One of the hardest foods to eliminate from my diet when I first started the Autoimmune Protocol was coffee. Coffee had been my best friend for 15 years and got to the point where I even drank 2 or 3 coffees a day – black, cappuccino, frappe, espresso – you name it! I drank them all with so much a pleasure that I’d might say I had a real addiction.
Of course I had to give up coffee in the AIP 30 days reset period because it is not on the list of foods allowed so if I’d continued to drink it I wouldn’t have had the certainty that my gut would heal so I didn’t want to take that chance. Luckily, coffee is on the Reintroduction foods list in the AIP diet, so I will reintroduce it at some point. However, until that moment comes, I had to figure something out fast as I was so sad about it…
But lucky me, I did a bit of research a and found a great substitute for coffee in a plant called chicory. I tried to drink soluble chicory at first but its simple flavor didn’t satisfy me as much as coffee did so I had to find another solution. So I tried a combination that looks more like milk coffee, which worked great for me, and which only contains anti-inflammatory ingredients.
Here are the ingredients I use for my AIP coffee:
- 1/2 cup filtered water
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (I make my own organic milk – this is how)
- 1 tbsp chicory powder (ground)
- 1/3 tsp carob powder (ground)
- 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon (ground)
Here’s how I go about:
- I bring the water to a boil in a kettle
- I then add in the coconut milk and the rest of ingredients: chicory, carob and cinnamon
- I stir everything well using a tablespoon
- I let it cool a bit and it’s ready to serve!
The taste is quite satisfying for me, as there’s a light flavor of every ingredient I put in my coffee. I don’t even feel like sweetening it as it already has a mild sweetness from the coconut milk and carob, so it’s a win-win situation 🙂 And most importantly, I drink it with so much pleasure since I know everything I put in it is organic and healthy!
Enjoy your AIP coffee!