# 5 Cheese Flatbread

This flatbread recipe was born when I was craving some pizza and I still hadn't figured out the perfect pizza crust. I started to make these cheese flatbreads and I ate them with my favourite pizza toppings.

In this recipe you can use any type of cheese you want, I prefer to mix different cheeses and this recipe is also a good way to finish small pieces of cheeses you might have in your fridge. Just grate the hard cheeses finely and the softer ones like Halloumi with a bigger grater blade, or chop them finely with a knife. Check the labels for cheeses and choose only those which don't contain any added preservatives or additives.

Intermediate 1 for sulphite/sulfite issues, aged cheeses might be problematic for some, so use cheeses in baking only after you have tried them by themselves. That way you can identify if some foods are still giving you problems.

Cheese Flatbreads, makes about 10

4 dl or 1 3/4 cups of Millet flour
1 dl or 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. of grated Parmigiano Reggiano - Parmesan cheese
1 dl or 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. of grated Halloumi cheese
2 Tbsp. of Chia seeds
1 tsp. of dried Oregano
pinch of Himalaya salt
2 1/2 dl or 1 cup of Water

Mix millet flour with chia seeds, salt and oregano in a mixing bowl. Add grated cheeses and mix well with dry ingredients. Add water and mix well. This mixture needs to be thicker like when making flatbreads with sweet potatoes. Cover the baking tray with a good quality baking paper and put tablespoons of the mixture on the paper and spread circles which are about 0,5 cm high.
Bake in the oven 180 C or 350 F, about 12-15 minutes.

Pork is not normally on my menu, I eat cured ham (prosciutto crudo ) and salami occasionally. I have been lucky and I have found gluten free and additive free cured ham and salami in Italy. I still had some vacuum packed cured ham I got from Italy in my fridge, so this was the perfect time to make this recipe. You can find many different types of cured hams in the supermarket and in my opinion the best ones comes from Italy or Spain from small local farmers. Unfortunately many manufactures add additives to their hams and salami. My butcher in Italy raises his own pigs and the cured hams are made by his friend.  These forest raised pigs eat what they can find on the ground and I often think if these pigs are also able to find the truffles. Anyway this cured ham has a genuine taste and it doesn't give me any problems, even though I know that many people with sulphite/sulfite issues are not able to eat pork.
Here is my suggestion to eat these Cheese Flatbreads. 

Enjoy!

# 4 Sweet potato Flatbread

This next recipe is one of my favourites. Sweet potatoes are my substitute for potatoes and I use them in all recipes which requires potatoes. Me and potatoes are not a good match and potatoes have been a trigger food for me for a long time. I eat new potatoes maybe a couple of times per year and only those which comes from my parents garden, so that way I know exactly what I am eating. Sulphite/sulfite wise potatoes are risky, since sulphites/sulfites are added in cut potato products to prevent the oxidation. Any product made with potatoes can contain sulphites/sulfites so read the labels and/or call to the manufacturer.

Sweet potatoes belong to the plant family Convolvulaceae, potatoes belong to a Solanaceae family. You can also eat the leaves and shoots of sweet potatoes as greens, but those in potatoes are toxic. There are many different varieties of sweet potatoes and the flesh can be white or pale yellow, red, pink, purple or orange. I used orange sweet potatoes in this recipe. If you tolerate potatoes you can easily substitute the same amount of cooked sweet potatoes with cooked potatoes.

When you next time have some leftover sweet potato mash or cooked sweet potatoes try this recipe out. You might need to adjust the water depending how much liquid you have added to the mash.

Basic 1 for sulphite/sulfite issues, suitable for most and specially for the elimination diet.

Sweet potato Flatbreads, makes about 10-12

2 1/2 dl or 1 cup of Sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed with fork (or mash)
3 1/2 dl or 1 1/2 cups of Millet flour
1 Tbsp. of Chia seeds
1 tsp. of Himalaya salt
2 dl or 3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp. of Water
1 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive oil

Mix millet flour with chia seeds and salt in a bowl. Add sweet potato mash and mix well. Slowly add the water until you have quite thick mixture. Add the olive oil and mix well. This time we need a thicker mixture than in previous recipes. 

Cover the baking tray with a good quality baking paper and put tablespoons of the mixture on the paper and spread circles which are about 0,5 cm high. Use a fork to make figures on the flatbreads. 

Bake in the oven 180 C or 350 F, about 12-15 minutes.

The Sweet potato Flatbreads will keep well about one week in the fridge and for longer in the freezer. I like to reheat mine before eating them, so that the butter will melt when I put it on the flatbreads.

I made a simple hempseed butter and endive relish for these flatbreads and had them for a light lunch.

Hempseed Butter

100 g soft, unsalted, grass fed (and) organic Butter
3 Tbsp. of raw shelled Hempseeds
Sea salt to taste if you wish

Mix the hempseeds with the butter and add a pinch of sea salt (or any other natural salt ) if you wish.

Endive Relish

300 g of Endives, washed and cut in slices or chopped
2 cm piece of Ginger, washed, peeled and cut in thin long strips
Sea salt to taste
2 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive oil

Wash the endive and ginger. Peel the ginger and cut it in thin long strips. Cut the endive in half and chop or slice it. Heat the pan and add olive oil. Add first the ginger and let it cook about 20 seconds  in the oil in a low heat, do not burn them, so stir all the time. Then add the endives and cook in a low heat until soft, this takes about 4-6 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve at room temperature or chilled from the fridge. 

Enjoy!

# 1 Millet Flatbread

Welcome to my world of  healthy eating with food allergies and intolerances and enzyme deficiencies.
My diet is free of gluten, corn, soy and other legumes, yeast, mushrooms, seafood (I eat fish), processed and refined sugars and artificial sweeteners. I avoid all additives, colourings, preservatives and most importantly SULFITES which are nr. 1 trigger for me due to the gene mutations. Since I was a baby I have been allergic to banana, and then there are a couple of other vegetables and fruits I don't tolerate, so for instance you won't see any carrots in my recipes.  I make everything from scratch, and in this blog I will share you some flatbread recipes I created out of necessity when I wasn't able to find anything suitable to eat.

Bread is the stable in many cuisines and even though I have been grain free for long periods I didn't notice any huge difference in my health when skipping all cereals. I don't have celiac disease, but I am IgE allergic to barley and corn, and intolerant to wheat.
This first flatbread recipe is one of the many different recipes I have created. It is the one which has less ingredients and one which is probably suitable for most of you specially with those who have sulphite/sulfite issues.
All my flatbreads are free of gluten, corn, soy and other legumes, processed sugars, yeast, sulphites/sulfites, vegetable gums or any other additives.
I am buying mostly organic food, and all my baking ingredients are organic and wholegrain. When you have serious sulphite/sulfite issues eating organic food is often the only way to go.

For the first flatbread the main ingredient will be millet. I have been gluten free since 2000, but I started to eat millet only about two years ago. With my food allergies/intolerances it was an excellent add to my safe food list and I haven't looked back. Even though most of the health freaks are going to the no grain direction I think that you can eat some gluten free grains in moderation. Probably there are some genes which are not discovered yet which will show if you tolerate some grains/cereals or not.
I have tried out all the possible diets you can think of during the last 14 years. From Paleo to GAPS and from Zone to SCD and so on.  None of them suited for me perfectly, so I have just created my way of eating around the foods I tolerate well and which doesn't leave me out of energy. Since sulphites/sulfites are my biggest issue food wise, you will be reading a lot about them here.

For the ingredients I use, I will post later links to iherb site/direct websites, where I order most of the ingredients I use. I have noticed that for instance the millet flour from Italy can be totally different in texture and taste than the millet from US or India. Some flakes will absorb more liquid than others, but if you have even a little experience in the kitchen, you will notice when you need to use less or more liquid in the recipes. So the water amounts are always approx.

Basic 1 for sulphites/sulfites issues, suitable for most and specially when starting the elimination diet.

Millet-Flatbread, makes about 12-14 small flatbreads

3 1/2 dl or 1 1/2 cup of Millet flakes
2 1/2 dl or 1 cup of Millet flour
2 1/2 dl or 1 cup Brown rice flour
1/2 -1 tsp  Himalaya salt or other good quality salt
c. 4 1/2 dl or 2 cups of Water, I use bottled water for my breads *


Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and add slowly the water until you have a smooth mix. The mixture needs to be soft and smooth, not like the traditional bread dough. Cover the baking tray with a good quality baking paper and put heaping spoonfuls (tbsp) of the mixture on the paper (see the picture)  and spread a circle that it is about 0,5 cm high.

Bake in the oven: 180 C=Celsius or 350 F=Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes (depends a lot of your oven, so check that you don't burn the flatbreads)

These flatbreads keep well in the fridge up to one week, and I also freeze them and defrost when needed. This way I have something safe, ready to eat always in handy. These flatbreads are also one of my favourite foods when flying and traveling, since they keep so well, and you can always store them in your hotel's minibar.

First suggestion to eat these flatbreads when still hot from the oven is with good quality unsalted butter, grass-fed at least, and if you can find organic butter that's even better. Unsalted butter, since the salt in the butter often contains many additives, and those additives can be a problem for many. Specially if you have sulphite/sulfite issues.

Everyone knows how important it is to eat vegetables and I like this following combination: lettuce and avocado. Both are also fine for most when you are trying to avoid high sulphur/sulfur/thiol foods and lettuce is fine for most when you are doing the elimination diet.
 Of course make sure to wash your lettuce well, buy organic and skip it if you think it might give you reactions. If you are dairy-free just skip the butter and spread the avocado with the fork on the flatbreads and top up with lettuce.

Enjoy!


*Water can be issue for many with sulphite/sulfite issues. I don't drink tap water so for baking I also use only bottled water. It is up to you to choose the water you prefer and what is safe for you. Sparkling water, in my opinion, gives better taste for some flatbread recipes, but again it is up to you what water you want to use.