Low-Acid, Low-Fat Vegan: Peanut Rice Noodles

Low-acid, low-fat vegan: That has to be the most specific dietary niche ever. It certainly is the most specific diet I have ever had. And yet, in the limitations, I have found surprising room to breathe.

This dish is not acid-free, nor is it fat-free. It is, however, devoid of the average GERD trigger foods, and its only source of fat comes from the peanut and sesame products, which don't amount to very much in this dish, just enough to help coat everything in delicious creamy goodness.

It's also gluten-free, if that matters to you.

Bonus: this dish came together in ten minutes, literally. Number of pans involved: one.



Ingredients

2 oz. rice noodles, cooked
1 small zucchini, cut into chunks or matchsticks
1 medium carrot, peeled, then shaved in strips with the peeler
2 large or 4 medium button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 heaping tbl peanut butter
1 tbl soy sauce (I used tamari, which is wheat-free)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup water
a small handful of cilantro, chopped

While the noodles boiled, I cut up the vegetables and started them in the pan on medium high heat. I did not use oil, but you might, depending on your vessel. I used a well-seasoned iron skillet and did not have to use any.

The carrots I processed simply by peeling, and discarding that, then continuing to use the peeler on the carrot until I ran out of carrot. I just tossed those in after the zucchini, peanuts, mushrooms and garlic had been cooking for a couple of minutes because I wanted them just barely crunchy.

I was taking this to work, so to make the sauce, all I did was put the peanut butter, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and water in a to-go container and stirred it a bit. When the vegetables were done, I mixed the whole lot together some more until the sauce was a creamy consistency.

Note, if you are not a vegetarian, some Nam Pla (fish sauce) would go very nicely in this sauce.

I folded in the noodles with chopsticks, then topped it off with cilantro. Then it was ready to pack off to work.

Cilantro, zucchini and carrot in particular are very alkaline vegetables, so they help bring down the acidity of your stomach when it is digesting. The rice noodles, like wheat pasta, bread, or potatoes, bind with the acid and helps carry it out of the stomach as well. This is why a piece of dry toast can be so soothing to the GERD sufferer.

I hope you give this recipe a try, and that you find it soothing.