Preparing Your Kitchen and Pantry

Having the tools and ingredients you need for the healthy gut diet on hand before you begin makes everything go more smoothly when you start.

Sourcing Ingredients

Before you begin the diet, start to source your ingredients. Look for places to get grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, bones, animal fats, coconut oil, ghee, filtered water, and organic vegetables. For meats, bones, animal fats, and organic vegetables, try your local farmers’ market. Check websites like eatwild.com or localharvest.org to find farmers who have healthy and sustainable practices. Health food stores are another option, although they might be more expensive. You should be able to find coconut oil, ghee, and filtered water at many local grocery or health food stores.

Making Ahead

You’ll save time and make your life much easier if you cook some foods ahead of time:

• • Stocks and broths Cook these ahead and store them in your refrigerator (up to 2 weeks if there’s a solid layer of fat to preserve it) or freezer.
• • Soups Create soups from the broths, and store for future meals.
• • Ferments and cultures You need to start these 7 days before you plan on eating them. You’ll need fermented juices for the early stages of the diet.
• • Ghee You can make ghee from your own butter if you prefer not to use store-bought.

Finding Specialized Tools

In addition to the common cooking equipment you usually use—like measuring cups, knives, baking trays and dishes, and heavy-bottomed skillets—you’ll find yourself making much use of more specialized kitchen equipment on the healthy gut diet:

FINE-MESH strainer This helps you remove spices such as peppercorns from cooked sauces in the diet’s early stages.

STOCKPOT This is an essential pan for making stocks, broths, and soups.

SPIRALIZER This fun tool enables you to make healthy, gluten-free “noodles” from vegetables.

SLOW COOKER This appliance is a handy alternative to making stocks, broths, and soups on the stove.

HAND BLENDER This appliance is handy for puréeing vegetables for smooth soups.

GLASS JARS You’ll used these to store broths and stocks, as well as hold ferments and cultures.

DUTCH OVEN Choose a Dutch oven for casseroles, one-pot meals, and more.

WIDE-MOUTH FUNNEL This is helpful for pouring stocks and cultures into jars for storage.

juicer This appliance easily extracts juice from fruits and vegetables for making antioxidant-rich juice drinks.