For #FiberFebruary 2020, I made one high-fiber meal per day, each featuring a different main ingredient. If these 29 recipes are not enough high fiber inspiration, you can also check out the #FiberFebruary 2019 recipes here.
I made Guatemalan ejotes envueltos – basically a green bean omelet. Served with a sweet potato biscuit for a delicious #HighFiber breakfast. It’s kind of falling apart, but still better than my last attempt.
Grew an absolute unit of a mushroom and fried it. Served on buckwheat toast with queso fresco. I’ve only recently started eating mushrooms, and this is a favorite. Has a fried chicken taste for sure.
I made gallo pinto, the traditional rice and beans dish of Costa Rica. I made some changes such as using brown rice and non-black beans, but the key ingredient, salsa lizano (which I home-made!), was still present. You can make your own salsa lizano with this recipe. Pura vida!
Yes, potatoes have fiber! About 9% of the calories come from fiber (~6.5g in a large potato). And eat those skins, because they are about 50% fiber! Potatoes also have resistant starch, which makes it to the gut and acts like fiber. The resistant starch thing is really interesting because it varies by cooking method. Baked potatoes have more RS than boiled, and cooked and cooled potatoes have more RS than if you eat them hot.
“Nooch” is made from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s/brewer’s yeast) and is over a third fiber. It has a cheesy, nutty flavor. Already had cheese twice today but want more? Try a #highfiber queso made with cashews and nutritional yeast. It’s so easy to make, and really addictive.
Seeing conflicting info on whether nagaimo (Chinese yam) is high-fiber, but I’m counting it. Sauteed with a splash of soy sauce, it tastes like halfway between a potato chip and a scallop, if that makes any sense.
Named after the abalone shellfish, abalone is a type of oyster mushroom. I did a basic stir fry and then made a mushroom taco. Is that a thing? Anyway it was tasty.
Day 8: calabash / bottle gourd / dudhi / lauki / etc.
Ok, this one might be a new favorite. Kind of like an eggplant in texture, with a subtle but pleasant flavor, I made a three course meal starring this one versatile vegetable.
First course: crispy pan-fried calabash with turmeric and spices. Super quick and easy, super tasty.
Main course: lauki kofta – basically squash meatballs in a spicy tomato-cashew sauce. Soooo good.
And for dessert – yes, a dessert made from a vegetable – lauki kheer. Like a rice pudding but with grated calabash instead of rice.
Rye is a grain related to wheat and barley. I made pumpernickel bagels using whole grain rye flour. Replacing all purpose flour with whole wheat or rye flour is an easy way to get more fiber. ~5g fiber per bagel.
I love taro bubble tea, but I had never had actual taro. I made spiralized taro noodles in miso sauce, served with edamame and pickled ginger. Also, TIL edamame pods are not edible…
I found these beautiful beans at a co-op in VT. One bite and they just screamed “I would taste delicious with spam,” and they were right! #ListenToTheBeans
Day 12: yautia / malanga / cocoyam / taro
This huge root smells to me kind of like bread dough (raw) or freshly baked bread (cooked). I made mashed yautia. This is a good one if you want to feel adventurous while basically eating a potato.
The leaves of snow peas are edible and delicious! They taste or similar to kale to me, and, like kale, are great with just a little olive oil, garlic, and salt.
High-fiber desserts? I made peanut butter swirl brownies from plantains (and home-ground oat flour). Plantains, oats, and cocoa powder are all good sources of fiber. I topped my brownie with chocolate plantain ice cream (less visually appealing).
These are one of my favorite mushrooms – chewy in a good way, and great fried. I prepped them in a teriyaki marinade and fried them up in strips.
Nopales are the pads of prickly pear / paddle cacti. I find they work well in place of peppers. I made sauteed nopales to go on tacos* with homemade corn tortillas. I’d only had fresh nopales before, but no cactus needles in my hands w/ the jar! 🙂
*does it count as a taco if I had to eat it with a fork because of how much I overloaded it?
At first glance, pacaya looks like something a marine biologist might study, but this tentacle-like food is actually part of a certain species of palm tree. While bitter, I was able to balance these crispy pacaya fritters with a sugary BBQ sauce.
Day 18: hen-of-the-woods mushroom
I first tried my new favorite mushroom at, fittingly, Hen of the Wood Restaurant in Burlington VT. HotW is so tender and soaks up flavor real well – amaaaazing on toast with garlic-herb cheese and a fried egg.
To me, mung beans taste somewhere between bean sprouts and potatoes. Today I made a mung bean (and chickpea) curry with some paratha on the side for dipping. A rare recipe that properly calls for 9 garlic cloves!
This Japanese variety of sweet potato was on sale at H Mart, so I had to try it. The flavor is definitely distinct from other sweet potatoes I’ve tried – very sweet and so creamy that you don’t even need to add butter!
I don’t normally read the blog section of recipes, but this one was great. They walk through all these experiments they did to make the perfect baked koimo. Love seeing the scientific method at use in the kitchen!
Apparently parsley root is common in parts of Europe, but I had never tried it before. I made parsley root fries, served with ketchup and aji amarillo sauce for dipping.
Then for the main course, I turned the parsley leaves into pesto for pasta.
Durian is infamous for its smell, but somehow it doesn’t seem that strong to me. Inside is a custardy goop that has a unique, kinda floral taste. Used it to make a durian custard tart (leftover custard served with whipped cream).
Sauteed fava beans are so quick and easy, and soooo good. Crispy outside + creamy inside. Tasty snack, or great in a pasta dish.
To shell or not to shell? My opinion is shell dried favas, but leave it on for fresh or frozen for extra fiber 🙂
Ok, I’ve got the definitive ranking of lentils: French > green >> red. I like my lentils on the firmer side, and these tiny darker green lentils don’t turn to mush. They have a nice, kind of earthy flavor.
Do you want the WHOLE wheat? Wheat berries are delicious and chewy. I used them in place of rice and served with some other high fiber leftovers.
I feel like people treat corn as a non-vegetable, but it actually has a good amount of fiber. Baby corn even moreso. I made crispy baby corn. I love frying vegetables.
Did you know acorns are edible? Not raw though; they need to be processed to remove tannins. After being forbidden from serving acorns to Thanksgiving guests, I decided to start by trying store bought acorn flour and made acorn bread with it!
Ok this is a very special meal. I made pesto from wild garlic and dead nettle and served with pasta and sauteed wild oyster mushroom. I honestly thought the pesto would taste like grass, but it’s delicious! And it’s pretty darn cheap 🙂
I did a lot this month with beans and fungi, so I wanted to end with tempeh. I inoculated lupini beans with Rhizopus oligosporus spores, which then bound the beans into a cake. It came out smelling like Brie!
Jeffrey Letourneau, PhD 