Gestational Diabetes Recipes

I think I’ve mentioned before what an important role herbs and spices play in gestational diabetes cooking? When I had GDM and was cooking for my husband and myself, I was too scared to experiment with food and flavours in case it made my blood glucose levels spike to high. Since then I’ve learnt a lot more about GDM and using ingredients like dukkah excites me!! You might already be familiar with this wonderful spice mix or this could be your first foray into ethnic flavours. Either way enjoy and welcome to a new flavour dimension! (Main carbohydrate containing ingredients are listed in bold.)

Ingredients

• 1 x 300g/ ~10 ounce lamb backstrap, trimmed (chicken, pork or beef filet will also work)
• 2 tablespoons of Dukkah (buy ready-made or see recipe below)
• 100g/ ~3 ounces of natural fat reduced yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

For the Freekeh Tabbouleh

Combine the following ingredients

• 1 bunch of parsley, very finely chopped
• 1 large tomato, finely chopped
• 1 large cucumber, finely chopped
• ½ small red onion, finely chopped
• 100g freekeh, cooked according to packet instructions
• Juice of 1 lemon

For homemade Dukkah

• 1 cup hazelnuts
• ¼ cup sesame seeds
• ¼ cup poppy seeds
• ¼ cup coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds

Roast hazelnuts until golden. Rub the hit nuts in a tea towel to remove skins. Roast seeds and spices separately until fragrant. Grind nuts, seeds, spices and salt in a mortar and pestle or food processor until coarsely ground. Dukkah will keep in an airtight container up to 2 months.

Preheat oven to 200C/ 400F.

Spread dukkah onto a plate and press lamb into it, covering all sides. Place in a lightly oiled baking dish and bake for around 20 minutes until meat is cooked through and no longer bloody. Rest the meat for around 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Combine the yoghurt and ground cumin and set aside.

Cook freekeh according to packet instructions. Combine freekeh with remaining ingredients for tabouleh. Mix well.

Serve several slices of lamb per person along with a dollop of spiced yoghurt and some tabouleh.

Please note: Like quinoa, freekeh might be well tolerated because of its high fibre content (and low GI) and therefore could possibly be increased in content if desired and if you find your blood glucose levels are okay.