Simple and natural food recipes for people with food allergies

Food allergies are common among people with environmental illnesses. To cope, they can eat meals made of other ingredients. We show simple meals using natural ingredients, that are suitable for people doing food rotation.

Keywords:    food allergy, recipes, natural food, rotation diet, chemical sensitivity, gluten free

About the picture

The bowls are from left the quinoa dish, the millet dish, and the wild rice dish. The plate at the top right shows two pieces of rye cracker bread with cheese and fruit preserve, and two slices of rye bread with salami and cucumber. The top-left plate shows the ingredients for the salad.

More recipes are provided than those shown in the picture.

Food allergies

Food allergies and food intolerances can be simple, or complex. Some people are intolerant to one ingredient, such as lactose or gluten, others are sickened by a whole list of ingredients. The symptoms can vary from a stuffy nose, to upset stomach, to the sensation of having eaten a load of sharp nails.

Food allergies can be permanent or temporary. The temporary food allergies can usually be fixed if the food is not eaten at all for at least nine months (sometimes it takes years).

Some people have many food allergies, and become allergic to anything they eat on a daily basis. To prevent “loosing” more foods, they need to rotate the foods (see later).

Here are some simple dishes that are used by people with severe food allergies. They are all easy to make, have few ingredients, and can be used for food rotation (a few do have overlapping ingredients).

Millet dish

Put ¾ cups of hulled millet in a pot. Add 1½ cups of water, a handful of raisins and a handful of almonds (optional). Cook for about 30 minutes at low heat.

Cooking the almonds and raisins along with the millet destroys any mold that may be on them. Alternatively, they can be added when serving.

Beans, turkey, and cauliflower

Soak ¾ cups of red beans or kidney beans in water in the morning (when using for dinner).

To start cooking the meal, put the beans in a pressure cooker and cook for 45 minutes. You can also cook them in a regular pot, but it takes a lot longer.

A head of cauliflower is cooked in a separate pot for about 45 minutes.

Cook some turkey on a grill or pan.

This is very bland food. A nutritious way to add taste is to pour some Braggs Aminos over the beans and cauliflower. It is made of soy beans and taste like soy sauce.

If using canned beans, there is no soaking, and they just need to be heated up.

Tip: cook a larger portion of the beans and freeze what you don’t eat now. That saves a lot of time.

Cracked wild rice

Wild rice is a gem for people on a rotation diet, as it is not in the grass family, so it is not related to rice or wheat. It is mostly grown in Minnesota.

Cook ¾ cups of wild rice for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker, or about an hour in a regular pot. Drain thoroughly.

Serve with black cherry juice. Pour a cup of the juice over the wild rice when serving.

Regular cherry juice is too sweet for this dish.

Tip: you can save a lot of money by using cracked wild rice instead of regular wild rice. There is no difference, except the grains are shorter. Ask a wholesaler if they have it.

Tip: if the juice is too sweet, add water to it.

Quinoa and chicken

Quinoa is another gem for people with food allergies, as it is not related to wheat or rice.

Put ¾ cups of quinoa in a pot with 1½ cups of water. Add two chopped carrots.

Cook at a low temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.

Serve with a piece of chicken you’ve cooked or grilled.

It can also be made with a chicken hot dog. The dog is then added to the pot, either frozen or thawed.

Barley and beef

Put ½ cup of barley in the pot, along with a chopped onion and 1½ cups of water.

Some ground beef or other meat can be put in too.

Cook at low heat for about 45 minutes.

This is a very bland dish. It can be made more interesting by adding salsa or some fruit (fresh or dry), either on top on as a side dish.

Barley contains gluten.

Big salad

A big salad can provide a full lunch. To bulk it up further, some cooked or grilled meat can be added, such as ground meat sprinkled on top, or on the side. It can work with beef, buffalo, turkey, ostrich or fish.

Cut a head of romaine lettuce, one or two avocados, a bell pepper, and a cucumber into smaller pieces. Mix in a bowl. Sprinkle some salad dressing or olive oil on top. It works with just three of the ingredients, as long as the lettuce is still included.

Swedish cracker sandwiches

A stable in Sweden is their rye crispbread, which they use with various toppings. There are different versions of the crispbread, some are made solely from rye, salt and water, such as the Wasa brand’s Light Rye Crispbread.

You can then place a wide variety of ingredients on top of the bread, such as cheese, avocado, salami, potato, hardboiled egg, cucumber, fruit spread or whatever you like and tolerate.

You use just one slice of bread per sandwich, there is not a slice on top, as with a British or American sandwich. It is eaten with the fingers, not with utensils.

Note rye contains gluten.

Danish sandwiches

In Denmark and northernmost Germany, most people eat rye bread sandwiches for lunch every day. The bread is hardy and semi-soft, and very different from the Swedish cracker bread and American rye bread.

There are different versions of this rye bread, some are made from just rye and salt. A major brand is Mestemacher. Or try to locate a Danish or German bakery.

This bread can also be topped with a wide variety of foods, such as cheese, salami, hardboiled egg, avocado, carrot, potato, etc.

There is only one slice of bread per sandwich, none on top.

Note that rye contains gluten.

Rice and buffalo

Put ¾ cups of brown rice in 2 cups of water. Add a chopped leek or green onions. A handful of frozen cut corn can also be added.

Also put in a chunk of ground buffalo (about ¼ pound, 125 grams). The meat can be frozen or thawed. Cook at low boil for 45 minutes.

Rice porridge

This requires a type of rice that will absorb a lot of moisture. The typical long-grain rice will not work. Arborio rice, or any rice used for sushi, should work well.

Put one cup of the rice in a thick-bottomed pot, together with one quart (one liter) of 2% milk.

Cook at lowest setting for about 40 minutes, until the milk is mostly absorbed, but it is all still very moist. You may need to stir to avoid burning the bottom of the pot. This dish is traditionally served with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top, though it can also be eaten without.

The mixture is one teaspoon of cinnamon and three teaspoons of sugar. Turbinado sugar works great.

The dish can be made with rice milk instead, though it is not as creamy. Use 1½ quart (1½ liter) of the rice milk.

Rutabaga

Rutabaga is a root vegetable that has a mild pleasant taste and texture. It is almost as eating slices of a hearty bread.

One large or two small rutabagas are enough for a meal.

Cut off the outer shell. Then slice the innards into half-inch (one centimeter) thick pieces. Boil them in water for about an hour, until they become semi-soft.

Serve with any meat or fish, perhaps with an additional vegetable.

Cashews and mangos

This is a simple lunch that is handy for travel. Simply eat cashew nuts and dry mangos out of a bag.

The cashews contain fats and protein to balance the carbohydrates in the mangos.

If the cashews cause trouble, it could be because of the aflatoxins. Try some that have been roasted. You can do that yourself in a toaster oven.

Other possibilities

There are many other possibilities. In general, two or three ingredients are needed to make a meal palatable. Eating just one ingredient, called a monomeal, gets old really fast. If you hate your foods, you are more likely to “cheat.”

There are many types of beans, squash, fruit, and fish to choose from. Some people find a supply of more exotic meats, either from hunters or specialty firms.

Baby food in glass jars have few ingredients and are minimally processed. They were used by a lot of people with MCS before more wholesome foods became available in the 1990s. They still have their place, especially, when traveling.

Food rotation

People who become allergic to any food they eat on a daily basis need to rotate their foods. The method was developed by Dr. Theron Randolph, who also pioneered treating multiple chemical sensitivities.

The standard food rotation is to do it over four days, where each meal is unique. Each ingredient is used only in one meal during the four days. So, if you eat steak and potatoes on Monday night, you can not eat that again until Friday night. If you eat a bagel with cheese for lunch on Monday, you can’t eat any cheese (milk product) or bread (wheat) until Friday at lunch.

Any cooking oils must also be rotated. Olive, sunflower, and safflower are good cooking oils, many oils do not work for high-heat cooking. It is possible to cook with just water, though best at lower heat.

Spices must be rotated too, except salt, which is always present in our bodies anyway.

There are also genetic food groups to keep in mind. Wheat and rice both belongs to the same food group (the grass family). You can eat from the same food group on the same day, but not on adjacent days. So in our example, you can eat rice on Monday or Wednesday, but not Tuesday or Thursday.

Gluten is a protein that many people are allergic to. It is in the grains wheat, rye, and barley. Oats are very similar and frequently have to be avoided too.

It sounds complicated, but these are actually simple rules, once you get used to thinking this way.

But it means you need to put together twelve unique meals. That can be tough if you only have a regular grocery store. But there are a great variety of foods available that are not so commonly eaten. Some of them are used in these recipes. There are plenty more.

This writer has done food rotation since 1998. It becomes completely routine after a while.

For much more about food rotation, and helpful tables with the food groups, see Dr. Randolph’s book below.

More information

We recommend the book An Alternative Approach to Allergies, by Theron Randolph, for more on complex food allergies and rotation diets. It includes a table with food groups.

More articles about coping with environmental illnesses on eiwellspring.org.

2025