It’s a fodmap food, raw & cooked. Luckily I only have to exclude them when my system is irritated.
I also love cumin but not everybody I cook for agrees so I take it easy.
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Oh my gosh, this lunch! Mind. Blown.
And the drink! A splash of guava juice in water with a ginger ice cube. Pretty & so refreshing!
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I make a lemon sauce that changes, depending on what I have on hand, and what I’m pairing it with. It came about from a few different Blue Apron recipe sauces. One was a lemon aioli, another was a lemon lebneh for a Moroccan dish, and I think the third was a lemon crema for a Mexican meal. But I put it on so many things; salmon burgers, sandwiches, dip for raw veggies, etc. One surprise favorite is dipping carrot fries in it.
Jennie’s Basic Lemon Sauce
For 2 servings: Zest & juice a lemon. Use a good zester that really gives you tiny little grains of zest. Amazing pro tip: Use these gloves when zesting or grating anything!!! They are awesome, and I legit use them all the time. One of the best kitchen gadgets I’ve ever bought.
Add the zest & juice to 1/4 cup of your cream of choice. This could be mayo, sour cream, plain or greek yogurt, lebneh, or vegan faux sour cream. Add a small drizzle of olive oil. If using mayo or a very thick yogurt, you may want to thin the sauce with a little extra lemon juice. (I just use bottled). If using vegan sour cream, you may want to use more of the olive oil. Add a dash or salt & pepper, and stir well, then taste. Decide if you want the sauce thicker or thinner, and if you want more lemon flavor. If so, more bottled juice.
Lime Crema variation: Use mayo on this one for a richer, thicker crema. Replace the lemon with lime zest & juice, and add a dash of chili powder, for a great sauce on tacos of all types, but especially good on shrimp tacos.
Depending on my mood, I also sometimes add 1 T chopped capers, especially when serving with fish.
Other flavor that I now love using on everything is Togarashi. It is a Japanese spice blend. It came with a Blue Apron meal (Togarashi Tilapia & Garlic Rice with Marinated Cucumbers & Radishes) that I remake all the time, especially in summer when the marinated veggies are nice and cool, and I can use the rice cooker to avoid heating the kitchen. The only thing I’ll warn you about though, is that various blends are radically different. The BA blend was fragrant and flavorful with a mild kick, but not ‘hot’ spicy. I bought more of the blend from BA’s store, and loved it, but hated the expense of buying it from them & shipping it, so when I saw some at Kroger I jumped at it. Bad idea. The Kroger blend was spicy hot, and lacked the fragrance of the orange peel & sesame in the BA one. When I cooked with it, and it was in the air in our house, both my husband and I would cough and choke on the air. So you might have to try a couple versions to find one you like. Same thing with Za’atar, which I also add to tons of things.
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Ooh, I do love lemon. Thanks Jennie! Za’atar is lovely, we’ve got straight up sumac in the cupboard too. It’s so bright, really nice sprinkled over pale dips.
I’m looking for different spice jars to reorg that cupboard, it’s already a fairly extensive collection but I have a feeling it’s about to expand 
I signed up to take a class on lacto-fermentation at the food co-op in town on the 14th. It covers making 4 fermented foods: sauerkraut, preserved lemons, fermented root veggies, and beet kvass. The $30 class fee covers the class itself, and all the ingredients to make the foods along with the instructor. The class is virtual, so you stop by and pick up the kit on Friday, then take the class online on Saturday. Looking forward to adding these flavor boosters to my meals too!
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Oh, have fun! Ferments are amazing! I love them all. Fermented salsa is really good, the flavour profile is just MWAH chef’s kiss
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My husband purchased special mason jar lids that let out the fermenting belch but do not let any new air in. Nourished Essentials Easy Fermenter
Well, phooey. I made more sauces, one with parsley & mint that’s just ok, and another one with parsley & dill that’s also just ok. I’m missing the magic of the first round. Oh well, will keep trying.
I did have success with adding roasted beets to Jennie’s white bean dip along with fresh dill. It freezes well so I’ll take some little containers of it to keep at work.
I roasted some peppers too and quick pickled them, they should be good by tomorrow. Nice to add a little flavour flav to rice dishes, yum!
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Still regularly making cilantro jalapeño sauce & parsley freshi sauce. Both are so tasty & versatile, I’ve been taking jars to work and it livens up leftovers incredibly.
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Our Friend visited from the county & brought a ginormous basket of tomatoes, mostly cherry but also these award winning black toms that are OMG incredible.
Just look at that gorgeous colour!
Try as we might, we couldn’t eat enough tomato sammies to get thru them all so I’ve roasted most of them & made a batch of Pro Home Cooks really great smokey sauce, subbing in dried poblano for the chipotle.
It is SO GOOD, I could drink this stuff.
We had it with tonight’s dinner of farrow, chick peas, grilled zucchini & corn on the cob. It elevated every single bite, yum yum yum.
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3 kinds of green sauce: roasted tomatillo, freshi and cilantro
Some for home, some for work. It’s all delicious!
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So onions don’t bother you? Are red onions better? I have to watch onions because of acid reflux, GERD.
These sauces, dips and condiments are great ways to add flavor, especially when reducing salt and fat in the diet.
Oops, I missed answering the above.
Not eating any pre-made or restaurant food makes it easy to avoid too much sodium or bad fats. I use lots of healthy fats in my home cooking, I need that for energy since I have cut out a lot of carbs.
And not eating the things that really irritate my system (starchy carbs, refined anything) helps lessen reactiveness to onions, garlic, etc, for me.
I make that cilantro sauce all the time now, it’s a hit with family, friends, coworkers. I tweaked his recipe so it can be frozen in small jars. It only keeps in the fridge for a week & was hard to use up a whole batch in time, even with giving half away!
That’s one bunch of cilantro, one bunch green onion, 2 whole jalapeños, a couple limes - juiced, splash of maple syrup, drizzle olive oil, 1 large avocado, salt to taste.
If wanted, it can be thawed & mixed with some mayo or yogurt but it’s very good just like this.
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