Vegan Stuffed Red Peppers sharing a dish with Roasted Onions and Fennel

These vegan stuffed red peppers are a perfect Thanksgiving side dish or main dish for vegetarians.  They are gluten-free, low oxalate and have all the traditional holiday flavors you love.  Although fennel seed – a traditional flavor in Thanksgiving stuffing- is high oxalate, fennel seed tea is low oxalate and gives the same flavor to the stuffing.  Even better, the fennel tea gives the illusion that these vegan stuffed red peppers contain sausage, a nice surprise for vegetarians who miss some of the flavors of their childhood.

Hope you enjoy vegan stuffed red peppers, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Vegan Stuffed Red Peppers

1 fennel seed tea bag (UK readers click here)
1 cup apple cider
1 cup long grain white rice
2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onions
1 1/2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and finely diced (about 2 apples)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon white pepper (UK readers click here)
1/2 cup dried cranberries (UK readers click here)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (UK readers click here)
6 medium red bell peppers, tops cut off and hollowed
fresh thyme sprigs for garnish (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup water and the apple cider to boil and add the fennel tea bag.  Brew the tea for about five minutes, then remove the tea bag.  Add the rice, thyme and sage. Cover the pot and return to boiling.  Simmer the rice, covered, until all liquid is absorbed (about 20 minutes).

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Saute the celery, onions, apples, salt and pepper in the hot oil until they are softened (about five minutes).  Combine the cooked rice, sauteed vegetables and fruit.  Stir in the cranberries and the pumpkin seeds.  Spoon the stuffing into the bell peppers, then stand the peppers upright in a baking dish.  Put the top back on if desired (or cut it up for a salad).

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until the peppers are tender and stuffing in heated through.  To serve, garnish with a thyme sprig if desired.

Low Oxalate Info:  All ingredients in vegan stuffed red peppers are low oxalate except for the medium oxalate celery (7.o mg. oxalate per half cup) and pumpkin seeds (6.2 mg. oxalate per half cup). Each vegan stuffed red pepper has about 10.3 mg. oxalate (which is still low oxalate since each of these peppers is actually 2-3 servings of veggie/rice/fruit).  These peppers are large and filling!  Vegans and vegetarians might enjoy these with a salad.  Meat-eaters might enjoy them with roasted turkey or chicken.

Where to buy fennel seed tea:  I buy fennel seed tea, loose or in tea bags, in the natural foods section of my large chain grocery store.  Most natural food stores in the US, Cananda and the UK should carry fennel seed tea as it is a very popular digestive aid, weight loss aid, and herbal remedy for gas, bloating and menstruation troubles. You may also order fennel seed tea from Amazon or directly from your favorite tea company.  I really like Alvita brand herbal teas (US readers click here and UK readers click here. Sorry Canadian readers, I’m having trouble finding an on-line source for you. Let me know if you have one.) Or you might try one of these (US readers click here and UK readers click here). Any herbal tea that is made from fennel seed (without extra ingredients) should be low oxalate (3.0 mg. oxalate per cup) and should work well as a substitute for fennel seeds in recipes that call for fennel seeds plus some kind of liquid.

Photo credits go to avlxyz for just baked and karmadude for fennel seeds.

Baked apples are a great side dish or dessert for a harvest-themed meal like Thanksgiving.  These low oxalate baked apples are especially rich and make a luscious dessert served with heavy cream or coconut cream.  Make sure you use a good baking apple like Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Jonathon or Rome Beauty.  My favorite apple for this dish is Golden Delicious because it doesn’t make a lot of juice when baked which creates a richer-tasting pan syrup.  Granny Smiths is also particularly good because its tart flavor complements the richness of the butter well.

Low Oxalate Baked Apple

If you are a Primal, Paleo or other low-carbohydrate eater, you may want to leave out the honey and raisins, but I highly recommend the rum (I use 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup dark rum).  To me, baked apples are a sensible indulgence not to be missed!

Enjoy!

Holiday Baked Apples

6 large baking apples
2 tablespoons honey (optional)
6 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup apple cider, water, dark rum or brandy

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Peel and core the apples.  Pour the melted butter and honey into a small bowl and mix well.  Roll each apple in the butter mixture then set the apples in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.  Reserve the left-over butter mixture.  Combine the raisins and pumpkin seeds in a small dish, then stuff the raisin mixture into the hollows of the apples (note: if you have non-low oxalate dieters in the house, you may want to stuff their apples with a raisin/walnut mixture instead).  Stir the lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg into the left-over butter/honey mixture.  Pour as much of this butter mixture into the apple hollows as possible, pouring any left-over into the bottom of the pan.  Add the cider to the pan (note: if you use rum or brandy, the alcohol burns off during baking).  Bake uncovered until the apples are tender when pierced with a fork (about 1 hour).  You do not need to baste these apples. Serve warm with the pan syrup and heavy cream or coconut cream.

Makes 6 servings.

Low Oxalate Info:  Holiday Baked Apples have about 5 mg. oxalate each when made with apple cider.  Cinnamon (8.3 mg. per teaspoon) and pumpkin seeds (5.2 mg. per 2 tablespoons) are medium oxalate ingredients.  Rum and brandy have not been tested, although all liqueurs, whiskeys and wines tested so far have no oxalate or trace amounts of oxalate, so I feel confident using rum or brandy for special occasion cooking.  All other ingredients are low or very low oxalate. 

OXALATE UPDATE (Dec. 2011):  Cinnamon has been retested since I wrote this post and found to be high oxalate at 38.5 mg./teaspoon.  If you substitute nutmeg (9.4 mg./teaspoon) for the cinnamon they should still be about 5.1 mg. oxalate per serving. Alternately, reduce the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon for apples that are about 7 mg. oxalate per serving. 

Variation:  For a simpler side dish, reduce the butter and honey by half and omit the raisins, pumpkin seeds, lemon juice and nutmeg.  Simply arrange 6 cored apples (peeled or not . . .) in a baking dish.  Mix the cinnamon, butter, and honey in a bowl, then spoon this mixture into the hollows of the apples.  Add 1 cup apple juice or water to the pan and bake, covered with foil at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  Uncover the apples and baste with the pan juice, then bake again, basting frequently –until the apples are soft but still hold their shape.

Other Diets: Holiday Baked Apples may be appropriate for gluten-free, dairy-free (using coconut), vegan, vegetarian and controlled carbohydrate diets.  They also make a great holiday indulgence for Primal, Paleo and low-carbohydrate dieters.

Photo credit goes to Tiny Red Kitchen for Heavenly Baked Apples.

Holiday dinners with family and friends are an important tradition you don’t want to miss, but they can be stressful for the low oxalate dieter–especially if your family’s traditional fare is laden with high oxalate treats.  You don’t want to offend Aunt Opal by refusing to eat her sweet potato pie or hurt your mother-in-law’s feelings by only taking a bite of her famous mashed potatoes.  You may also feel resentment or grief at not being able to enjoy some of your favorite family traditions.  Or perhaps you’re the hostess for this year’s Thanksgiving meal and are wondering what in the world you could possibly cook and still eat.

Luckily, holiday gatherings can also be the perfect time to educate your family about your health and dietary choices.  Many people are beginning to understand gluten-intolerance, food allergies, and food sensitivities and will understand your polite refusal to not partake in some of the  family feast, especially if you explain your health requirements before the meal starts.  Other family members may be willing to modify some of their recipes or at least their dinner menu to make sure you have some yummy low oxalate Thanksgiving choices.  You may also want to ask to bring a side dish to a dinner hosted by a friend or relative to make sure you have at least one festive, yummy choice to fill up on. If you are making Thanksgiving dinner for a family that includes numerous non-low oxalate dieters, you will probably need to keep up some of the high oxalate family traditions.  But there is always room to add new traditions and slight modifications to old family favorites.  For example, my family used to enjoy a traditional Waldorf salad, but now we serve a low oxalate Thanksgiving version with apple, pineapple, raisins, and chopped broccoli stems and walnuts on the side for non-low oxalate dieters to add at the table.  We’ve also added various stuffed squash dishes, pumpkin “custard” (pumpkin pie without the crust), and steamed asparagus instead of the ubiquitous green bean casserole.  With just a few menu changes and a healthy appetite for turkey, I can usually navigate the family feast just fine.

Working out the menu and the family politics surrounding traditional fare can be challenging, but perhaps more challenging is choosing an “oxalate strategy” for the day and sticking to it.  Here are four oxalate strategies I have adopted at various Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners during my 20 years on the low oxalate diet.  By deciding ahead of time how I would manage my oxalate intake, I was better able to make confident food choices and to stick to my plan.

Strategy One:  Stick to your daily oxalate plan with no concession for the holidays.  This may be an important strategy for those who are still dealing with lots of serious oxalate issues that compromise their health.  It may also be important for those who feel that deviating from their normal oxalate plan “just this once” would lead to more deviations in the future and a compromised ability to stay on the diet.  If you are going to stick with your daily oxalate plan, it might help for you to eat a really low oxalate Thanksgiving day breakfast (and very low oxalate snacks at night), so that most of your daily oxalate intake comes from the feast.  You might also pool your oxalate intake over three days, and eat very low oxalate the day before and the day after Thanksgiving in order to eat more oxalate at Thanksgiving dinner.

Strategy Two:  Stick to your daily oxalate plan with a small concession for the holidays.  For example, if you usually try to keep your daily oxalate intake below 6o mg., you may want to increase that oxalate intake to 70 mg. or 80 mg. for just one day.  Like in strategy one, you may also want to “save up” you oxalate intake for the feast by eating very low oxalate for two or three meals before and after the feast. This strategy may also be more realistic than strategy one for those low-oxalate dieters that will be eating at a friend or relative’s house instead of cooking dinner themselves.  What I like about this strategy is that it allows me just enough extra oxalate to partake in a small helping of mashed potatoes, my favorite high oxalate Thanksgiving treat.

Strategy Three:  Forget about counting oxalate, just avoid really high oxalate foods (like pecan pie) and try to limit the amount of medium oxalate or “lower high” foods if possible.  Again, eating very low oxalate for the three meals before and after Thanksgiving dinner may help alleviate the damage of eating higher oxalate during dinner.  This is probably the simplest strategy that keeps you within bounds of the low oxalate diet without giving up too much holiday fun.  It may be an appropriate strategy for low or medium oxalate dieters who have healed all or most of their oxalate-related symptoms and are on the low oxalate diet for health maintenance.

Strategy Four:  Forget about oxalate for the day and just eat!  After all, it’s just one meal . . .  Again, this strategy may be okay for those who have been on the low oxalate diet for a long time, have healed their oxalate symptoms, and are only on a low or medium oxalate diet for health maintenance.  Of course, you still might want to avoid the REALLY high oxalate foods and pass on the pecan pie or spinach salad.  I’m sure you’ll still have plenty of medium and “lower highs” to chose from.

I’ve employed each of these strategies at one time or another during my long journey on the low oxalate diet.  Strategies one and two worked well during the early, “healing” years of my diet.  Strategy four wasn’t too bad when I was doing really well, although I did have minor pain flare-ups afterward.  Now I usually stick with strategy three, although I will probably be a little more strict about the number of mediums I consume this year.  Either way, I’ll start the day with a very low oxalate Thanksgiving omelette and make sure I eat very low oxalate the day before and after..

Hope these tips and strategies help you head into the holiday season with more confidence.  Happy Holidays and happy low oxalate eating!