36 Easy AIP Recipes That Won’t Stress You Out
I love to cook, but there are days I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. But folks often assume that, because I’m on AIP, I have to spend hours in the kitchen making special meals. They couldn’t be more wrong!
Over the years, I’ve collected a number of easy and AIP-friendly recipes that take me minutes to prepare, whether it’s a five-minute flatbread or a three-ingredient side dish.
With this list of 36 recipes, you won’t be stuck all day in the kitchen. No matter if it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, these are tried-and-true tasty recipes that won’t eat up half your day with cooking.
And just because they’re easy doesn’t mean these recipes are boring! How about delicious coconut flour waffles? Or garlic and lemon wilted chard? Each of these recipes let fantastic ingredients shine through with their elegant simplicity, all while letting you get on with your day!
Here are just a few of the Easy AIP Recipes we’ve included:
- AIP Flatbread
- AIP Waffles
- AIP Coconut Shrimp and Grits
- AIP Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Crispy AIP Zucchini Fries
- AIP Baked Pita Chips
- AIP Honey Mint Roasted Carrots
If you click or tap any of the links above, it will instantly take you to the recipe below. Or download the entire list by clicking on the green button below.
Easy AIP Recipes – Breakfasts
AIP Flatbread
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: coconut flour, cassava flour, baking powder, garlic powder, mixed dried herbs, salt, Nutritional Yeast Flakes, water, gelatin powder, olive oil.
Making bread that fits with your autoimmune diet can be a real problem, but that’s where flatbread can be the answer. The one in this recipe has a slightly cheesy flavor because of the nutritional yeast flakes and this would be great to serve with salads or even with soups. You can even change the herbs you use, depending on what you are serving it with.
AIP Waffles
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: gelatin, water, cassava flour, coconut flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, coconut oil, honey, blueberries.
Believe it or not, these waffles are really like regular ones with the same spongy texture, but they are compliant with the autoimmune protocol and can be served for breakfast or a tasty lunch. I like to pair these with some fresh berries for a light but filling breakfast, but you could even dress them up and use them as dessert!
AIP Coconut Shrimp and Grits
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: olive oil, button mushrooms, garlic, shrimp, lemon juice, coconut cream, coconut, salt.
Traditional grits are made using corn, but as that is a definite no-no on the AIP this clever recipe uses desiccated coconut to form the grits instead. Although the flavor is different, the texture is the same and this pairs well with the shrimp. You can either use fresh shrimp or thawed frozen ones which are a bit cheaper.
Blueberry Coconut Yogurt Smoothie
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: coconut yogurt, blueberries, coconut milk.
If you like smoothies but don’t fancy the banana-based ones as they can contain extra sugars, then a coconut yogurt-based one can solve the problem! With the natural sweetness from the berries, this drink makes a fresh and fruity start to the day, or a lovely refreshing snack. This recipe could also be used to make an AIP frozen yogurt dessert!
Passion Fruit Coconut Yogurt Parfait
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: coconut yogurt, passion fruit, blueberries.
If you are a fan of yogurt but can’t have dairy, coconut yogurt could be the answer as it is dairy free. The totally tropical flavor of the passion fruit gives this dish a fantastic summery taste. For strict AIP you’ll want to leave off the nuts and seeds. This would be a great dish to make for breakfast because it is so quick to prepare but would also be fine for dessert.
Banana Pancakes
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: bananas, coconut flour, baking soda, coconut oil, raw honey or maple syrup, gelatin, water.
As these pancakes are both nut free and grain free, they are ideal for people whose system needs a gentler approach to breakfast. The banana is a great source of magnesium and tastes great. It also releases energy slower than other fruits, so keeps you going till lunch! Compliant with the autoimmune protocol, these pancakes are lovely any time of day.
Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: sweet potato, zucchini, leftover meat, fresh thyme leaves or dried thyme or other herbs of your choosing, coconut oil, salt.
Serving hash for a healthy AIP breakfast can really set you up for the day as it is filling and satisfying and very, very tasty. This hash has a sweet note from the potato, which complements your choice of meat left over from a previous meal. This recipe is gluten free and also suitable for the paleo diet.
Lemon Fried Avocado
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: avocado, coconut oil, lemon juice, salt.
Most of us would never have thought of frying avocado slices, but these are amazing with a little lemon juice drizzled over them. They are the perfect AIP-friendly side dish to serve with fish or you could even scatter them over a salad. Try to use avocados that are not too ripe so they will hold their shape while they are cooking.
Garlic & Lemon Wilted Chard
– Autoimmune Wellness
Ingredients: swiss chard, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, sea salt.
If you are not a confident cook or a total novice in the kitchen, recipes like this one which describes how to cook a vegetable can be very helpful. Chard is a really healthy veg that has quite a strong flavor that is complemented by the garlic and lemon, making this AIP-compliant side a must for your next big dinner!
Easy AIP Recipes – Lunches
AIP Chicken Lettuce Wraps
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: avocado oil, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, ground chicken, lemon juice, coconut aminos, iceberg lettuce leaves, spring onion, cilantro.
Lettuce wraps may be a new thing to you or you might be used to them by now, but whatever way they make a lovely quick and easy lunchtime dish. This recipe has a lot of Asian flavor because of the garlic, ginger and coconut aminos.
AIP Waldorf Salad
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: coconut cream, lemon juice, salt, Granny Smith or another green apple, celery, grapes, romaine lettuce.
Waldorf salad is traditionally made with a creamy dressing and in this recipe this comes from the coconut cream and lemon juice which keep the dressing dairy free. Aside from the lettuce, this also has the fresh flavors of apple and celery, making this a lovely light and delicious salad to enjoy for lunch on a summer day, or as an appetizer for a dinner party. This is a simple recipe but it gives you a wonderfully tasty dish.
AIP Italian Burgers
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: ground beef, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder.
This is one of the simplest burger recipes out there and it is totally adaptable to any kind of eating plan. Sometimes simple is best – mix the meat and seasoning, form the patties and cook! A tasty meal ready in minutes! If the weather is not grilling-friendly, you can shallow fry these burgers indoors, but they make a lovely dish for a family barbecue!
AIP Chicken Salad Recipe With Grapes, Apple, and Celery
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: chicken breast, coconut oil, grapes, gala apple, celery, coconut milk, salt.
AIP chicken salads can be so much better when you add fruit! The grapes give the whole dish a juicy texture and there is a great crunch from the celery too. Adding the lemon juice also stops the apple from going brown, leaving your salad looking fresh and delicious. If you are not into celery you can always add shredded carrot instead.
Creamy AIP Mango Chicken Salad Recipe with Coconut Caesar Dressing
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: romaine lettuce, chicken breasts, coconut oil, mango, coconut cream, coconut oil, garlic or garlic powder, salt.
What a wonderful fusion of flavor and texture! You have meaty chicken, soft and sweet mango and a crunch from the celery, all tied together with a creamy dressing, which is reminiscent of traditional Caesar dressing. If you don’t have fresh garlic you can just use garlic powder, and if you don’t have mango you can use other fruits like peach or pineapple.
Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Ham Wraps
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: ham, cucumber, smoked salmon, coconut cream, green salad.
These tasty wraps are ideal for a lunchtime snack or even for a healthy breakfast. They have a lovely texture since all the layers are sandwiched together with the smooth coconut cream. These are easy to eat, so they would be perfect if you are feeding kids. Or why not try turning them inside out – make cucumber cups, chop the meat and stir in the cream and fill the cups with the mix to make dainty Paleo finger food!
Avocado Peach Prosciutto Salad
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: peach, avocado, prosciutto, salad greens, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt.
This lovely paleo salad recipe is a great example of keeping things simple to bring out the flavor of the ingredients. You are only using oil and lemon to make the dressing and this will not detract from the flavors of the ham and fruit. As avocado and peach are both quite soft, it is a good idea to serve this with the prosciutto as a salty contrast in texture and flavor.
5 Ingredient Salmon Patties
– The Curious Coconut
Photo Credit: The Curious Coconut
Ingredients: wild Alaskan pink salmon, canned pumpkin, coconut flour, tapioca starch, AIP-compliant pesto of choice, fat of choice.
Traditional fish cake recipes always seem to use egg to bind the mixture together, which can be a problem if you can’t eat eggs. However this recipe uses pumpkin puree instead, which helps to hold the shape of the patties. They will still be easily broken, so try not to flip them any more than you have to. Note that pesto often contains pine nuts, which are not appropriate for strict AIP. Instead you can garnish with lemon wedges.
AIP Avocado Salad Recipe
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: red onion, red wine vinegar, avocado, salt, pickled beetroot, carrot, olive oil, chives.
This simple salad of creamy avocado, earthy beets, and pickled red onions is the perfect lunch fix. Make sure to pick a nice ripe avocado for this recipe and squeeze some lemon juice over it to stop it from browning. Beets are great for adding a bit of color to this salad, as well as a whole lot of important nutrients.
Easy AIP Recipes – Dinners
AIP Broccoli Soup
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: broccoli, chicken broth/vegetable broth, coconut cream, salt, parsley.
Traditional broccoli soup can be thickened with flour, but this simple recipe uses coconut cream and that works just as well but keeps the dish AIP-friendly. This is a filling and nutritious soup that you can enjoy any time, but a warming plateful would make a lovely dinner on a chilly day.
AIP Bacon-Wrapped Salmon
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: salmon, bacon, olive oil, tarragon, lemon wedges.
This recipe shows an amazing way to cook salmon by wrapping it in bacon, and this can look good, taste great and help stop the fish from drying out as there is a bit of fat from the bacon. This lovely AIP protein-packed dish would even make a good alternative to serve at Christmas or for a fancy dinner party.
AIP Baked Lemon Salmon
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: lemons, salmon filets, olive oil, salt, black pepper (omit), thyme sprigs, beetroot salad.
Those people who follow an autoimmune diet are usually doing it for health reasons, but they certainly don’t have to rely on bland and boring food! This lemon salmon dish is so tasty and the citrus helps to cut through the fattiness of the fish really well. One tip – any leftovers make a great salad for tomorrow’s lunch!
AIP Apple Pork Chops
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: pork chops, olive oil, applesauce, salt, salad or vegetables.
Who said that eating the AIP way has to be complicated? Here is another great AIP recipe that is so quick and easy to make but will give you a satisfying dinner to have any night. Simply fry the chops for a few minutes on each side and serve them with your choice of applesauce and salad. The trick to serving tender pork chops is to rest them after cooking; around five minutes is enough.
AIP Shrimp Fried Rice
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: shrimp, onion, garlic, cauliflower, carrots, green onions, avocado oil, coconut aminos, salt.
One of the best things about fried ‘rice’ meals is that they can be versatile – use whatever vegetables you have and add in shrimp or any other meat. It can be a great way to use up leftover chicken or pork from a roast dinner, but for a lighter option the shrimp fits the bill! Adding the coconut aminos adds a lovely Asian flavor to the dish and it is now readily available.
Mini Zucchini Avocado Burgers
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: zucchini, ground beef, avocado, olive or avocado oil.
The overall appearance of these little bites is so impressive that they would make a great dish to serve if you have guests over for a few drinks. Using zucchini instead of buns makes these paleo snacks lighter and less filling, making them a good idea for children too. Simply serve with a green side salad for a lovely summery lunch.
Easy Paleo Broccoli Beef
– Paleo Flourish
Ingredients: broccoli, beef, garlic or garlic powder, ginger or ginger powder, coconut aminos, coconut oil.
Broccoli beef can be ready to serve in just 20 minutes, so is a quick and easy meal when you are short on time. With the garlic and ginger seasoning, this beef recipe is so tasty and has a real Chinese taste to it. Broccoli can be an earthy vegetable which goes so well with beef and helps to make this AIP-friendly meal hearty and healthy!
Crispy Oven Roasted Salmon
– It’s All About AIP
Photo Credit: It’s All About AIP
Ingredients: salmon filet, coconut oil, sea salt, mixed herbs of choice.
This is an AIP and Keto recipe that gives you basic instructions for baking salmon, but leaving the seasonings and sides up to you. You can coat the fish with fresh herbs – fennel and dill work well with salmon – or you can simply sprinkle it with salt. If you are like me and don’t like fish with skin on, you will find it much easier to remove it once the fish is cooked.
AIP Sauerkraut Oyster Soup
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: Sauerkraut, oysters, bone broth (or water), sea salt, green onion.
This quick soup may be unconventional, but it’s packed with protein and collagen, which makes for a tasty dinner with benefits. Bringing oysters to your dinner table at home may seem a little intimidating, but this recipe makes it so simple – a great recipe to pull out when you’re having guests over for dinner.
Easy AIP Recipes – Snacks
AIP Tigernut Granola
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: tigernuts, coconut flakes, mixed dried fruit, honey.
Technically, tigernuts are tubers, not nuts, so they make a good alternative to grains in this wholesome AIP granola. Commonly eaten in Africa as snacks on the go, these tubers have been cultivated for centuries and give a nice nutty flavor to the granola.
AIP Coconut Lime Shrimp
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: coconut flour, coconut flakes, shrimp, vegetable oil, salt, lime wedges.
This delicious AIP recipe shows how well coconut can replace traditional breading for deep frying shrimp, and this coating would also work with strips of chicken too. You can either serve these as shown here with lime wedges to squeeze over the shrimp, or with an AIP-approved dip for a light lunch or as an appetizer.
Crispy AIP Zucchini Fries
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: zucchinis, coconut flour, onion powder, salt.
This recipe gives you AIP-friendly zucchini fries that have a delicious crispy coating thanks to the coconut flour. Once your friends have tasted these they will not believe this is an AIP recipe because they taste amazing! They can be used as a side with burgers or fish or eaten on their own or with a healthy dip of your choice. I like to sprinkle with salt and tuck in!
AIP Baked Pita Chips
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: arrowroot, tapioca or cassava flour, olive oil, water.
Pita chips are such a versatile food – they can be eaten on their own as a gluten free, AIP-friendly snack, or pair them with a healthy dip when you are watching a movie. They also taste great served with chili or soups or as a crunchy addition sprinkled over a salad. These chips can also be flavored quite easily by sprinkling them with your favorite seasoning.
AIP Honey Mint Roasted Carrots
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: carrots, honey, olive oil, mint.
Here is a simple AIP-friendly vegetable recipe where the results are amazing! The roasted carrots have sweetness from the honey and aromatics from the fresh mint and can be a handy side to serve with roasted meats. As mint has many vitamins and nutrients, it makes a good ingredient to add to your diet, so next time you are having roast beef or lamb, why not try this great carrot dish!
AIP Carrot Fries Recipe with Coconut and Cinnamon
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: carrots, coconut oil, cinnamon powder, salt.
It is important that on the AIP way of life we keep our system nightshade free, but what to do about fries? Well, believe it or not there are many vegetables you can use instead of potato! Carrot fries have a crispy texture but have the natural sweetness we expect from carrots. These can be seasoned and used as a snack or as a side with different dishes. You could also try adapting this recipe and using half-carrot, half-parsnip.
AIP Zucchini Fritters
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: zucchinis, green onions, onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, coconut flour.
These fritters are a fantastic way to use up that zucchini that you have in the fridge without having to buy in a bunch of other ingredients. They can be enjoyed on their own or with paleo garlic mayo or any other sauce you happen to think of! Try to squeeze as much water as possible out before you cook them as this helps them to stay in shape.
Creamy AIP Cucumber Salad
– Healing Autoimmune
Ingredients: cucumber, coconut cream, lemon juice, salt.
Creamy salads like this one usually involve heavy cream or mayonnaise which can be a no-no on the AIP diet, but this recipe can show you how to make it fit! Simply using coconut cream and lemon juice can take the place of dairy products, yet keeping the cool and creamy salad tasty and delicious!
Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus
– Autoimmune Wellness
Ingredients: avocado oil, coconut aminos, honey, garlic powder, ginger, asparagus, bacon.
With notes of Asian cooking in this AIP recipe thanks to the ginger, garlic and coconut aminos, these delicious asparagus spears would be a great side to serve at your next Asian inspired meal. The asparagus also goes really well with bacon and I often enjoy this dish as a light lunch on its own, or as a great appetizer. Prosciutto can be used instead of bacon if you have difficulty sourcing healthy bacon.
