Are Fish Fingers Low FODMAP?

Alongside chips, stuffed into a baguette or eaten as a quick snack, fish fingers are one of those must-have freezer delights. But can you still enjoy fish fingers when following a low FODMAP diet?

The Quick Answer

Unfortunately, fish fingers are not low FODMAP. As you well know, breadcrumbs are not low FODMAP and fish fingers will most likely be coated in breadcrumbs to give them that much needed outer crunchy layer. However, you can make your own low FODMAP version of fish fingers.

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Fish Fingers on a FODMAP Diet

Below, we have gone through everything you could want to know about fish fingers when following a low FODMAP diet. We’ve looked at some alternatives, a low FODMAP recipe and have also answered a common question about gluten-free fish fingers:

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Low FODMAP Fish Fingers Recipe

One of the best ways to guarantee you have low FODMAP fish fingers is by making your own. Yes, it can be a little more time consuming than opening up a packet but if you put a bit of time and effort into it, you can bulk prepare them and then freeze them so you have your own batch of low FODMAP fish fingers ready to go from the freezer:

Ingredients:

  • 200g white fish – cod, pollock, haddock
  • 50g oats
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Salt
  • Black pepper

Method:

  1. First, let’s make your crumb. Simply blitz the oats with a pinch of salt and black pepper to form a rough powder. It doesn’t need to be completely fine as you want a little bit of texture.
  2. Cut the fish into finger-sized strips.
  3. Pour your beaten egg onto a plate and then put your oat powder on a separate plate.
  4. Dunk your fish into the egg and then coat in the oat powder. Shake off the excess and repeat if the coating isn’t even over the fish pieces.
  5. Heat 1tsbp olive oil in a pan and then fry the fish fingers for around 8 minutes in total. You’ll want to turn them a few times during the cooking to get all sides crunchy.
  6. Serve up with some homemade chips and a salad.

There you have it – homemade fish fingers. They won’t be like anything you’ve bought from the shop before but they are guaranteed to be low FODMAP. You can swap out the oats for coating alternatives below.

Low FODMAP Fish Finger Coatings

What makes a fish finger so enjoyable is the outer crunchy coating. If breadcrumbs aren’t an option then there are actually a few options you have which are low FODMAP:

Polenta – Cornmeal or polenta does not contain FODMAPs so is a great way of breading any products and that includes fish fingers. You can get coarse and fine versions and either will work well here when it comes to coating your fish fingers. You can use it in the exact same way you would use breadcrumbs in the recipe above.

Oats – Oats can be low FODMAP if you’re careful with your portion sizes. Generally speaking, up to 50g will remain low fodmap. You can even blitz the oats up a little to make them a little finer so you can get a more even crunchy coating on your fish fingers.

Oats for Breadcrumb Coating FODMAP

Gluten-Free Breadcrumbs – We’ve written about low FODMAP breadcrumbs before. If you can find gluten-free bread that doesn’t contain any of the nasty high-FODMAP ingredients you’re trying to avoid then blitz them up and toast in the oven for a few minutes to dry them out.

Are Gluten-Free Fish Fingers Low FODMAP?

This is a tricky one to answer and will involve you going through ingredients lists on the back of the packaging, unfortunately. Your instinct might be that if the fish fingers are gluten-free then they are probably low FODMAP. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

When some manufacturers remove gluten flour from a product they replace it with gram flour which is made from chickpeas. Chickpea flour is high FODMAP. For example, these fish fingers from Tesco are gluten-free but are not low FODMAP.

If you decide to buy gluten-free fish fingers then you’re going to need to spend a bit of time inspecting the packets. However, once you have found a suitable low FODMAP fish finger product at your local supermarket then take a photo of it so you know which to buy in future.

Quick Summary

Fish fingers, generally speaking, will be high FODMAP as they’ll be coated in gluten-filled breadcrumbs. But that doesn’t mean all is lost. You have the option of either making your own or finding a gluten-free low FODMAP version in the supermarket.

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