Help with low sodium cooking

10 years ago

We recently finished a kitchen renovation and after months of prepared meals and eating out, I am enjoying cooking for my family again. Our youngest is a junior in college, so only home for breaks and summer and our oldest lives 800 miles away, but visits regularly. So for the most part, it is just the two of us.

My husband is a Type II Diabetic and very sensitive to salty taste, which seems to have increased drastically in the past few months. I always cut the salt in recipes by at least half and never add additional salt to his food before serving, but he is still complaining that foods are too salty. When the kids were home last week, both complained there was not enough salt, and added a bit to their meals after it was plated. We never had salt on the table when they were growing up, so adding salt is not the norm for them. Another factor is my husband rarely complains about saltiness in restaurant or prepared foods, which I know are much higher in sodium than the foods I prepare at home. How are they hiding the saltiness?

I have tried store bought no-salt seasoning mixes in the past, with lackluster results. I do use low sodium, organic broths and Tamari. I am trying hard to come up with some low sodium, flavorful dishes, but it is so frustrating to prepare a nice meal that my husband doesn't eat because it tastes too salty to him!. Does anyone have tried and true no salt seasoning mixes or any other suggestions, I am getting desperate!

Comments (8)

lizbeth-gardener
10 years ago
I would first want to know why things are tasting too salty to him when everyone else is saying the opposite.
It seems there are a number of reasons people experience this: too much potassium (in vitamins or BP medication),dry mouth (from meds) also causes things to taste overly salty, Sjogren's disease, dehydration (is he drinking plenty of non-decaf fluids?), etc. If it isn't an obvious cause, he may want to talk to his physician.

This post was edited by lizbeth-gardener on Mon, Mar 24, 14 at 20:37
ann_t
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You need to check out posts her by Sue, forum name Shambo, and Sue's blog on low salt cooking.

Sue totally changed the way she cooks because of her husband's health problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: Please, DON'T pass the salt!!!!
Related Discussions
Going out to eat while on Low Sodium diet...
Q
Comments (85)
Shaun, We try to keep our sodium between 1000 to 1500 mg/day, so I know where you're coming from! It's tough at first, but we found that after about 4-6 weeks your taste buds start to change and the lower salt food starts tasting much better. So if you've just been doing this for a month or so, there's light at the end of the tunnel. You asked about eating out: that's tough but not impossible, even if your budget doesn't run to higher end restaurants that will essentially cook anything you ask for, from scratch. We've had some luck with Macaroni Grill (but you have to be kind of emphatic with your server about your request.) They may sort of think you're just being picky, not that you have a serious medical need. In our case it is literally a matter of life or very serious consequences. My DH is the one with the restriction, but I follow it, too, for solidarity and simplicity. He usually makes the request, then I follow up with clear statement to the server about how important it is that nothing be pre-seasoned. Or if it has been already (vegetables are a big prob here as they are parcooked in salty water during prep) I ask that the food be rinsed very well in running water then briefly reheated. You also can usually expect that you're getting a bit of left-over seasoning from previous food cooked on the same hot top or grill. We just make allowances for that. We never eat restaurant bread as as it is very high in salt - often higher than other commercial breads. This is because most "restaurant-made" breads are actually from commercial mixes where salt has a role in ingredient shelf life and simplified gluten-handling at the restaurant. If we don't know about the bread, we just ask that it not come to the table. Baked potatoes, though naturally low in salt can be high if they are salt-baked, so ask about that. Pizza and pasta sauces ar pretty much out, too. (Except for homemade, of course.) And almost all sauced dishes are too complex to parse and usually loaded with fats, as well. We save those kind of dishes for at-home cooking where we can control the sodium. For instance, I make Pad Thai at home, but would never risk it in a restaurant. However, grilled chicken breast, or steak, or broiled fish are good bets. Plain salads (sans dressing and croutons) are usually do-able. Vegs. that are not parcooked are OK, too. We don't restaurant desserts for other reasons, so that's not an issue for us. If it was, i think we'd ask for it in a take-away container and eat it at home in smaller quantities. For chain restaurants when traveling, we've had excellent success at Ruby Tuesday's. They are invariably pretty accomodating about our needs and their salad bar is vast and allows one to chose. We also make a point of speaking to the manager after the meal to praise their flexibility; it's apparently a corporate policy to meet low-sodium requests with equanimity. And as a rule that works. Are you aware of the several excellent very low sodium cookbooks? I can post some names of ones I've found useful, if you need them. I'm sure you realize by now that what "normal" people consider low sodium is way over the top when you're on a medically necessary low sodium diet. I am on a nagging campaign to get the big cooking mags to lower their recipes' sodium content. Fine Cooking at least posts the sodium content in the back of their mag. Cook's Illustrated still has their head in the sand and some of the recipes are absurd (even for people with no sodium restrictions.) Are you listening, Cook's Illustrated? Get with the program! I noticed that there was mention of Morton's Lite Salt. Be sure your doc OK's that for you. People on medical salt restrictions often can't use that safely because of the higher potassium levels. Sorry! For household salt, I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. It's 290 mg for each quarter teaspoon. About half of what ordinary table or Morton's Kosher is. It's not that it's less salty -salt is salt - it's just that texture makes it fluffier, so less sodium when measured by volume. And the larger volume makes it easier to measure and control. I also use a tiny scooch of Maldon Sea Salt, as a finisher just before serving on some things. Again its crystalline structure makes it different, and I think adds a useful "hit" of saltiness, even at tiny quantities. After endlessly fiddling around with my regular set of measuring spoons trying measure teeny quantities accurately, I found a set of tiny scoops (with silly cute-sy names) that I have calibrated so I can add 25-50 mg of salt accurately. And accuracy is important when you're banging up against a firm limit that isn't just your taste buds. (And as an aside if I know we're planning to eat out in the evening, or while traveling I double down on the salt restriction earlier in the day to make sure we have room for a bit of a splurge later-or restaurant food that isn't what it seems.) Early on I was pretty intensely focused, but after a couple of years, I've relaxed a bit and some very salty things are regularly served here, just in very small quantities and/or well-balanced with other things. Our diet rules are also much more complex than simple salt restriction because of other medical/diet issues, so I have had to learn where to be flexible and where to find ways to make food inviting and tasty. After all you'll starve to death faster than hypertension will kill you if you got so bummed out about your food that you stopped eating it with relish. I was too scared to try this at first and probably too rigid about the rules and not in a good way, according to my DH! As for specific (tasty) prepared products with lower-than-expected salt levels: I can share some that I've found, but maybe we should start a new thread so others trying to find the info can access it easily. I spent so much time in my supermarket peering at label after label that I eventually attracted the manager who thought I was doing something nefarious. And I've found that even on familar products that you're used to using you need to re-check the label when you buy new containrs as the companies often reformulate the products and upping the salt level is a favorite trick. If you find that be sure to call and give 'em a piece of your mind about it! We do use some prepared/convenience foods, but we choose them very carefully and often divide an entree into two portions and add it to a big salad and home-cooked veg. to fill out the meal. Some days you just need the convenience factor. Some, but by no means all, of the Annie's brand of lower sodium products pass muster. A few prepared foods have separate sauces that you can add after cooking in the MW. If they've got the sodium levels broken out by with and without sauce, then you will likely find that adding half or less of the sauce brings you in at a "low-enough" level for use. There's one brand of exceptionally tasty canned tuna with only 25 mg of sodium/serving. (Without exception so far all of the no-salt-added tuna we've tried was ghastly.) The problem with our fave brand of tuna is that it's pricier, but then since we cook mostly from scratch I figure it evens out as scratch cooking is sooo much cheaper. Eden makes no-salt added canned beans in many varieties, which are quite good in a pinch (not as good as home-cooked, though.) Muir Glen has an ever-growing line of canned tomato products with no added salt that are great (love, love love the fire-roasted no-salt-added stuff!) Both Pacific and Imagine aseptic-packed soups have low(er) sodium versions that are quite good (still 300 mg/400mg per 1 cup, though). I keep some on hand, always. Try all your available broth and stock options to find one that you like. The quality of the low-salt versions varies, as does how low is low. Try ethnic chinese and oriental markets for the lowest-sodium soy and nouc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce) versions. They are always labeled in comprehensible ways, even if just in chinese or japanese. Don't get too discouraged by the "you can't make bread without salt" common knowledge. Yes, you can, but it usually takes some fiddling around with each recipe to hit the sweet spot. Sometimes a lot of fiddling, and wasted ingredients. I also find that low-salt cheese is not great, so we reserve some of our salt "allowance" for regular, even high salt cheese when it's called for. As an example I often grate Piave Vechio (a very high salt 560 mg/oz, extremely high flavor) cheese over a plain jane salad or soup or pasta. I use a microplane grater and find that a very small quantity makes a huge cheesy taste, often adding only 50-100 mg to the overall dish, but to great effect. Cottage cheese is problematic: the no salt added stuff is too bland, but the regular stuff too high. I solve that by buying both and mixing by volume. Half no-salt and half regular comes in right on the money. (BTW, Nancy's brand makes a fantastic cultured - very tangy - type of cottage cheese. That also can be added to the commoner no-salt stuff to jazz it up.) You also need to watch simple stuff like ordinary frozen without sauce vegetables. Some have silly amounts of sodium added. For instance one big brand (Birdseye???) has has peas with both 90 mg/serving and 0 mg/serving. The 0 mg version is just fine - not sure why you need the extra salt anyway. Finally, I found that it was always useful to keep a supply of tasty, reliable easy to fix things on hand so that a recipe adjustment that flops, or a long day with no thought to dinner isn't a catastrophe. That's my version of convenience foods. L
...See More
Help me give this low sodium sauce some taste ...
Q
Comments (29)
I agree, as long as you are longing for the salt flavor, you won't notice the other flavors. My favorite way to dress pasta is to sautee some garlic, add chopped fresh tomatoes just until warmed, toss in the pasta, add copious amounts of chopped fresh basil, some pepper and freshly grated parmesan, yummy. Those fresh homegrown SunGold cherry tomatoes are lovely for this purpose. Of course I don't like the cooked tomato sauces very much, so.... And, as has been mentioned, if the tomatoes weren't wonderful, the sauce won't be. Sometimes canned tomatoes really are better than fresh. My doctor told me yesterday that average humans have 10,000 taste buds. Those regenerate approximately every 10 days to 2 weeks, so we get a whole new set of taste buds. If you don't get the new taste buds accustomed to salt, you won't miss it after a few weeks, and will even notice the salty flavor more, so there's hope. As for the tomato powder, I haven't tried it. I sliced tomatoes, put them in the dehydrator. 40 HOURS LATER, they were still flesible but certainly couldn't be powdered. And yes, they were homegrown tomatoes and yes, I have a very nice Excaliber dehydrator, so that's not it. It just didn't work and was a waste of time and perfectly good tomatoes. Well, it wasn't, because I re-hydrated the tomatoes by throwing them in soup, but they couldn't be powdered. so, I'd suggest you buy some of the commercially prepared stuff first and see if it helps, then you could try to make your own, hopefully with better success than I had. Also, if you get tomatoes that are wonderful in season, you can just wash them and toss them in the freezer in a bag. When they thaw, the skins slip right off and you have really good tomatoes. If you have any freezer room, LOL. I can mine and that way I can add no salt at all and still have wonderful home grown tomatoes in the middle of winter. Annie
...See More
Low Sodium Tips!
Q
Comments (1)
Thank you Erica, that was very thoughtful of you
...See More
low sodium
Q
Comments (16)
I've made up the recipe sushipup linked to. There's another recipe on the same website that I think is even better. I tweaked it a bit to make it taste more like what I was looking for. http://www.lowsodiumcooking.com/free/DicksSoySauceSubstitute.htm However, I've found low sodium soy sauces online and now use them instead. They're both much lower in sodium content then the low sodium soy sauces available in my local grocery stores. "House of Tang Less Sodium Soy Sauce" has 300 mg. sodium per tablespoon. "Seal Sama Less Sodium Teriyaki Sauce" has only 160 mg. sodium per tablespoon. You can order both products from Saltwatcher.com. I just discovered these two products and ordered them last week, so I can't speak to their taste. Healthy Heart Market sells a lower sodium soy sauce & teriyaki sauce too. I've been using those two products for years. They're both made by World Harbors Angostura. The soy sauce has 390 mg. sodium per tablespoon and the teriyaki has 350 mg. per tablespoon. http://healthyheartmarket.com/asian.aspx Here is a link that might be useful: Saltwatcher Soy Sauce + Teriyaki Sauce
...See More
grainlady_ks
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
There are a number of low-sodium members who have a lot of great information and have freely shared it in the past - as posted above.

I always suggest sticking to whole foods and skip the processed foods as the quickest way to avoided added sodium in your food.

You can instantly cut sodium by using less of something. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich with half of a slice of cheese. Or better yet, find a low-sodium cheese and use grated cheese - about 1/4-1/2 ounce. You can use a stick of mozzarella string cheese (170 mg. sodium) and grate it for topping a 12-inch homemade pizza. Or, grate 1/4 of a stick of mozzarella string cheese (42.5 mg sodium), and that is enough for a grilled sandwich, or as a topping for any Mexican entrée, Italian entrée, salads, etc.

A trip to your local library and you will find any number of low-sodium cookbooks if you need inspiration and some new recipes. I also like to have nutritional information for recipes printed in cookbooks, and can adjust them accordingly to lower the sodium, if necessary.

I'm a big fan of Salt-Free Mrs. Dash seasoning blends and use them for all kinds of things. I make potato chips and sweet potato chips in the microwave - no added salt. I dehydrate zucchini slices with Mrs. Dash Salt-Free seasoning blends on them for a chip substitute. I also use a lot of herbs (fresh and dried) out of my garden.

I use Coconut Aminos because it is soy-free and less sodium than soy sauce. In order to avoid added sodium in tomato products, I use low-sodium tomato powder (The Spice House and other sources on-line) and make tomato sauce and tomato paste, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and can even make ketchup and bbq sauce with a few pantry ingredients. Some commercial low-sodium products just have too many questionable ingredients in them - even if they ARE low-sodium. Better off making your own!

Make sure you have some Hain Sodium-free Baking Powder, and ENER-G Baking Soda (double the amount to substitute for regular baking soda) for low-sodium baking.

Try making your own vegetable, beef, and chicken broth - they are far tastier than store-bought. I use homemade broth I freeze in cubes to make a quick pan sauce. Melt a couple beef or chicken cubes and bring to a simmer. Add a pat of unsalted butter and heat through. The butter will lightly thicken the broth - no additional thickener needed. Add some herbs or spices, but cracked pepper may be all it needs.

For a Type II diabetic, the less high-glycemic foods, like flour, the better. Try using almond flour and coconut flour in baked goods, instead of high-glycemic wheat flour. Go wheat-free.....

I try to make 3 new recipes each week, so that helps keep me interested in new dishes and new ways to make old favorites.

Another thing.... it's a LOW sodium diet, not a NO sodium diet. We all require some sodium in our diet to function properly. I'd just rather have it naturally-occurring in real food (even if it's just a small amount for flavor). I'd suggest skipping the low-sodium salt products, which can cause a whole bunch of other issues.

Get creative.... Can't have celery? Use celery seed for lots of celery flavor. Lemon and lime juice are your "friends", OR True Lemon and True Lime crystalized lemon and lime product which has 0-mg of sodium and lots of flavor. Make low-sodium breads and baked goods - especially those made with coconut flour and almond flour.

Good luck on your search!

-Grainlady
shambo
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Let me second some of Grainlady's suggestions: The Mrs. Dash brand has no-salt-added seasonings, marinades, and even dip & cooking mixes. You might be able to find some in your local grocery store.

Also, the Hain Weatherweight baking powder is a heaven-sent product for low sodium diets. I've been using it for years now. No fussing, doubling, etc. Just use it like you would regular baking powder, and all your non-yeast baking will be fine.

The Ener-G baking soda (must be doubled) is used by plenty of folks on low sodium diets with great success. (Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with it when I used it for a bran muffin recipe that called for quite a bit of baking soda. When I doubled the amount of Ener-G, I ended up with a super heavy, dense, unpalatable mess. So now I only use it rarely and never with any recipe that calls for more than 1 tsp. of baking soda. I now try my hardest to steer clear of baking soda recipes.)

The Coconut Aminos is another great product. It tastes just like low sodium soy sauce and comes in at about 320 mg. sodium/tablespoon.

I use the True Lemon & True Lime products too. They're great for rubs. The lemon makes a wonderful salt-free roast chicken. I add a couple of lemon, lime, and orange packets to slow-cooked pork carnitas.

And, finally, I use tomato powder instead of tomato paste. It provides the same flavor but with a lot more convenience. I especially like being able to make just the right amount needed and not have a bunch left over to deal with.

If you check out my blog, you'll see a list on the right under the heading of "Low Sodium Products." I'd encourage you to check out the Healthy Heart Market site. I order from them regularly.

Regarding no-salt-added seasoning blends: not all of them taste good enough to want to use on a regular basis. I prefer some of the blends from Penzey's and even World Market over the Mrs. Dash blends. It's taken me several years of buying all kinds of low/no salt "stuff" and discovering which products I like and which were a waste of time & money. So don't get discouraged.

I think Lizbeth gave you some good advice. You may need to find out exactly why your husband thinks things taste too salty. That's a weird phenomenon. Especially if he doesn't complain about restaurant food.

Good luck with your search.

Shambo (aka Sue)

Here is a link that might be useful: Healthy Heart Market
John Liu
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I think many low-salt cooking sources are for people who want the taste of salt but for medical reasons have to limit sodium. Your husband has, I gather, the opposite problem. He doesn't necessarily have to limit sodium, but he wants a less salty taste.

So it seems you could simply cook without using salt at all, and without using processed food ingredients that have sodium added (ham, cheese, commercial bread, etc).

Can't you simply make your usual dishes but never touch the salt shaker? Don't cut the salt in recipes by half: leave it out entirely?

There are very few dishes that absolutely cannot be made without salt (e.g. those that are based on salt curing).

Maybe I am misunderstanding.

P.S. It is true that a minimum amount of sodium is required for health reasons, but that amount is very low. Most sources say 200-300 mg/day, appx 1/8 tsp of table salt. Unless he sweats a lot (e.g. exercise, heat) in which case more is needed.

This post was edited by johnliu on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 2:23
User
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I agree with lizbeth gardner. Maybe something is amiss. Has he has his electrolytes checked, thyroid maybe, is he drinking enough liquids during the day?

Everyone needs some sodium in their diet, if your serum sodium falls to low, normal cell function is disrupted.
fishymom
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you all for your helpful responses, much appreciated! My husband mentioned this to his Dr. who said it could be the change in his medication. He has never been a lover of salty food, so I have never used a lot of salt in my cooking, but lately it seems I can't use ANY salt without him complaining. To my taste, using no salt seems to leave the other flavors sort of flat, but I guess I will just have to get used to it. Thanks again, lots of options to look into now!
arley_gw
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Penzey's has a lot of good salt free mixes. (I generally don't like most spice mixes, but Penzeys has some excellent ones)

I'm addicted to Arizona Dreaming ( a non-hot but very flavorful southwestern seasoning blend). It goes great on everything from eggs to steaks. I gave some to someone in my office and she said her teenage boys went nuts for it, putting it on everything.)

Sunny Spain is a salt-free Lemon Pepper blend. Sunny Paris is a herby blend with shallots. Tuscan Sunset is an Italian herb blend.

There are lots of others that I haven't tried, but I can vouch for the quality of the ones I mentioned. While you're putting in your Penzey's order, be sure to order some of their granulated garlic. That's salt free, of course, and I find it head and shoulders over what you can get at the supermarket. Also, if you have a particular herb or spice you like, you might consider getting a supply from Penzeys. Their turnover is so fast that you're pretty well assured that it's gonna be fresher than that little jar of McCormack's that has been sitting on the grocery shelf for god knows how long. I bought some dried tarragon from them; it was so intense, closer to fresh tarragon than what you get at the supermarket spice aisle. Wonderful stuff.

Now, as far as being sensitive to salty tastes: I find that I am. I really don't like going out to restaurants because I find most stuff oversalted. And most bar food is overly salty (hey, they want you to buy more beer!). I do find that some medications aggravate the salt sensitivity. I was on Nexium for a while and it altered my taste sensitivity for a while.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penzeys salt free mixes

This post was edited by arley on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 21:04

Help with low sodium cooking

Comments (8)

lizbeth-gardener

ann_t

Related Discussions

grainlady_ks

shambo

John Liu

User

fishymom
Original Author

arley_gw

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Help with low sodium cooking

Comments (8)

lizbeth-gardener

ann_t

Related Discussions

grainlady_ks

shambo

John Liu

User

fishymomOriginal Author

arley_gw

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

fishymom
Original Author