Herbs and spices
The most contested corner of this diet, and the reason so much of the flavour in this book comes from infusions and stock.
Nothing in this diet divides hospitals more than herbs and spices, and nothing costs the cook more when it is taken away.
The disagreement
The leaflet this book follows lists herbs and spices under foods to avoid, and then, in the same document, lists pepper as allowed. St George's puts dried herbs and spices in the allowed tier alongside salt and vinegar. Leeds allows dried herbs and spices at stage three of its obstruction diet while listing fresh herbs as avoid.
Behind the disagreement is a real question and a mechanical one. A chopped leaf, a whole seed and a fragment of dried bark are physical pieces that do not dissolve. Ground spice at the quantities used in home cooking is a different matter, and so is anything that has given its flavour to a liquid and then been taken out.
What this book does
It infuses and lifts out. A bay leaf, a sprig of thyme or sage, three coins of ginger, a bruised stalk of lemongrass, a pinch of saffron threads that dissolve into the stock. The flavour goes into the dish and the plant material goes into the bin, which satisfies the strictest reading of the leaflet and still gives you something to taste. See infusing and lifting out.
Nothing is chopped and left in. There is no parsley on anything. Where a recipe offers ground pepper it is a single small pinch, marked optional, with a line saying it can be left out. Ground spices like nutmeg and curry powder do not appear in the recipes at all.
The flavour has to come from somewhere else, so it comes from a well-made clear stock, from browning meat properly, from cheese, from butter, from soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and Marmite, from lemon juice and a splash of wine, and from garlic cooked soft, which the leaflet this book follows allows.
What you should do
Ask your team specifically about ground spices and dried herbs, because this is the item most often decided in the reader's favour. If they say a little ground spice is fine, then the recipes here are already mild and you can season more freely. If they say no, everything here already works without it.