Low salt diet the old style way

Anne_Marie_2

It is really simple, but takes a bit more work, and involves a whole change in your eating lifestyle, as I am sure you are more than aware.

Don't buy stock, make your own, using vegetables, chicken carcas, meat bones, fish or whatever, then you truly can have no salt stock...don't use a ham joint.
I'm a vegetarian so don't use meat. I often make a veg stock and reduce it right down, and stick in small portions in the freezer to save on space.

As for general cooking adding herbs and spices will help you get round the lower intake of salt. Make all sauces from scratch if you didn't do before. Think that you can still use tins/cartons of tomatoes, as from memory they don't include salt, but check out first.

For anything in a white sauce, make your basic roux and add some garlic freshly ground pepper and chives/parsley to give you that extra flavour.

I roast a load of red/yellow or orange peppers and a load of tomatoes with garlic, oregano, black pepper, then cook in a pan for a while with a slug of red wine and some home made mushroom ketchup (no salt) whizz up with a blender stick to make a lovely tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, soup chicken dishes. You can add chilli or curry powders to the basic mix.

splishsplash

I think it will come down to doing a bit of work really, to check what you usually eat and drink in a day and count up the sodium content.

I find home made stock is invaluable in adding flavour to dishes, as well as onion powder, black pepper and garlic granules. Most dishes really don't need added salt at all.

I agree with those who say avoid processed foods. Many processed meats are obviously salty but check juices, cereals, jars and canned stuff for salt content also. Condiments of all kinds are often loaded with salt/sodium, not just stock cubes, so if it comes in a jar/bottle/container, you will need to check it and your use of it. Don't forget it's not just salt you need to think about, it's anything with sodium in it - so for instance, you can leave out salt, but if you add baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or baking powder(contains baking soda) you're still adding sodium.

If you choose foods you think have an ok level of sodium, you also need to make sure that you're calculating for the portion you're eating. If you go back for seconds, that's doubling your content right there.

How about posting a list of your favourite recipes, OP, to see if anyone has salt-free or low-salt versions?

Goldiegirl

Thank you for your thoughts


Since Tuesday, I've been keeping a food diary of EVERYTHING that I've eaten, and it's salt content.


This has been very comprehensive and calculated very carefully. If it's something that I made, I've looked at every ingredient, and calculated the salt in my portion. I've even included milk on my cereal and tea and coffee - milk does have a sodium content.


On Tuesday, I ate what I would have eaten anyway and came in 4.522g. Since then, I've been under 4g every day. I've kept my meals nice and simple - for example today I had roast chicken (no gravy, no stuffing) and veg ( no added salt). For desert I had apple crumble - there was some salt in the crumble due to the flour, but the rest of the meal was free of salt (or only had natural traces)


The thing is - none of this is much different to what I eat normally, and therefore not a real hardship.


The things I would be interested in are things like chilli con carne and spag bol - the things where I'd normally make a stock with a cube.


If anybody has suggestions I'd be very interested.


But I still would like to use this as an opportunity to do something different, which is why I'm still going to be looking for recipe websites too

splishsplash

I make a batch of my version of bolognese sauce and use portions for lasagne, spag bol and chilli.

Sweat 2 chopped sharp white onions, 4-5 cloves of garlic and 2 chopped stalks of celery and a chopped medium carrot in oil until soft.
Add in half each chopped red, green and yellow peppers, soften for a couple minutes (I don't use mushrooms, but if you do, now is the time to do that).
Add 900g mince (I brown it separately for a good while and get it nice and caramelized before breaking it up or turning it).
Add dried oregano, onion powder, garlic granules, basil, pepper and stir through.
Add tomato puree, tin of tomatoes and carton of passata (here's where all the salt is, it's worth checking for low-sodium or salt-free versions. If push comes to shove, it's worth making your own passata when the tomatoes are cheap - it freezes well).
Deglaze the pan used for the mince with some water or wine and add to the sauce.
Simmer for as long as you like - at least half an hour - to develop the flavours. Throw a handful of basil leaves in at the end of cooking for added flavour.

That much will make a large lasagne for me, with enough left over for chilli and a couple of portions of bolognese.

To make chilli, I add a chopped chilli, some chilli powder, cayenne, paprika and kidney beans to the bolognese sauce.

I use canned kidney beans, but you could buy dried, boil them up for 10 minutes, simmer for 90 minutes, then portion and freeze in 100g portions, which can then be added to dishes as needed. I do that with chickpeas and mixed beans so I always have some ready for soups, sauces, stews etc.

HTH

splishsplash

How about stir frying veg with spring onions, garlic, chillis and ginger? Pretty bombproof as well as being tasty and healthy.

If you want really succulent chicken stir fry, velvet the chicken first. Very simply, marinade chicken pieces in a mixture of beaten egg white, a tbsp cornflour, 2 tspns vinegar, 1 tbsp oil for about a half hour in the fridge.
Bring a pan of water to boiling then lower the heat to a simmer. Poach the chicken pieces for a couple of minutes (a few at a time), then cool and freeze in portions or use in your stir fry.

You can make hm chicken stock by stripping your chicken, throw in a pot or your slow cooker with chopped onion, carrot, celery, leek, onion and garlic granules and pepper. Simmer for the day, drain and if you can be bothered, pick off the bits of meat left on the bones before discarding (the bones). I then reduce the stock by bringing to the boil and simmering to reduce by a third - concentrates the flavour.

You can substitute cornflour for flour in a roux for bechamel or veloute sauces. Melt the butter, mix the cornflour in a little water, add to the melted butter and then add your milk or stock. These two 'mother sauces' form a good base for many dishes - sodium free (unless there's some in the butter). The veloute version is pretty much what you get in many chinese takeaways, minus any additives.

questionss

I do babyledweaning with my kids which means from day1 of solid food at circa 6mths they are given family meals. Obviously as babies are unable to tolerate salt I had to initially make some changes. (RDA 1gram) that's a slice of many breads!

Stock - I make my own without salt or in a pinch use boots baby stock cubes (normal low salt stock cubes still have a lot)
Seasoning - lots of herbs, garlic, pepper
Breakfast cereal - supermarket own brand tend to have about half the level of premium brands
No ready sauces
Next to no bacon/ham/sausage
Homemade burgers
Very sparse cheese
Greek yogurt for pasta sauces where I previously used cheese
Read read read bread and similar labels
No salt rice cakes with cashew nut butter for lunches
Bake bread/pizza bases etc with no salt

To add - there is definitely a baby led weaning cook book of simple family meals that I borrowed from a friend - all recipes low salt obviously.

Finetta

You could investigate traditional Tuscan cuisine. In the past, there was a very high tax on salt in Tuscany, which led to Tuscans boycotting salt and developing a cuisine that doesn't rely on it. So they had a salt-free bread but very intense sauce flavours to go with the bland bread.

The other approach I thought might be useful was high-potassium recipes, like a green smoothie which uses bananas but no salt.

Good luck with this, however you go. I would find it very hard to do myself.

Horace

I make something that I call fridge forage soup and I make it in my slow cooker.

Peel & chop a couple of carrots
Peel & chop an onion
Cut 2 large tomatoes into quarters
1 handful of pearl barley

Sling all these into the slow cooker. Cover with water. Add a good sprinkling of mixed herbs and a good sprinkling of ground black pepper.

Cook on slow all day. When the veggies are soft, put your stick blender in and blend it a bit (it looks better).

It freezes well and tastes yummy.

(I do not add stock cubes or salt)

[Deleted User]

Goldiegirl wrote: »

The things I would be interested in are things like chilli con carne and spag bol - the things where I'd normally make a stock with a cube.

This chilli has 1.23g of salt if divided into four portions:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=258433576
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259279814
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259270789
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=282526603

This Spag bol has 1.26g, also four portions:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=256181254
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259279814
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=282526603
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253557034
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253560219
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=258289625

Goldiegirl

jack_pott wrote: »

This chilli has 1.23g of salt if divided into four portions:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=258433576
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259279814
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259270789
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=282526603

This Spag bol has 1.26g, also four portions:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=256181254
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259279814
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=282526603
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253557034
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253560219
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=258289625

I've been doing a bit of further reading today, and I really need to be keeping my sodium intake to nearer 3g (or less) rather than 4g, so even 1.23g per portion is the upper end of what is ok for me.


But I've today taken delivery of a cook book aimed especially at people with my condition, plus I've found a couple of websites with some recipes I like the look of


Armed with that and some of the suggestions on this thread I feel I'll be moving in the right direction


Thank you everybody