10 AIP Main Dish Recipes

Hold the shape, not the recipe

A main that works on this protocol is nearly always the same 3 things: a protein you tolerate, a real volume of vegetables, and a fat that makes the whole thing satisfying. Get that shape steady and the particular recipe matters far less than you'd expect. I've written about the plate itself in 'What a proper meal looks like', and it's worth reading alongside this page.

The most common problem I see is not a forbidden ingredient. It's a plate that's technically compliant and quietly too small, so you're hungry again at 9pm and reaching for whatever is closest. Volume is a strategy here, not an indulgence.

Where the nightshades hide

Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant come out during elimination, along with the spices made from them, and that removes the backbone of a great deal of familiar cooking. Paprika and chili powder in particular turn up in blends where you wouldn't think to look, so a spice mix is worth reading twice.

What replaces them are not imitations. A nomato sauce that gives you the depth tomato used to give. A coconut-based curry. An herb and citrus pan sauce that finishes a piece of fish. These earn their place instead of apologizing for what's missing, and the builds are on the sauces and dressings page.

Cooking for a table that isn't doing this with you

You do not have to cook 2 dinners. Build the compliant main, then let everyone else add what's theirs on top: cheese, a grain, a hot sauce. The base is the shared meal and the additions are individual.

This matters more than it sounds. Eating differently from the people you love is one of the lonelier parts of this work, and a plate everybody eats from is a small, daily way of staying at the same table.

• What a proper meal looks like
• Why I Guide People Through Core AIP: What the Research Has Studied
• Choosing Core or Modified, and what your plate looks like
• How the food work fits into the whole method