- Elimination
- Reintroduction
- Maintenance
- Dinner
Sheet-Pan Salmon with Bok Choy and Rice
A fast weeknight dinner with the flavour profile that elimination usually takes away. Ginger, sesame and soy do the work that garlic normally would.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 2
Published · Updated
Ingredients
Makes 2 servings. Each ingredient is labelled with its FODMAP status at this quantity.
- Low FODMAP
2 x 150 g salmon fillets, skin on
- Portion-dependent
2 small heads bok choy, halved lengthways
Low FODMAP at 1 cup (75 g) per serve. Common bok choy only — wombok and savoy behave differently.
- Low FODMAP
1 cup (185 g) jasmine or basmati rice, uncooked
Rice is FODMAP-free at any portion.
- Low FODMAP
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
Low FODMAP at 2 tbsp. Tamari if you need it gluten free.
- Low FODMAP
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- Low FODMAP
1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
- Low FODMAP
20 g fresh ginger, finely grated
- Low FODMAP
1 tbsp maple syrup
Well under the 2 tbsp per-serve threshold once split between two plates.
- Low FODMAP
2 tsp sesame seeds
- Low FODMAP
2 spring onions, green tops only, sliced
What the labels mean
- Low FODMAPSafe at the serving size listed.
- Portion-dependentLow FODMAP only up to the serving size listed — larger servings stack.
Method
Step 1: Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F fan and start the rice — by the time it is cooked and rested, the pan will be out of the oven.
Step 2: Whisk the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic-infused oil, grated ginger and maple syrup together in a small bowl. This is the entire flavour of the dish, so taste it: it should be sharply savoury with a clear ginger heat.
Step 3: Put the salmon fillets skin-side down on a lined sheet pan and spoon over half the glaze. Arrange the halved bok choy around them, cut side up, and brush with most of the remainder.
Step 4: Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, until the salmon flakes under gentle pressure and the bok choy stems are tender with the leaves just crisping at the edges.
Step 5: Spoon the last of the glaze over the fish, scatter with sesame seeds and spring onion greens, and serve on the rice with the pan juices poured over.
Notes and swaps
- Salmon carries on cooking after it leaves the oven. Pull it a minute before it looks done — dry salmon is almost always oven-time, not recipe.
- Firm tofu works in place of the salmon and takes the same glaze. Press it first and give it 20 minutes rather than 15.
- Avoid the temptation to add a splash of shop-bought stir-fry sauce. That is where the garlic and onion re-enter.
One of the quieter losses in the elimination phase is a whole flavour direction. Garlic, onion, and the sauces built on them account for most of what makes food taste savoury and complete, and their absence is why week-two cooking often tastes like it is missing something — because it is.
Ginger, sesame and soy fill that space better than any other combination we have found. They are assertive enough to carry a dish on their own, and none of them contains a FODMAP worth worrying about.
Where the FODMAPs hide in this cuisine
The proteins and the rice are free. The vegetables are manageable. The risk is entirely in the bottled sauces, and it is severe: hoisin, oyster sauce, char siu, black bean, and virtually every product labelled “stir-fry sauce” list garlic, onion or both within the first few ingredients. Even miso and some curry pastes will catch you out.
Mixing your own glaze from soy, sesame oil, ginger and a little maple syrup takes ninety seconds and removes the entire category of risk. Once you have made it twice you will stop measuring.
The bok choy limit
Bok choy is the one portion to keep an eye on here — a cup per person, which is roughly one small head. It is a mannitol source above that, and mannitol is one of the polyols that tends to produce a fast, obvious reaction rather than a subtle one. Two small heads across two people is the right amount; adding a third to fill the pan is not.
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