 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I recently discovered that I have an aversion to all things Alium, I also love homecooking. I'm doing ok with Pasta dishes, but for most other sauces I'd always start with onion and add garlic . I'd quite like to make a mega chilli soon, so do the experienced chefs amungst us have some suggestions as alternatives for the base sauce?
Things off my food list currently include, onion, garlic, bananas, raisins, beans and beer, IBS type symptoms after consumption of any of the above and to be honest, it sucks.
Are you ok with dried/powdered?
For thickening etc use celery maybe?
Celery and carrots as a base, can you eat chives? They give a good oniony flavour.
Celery and carrots, chilli and basil to flavour, liberal amount of pamesan to finish.
You have my sympathies, there's not much I don't finish with some garlic oil.
Celery is the winner. Just chop it real small if trying to get the meal past celery doubters (there are many of them).
Are you ok with dried/powdered? Still working this out.
can you eat chives? So far I think so yes.
I'll give a celery and carrot base a go, cheers.
"Celery is the winner. Just chop it real small if trying to get the meal past celery doubters (there are many of them)."
This helped cure me of my life long aversion to celery! Now I even have it in my morning smoothie.
I don't really know how these things work but if you can have chives can you have leeks?
Also is there potential benefit to trying less culivated aliums.
Wild garlics
Sicilian honey garlic etc (normally grown as a flower)
Easy to grow potential less potent on the old shitting yourself.
Fennel is a possibility.
I believe that asafoetida is used in Indian(?) cooking as a substitute for onion and garlic.
Leeks and chives are alliums. No idea if they have less of what is causing your issues. My sympathies.
I sometimes make a ragu (spag bol sauce) without onions. It can be remarkably lovely and this comes from someone who typically starts off any meal by frying onions.
Carrots, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, celery, courgettes, fennel, turnip, parsnip, pak choi, ginger, green beans, aubergines (not all at once) all contribute to a tasty sauce.
I believe that asafoetida is used in Indian(?) cooking as a substitute for onion and garlic.
It's not a substitute in the sense of a an analogue; more that (strict) Jains don't eat anything that grows underground.
As others have said, carrot and/or celery can be useful to replace the bulk and texture, but sometimes the resulting flavour can be a bit lacking. It's worth checking if onion and garlic are as problematic if just used for flavour - leave them in big enough chunks that they can be fished out.
Sofritto/mirepoix is onion, carrot, celery anyway - but I would think you would want something to replace the tang of the onion. Maybe fennel/mustard/horseradish or something?
I use celery and carrots a lot and fennel (although it seems to have a strong smell/flavour I don't seem to notice once it's cooked into something, I have that aniseed/liquorice type flavour.)
I don't think most dishes really suffer from not using onions/garlic to be honest.
Sometimes use garlic oil, but I'm still trying to work out if this actually still makes me ill. Some times I get away with other, others I don't.
Avoiding onions and garlic altogether is a right ball ache when it comes to ready prepared stuff.
Depending on what it is that you can’t tolerate with alliums, you could try cooking onions and garlic down in oil before discarding the onions/garlic and use the oil to cook with. Off the shelf garlic oil is also an option.
Have you looked into FODMAPs?