I remember the evening so well. It was almost a decade ago, and I had cooked for a book-release party (my own) that cookbook author Nathalie Dupree was hosting in Charleston, S.C. The table was loaded with dishes she, I and others had cooked from the book. People started sampling, chatting, asking questions — and, music to an author’s ears — buying copies.
And then a woman wearing a distinctive scowl approached me. “I have a question for you,” she said, with a trace of exasperation in her voice. “I looked through the book, and am wondering: Is there anything on this table I can eat if I can’t eat alliums?” I looked at each dish and thought about it: Garlic, scallions, onions, chives, leeks? At least one of them (if not more) figured into every single dish.
When I sheepishly admitted that she was out of luck, she sighed: “Why do so many chefs take a perfectly good dish and ruin it with garlic or onions?” I told her I was so sorry about her condition, and then tried to gingerly talk about how aromatic vegetables have been the basis of so many cuisines for centuries, but she wasn’t having any of it — literally.
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I think of that night occasionally. Especially as a food writer, editor and recipe developer, what on earth would I do if a gut condition meant I couldn’t eat any of the class of ingredients that I and so many other cooks depend on to form the flavor backbone of virtually everything we cook?
Dédé Wilson knows the situation well. She had written cookbooks and was a contributing editor at Bon Appétit before the day she, in agony in the hospital, got a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome and was told by doctors that she needed to start avoiding foods high in FODMAPs, an acronym that describes short-chain carbohydrates that our bodies don’t easily absorb.
Garlic, onions and other alliums are high in one FODMAP: fructans, which Wilson calls “statistically the FODMAP that irritates people the most.”
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In case you think this problem is a small one, consider this: According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 10 to 15 percent of the U.S. population suffers from IBS, most of it undiagnosed.
Wilson first thought her career as a recipe developer and food writer was over. But then a doctor referred her to an app by Monash University, which has done extensive research on FODMAPs and labeled thousands of foods and products on the app as red, yellow or green to indicate their risk levels. (Garlic, onions, shallots and the bulbs of scallions and leeks are red; chives, scallion greens and small servings of leek greens are labeled green.)
Share this articleShareWhere others might have been daunted, she saw an opportunity: “People were going to open this app and see all the lights and think, ‘I can’t live without this and I can’t live without that’ and it would be a problem,” she told me in a phone interview. “Luckily, my recipe developer brain saw the green lights and saw what was possible. ... I thought, if this works for me, I’m going to take my recipe development skills and help people.”
Her work led to more cookbooks and to FODMAPeveryday.com, where she shares recipes for a global audience. I first came upon those recipes when I read a recent book by America’s Test Kitchen, “Cook for Your Gut Health,” which also offers low-FODMAP recipes and strategies, and was taken by one seemingly groundbreaking strategy: infusing olive oil with garlic, and then straining out the solids. It turns out that the fructans in garlic, onions and shallots are not fat-soluble, so they don’t leak into the oil as it absorbs the allium’s aroma and flavor, making this usable by people following a low-FODMAP diet.
Two caveats: Those with a true allium allergy, which is much rarer than an intolerance such as Wilson’s, should not use this strategy. And anyone with IBS should make sure to consult a doctor and nutritionist when it comes to food and cooking strategies.
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If garlic works this way, I thought, couldn’t I use the same method to make an onion oil? Searching for the answer led me to Wilson’s site — and her own recipes for garlic oil and onion oil, each made with a similar method. When I talked to her, one of the first things I asked: Couldn’t I do both in one oil? Sure, she said — as long as you make sure to strain out all the solids before cooking with it.
The fact is, such a recipe is also very flexible and customizable: If you want a stronger flavor, use more allium (and/or cut it into smaller pieces). If you want a subtler oil, use less (and/or cut it into bigger pieces, or don’t cut it at all).
I tried it with a combination of garlic and shallots, and loved the result. The process is easy: You gently warm the oil, add the aromatics, let it infuse and cool for a couple of hours, then strain out the solids and refrigerate. The only caution is in storage: The FDA doesn’t consider garlic-infused oil to be safe to refrigerate for more than three days, so either use it up quickly (I didn’t have a problem with that) or freeze it for up to 1 month, after which it’ll still be safe but might not taste as good.
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From there, the uses are seemingly as endless as all the dishes that start with garlic and oil sizzling in a pan. You won’t skip the flavor, but you’ll skip the sizzle — and the gut irritation, too.
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Storage Notes: The oil can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen in ice cube trays and then transferred to zip-top bags and frozen for up to 1 month.
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