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Category: anti-inflammatory food ideas

Anti-Inflammatory Recipes – Get FREE Guide

Anti-inflammatory recipes help you practice daily meal prep and healthy eating habits, that pay off in your long run toward longevity. Below are  recipe links from this blog to inspire your year, no matter what season you’re in. To your anti-inflammatory life! 🎉

anti-inflammatory recipes.

Because an anti-inflammatory diet helps protect against inflammation in the body (skin, joints, teeth, vital organs) that are health warning signs.

And preventing inflammation flare-ups help protect against and prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases that are still among the highest causes of mortality.

Chronic inflammation is linked to tell-tale body signs that can also lead toward certain cancers and cognitive decline.

And type 2 diabetes (or lifestyle diabetes) is the one of the fastest growing diseases on our planet. No matter what genes you were bestowed, anti-inflammatory habits help fight against what’s stacked up against you in the  environment that you don’t have control over.

You can read about my inflammatory journey signs and preventative anti-inflammatory lifestyle ways that dodged flareups.

Anti-inflammatory foods were and are a leading source of prevention, where anti-inflammatory spices are a big deal. Adding more spice in your life and to your diet helps support better health and longevity.

And sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet is also a remedy from following Diet Culture of some kind. It’s a long-term healthy eating strategy.

Where whole and minimally processed healthy food and ingredients in meals and bakes you eat are at the core of anti-inflammatory foods and your health eating. Anti-inflammatory foods are real (nutritious) foods that the body recognizes as healthy

And this includes plant-based foods, so eating plant-forward helps the body. And foods on a Mediterranean diet, which is a type of anti-inflammatory diet that includes healthy proteins and healthy fats, such as wild fishes and olive oil.

👉 To learn more, grab my FREE Anti-Inflammatory Diet Food Guide with printable food lists to help you make more healthy decisions for grocery food shopping. And get insights about an anti-inflammatory diet in the free guide.

And here on these pages of Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle (Winter/Spring edition), you’ll discover simple and easy recipes you can make weekly. And get inspiration about anti-inflammatory living and seasonal foods you can lean into (that are more abundant and coins per ounce). To turn the pages forward/backward, click on the arrows at the lower corners of the pages. ↪

Turmeric Soup

Mushy Peas

Healthy Chicken Salad

Salmon Salad (No-Mayonnaise)

Radish Salad

Sourdough Bagel

Healthy Mayonnaise  (Egg yolks)

One of my favorite meals is weekend brunch. 😊 You can make your own no-butter bearnaise for a lower-calorie and anti-inflammatory-infused olive oil brunch sauce to pair with delicious savory meals like Eggs Benedict (with French bistro vibes🍽️). You can make this recipe and other healthy-conscious (but always tasty) waffle iron recipes.

And low-sugar desserts where the sweet tooth list is growing (variety is the spice of life! 🍥)

🍴You can also get more anti-inflammatory recipes and food ideas for the table from the Summer/Autumn anti-inflammatory food recipes. 🥄 That for some may be the season you’re celebrating and living out (literally or figuratively!).

Blueberry Muffin – (Low-Sugar) One-Bowl Easy in 30 Minutes

Blueberry muffin is one of my favorite breakfast morning starts. I remember when I was a tween who made blueberry muffins from a box and they were a hit. It’s hard to mess up a mix! Blueberries in a can came in the mix and I remember enjoying draining them as part of the experience.

Blueberry muffin made easy and delicious.

Little did I know that a blueberry muffin is so simple to make with a few ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen pantry! This wild blueberry muffin recipe is a delicious, low-sugar and healthy-ingredient one. I think you’ll go wild over it if you give it a try! 🫐

With flour, milk, and blueberries, you can bake muffins. And below I tell you how to get the most out of what you have in your kitchen or pantry already, and use healthier ingredients than what you find in a mix/box.

Of course… organic wild blueberries are the super star anti-inflammatory healthy ingredient. Frozen blueberries work great and also go well with a blueberry smoothie with peachy cheesecake tastes.

For the muffins, to improve the muffin texture, an egg yolk and rising agent (baking powder and baking soda) with do the trick. A box of baking soda is usually in your fridge already to prevent odors.

Then add in a little lemon juice or vinegar to activate. And if you don’t have those ingredients, you can also add honey. Yes, honey! Or maple syrup that’s in this recipe for sweetness (to go with the blueberry muffin morning theme). How sweet! 💕

And if you don’t have milk available, you can make your own oat milk from oatmeal or nut milk from nuts and even a pecan latte to go with your blueberry muffin in the process. So you don’t have to keep shelf-stable milks in your home anymore. And coconut milk too is an option on the table!

How nuts… that milking (a plant) is so easy with ingredients you may already have at home! 🥛

Oh, and this easy blueberry muffin recipe starting from the time you gather home ingredients, combine, and bake in your oven… all-in, is 30 minutes!

Blueberry muffin that's made in 30 minutes.

Ready for your blueberry morning? You may also like to add a blueberry cobbler (made with applesauce), buckwheat blueberry scone, and/or a blueberry muffin with chocolate chips and Greek yogurt.

Blueberry muffin made easy and delicious.
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Low-Sugar Blueberry Muffin - 30-Minutes and One-Bowl Easy

This is a healthy low-sugar breakfast staple that can be made from wholesome ingredients. This recipe makes 2 muffins.
Course Breakfast, brunch
Cuisine American
Total Time 30 hours
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

  • muffin or cupcake tin

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup blueberries (organic and wild suggested)
  • 3/4 cup almond flour (or gluten free flour of choice)
  • 6 Tbsp whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 tsp neutral oil (light olive oil or coconut oil)
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp maple syrup (or raw honey)
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  • Prepare your muffin tin. You can use cupcake holders or use baking spray so they don't stick.
  • Combine the dry and wet ingredients in one bowl. The batter will be wet and thick and pour-spoon-able.
  • Spoon batter into cupcake tin or holders.
  • Bake at 350°F/180°C for 20-25 minutes.
  • Let cool and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Soup – Low-Sodium Comfort Soup

Sweet potato sour is one delicious comfort soup. If you like dramatic soups with a melange of umami and herby fresh flavors (like Pho broth), you’ll love this elevated sweet potato soup.

It doesn’t need salt with all the punchy flavor adds. It’s also low-sodium.

Easy sweet potato soup bowl that's low-sodium and delicious.

It’s an anti-inflammatory soup that’s great anytime of year and will be good with your favorite flavors made from fresh ingredients. 🥣

I call these penny adds because spices, herbs, and alliums are when you break down the costs. Since 2020, homemade, warm low-sodium soups are the way I roll.

After you soften and prepare your cooked sweet potatoes in a pot of heated water, that usually takes about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, you can mash them down in the water.

You can decide whether you like a thicker or thinner soup. Thinner would be with more water, and straining out the small sweet potato pieces (that you can enjoy or use separately) .

And a thicker soup would be on the opposite  spectrum, with less water. It’s kinda like deciding if you like high pulp OJ (or no pulp). And in line with cold, winter month extra Vitamin-C decisions

This sweet potato soup bowl is great for those reasons.

It’s when a bowl like this is love and hearty comfort. You can add in all your immunity flavor foods like mushrooms, red onions, more onions (green), and cilantro. 🍄‍🟫 If you like, add in your jalapeño or mild peppers. Some people like to add garlic, but I like to save some flavors for other soups.

Sweet potato soup with an egg and is low-sodium.

Shiitake mushrooms are high in Vitamin D that go well with a cold weather bowl.

I also added a jammy egg as the top bowl feature. My personal rule is if it’s savory sauce or soup, add an egg. Poaching eggs for any bowl occasion is easier done than many think.

And it’s not only delicious, it’s nutritious.

The egg yolk has less sodium than the whites, that may sound surprising when you break down an egg. That could make the yolk sunnier to some (that grew up eating only the egg whites).

And eggs in general are a way to get in more protein, and alphabet soup D, E, A, K, and B vitamins.

That’s also a good time to add in your healthy fats (olive oil, Omega 3, etc.) for better absorption. And healthy fats mean it’s a better time to take your fat-soluble daily vitamin supplements.

A bowl of soup can be the timely reminder. 😊

Then you can also add in your elevated noodles and fish sauce. I opted to add in rice (unlike Pho) and soy sauce (where a reduced low-sodium version is an option).

A drizzle of lime juice adds more zingy taste. It pairs well with the fresh cilantro. And healthy lime juice is good for preventing kidney stones and for the skin, while anti-inflammatory cilantro has many benefits including  detoxification.

…Sounds like a lot added, but they’re easy ingredients to add.

Oh, and don’t forget to add in additional proteins where the possibilities are endless… chick peas, meatballs, chicken, seafood, fish, and tofu.

In this dreamy soup bowl you can do you. 💭

If you like this soup, you may also like a turmeric soup that would be a good variety. And is perfect if all you have is the (turmeric) spice and soup warm water. It’s the simple things that are the best….

And what makes this sweet potato soup, sch-weet. 🍠

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Sweet Potato Soup - Low Sodium (One-Pot)

This is a delicious warming bowl of soup that you can elevate.
Course Soup
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 3 medium to large sweet potatoes
  • 2 Tbsp green onions, finely diced
  • 2 Tbsp red onions, diced
  • 1 Tbsp cilantro (or parsley), cut
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • 1 Tbsp jalapeno or bell peppers (optional)

Instructions

  • Prepare sweet potatoes: peel potatoes and cook them in a pot of water on the stovetop in medium heat until potatoes are soft.
  • Keep stove on and mash sweet potatoes (in the same pot), straining small sweet potato pieces into a separate bowl if you would like a thinner soup.
  • Add all other ingredients in the pot. If cooking raw ingredients like mushrooms, allow 3-4 minutes longer. If adding poached egg, add to pot for several minutes until the egg yolk turns translucent. For a jammy egg, add about another minute to the poached egg time and take out of the pot into your soup bowl, with a slotted or regular spoon to stop cooking.

Turmeric Soup – Anti-Inflammatory

Turmeric soup is one anti-inflammatory soup that’s so easy to make. All you need is water and turmeric spice. But you can add so much more (see below)! And it’ll be comforting for fall and holidays… and healthy good year-round (as I share how it has helped me). And why you want to use the turmeric spice vs. fresh turmeric for this soup bowl. 🥣

Turmeric Soup made at home with just turmeric and water for the base.

Turmeric is good for inflammation that can mean so many irritating (Pitta) things. For me, I have found it has healed joint pain from climbing big boulders and doing thousands of steps that’s exercise healthy. But over time, knee joints and other joints need some healing.

And when I say healed, I mean within a day or two I felt good and was able to do yoga. Before I added turmeric to my daily diet, I didn’t feel that way.

Another time, same season, I had gum inflammation. Along with mouth rinses from salt rinses and medicine cabinet bottles, I added turmeric as medicine. And within two days, the redness on my gum disappeared. That saved me a trip to the dentist.

So now you have heard two examples of how turmeric soup can be a bowl of medicine and deserves its anti-inflammatory reputation.

And you can make your own bowl of turmeric soup. 🥣

I like rice for texture substance that adds nutrients and is hearty filling. And goes well with the smokey tasting spice. Plus, reasonably priced per serving.

The spice or powder is more savory flavor bold vs. the fresh turmeric root vegetable version (that’s more pricey and harder to find sometimes). Just be sure to use spice that hasn’t expired.

Fresh turmeric looks a little like ginger, and that’s because they’re related!

Turmeric is in the ginger family. 🫚 They are both rhizomes (as is asparagus, a prebiotic food). These are options to add to your healthy turmeric soup.

And you can first start with the rice that’s easier to digest (as gluten-free).  For foolproof fluffy white rice, you can read my notes.

Brown rice and wild grain rice are whole foods great on an anti-inflammatory diet because they’re less processed.

The rice bran and germ are kept intact where additional B-vitamins are.

You can add your protein choice, and include 15-beans for one potent protein bowl. You can also make a Magic Bullet dip with the beans.

In the bean mix, some are actually legumes and not beans.

Just remember, all beans are legumes, but not all legumes are beans.

Remember those school grammar lessons?

How fun to practice on peas (that are legumes) with fruits in pods (or seeds). 🫛 And lentils and peanuts are also legumes (not beans!).

Lentils are easy to point to by their half shapes.

And not to get too technical, but a chick pea is a bean: a chic garbanzo bean.

But you already knew that!

And all these are in your 15-bean (or 16-bean) packages. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a 33-bean one as there are hundred of beans in the world and some even say like 40 thousand that’s surprising to hear!

The list is long, and from that lens short on a 15-bean bag.

If you read the label, actually you’ll notice there are more than 15 named, but actual only 3 lines long: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split pea, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split pea, lentil, navy, black, and white kidney. They sound like organs or colors on a college jacket.

Did you find the ones that are non-beans?

And since we’ve gotten technical, there are more than 15 listed (there are 17 if you’re counting). This has to do with variety. But from school-me class 😊, we just learned that some legumes are not beans, so maybe it should be called 17 legumes soup? 💭  …Not as catchy though.

And would make a great school project. And if you want to give a school grader a project, have them separate the types.

Either way, it’s a great lesson in food variety and would make for nice art work in a bowl. 🥣

One that I do is turn it into a turmeric bean soup.

To make this:

Soak the beans in room temperature water in a bowl covered overnight so they expand and soften.

Then cook the 15-beans on medium heat until soft. This usually takes over an hour. If you want to lean into the smoky tastes, you can let the water run out on the beans. Then add back before it blackens.

You’ll get a nice smoky aroma and taste that makes it very warming and inviting. This is a great fall soup. The colors look like leaves turning and it’s comforting.

Then turn your soup into an easy Magic Bullet dip.

Comment below what are your fave ways to add turmeric. 🧡

Personally, I can’t douse enough of the anti-inflammatory turmeric on my savory foods.

…On my longevity mission and hundreds of up and down hill mountain hiking miles, I’ve crossed over many stones (some big boulders) and that adds to harsh knee impact. Adding turmeric to my diet, I’ve found those pains have subsided. Turning the stones in life to healing is victory in my book.

Turmeric Soup made at home with just turmeric and water for the base.
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Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Soup

This is a simple and anti-inflammatory soup that you can make delicious and bottomless enjoy.
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp turmeric spice
  • 16 oz water
  • 15-beans (optional)
  • cooked rice
  • Brussel sprouts (and/or veggies of choice)
  • spices (black pepper)

Instructions

  • Add turmeric to pot of heating water on the stove.
  • Add cooked beans, spices, cooked rice, and veggies to pot.

Easy Shrimp and Grits – 15 Minutes Healthy Spice Recipe

Shrimp and grits is one of my favorite Southern dishes. And it’s healthy! It’s a fast meal to prepare and have on the tasty food table too, anytime of day.

shrimp and grits table.

Because 5-minute grits cook fast (7-10 minutes on medium-high heat). You can also go for the Old Fashioned version that’s less processed and takes about 15 minutes on higher heat.

Either way, grits are a healthy corn grain and are easy to digest. They are considered good on a low FODMAP diet (like rice).

And you can’t mess up cooking grits. They are dry to begin with, so as long as there’s enough water in the skillet for cooking, you’re good to go! And even if you run low on water, you can revive your grits easier than say rice.

And you can even microwave grits without worry about texture consistency.

And shrimp and grits is a dish you can get your flavor and spices in. Grits are a great base because grits are mildly tasteless.

So, Old Bay spice blend is a great addition with paprika, celery salt and pepper already built-in as some base notes.

I douse Old Bay on anything seafood! It’s a no-brainer for me. 😊

Old Bay and spices on shrimp and grits bowl.

And coriander is a good way to bring in lemony-summery notes, especially if you’re feeling summer nostalgic or your summer flew by and you wanted an endless summer. It’s a good way to preserve the enjoyable feelings.

You can also substitute with lemon pepper if coriander isn’t one you have in your stash.

I also add tarragon on the shrimp for French bistro vibes. And I add either white pepper or a mushroom spice blend for umami tasting vibes. I’m never shy on the flavors.

Tip: Keep in mind if you use spice blends, they usually have salt in them to optimize flavor, so you may not need to add any more salt. And you may have added salt in the grits while cooking.

You can add the Holy Trinity (pepper, onions, and celery) like in Cajun or Creole-style cooking for a healthy trifecta. But if you want to do less chopping and spend less time preparing this meal (like 15 minutes total), you can find diced pimento peppers (sweet) already cut like in this bowl:

shrimp and grits with sweet peppers and onions.

If someone handed me a bowl like this and said, “enjoy” or “bless your heart,” I’d be grinning from ear-to-ear saying, “thank you and yes, ma’am.” 😋

And if you like this shrimp and grits bowl idea, you may like a 20-minute paella you can make with lobster or shrimp seafood that’s low in calories and high in protein and Omega-3 anti-inflammatory goodness. 🧡

shrimp and grits table.
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Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients

  • 1 cup grits, cooked
  • 4 cups water
  • 10-12 large shrimp
  • spices: tarragon, coriander, Old Bay, white pepper
  • coriander seeds (or lemon pepper)
  • Old Bay spice blend
  • fresh onions and peppers
  • cayenne (optional) for heat

Instructions

  • Prepare grits. Follow instructions on the package (or 1 cup of dry grits to 4 cups of water).
  • Add spices in grits. Spices is tasty art work so add the amount you would like.
  • Cook shrimp separately (or about 6-8 minutes on medium-high heat)
  • Arrange shrimp ontop of grits. Add more spices and fresh onions and peppers (if adding). If you're serving for others, keep some spices on the side so they can add to their tastes.