Low/No Salt CHEAP Recipies

[Aethian]

Alright...I know, just KNOW that their are others out there that MUST have low sodium diets. Mom is limited to 1500-2000mg a day and my doctor has been threatening me with it since my last appointment. I think this next one coming up he's finally going to write me a order to go see the hospital dietician. I like the lady, deliver her mail, she leaves me diabetic safe noms...I just don't like being told what I can and can not eat.

So...please if you have a favorite recipe out there that you know per serving is around 400-500mg of sodium, tastes good, and is relativity easy on the purse strings...give a it up eh?

Currently right now tho Mom is looking for a good no to low salt ketchup. She has found a few out there that taste alright but then she finds out they have huge amount of potassium in them which for her is a big no-no. I've found a few online that I can whip up but they taste...odd to me.

[fma_fanatic]

I've heard good things, and I've tried a few recipes too.

Mayo Clinic

Also, we substituted garlic powder for garlic salt and use onion powder too.

It takes a lot of getting used to with the taste, so the odd taste you're talking about is the fact that you're not tasting as much salt.

[Aethian]

The thing is when I was growing up almost everything was hand/home made and Mom never really used a lot of salt for anything. And it doesn't taste like the ketchup she used to make then. I really wish we hadn't lost the big family book of recipes.

[Barracuda]

Here is a couple of mine.
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1 cup milk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Spice Islands® Dill Weed
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
6 bone-in chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add the flour, salt and pepper; stir until smooth. Gradually add milk and bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the mayonnaise, dill and curry; stir until smooth. Set aside. In a skillet over medium heat, brown chicken in oil. Place in a greased shallow 3-qt. baking dish. Pour sauce over chicken. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until meat juices run clear. Yield: 6 servings.

Fried Taters and Onions

6-7 large potates, cleaned and peeled

One large kielbasa or smoked sausage (Portuguese sausage works too), or about 1-1 1/2 pounds of meat, hot dogs work too

2 large onions (white or yellow work best), sliced thin

3/4 bulb of fresh garlic, minced

Olive or canola oil

Salt

Pepper

Favorite herbs (I use thyme and dill, other good combo would be rosemary and basil)

In large fry pan or wok, heat oil with garlic, onions and sausage. Add small amount of salt, pepper and herbs. Stir-fry until onions and garlic are golden brown and sausage is cooked. Slice potatoes into medium-thin rounds and add. Add more salt, pepper, and herbs, mix ingredients, then add 1-2 cups of water until ingredients are barely covered (you may have to rearrange the potato slices a bit). Use cookie sheet to cover wok and bring to boil for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are thoroughly done and have absorbed most of the water. Use spoon to mash potatoes and thoroughly mix ingredients, continuing to stir and cook on heat until water is gone and mixture is starting to dry out. Serve.

[csquared]

Low salt is easier than you think it is. Start with fresh meats and produce. If it has been canned or prepped, they have added salt to preserve it. Yes, some of the canned foods are labeled low salt. It is not "no salt".

Ransack the spice isle at the store. Looks for low/no salt flavoring blends. Start applying it to stuff and see what you like. It may take a few months to adjust, but you will get use to stuff without salt. I did.

If you want some good stuff, look at Penzeys.

The Art of Cooking for the Diabetic will become your favorite cookbook (I have already posted this one a couple of time).

And a quick recipe for you. Freezer to table in under 30 minutes.
Poached Chicken - You can make as little or as much as you want.
Skinless Chicken breast
Vegetables - Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms (what ever else sounds good) but into bite sized pieces.
1 cups chicken broth (salt free) or 1 cup water and bullion cube.

If chicken is thawed, pound it. If not, defrost in microwave and cut into bite sized pieces.

Your vegetables like onion & bell pepper can be sautéed in a little olive oil.

Added chicken broth, bring to a boil.
Add chicken, turn down to simmer, cover - cook for 7 minutes.
Add the remaining vegetables, cover, simmer for three minutes.

Server over rice or butter noodles.

Now for the fun part. You can season this however you want. Hit is with a Cajun seasoning, Southwest/Adobe, Italian herbs, Chinese five spice. Want a little sizzle on your tongue? Add a hot pepper to the vegi mix. I have done this recipe dozens of times, and I don't think I have done it the same way twice.

Add white wine to the chicken broth. Skip the broth, use just wine. Use the chicken broth and drink the wine. "I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the disk."

To make this a balanced meal:
4oz uncooked chicken, 3oz cooked
2 cups uncooked vegis
2/3 cups rice or noodles
Two servings of fruit for desert.

Multiply that out by the number of servings. I like starting with 16oz of chicken, 4 servings. Two for dinner, two for leftovers. 1 cup uncooked rice = 4 x 2/3 cup servings cooked.

If you use a salt free flavor blend there is almost zero sodium in this recipe.

[Chromatix]

Pasta doesn't contain salt, but many of the sauces for it do. As an alternative, serve with sweet vegetables such as sweetcorn and peas.

[KhirasHY]

In a lot of cases, lemon pepper can work well as a no-sodium alternative to salt (and it's damn tasty). Using minced garlic or garlic powder (I prefer freshly minced myself) can also add a lot of flavor. Since someone mentioned pasta sauces having a lot of salt, here's a good recipe to get around that...:

Uncle Khiras' Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-3 clove(s) garlic, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
3/4 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt or lemon pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Stir often to prevent burning.

2. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, oregano, salt/lemon pepper, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring often to prevent scorching, and boil for 5 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates.

3. Remove from heat, stir in whipping cream and butter. Reduce heat to low and return to burner to simmer for 5 more minutes.

This recipe makes about 5 decent servings, and I measured the nutrition facts once, using salt instead of lemon pepper comes out to about 240mg of sodium, or 11% daily diet based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Subbing in the lemon pepper will drop that amount a bit, though check the can of tomatoes you get as some will have additives with sodium that can throw that number higher. IE, Hunt's normal diced tomatoes (14.5oz can, which is what I based the nutrition facts off of) has 220mg of sodium, but the "No Salt Added" version has only 15mg.

Edit: Check out http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Recipes/main.aspx too. The whole site has a ton of suggestions (some better than others), but most recipes have the nutritional facts listed right on them. A few of mine are posted there too, though under a different username In any case, it's a great place to plan out some meals.

[Seshat]

I just don't add salt to anything I cook, and rarely cook from cans or packet mixes.

[lordlundar]

I just don't add salt to anything I cook, and rarely cook from cans or packet mixes.

Sounds to be terribly bland tasting to me.

To start off with, salt's primary purpose is to enhance flavour, not add it's own. If something tastes salty it probably has too much.

That said, best way to do it is to cook fresh. Commercially bought stuff uses salt (and a fair bit of it) as a preservative and has done so for decades. Fresh foods allow you to control salt levels and make foods to meet those requirements. It's invariably cheaper as well because fresh foods are usually cheaper. Commercial products are meant for convenience and shelf life, not health or cost effectiveness.

[Kittish]

Sounds to be terribly bland tasting to me.

To start off with, salt's primary purpose is to enhance flavour, not add it's own. If something tastes salty it probably has too much.

That said, best way to do it is to cook fresh. Commercially bought stuff uses salt (and a fair bit of it) as a preservative and has done so for decades. Fresh foods allow you to control salt levels and make foods to meet those requirements. It's invariably cheaper as well because fresh foods are usually cheaper. Commercial products are meant for convenience and shelf life, not health or cost effectiveness.

Cooking without salt isn't necessarily bland at all. I rarely use salt in cooking, and I do better than half of my cooking from scratch. The last time anyone said anything about my cooking being 'bland' was when I tried out a new recipe and botched it.

If whoever does the cooking is willing to invest a little more time than packaged and convenience foods take, then add to your regular shopping list a quart of heavy whipping cream. A quart will keep for a month or more in a decently working fridge, and can be used as a base or enhancement for tons of sauces. My macaroni and cheese uses it, and my boyfriend asks for that frequently.

Cook your pasta, without salting the water, til it's at the firmness you like. While it's draining in your colander, turn the heat down to med-low and pour half a cup or so of cream into the pot you cooked the noodles in. When the cream is starting to bubble around the edges, add 1/2 cup to one cup shredded cheddar cheese. A bit over 3 ounces of cheddar cheese has 670 mg of sodium. Shredded, that's almost a cup. Stir the cheese and cream til the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth. Dump the pasta back in and mix well. This yields 3-5 servings of mac n cheese, so you can see the sodium content is very low. You can add garlic or onion powder to the sauce as you're making it, or fresh ground black pepper or cayenne for a bit of a kick.