1. Spices, Herbs, Chillis & Garlic
Fresh food and especially vegetables feature heavily in the SCD regime. We’ve both developed a real appreciation for veg in the last year mainly because we’ve experimented with lots of ways of cooking it. Before a meal wasn’t a meal without spuds, pasta or rice. But with the help of spices, herbs, chillis & garlic we now happily eat just steak and veg, salmon and veg etc. So my advice is stock up on some good quality spices. Our favourites that we use practically every day are cumin, cayenne pepper, turmeric and oregano. Also, be sure to add some garlic, herbs or chillis (scotch bonnets yummy!) when cooking your veg, especially when you’re roasting them to add some flavour.... Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme….. Why not buy a plant of each to make sure you always have them in fresh supply rather than paying about €1.50 for a handful. Also, as a garlic lover I think you can never have too much garlic. I use two cloves if cooking enough veg for two. My advice is not to be afraid to experiment with veg, try different combinations and mix all different types, stir fried, roasted, grilled, boiled. I'll add some of my favourites soon to the recipes section.

2. Spuds/Rice/Pasta Substitutes
Butternut squash – this is great roasted with lots of garlic, olive oil and some thyme or rosemary. It takes about the same time as it does to roast potatoes so I just stick them in at the same time when I’m doing a roast. You can get butternut squash in most supermarkets these days and they cost about €1. They keep for a good few days in the fridge and one would probably last for 3 dinners. 

I accompany chilli con carne with boiled green beans or mange tout (drizzle over some garilc olive oil). Don't forget the yoghurt and cheese on top of the chilli! Delish!

I cook slices of aubergine on the griddle pan, then rub with a clove of garlic and cook in the oven drizzled with some olive oil for about 10 mins to eat with bolognese (instead of spaghetti).

Curries – I make a mean Chicken Lahori and instead of rice I cook pan fried chunks of aubergines, courgettes, garlic and some tomatoes or red peppers.

3. Gravy/Sauces
Now most Irish people love a good roast dinner “of a Sunday”, but how can you cope without the firm Irish favourite of gravy. Well here’s a quick suggestion for delicious SCD gravy. Roast an onion in the same dish as your meat which you probably already do and towards the end of cooking take the onion out along with some of the meat juices and tiny bit of the veg (carrot,garlic, butternut squash). Then use a hand blender to blend them all together and add to a saucepan and bring to the boil. I sometimes add a splash of red or white wine. To make it thicker you can also add some pea protein.

A few others of our favourite sauces are Hollandaise, SCD yogurt and spices (cumin, turmeric), lemon juice, thyme and garlic (great marinade for Chicken) and honey & mustard. I’ll be adding some detailed recipes in the coming weeks.