Recipes for Diabetics

The modern food industry, with its highly refined flours, sugars, and other ingredients is producing prepared foods that are very bad for diabetics. And the typical North American diet is pretty bad for diabetics as well, given that we are no longer doing the sort of intense physical labour that accompanied this kind of diet in the first place, and given the low price and thence ballooning quantity of industrialized food ingredients, and emphasis on animal protein, with accompanying fats, etc. The products the industry produces for diabetics in North America are for the most part an attempt to manufacture substitutes for items from the typical diet, rather than rethinking that diet, and the majority of recipe books for diabetics go the same route.

The recipes below are ones that I have developed by thinking about the glycemic index and trying to roll back the clock on food, trying to eat more like a peasant from one to two thousand years ago, so your body has a to do a bit of work getting its nutriment, rather than mainlining on sugars and fats. While they were designed with diabetes in mind, they're tasty for everyone.

Advisory: I am neither a nutritionist nor a doctor; the opinions above and reasoning behind the recipes below are mine. You can email me here: David Morris

QuiSaBa (Quinoa-Salba-Barley) Pizza Dough

Barley with Rapini (Broccoli Rabe)

Barley with Olives and Sundried Tomatoes

French Lentils with Kale

Jerked Tempeh with Spinach

Roasted Okra

Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika

Chinese Garlic Shoots

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Almond Saffron Pudding

Tofuchetta (stuffed, grilled tofu, Sienese style)

The recipe for Chickpea and Eggplant Moussaka with Goat Cheese Topping from Beans: More Than 200 Delicious, Wholesome Recipes from Around the World, Aliza Green, Running Press (2004) is also a household favourite.