Late last year, I was diagnosed with an Autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s.  I’d had 4 years suffering horrible symptoms & countless visits to my GP & specialists.  Thankfully, finally, I was diagnosed by my new Naturopath, Carly Gallagher & I can honestly say, she has literally saved my life.  One thing I had to do upon my diagnosis, was drastically change my diet.  Gluten & dairy are gone, along with many other foods I used to love.  I now follow an Autoimmune Protocol Diet (AIP) about 80% of the time.  The AIP diet is basically a Paleo diet, with no eggs, nuts or seeds.  It’s terribly limiting, but it’s had such a positive result reducing the symptoms I was experiencing & reducing the inflammation in my body.

Thankfully, I have a Thermomix, which allows me to make meals from scratch, using whole foods, but is really quick & easy.  If you avoid anything, be it sugar, gluten, fructose, nuts, dairy – a Thermomix is a must in your kitchen.  Even if you just want to eat clean, healthy food.  It’s such a relief to know 100% what is in the foods you’re eating.  You can also save a lot of money buying whole foods in bulk & reducing the amount of packaged foods you buy.

My dietary restrictions have forced me to be very creative in the way I flavour my food.  I found this dip recipe on the website ‘Autoimmune Wellness’.  I made it, tweaked it (roasting the cauliflower adds so much more flavour) & converted the recipe to Thermomix method.  I always have this dip in my fridge.  I eat it with raw veggie sticks as a snack & will often add a dollop to a grilled steak or on grilled asparagus.

If you don’t have any Garlic Confit, follow the notes at the end of the recipe to roast your garlic bulbs.

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower, roasted
100g olive oil (plus extra for roasting cauliflower)
80g lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
40g water
1-1.5 tsp salt
3 tsp Garlic Confit

Method:
Pre heat oven to 180°C.
1) Roughly chop Cauliflower into large pieces, drizzle with olive oil & bake for 50-60 minutes (or until the top of the cauliflower is dark drown)
2) Allow cauliflower to cool, or place in the fridge overnight to continue with the recipe the next day.
3) Add roasted cauliflower to TM bowl, along with the raining ingredients.
4) Puree 1 minute/speed 8, or until dip is nice & smooth.
5) Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Notes:

If you don’t have any Garlic Confit for this recipe, you can use a whole head of garlic.  Chop off the bottom of the garlic, so that every bulb is exposed.  Top with a teaspoon of coconut oil & then wrap in foil.  Place the wrapped garlic in with the cauliflower for roasting.  Once cooled, squeeze the smooth garlic out of each bulb – just be careful to let it cool down enough.