I love tacos, but tacos don’t love me back.
Taco seasonings traditionally use nightshades like chilis and paprika to get that rich color and lovely, spicy flavor, but nightshades make me sick.
So I came up with my own, nightshade-free tacos.
Tag: nightshade-free cooking
Tomato-Free Tomato Sauce
“Tomato-free tomato sauce” sounds a lot like an oxymoron. It’s a bit like saying “chocolate-free chocolate chip cookies” — doesn’t make sense, right?
In this case, the idea of a “tomato” sauce refers to a puree of vegetables, made with Italian spices, that’s slightly sweet and slightly acidic.
The flavor is intended to mimic a typical Italian-style tomato sauce without using nightshades.
Ultimate Nightshade-Free Survival Guide
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
Nightshade-Free Old Bay Seasoning Alternative
For those of you unfamiliar with it, Old Bay is a seasoning mix originally from Maryland.
It’s often used on crabs and shrimp or in seafood soups, though you can put it in or on pretty much anything — french fries and other snack foods are popular choices.
Last but certainly not least for our purposes, it’s made with red pepper flakes and paprika. A tin of Old Bay is a no-go for anyone going nightshade-free.
If you’re not much for seafood, you might be able to go your whole nightshade-free life without missing Old Bay. If you like seafood, however, or if you’re from an area where people use it liberally (I grew up about an hour’s drive from Baltimore, so my family always had a can in our pantry), you’ll want an alternative.
Nightshade-Free Chili
When I was growing up, my dad always made a big pot of chili once it got cold. He actually won a neighborhood contest for it once! Filled to the top of the massive stockpot with meat, beans, spices, and tomatoes, it was delicious… and, once I realized nightshades were exacerbating my health problems, off-limits.
I needed a nightshade-free chili, even though the name “chili” itself is a nightshade! I knew it wouldn’t be easy to find something similar that omits half the key ingredients.
I wasn’t going to let that stop me, though! Instead of swearing off eating it forever, I figured out how to make my own nightshade-free chili. It tastes like ‘regular’ chili but omits the ingredients I can’t have. Now, every fall, my dad and I both make pots of chili. They’re different, but both still good!