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So you’ve decided to go nightshade-free. Congratulations!

Maybe you did an elimination diet and found you’re sensitive to nightshades, maybe you have an autoimmune issue and heard from a friend that cutting out nightshades helped them, or maybe you have a loved one who can’t eat them and you’re just wondering what that means for Thanksgiving dinner.

This article will serve as a primer on nightshades and going nightshade-free, and will be regularly updated with additional specific recipes (though all recipes on this blog will be nightshade-free).

Table of Contents:
— What is a nightshade?
— What isn’t a nightshade?
— Foods that have nightshades
— Nightshade-free cooking
— Nightshade-free spice and sauce substitutes
— Talking to other people about nightshades

What is a nightshade?

A “nightshade” is a member of the Solanaceae plant family. The most common culinary nightshades are potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.

Here are some culinary nightshades you might see, broken down into categories:

Tomatoes and tomato-like fruits
— Kutjera
— Naranjilla
— Tomatillos
— Tamarillos
Potatoes
Eggplants
Peppers
— Bell peppers
— Cayenne
— Chili peppers
— Jalapeños
— Habaneros
— Paprika
— Pimentos
Fruits
— Garden huckleberries (but not regular huckleberries)
— Ground cherries/Cape gooseberries
— Coconas
— Goji berries/wolfberries
— Pepino melons
Other
— Ashwaganda
— Petunias (the flower)
— Sorbitol (a sugar substitute often derived from potato starch)

A note: scopolamine, belladonna, atropine, and hyoscyamine are all also nightshade derivatives with pharmaceutical uses; tobacco is a nightshade too. I’ve never smoked so I can’t speak for the effects of tobacco on the nightshade-sensitive, but I was prescribed hyoscyamine at one point and reacted to it the same way I react to the culinary nightshade plants. If you are sensitive to nightshades you might want to avoid these medications.  

Common medical uses for nightshades include as anticholinergics — often used for gastrointestinal conditions — and for dilating your eyes at the eye doctor’s. And no, doctors generally will not know which medicines are nightshade-derived. (I figured out that hyoscyamine was a nightshade on my own; my doctor had no idea. When I showed her how I found the information on the NIH’s PubChem website she was shocked!) Talk to your doctor(s) about the best options for you. They might not know much about nightshades, but they do know about medicine. 

What isn’t a nightshade?

There are a bunch of misconceptions about what a nightshade is — I’ve seen people claim that anything from beets to blueberries are nightshades! In short, if it’s not a member of the Solanaceae plant family, it’s not a nightshade (you can check scientific classifications on Wikipedia pretty easily). 

Things that are sometimes mistaken for nightshades, but aren’t:
— Artichoke
— Beets
— Blueberries
— Cardamom
— Carrots
— Cauliflower
— Celery
— Cinnamon
— Coriander
— (Most) gooseberries
— Horseradish
— (Regular) huckleberries
— Melons
— Mustard
— Nutmeg
— Okra
— Peppercorns (black pepper, white pepper, etc.)
— Radishes
— Rutabaga
— Sorrel
— Squashes and gourds, like butternut squash and pumpkin
— Sweet potatoes
— Turnips
— Wasabi

(In case you were wondering, the above list of food comes from Google Search Analytics data of people searching “is ____ a nightshade.” The answer is no, they aren’t!)

Foods that have nightshades

Nightshades are kind of in everything. Once you start looking, you’ll be amazed at the strange places they hide. (I recently found potato products in a pack of Trader Joe’s gummy snacks!)

There are some common culprits, though: most countries’ cuisines include nightshades in some capacity, though particularly widespread and/or Americanized examples are Italian, Mexican, and Indian foods.

Pizza and french fries, staples of the picky eater’s diet, are also both no-gos, as are spaghetti, marinara sauce, potato chips, and anything Dorito-colored — the coloring often comes from tomato powder or paprika. (Fun fact: Goldfish crackers were the first food I ever identified as consistently giving me migraines! They have paprika in them to make them orange.)

Most store-bought soups and broths have tomato paste, potato flour, or other nightshade ingredients in them. Goji berries and ashwaganda are both popular “superfoods” that show up in fancy health food mixes and smoothies.

And of course, the ever-mysterious label ingredient “spices” (which ones!?!?!) is likely to contain nightshades of some kind due to how often they’re used.

Basically, unless it’s 100% made from scratch by you, you’re gonna need to read the label. Even if it’s not something that you would reasonably expect to have nightshades in it (like the Trader Joe’s gummies). Sorry. 

Nightshade-free cooking

There are two major parts to nightshade-free cooking: finding substitutes for vegetables and finding substitutes for spices.

Alternatives to tomatoes:
— Sweet potatoes
— Carrots
— Beets
— Squash (butternut, pumpkin, acorn, etc.)
Alternatives to potatoes:
— Sweet potatoes — especially the white and purple ones!
— Turnips
— Cauliflower
— Other root vegetables like celeriac, rutabaga, daikon
Alternatives to eggplant:
— Mushrooms
— Zucchini
Alternatives to sweet/bell peppers:
— Celery
— Radish
Alternatives to hot peppers:
— Wasabi
— Horseradish
— Peppercorns like black and white pepper
— Ginger
— Cloves

You will develop your own preferences depending on what you usually cook. I personally mostly swap tomatoes for carrots, potatoes for sweet potatoes, bell peppers for celery, and peppercorns for hot peppers (and I never cooked much with eggplant before anyway).

You might find you like using radish rather than celery to add a little bit of zing, or that rutabagas are your new favorite vegetable. Some of the alternatives are pretty weird-looking and -sounding, but don’t let that put you off trying them! I’d never had a beet or a radish before I went nightshade-free, let alone celeriac, but they’re all a part of my diet now.

Nightshade-free spice and sauce substitutes

Because nightshades are used in so many cuisines, pretty much any pre-made spice blend or sauce is a no-go. Welcome to the world of mixing your own spices! It’s easier than it seems, I promise. 

Your priorities in developing nightshade-free recipes will depend on what you eat most. If you like Italian, a good tomato-free “tomato” sauce will be higher on your list. If you’re a big fan of Taco Tuesday, then obviously a taco spice blend is key!

Through trial and error, here are some of the recipes I’ve come up with:

• Old Bay style seasoning mix
• Nightshade-free chili
• Nightshade-free tacos
• Tomato-free “tomato” sauce

Talking to other people about going nightshade-free

It’s one thing to cook and eat your own nightshade-free meals in the privacy of your own home, but once you add other people into the mix, things can get complicated!

Most people have, at best, heard of the nightshade family, but probably can’t name the foods that fall into that category. There are a lot of foods to remember and a lot of things you suddenly can’t eat, including probably some old family recipes. (My mom’s lasagna and the strangely named “cheese ball II” in the family cookbook were the big ones for me.)

Directing them to this article might help with starting the conversation, but I also recommend explaining why you don’t eat nightshades. In my example, the short version is that if I do eat them, in about two hours I get a migraine and really bad joint pain. This will help them understand that it’s not a weird fad, it’s a medical thing. 

Honestly, don’t expect people to remember and forgive them when they slip up; it’s a pretty uncommon sensitivity and it eliminates a lot of foods. It’s been about five years since I did my elimination diet and found my nightshade sensitivity, and my mom (bless her) still buys and offers me nightshades on a regular basis.

If you don’t do the shopping for your family, make note of specific products or brands that are safe for you, and have the shopper text you pictures of the ingredients on new foods. 

In conclusion…

First, if you’ve made it to the end of this post, congratulations! That was a lot of text.

I hope this has helped you on your nightshade-free journey. I know that when I first started on mine everything was super confusing and I was sad about all the things I couldn’t eat anymore (no french fries!). But with time and a lot of experimentation I found new things to eat and I don’t miss nightshades at all anymore! Someday you’ll get there too.

If you have any questions or need help going nightshade-free, drop a comment or send me an email! I’m happy to help.

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