinks
- Wine, cranberry and mint lemonade; mineral water; wine
If you are new to low FODMAP, there is a table at the end of the post with the ‘rating’ of all the foods listed.
Pre-dinner nibbles
Smoked salmon pinwheels are great option as they can be made the night before, even with gluten free wraps.
Recipe & photo used with permission from ‘She Loves Biscotti’ (not GF bread pictured)
It could be worth experimenting with the ones you have available to you, but I have had success with Gluten Free 4U wraps.
For presenting your olives and cold meats, there is a lovely idea here for an antipasto christmas wreath using rosemary – just adjust to make FODMAP friendly.
Gluten free crackers and dip are another easy option. It is quite hard to find low FODMAP dips due to garlic being used, but Yumi’s gluten free and diary free olive dip is my go to option.
Main course
This baked chicken recipe has a sundried tomato and olive topping. I can’t reproduce the recipe here, but you will find it in Sue Shepherd’s ‘Low FODMAP recipes‘ cookbook. A ham is a Christmas must and an easy meat to put on the table.
For salads the Low FODMAP millet salad by Monash University has a nice Christmas feel with the green and red and it makes enough to feed an army!
The carrot cumin salad pictured below is a Julie Goodwin recipe from the 2015 Australian Women’s Weekly, but I could not find it online to give you the recipe. I just left the garlic out of the dressing to make it low FODMAP.
For the grilled eggplant (aubergine) and zuchinni (courgette), I used a Sue Shepherd recipe, but this one could be used as a guideline.
I had two baskets of bread rolls, one of course being gluten free. I used the Genius gluten free rolls, but I can also recommend rolls from New Freedom Bakery in Bendigo and you can also buy their pre-mix to make your own.
Drinks
To add a festive spirit to the table with a non alcoholic drink, this Cranberry and Mint lemonade passes the low FODMAP test (recipe no longer available online, sorry).
Sparkling wine and red or white wine are all low FODMAP in low doses.
Dessert
I’m yet to find a low FODMAP Christmas pudding, but a gluten free Christmas pudding is relatively easy to find. I usually buy Vitality which is also dairy free. It comes in a 900g size or two individual size pots (280g).
For the low FODMAP option, berries with meringues are always a great colourful dessert solution, as well as these cute grape and strawberry santas topped with a tuft of gluten free marshmellow.
If you have cheese, rice crackers or Wellaby’s ‘crackers for cheese’ fulfill their name and go very well with cheese (these are Mrs Crimbles in the UK). I also recently found these cranberry & pistachio crispbread which look great and are marked low FODMAP.
Happy gluten free and low FODMAP dining!
See below for the FODMAP rating of the foods mentioned:
| Overall | Oligos | Fructose | Polyols | Lactose | |
| Fruit & Veg | |||||
| Rocket, 1 serve, 1 cup 35g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Spring onion (green tops only), 1 serve, 1 bunch 16g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Capsicum (red), 1 serve, 1/2 cup 52g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Cucumber (common), 1 serve, 1/2 cup 64g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Tomato (common), 1 small 119g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Semi sun-dried tomatoes, 1 serve (4 pieces) | MEDIUM | Green | Yellow | Green | Green |
| Eggplant (aubergine), 1 serve, 1/2 cup 41g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Zucchini (courgette), 1 serve, 1/2 cup chopped 66g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Grapes, thompson, 1 serve 150g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Strawberries, 1 serve 10 medium | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Blueberries, 1 serve 20 berries | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Raspberries, 1 serve 10 berries | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Banana, 1 serve 1 medium | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Herbs & ‘extras’ | |||||
| Basil, fresh 1 serve, 1 cup 16g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Mint, fresh 1 serve (bundle) 90 g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Parsley, fresh 1 serve, 1 cup 16g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Lemon juice, 1 serve 1 tsp 6g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Olives, black or green pitted, 15 small | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Seaweed (nori) – 1/2 serve, 1 sheet | LOW | Green | Yellow | Green | Green |
| Drinks | |||||
| Red wine, 1 glass, 150 ml | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| White wine, 1 glass, 150 ml | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Sparkling wine, 1 glass, 150 ml | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Cranberry juice, 1 glass 250 ml | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
| Carbs | |||||
| Millet, hulled, 1 serve 1 cup cooked 184g | LOW | Green | Green | Green | Green |
Source: The Monash University Low FODMAP diet app
For more gluten free in Australia options and travel ideas, please check the following links:
- 100% gluten free Melbourne
- Albert Park – A gluten free and low FODMAP Christmas in Melbourne
- Sydney (domestic) airport
- Foddies, fructose friendly in Camberwell
- 100% gluten free London
- London Heathrow & Gatwick airport gluten free options
- Rome gluten free
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