Side Dishes

Contrary to what the mainstream media occasionally presents, our healthy eating plan isn’t carnivorous. If you follow our meal template, you’ll be eating only a moderate amount of protein with each meal. In fact, if you do the math—and we did—the lower end of our protein recommendations are exactly in line with the United States Recommended Daily Allowance (US RDA). And we balance the animals we eat with a copious amount of plants—both vegetables and fruit. In fact, after serving yourself some protein, we suggest you fill the rest of your plate with vegetables at each meal.

So we’re not really sure why some people think the Whole30 is nothing but meat. We suspect an “all you can meat” diet just sounds sexier to the television advertising folks. Extreme is sexy. Moderate is not sexy. But moderate is healthy, and we’re all about healthy.

Plus, we think healthy is pretty darn sexy.

First, we don’t care if you buy fresh or frozen, or eat them cooked or raw. We just want you to eat your veggies, so to borrow a line from the musical group Journey, any way you want it . . . Yes, you’ll lose a small amount of nutrients if you buy them frozen, but who’s to say you’re not losing just as much during the transportation process from the farm to your grocery store? Frozen vegetables can be both cost-effective and make for a super-fast dinner, so feel free to keep your freezer stocked with some basics. And if you’re buying fresh, farmers markets for the win—local, fresh, seasonal, and affordable.

As for cooked versus raw, this is really up to you, although some of you may find that raw vegetables are hard on your digestion, especially if you’re not used to eating them. If you have a digestive condition like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or find that too many salads make you feel gassy or bloated, try cooking most of your vegetables and see if that helps.

Some people are also sensitive to certain vegetables and fruits—those containing higher levels of FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides, and Polyols). These short-chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols are poorly absorbed in the small intestine, and pass along to the large intestine, where they are fermented by bacteria. This leads to gas, bloating, motility issues, and feeling like you might have an alien in your belly.

Not very pleasant, to say the least.

FODMAPs are common in grains and legumes, which are out for the program, but are also present in many vegetables and fruit. If you find that your Whole30 foods are still giving you digestive issues, try going low-FODMAP for a week and seeing if that helps. (You can download our low-FODMAP shopping list at whole30.com/pdf-downloads.) Refer to Troubleshooting Your Whole30 for more digestive troubleshooting tips during your Whole30.

The vegetable and fruit side dishes we’ve given you here are delicious compliments to the meat, seafood, and egg recipes in previous sections. They also pair beautifully with simply prepared proteins, like our Perfect Steak or Perfect Whole Roasted Chicken. Who says your greens can’t be the star of the show?

We’ve also included dishes perfect for every season. While you can generally find most produce year-round these days, roasting butternut squash doesn’t sound quite right in the July heat, and cold gazpacho may not be satisfying on a cold winter morning. We’ve given you substitutions for things like winter squashes if it’s not winter, and enough options (combined with our Perfect Vegetable tips) to see you through your Whole30 and then some.

Our mission? To help you discover a new vegetable or two, proclaim your love for a vegetable you used to dislike, and help you see that there is a whole world of delicious, nutritious veggie offerings besides mashed potatoes, peas, and corn.

Oh, but remember—technically, corn isn’t a vegetable, it’s a grain, so it’s out for your Whole30. And peas are legumes, so they’re out, too. (Same with lima beans, but no one ever complains about that.) However, potatoes of all varieties are definitely a part of our program, so really, our rules are a net win for you, because duck-fat roasted sweet potatoes > creamed peas.

That’s not science, that’s just common sense.