Your health care provider might recommend a low-residue diet for a number of reasons, such as recent bowel surgery, irritable bowel disease, inflamed colon or diverticulitis. MedlinePlus recommends a low-residue diet allowance of 10 to 15 g of fiber per day, which is half the normal fiber requirements. Low fiber content does not mean you must avoid the foods you love. It simply means you must modify your favorite dishes to meet low residue diet recommendations. You can include a modified meat lasagne on a low-residue diet.
Altering Recipes
Altering recipes to keep daily fiber count under 15 g requires substitution of high-fiber ingredients with low-fiber ingredients and modifying quantities. Your health care provider should be able to provide a list of foods low in fiber for comparison of ingredients. You can also look up fiber content online or in books.
For some ingredients, there may be no suitable substitute, so you may have to remove it from the recipe or reduce its quantity. It is better to modify the quantity rather than remove it if it is a major ingredient of the dish.
Basic Lasagna Meat Sauce
The meat for a meat lasagne can be either ground beef and or ground Italian sausage. Tender meat contains 0 g of fiber, so you don't need to substitute it for a low-residue diet.
If your lasagne recipe calls for onions, use no more than 1/2 cup chopped fresh onion or substitute with dried minced onion. Use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.
Instead of high-fiber fresh or canned tomatoes, use a low-fiber jarred spaghetti sauce or canned tomato sauce. Tomato paste requires no substitution, reduce the quantity by half. Use dried basil, oregano and parsley instead of fresh herbs.
Basic Cheese Mixture
Natural cheeses contain no fiber, so you are free to use cottage, ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for your cheese mixture in the amounts the recipe calls for. Some recipes use eggs, which also have no fiber. Use dried seasonings rather than fresh, and do not include any seeds, such as fennel.
Lasagna Noodles
Lasagna noodles have the highest fiber content of any ingredient in a lasagna recipe. Three regular noodles contain 2 g of fiber. Use only noodles made from refined flour. If your recipe uses whole-grain lasagna noodles, substitute them with regular. The biggest modification to a lasagna recipe is the reduced quantity of noodles. Most recipes require nine to 12 noodles totaling 6 to 8 g of fiber. Reduce the noodles to six to give your 4 g fiber. This modification means the dish with have only two layers of noodles instead of the usual three.
The Finished Product
Using substitutions will still give you a tasty lasagne that's low enough in fiber to fit your restricted diet. Because the total fiber is low, you can include a small slice of buttered French bread while stills staying below your daily limit for fiber.
References
- Continuum Health Partners; Dietary Fiber and Bowel Function; Warren Enker
- MedlinePlus: Low-Residue Fiber Diet
- "Better Homes and Gardens Quick & Easy Diet Recipes"; by Better Homes and Gardens and Gerald M. Knox; 1989
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