Chicken Piccata

It did not take too much effort to create a lower sodium version of chicken piccata. We did it by starting with organic chicken, using white wine only instead of broth for the sauce, and reducing the amount of salt and Parmesan cheese in the breading. These reductions allowed us enough leeway to keep the delicious capers that are a signature flavor in this meal.

Chicken Piccata (serves 4) - 545 mg sodium per serving*

2 chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1 egg
1/2 c flour
 2 T grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 t salt
1 t pepper
~2 T olive oil
4 T unsalted butter
1/2 c dry white wine
3 T lemon juice
3 T capers, rinsed thoroughly and drained
3-4 T chopped fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley

Slice the chicken in half to make two thin cutlets from each breast. Pound the cutlets until they are evenly flat and about 1/4" thick. Beat the egg and place into a dredging bowl. Mix the flour, cheese, salt and pepper in a second dredging bowl. Coat each piece of chicken with the egg, then dredge in the flour mixture to cover, then brown in a skillet with a small amount of oil. This is best done in two batches. Remove chicken from skillet and cover.

Add more oil to pan and use 1 T of the flour mixture to make a roux. Add oil as needed to maintain a thick liquid consistency. Cook the roux until slightly browned. Add the wine and lemon juice and cook to for a few minutes to reduce the liquid. Whisk in the butter 1 T at a time until combined. Add capers and cook for another minute or two, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Plate the chicken, cover with sauce, and garnish with parsley. Serve hot.

*Actual sodium content is probably less than this maximum because not all of the salt in the flour will be transmitted to the finished meal. Rinsing the capers probably reduces their sodium content as well.

Recipe Coversion: Batter Fried Chicken

Week 14's adventure was a successful recipe conversion.Unfortunately, success did not occur the first time we attempted this! Our starting point was a wonderfully delicious batter-fried chicken recipe from Cook's Country (the August/September 2009 issue). When we made this in the pre-salt-avoiding days it was messy, but super good. Well worth the clean up.

The major problem we needed to solve was how to brine the chicken in a low sodium way. When we tried again about a month ago, we substituted KCl for the NaCl. The result was some really funky off tastes that overpowered all of the other flavors. We could have tried the recipe and omitted the brine altogether, but we felt that it was important to the texture of the chicken - especially the white meat. This week we tried again with a modified "brine" with greatly reduced salt content and had better luck. Our only other modification was to omit the salt from the batter.

*Since I cannot tell how much of the salt in the brine ends up inside the chicken, my sodium math is only approximate. To be safe, I will assume that all of it somehow gets incorporated and my estimate will represent an upper limit for this recipe.

Batter Fried Chicken - serves 4 (not more than 675 mg sodium per serving*, but probably much less)

"Brine"

1 Q water
1 T salt
3 T sugar
2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (breasts should be cut in half to reduce volume of each piece)

Batter

1/2 c flour
1/2 c cornstarch
1 T pepper
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 t low-sodium baking powder
1 c cold water

Other

3 Q oil (peanut or vegetable)

Dissolve the salt and sugar in 1 Q of water, then soak the chicken in this brine for 30 minutes to 1 hour (in refrigerator).

Whisk the flour, cornstarch, seasonings, baking powder and water together in a large bowl. Refrigerate this mixture while chicken brines.

Heat the cooking oil in a large Dutch oven to 350 degrees. Remove chicken from refrigerator and drain the brine. pat chicken dry with paper towels. Stir batter and add chicken pieces to bowl. Transfer chicken to cook pot one piece at a time, allowing excess batter to drip back into bowl. To avoid crowding the pan, work in small batches. Keeping oil between 300 and 325 degrees, cook the chicken until batter is golden brown and meat meat reaches 160 F for white meat and 175 F for dark. This should take 12-15 minutes. Drain cooked chicken on wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Reheat oil to 350 F between batches.

Hot and Sour Soup

Our first attempt to convert a hot and sour soup recipe was OK, but not great. It tasted a bit bland and under seasoned compared to our memory of the original recipe. We jotted down a few ideas for improvement and tried again this week. This time the soup was deliciously flavorful and spicy - comfort food for a rainy Friday night.

Hot and Sour Soup - serves 4 (<400 mg sodium per serving)

4 c organic low sodium chicken broth
~1/4 lb mushrooms (we used baby bella and shitake), sliced
1 small can bamboo shoots, sliced into matchstick size
1 1/2 T ginger root, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T  low sodium soy sauce
1 t hot pepper flakes
1/2 lb pork tenderloin, cut into bite sized strips
2 t sesame oil
2 scallions, sliced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3 T Chinese black vinegar (or substitute 1 T balsamic and 2 T red wine vinegar)
2 T cornstarch
1 egg
1/4 t salt
pepper

Season pork with salt (very lightly) and pepper. Drizzle with the sesame oil. Lightly brown the pork in a dutch oven over medium heat, working in batches. Remove and cover (the pork does not need to be cooked through at this point). Set aside.

Add garlic and ginger to the pot and saute about 1 minute. Add stock, soy sauce, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, red pepper flakes, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 10 minutes. Add pork and simmer an additional 10-15 minutes.

Mix vinegar and cornstarch in a small bowl. In another small bowl, beat the egg. Slowly pour in the beaten egg, stirring constantly. Stir in the vinegar and cornstarch. Cook uncovered for about 3 minutes, until soup begins to thicken. Stir in scallions just before serving. Top with cilantro and a dash of sriracha sauce if desired.

Chili

A change in the weather inspired this week's recipe choice: chili. After several weeks of unseasonably warm weather, we finally got another taste of winter. A giant pot of hot chili seemed like a good idea for warming ourselves up. Nothing beats a big bowl of comfort food and some homemade jalapeno cheddar cornbread.

The best way to have complete confidence and control over your sodium intake is to make as much as you can from scratch. This chili recipe includes instructions for making your own chili powder. It isn't difficult at all, and tastes so much punchier and fresher than industrial mixes. You also have the advantage of making it to your taste. You will need to start with whole dried chile peppers, which can be found in the ethnic food section of a well-stocked grocery store.

PDM's Chili Powder

3 dried Ancho chiles
3 dried California chiles
3 dried Guajillo chiles
1 T garlic powder
2 T whole cumin seed

Cut up the chiles into small strips using kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Toast the ingredients in a dry saute pan briefly until fragrant. Remove and grind into a find powder.

Chili (serves 8-10)

2 medium onions, chopped and divided
5 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 lb sirloin
1 lb chuck roast
~40 oz diced no salt added tomatoes, pulsed in food processor to remove chunks
2 14-oz can(s) organic mixed bean, rinsed and drained
8 T chili powder (recipe above)
1/2 oz "secret ingredient" (some of you can guess what this is - it complements chile peppers)

"Grind" the beef by cutting into 1" chunks and then pulsing in food processor 5-6 quick bursts. Brown ground beef in small batches over medium high heat in a large dutch oven. Set aside to drain when done. After all meat is browned, cook the jalapenos and all but 1/2 cup of onion over medium high heat until softened. Add tomatoes, meat, beans, chili powder, and secret ingredient and cook covered over low heat for about an hour, until the meat and beans are cooked through. Near the end of cooking, add the remaining 1/2 cup onion.

Serve with cornbread. Each serving contains less than 200 mg sodium (not including cornbread).

Spicy Shrimp and Peppers with Orzo

A recipe conversion. Serves 4.

This was one of my first attempts at converting a former favorite recipe to low salt back in June, and I really made a mess of it. My first try was way too spicy, with an amateur idea to have heat replace the salt. It didn't work. The dish just tasted hot as hell, with no other discernible flavor to redeem it, and we couldn't even taste the shrimp. And it still tasted like it needed salt. Total fail!

This version was savory, shrimpy tasting, not overly spicy, and best of all did not seem lacking in salt (at least not to my altered taste buds). If you are not on a sodium restriction, this would be great as is but with some salt shaken onto your plate just before you eat it. That was all Marty needed to enjoy his portion and just about lick his plate clean. I was OK with some freshly ground pepper and Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning on my plate.

Ingredients:

8 oz orzo, cooked and drained (we cooked ours without salt in Wyler's no sodium chicken flavored instant broth for added flavor) - this can be cooked concurrently with the shrimp dish and will be ready together.
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
3 T white wine
2 T low sodium organic chicken broth
4 T olive oil
1/4 t salt
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2" squares
1 vidalia onion, diced
1 t cornstarch
1 lemon, cut in half

Method:

1. Combine garlic, wine, broth, 3 T olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl and blend with a whisk. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Set aside to marinate at least five minutes.

2. Pour 1 T olive oil into a skillet and heat over medium high flame. Add onion and cook ~2 minutes until translucent. Add peppers and cook 1-2 minutes more, stirring often.

3. Spoon out about 2 T of the liquid marinade and mix with cornstarch in small bowl, set aside. Add the shrimp and remaining marinade to the pan. Cook shrimp, covered, stirring about every minute or so, until opaque pink through and curled, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Uncover and add reserved liquid and cornstarch mixture. Stir to combine. Cook about 1 more minute uncovered, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Turn off heat. Squeeze in the juice from one lemon (using a strainer to catch seeds) and stir to combine.

5. Serve shrimp and sauce immediately over drained orzo.

Sodium content ~300 mg per serving, mostly from the shrimp. You can reduce this by about half by leaving out the salt altogether, but that 1/4 t really does add a lot to the flavor.

Recipe conversion secrets - not a whole lot really. We greatly reduced the added salt, and made up for it by adding the lemon juice at the end to brighten the flavor. We also increased the amount of garlic and red pepper flakes (but do not consider this a "spicy" recipe by our high standards). Also by cooking the orzo in the Wyler's "fake chicken broth" that has zero sodium we add flavor that would normally come from salted cooking water. If you can't find this product, you could add flavor with unsalted butter in the cooking liquid.

The Mother of All Recipe Conversions: Spicy Pasta Bake with Sausage

This used to be one of our favorite "go to" recipes for winter comfort food. It was tasty, filling, and not much trouble to prepare. Unfortunately, it was also the one recipe we had been completely unable to alter enough to bring the sodium down to a reasonable level. The original recipe (from the Feb/March 2008 issue of Cook's Country) had five significant sources of sodium. Here they are in order, along with our lower sodium substitutes:

1. The sausage. Big, big problem, no matter what variety you choose. The recipe calls for one pound of chorizo, but we also used to make it with andouille or other smoked sausages. The amount of sodium in one pound of smoked sausage varies widely, but the range would be 3200mg on the low end to 5500mg on the high side. This was the toughest ingredient to substitute. We cut the sodium by a factor of 10-15 (yes!) by making our own andouille sausage using a recipe found in Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes cookbook. This homemade version contains just 330mg of sodium from the pork meat itself. If you aren't feeling ambitious enough to grind your own sausage (although it is not difficult), you could also substitute Trader Joe's chicken Italian sausage, which only has 787mg/pound.

2. The cheese. We used to grate 8 oz of pepper jack cheese to add to this dish, which contributes 1440mg of sodium. I have not been able to find a lower sodium version of this type of cheese, so I cut the amount of pepper jack to 4 ounces and substituted 4 ounces of grated swiss to cut the cheese contribution down to an even 1000mg of sodium while keeping the flavor and texture the same. Swiss is the lowest sodium variety of hard cheese.

3. Low-sodium chicken broth. Yep, even the "low sodium" variety has 450mg/cup. This is better than the regular kind, which has about 760mg/cup, but since we need 3 cups this adds 1350mg to the pot. Fortunately you can easily find organic low-sodium chicken broth that has only 80mg/cup, bringing this ingredient's share down to 240mg.  If you really wanted to get stingy, Wyler's makes an instant chicken flavor broth that doesn't have any sodium (and probably doesn't have any real chicken either, but still tastes pretty good in recipes). Sometimes we use it half and half with real broth.

4. Next up is the 1/2 teaspoon of salt. That adds 1180mg to the total. We ended up reducing the sodium level enough with our other substitutions that we were able to leave this in for flavor, but you could also substitute KCl salt, which contains zero sodium. I added about 1/4 teaspoon of KCl to bump up the salty flavor.

5. The last problem child is the 10 oz can of Ro-Tel tomatoes, which contains 1040mg of sodium and has no low sodium alternative from the same manufacturer. We got around this by using a 14.5 oz can of Eden Organic Diced Tomatoes "Just Roma Tomatoes" that we purchased at Whole Foods and adding hot peppers into the recipe as a separate item. It contains only 20mg of sodium. If you can't find this product, most grocery stores carry no-salt-added diced tomatoes that contain 175mg for the whole can.

So... how did we do? The original recipe states that it serves 4, although in practice we usually get 6 meals from it so I will divide everything into 6 portions. The dish as made in the past contains anywhere from 8340mg to 10640mg of sodium depending on what sausage is used, which works out to 1390mg - 1773mg per serving. Way too high! Our version as cooked last night contained 2820mg in the pot, which is 470mg per serving. (If you use the Trader Joes's chicken sausage and regular no salt added diced tomatoes this would become 572mg per serving, which is still quite respectable.) I seasoned my plate with Mrs. Dash Table Blend and about a tablespoon of Hillside Orchard Farms Habanero hot sauce (add 43mg to my serving for that).

Bottom line - this conversion was very challenging, but I would call it a success. The texture and taste were nearly identical to the original recipe, although it definitely tastes less salty and needs more of the other seasonings to compensate.

LOW SODIUM CHEESY PASTA BAKE**

1 lb homemade "andouille" sausage (Logue, page 412)*
1 T vegetable oil
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced fine
3 habanero peppers, seeded and diced fine (optional, but we like it extra spicy)
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups organic low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 14.5 oz can no salt added diced tomatoes
12 oz penne pasta
4 oz swiss cheese, shredded
4 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded
4 scallions, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp salt - optional
1/4 tsp potassium chloride ("NoSalt" or other brand) - optional
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat broiler. In a large dutch oven, cook sausage in batches until browned. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Add the vegetable oil to the pan, then cook the onion and hot peppers until they begin to brown. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, then add the sausage back to the pan.

Pour in broth, cream, tomatoes and pasta and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add salt, KCl, and black pepper to taste. Cover and simmer until pasta is done, stirring often. This should take about 15 minutes.

Turn off heat and stir in the swiss cheese. Sprinkle the pepper jack cheese on top, then place pot under broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is spotty brown. Place into serving bowls and top with a handful of scallions.

*A worthy substitute is Trader Joe's chicken Italian sausage, if you do not wish to make your own andouille flavored sausage from scratch. If you decide to make the sausage yourself, we followed the Logue recipe for the most part, but we prefer to grind our own pork in a food processor rather than purchasing ground pork because you can control the fat content by selecting an appropriate cut of meat - Boston butt works well, but you can use other cuts. Pork tenderloin is not recommended because it is too lean.

**RECIPE UPDATED 5/3/12 because it just isn't the same without real Andouille sausage. We found a way to make it work. Hooray! Changes are detailed here: Cheesy Pasta Bake, Revisited.

Pizza 2.0 - grinding it out

We made another Italian sausage pizza tonight and managed to cut roughly half the sodium from our previous attempt. The main two changes: no salt used in the dough for the crust (I used the herbed pizza dough recipe from Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes book), and we made the sausage from scratch using 1/3 the recommended amount of salt. PDM consulted our low sodium cookbooks and his "normal" cookbooks and kind of split the difference in the recipes for the sausage. He made three pounds and froze most of it in 12 ounce portions for future use. It was some of the best Italian sausage I've tasted and the missing salt didn't cause any loss of flavor. If I didn't know it was "lower sodium" I would not have guessed it.


The pizza made six servings. I ate two and PDM ate four. My share of sodium was about 500-600mg. We still have about 6 ounces of sausage and about half the sauce left to use for supper tomorrow night. I am thinking of picking up some fresh tortellinis on my way home and another can of no-salt-added canned tomatoes and we are back in business! Got plenty of fresh basil growing in the garden, and we'll make some homemade garlic bread to go with.

Recipe - Bay Scallops in Creamy Wine Butter Sauce Over Rice

A couple of minor modifications reduced the sodium content of this recipe by about 40%. In our version, the main source of sodium is the scallops themselves. This dish has a wonderful flavor and texture, and while not a quick cooking meal the prep work isn't that laborious. And trust me, it is worth taking the time. Even PDM, who is not crazy about zucchini or cream sauces, liked it. A lot.

Ingredients:

For the main course:
8 oz bay scallops (we used frozen ones, thawed just before cooking)
8 oz zucchini (1 large or 2 small), cut into thin half rounds
1/2 vidalia onion, chopped
1 cup white wine (you'll have enough left in the bottle to drink with dinner, so get something good)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 T unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
freshly ground black pepper to taste (we like to use a lot)

For two servings of rice:
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water mixed with 1/2 t Wyler's no salt instant chicken bouillon
1 T butter

Method:

1. For the rice, bring the liquid ingredients and butter to a boil in a small saucepan, add the rice, stir and cover. Simmer over medium low heat about about 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Keep covered and set aside off the heat until ready to serve.

2. Bring the wine and broth to a boil in a medium pan. Add scallops, return to boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for about 3-4 minutes or until the scallops are done. Transfer the scallops to a bowl, cover and set aside.

3. Return the cooking liquid to higher heat and simmer uncovered until it has reduced down to about 1/3 the original volume. This may take up to 20 minutes depending on your heat setting. Stir occasionally.

4. Melt the butter in a medium skillet. Add the onion and zucchini and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender.

5. Add the scallops to the skillet along with the reduced wine sauce. Add freshly ground pepper and the cream, and cook for about another minute, stirring often, until the cream is heated through and the sauce begins to thicken.

6. Serve immediately over the rice and enjoy! I added a bit of Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning to mine and didn't miss the salt.

Serves two. (We thought the servings were rather large and that we'd never finish all of it, but it was so delicious we ate every morsel and didn't feel overstuffed.)

365 mg sodium per serving, including the rice

The Pizza Experiment

I haven't had pizza since my doctor put me on the low sodium diet. In fact, pizza (along with restaurant soups) was one of the foods he specifically warned me about that tend to have very high sodium content. The only way for me to eat a pizza and stay within the 2000mg daily limit would be to make my own. I really miss pizza so this weekend we decided to try making it at home.

I started by making a batch of pizza dough in the bread machine. We didn't have the nerve to try any of the zero sodium recipes (my experience with cutting the salt in bread recipes has been negative), but since we'd be splitting this batch of dough into multiple pizzas I figured it wouldn't be too bad to keep the salt. It was a pretty basic recipe - just water, oil, sugar, salt, flour and yeast. Maybe I will be braver next time and try one of the salt-less versions now that I have something to compare them to.

Last night's creation was Thai Chicken Pizza - loosely based on this recipe from Trader Joe's website. We used the TJ's peanut satay sauce (a major source of the sodium, so next time we might attempt make our own), but cooked our own chicken without any salt in sesame oil with a little black pepper, added caramelized onions to the toppings, used our own dough, and reduced the amount of mozzarella cheese (and used fresh mozzarella rather than the higher sodium pre-shredded kind).

One generous and very filling serving (about 1/4 of the pizza) clocked in at 999mg, so it wasn't exactly a LOW sodium meal (but definitely didn't put me over the limit due to my very low sodium breakfast and lunch). Comparing this to the sodium content of some other Thai chicken pizza recipes from an internet search, it is definitely a big improvement. And I think we could easily lower the sodium by 30-40% with some minor modifications. The satay sauce was the major contributor, so making our own would be worth the effort. We could substitute a bit of swiss cheese in place of some of the mozzarella. We could also try the no-salt dough recipes, or split the regular dough recipe into three batches and have a thinner crust.

We're using the other half of the pizza dough tonight for a more traditional Italian style pizza. It is also probably going to come in around 1000mg per serving. On this one, we're using spicy Italian sausage from TJs (it isn't "low sodium" but had far less sodium per link than any other sausage we've found). We can probably find ways to reduce the sodium on this one as well, but again - 1000mg at dinner isn't going to get me anywhere near my 2000mg limit today. At least we've got a starting point that isn't too terribly sodium loaded, and now our challenge will be to reduce the sodium without sacrificing the flavor.

Mrs. Dash to the Rescue!

Today was my turn to cook, so I tried an old favorite (but sans salt) - shrimp and corn bisque. Aside from not adding salt and using very low sodium chicken broth, my other problem was the we didn't have enough butter to make the roux so I had to use oil instead (not nearly as good). I was getting worried near the end of cooking because even after I added the hot sauce and black pepper the soup was tasting pretty bland. So I dumped in a bunch of Mrs. Dash table blend. And it worked miracles. The bisque was instantly transformed from blah into wow.

I also made a fresh loaf of homemade rosemary french bread, and this time I did not leave out any salt. (Last time I halved the salt and the bread wasn't nearly as light or good). This time it was much better. I could only have one slice, but it was a slice of heaven. I used the bread machine on the dough cycle, then shaped it and cooked the loaf on a stone in the oven. Super yummy, but not super low sodium. In this situation, portion control is your best tool.

Recipe - Low Sodium Salmon Packets

This is the recipe for last night's awesome salmon dinner. It was our best low salt meal yet.You can use other types of fish in this recipe - we have made it with several varieties including tilapia and cod. This low sodium version was adapted from a Cook's Country recipe that was one of our favorites in our "not caring about sodium content" era. Some quantities in this recipe will be approximate, because that is just the way we roll. Neither of us measures ingredients very carefully unless we are baking, where being exact matters a great deal.

Ingredients (per serving, which is one package):

~6 oz. fish fillet (your choice, but it was delicious with salmon), skin removed
1 red bliss potato, sliced thin (we left them unpeeled)
1/2 stalk celery, sliced at an angle into 2-3mm thick pieces
1/2 carrot, julienned
1 lemon slice
zest of lemon
freshly ground black pepper
2 T white wine
2 T "chicken stock" (we used Wylers no sodium chicken flavor powder with water to make this)
pat of unsalted butter
fresh dill weed
Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning (optional)

Other necessary items:

heavy duty aluminum foil
baking sheet or pan

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400F. Microwave the sliced potatoes for about a minute to pre-soften them. Meanwhile, lay out a sheet of the heavy duty aluminum foil - one per packet/serving. You will need a sheet of this large enough to contain the fish and veggies with an equal area to fold over and seal. Place the sliced, pre-cooked potatoes on one half of the foil, top with the fish, then cover with the celery and carrots. Add some of the fresh dill, lemon zest, freshly ground pepper, and a pat of butter. Top all of this with the lemon slice. Bend the edges of the foil up so that each packet will hold liquid without spillage. Finally pour the "chicken stock" and wine over each packet, then fold the foil over and seal the edges tightly. Place packets in a baking pan or sheet and transfer to the middle rack of your oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

One serving of this recipe makes a complete meal that is satisfying, but not overly filling. It is also very easy to clean up after. Once on the table, I sprinkled some Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning on to make it even more savory and delicious. I didn't miss the salt AT ALL. And that makes me very happy!

Sodium count (per serving): < 150 mg

A Hint of Normalcy

I worked very late on Tuesday, and when I finally got home my husband had dinner in progress on the stove (because he is awesome like that). The remarkable thing about this meal is that it was so much like what we used to eat before Low Sodium. He is very good at making burritos from scratch using a variety of ingredients, but it didn't seem like we'd be able to make a low enough sodium version of any of them - tortillas have a LOT of sodium, as does cheese, canned black beans or refried beans (even the "low sodium" varieties), and even hot sauce isn't sodium free. And of course he would always include salt in the seasoning mix applied to whatever meat we used as well.

PDM's delicious low sodium beef burritos were made possible by: not including any salt in the seasoning for the meat (he used a lot of other spices), making more carmelized peppers and onions than usual to add delicious flavor and aroma without any sodium, starting with dried black beans rather than canned (much more work and time required, but no sodium unless you add it yourself), using some no-sodium "chicken flavor" fake bouillon powder to add flavor to the cooking water for the beans in lieu of salt, finding a semi-lowish-sodium cheese blend and not using very much of it on my burrito, and some very tasty tortillas that had less fat and much less sodium than our usual brand (Tumaro's jalapeno and cilantro gourmet tortillas, with 105 mg sodium each). He made a fresh jalapeno and onion salsa that was very tasty sans salt. I ended up using it to perk up my black beans, which were sort of bland. I also put just a tad of "No Salt" (which is KCl - potassium chloride) on the beans because they really needed it!

All in all, I could barely tell that this meal had FAR less sodium than any of our old burrito concoctions. And since the lowly burrito (done creatively with whatever we happen to have around) has been such a staple of our dinner routine, this success was quite a relief! It also means that we should be able to make quesadillas using some of the same methods, although I will have to make mine small to limit the tortilla and cheese sodium contribution.

And for whatever reason, I've been eating smaller portions than I used to. My theory is that (so far) the food isn't quite as tasty, which makes it easier to stop when I feel full. Since I only ate half my burrito, this helped further reduce the sodium count of this meal, and gave me a low sodium lunch to bring to work the next day.

Help is on the way

Actually, it's here. PDM, my husband and best friend (and damn good chef), ordered some low sodium cookbooks to get us started since we are not having much luck converting our normal recipes. These books should give us some immediate menu choices, plus we might pick up some general ideas about how to reduce the sodium in our standard recipes. They also had some great suggestions about where to get some low sodium cooking staples such as baking powder and such.

500 Low Sodium Recipes by Dick Logue

The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook by Donald A. Gazzaniga

Low-Salt Cookbook, 3rd Edition by the American Heart Association

We tried our first set of those recipes last night and had a pretty decent meal. Our taste buds still haven't adapted to the salt deficit, so we still think everything - no matter how otherwise tasty - tastes like it could use a sprinkle of salt. That aside, our lamb curry with rice (extra spicy), home made naan, and cool raita made a satisfying meal. The lamb recipe came from the AHA cookbook. The naan and raita came from Dick Logue's book, and I already know how to flavor rice without salt - toast some mustard seed, whole coriander, and cumin seed in the hot pan before you add the water and rice. Add a pat of unsalted butter before you cover the pot to simmer the rice and you're in business!

Tonight I made a pineapple cole slaw (cider vinegar based) from the Logue book, will cook some corn on the cob (which is in season and doesn't need a thing to make it taste great), and PDM is adapting his apple-bourbon barbeque rib recipe by eliminating the salt from the dry rub and other steps. I'll let you know how it all works out. It sure smells good, and with some extra hot sauce and freshly ground pepper we might not even miss the salt.

How to Wreck a Recipe Conversion

Maybe my post title is a bit unfair. The stuff we made was in fact edible, and not the worst thing we've ever concocted in the kitchen. But our initial experiences in taking beloved recipes and trying to make them with far less sodium have not exactly been rousing successes. Like most people, we had settled into a culinary routine at home with an occasional adventure with new recipes, but mostly well-honed repertoire of tried and true (and very yummy) dishes that we make quite often. Of course, 99% of those are now off limits due to their sodium content.

Since I am the reason we have to change the way we eat, it was only fair for me to be the first one to attempt to cook a low sodium meal. (My husband does far more of our home cooking on any given day, and he is much better at it than I am.) I chose a spicy shrimp and pasta dish that is simple and makes a great summer meal. My thought was that since it has a lot of strongly flavored ingredients maybe we wouldn't miss the salt so much.

I was wrong.

My two rookie mistakes were adding way too much of the other seasonings and not adding anything to compensate for the missing salt. We had a dish that was about an 11 on the hot-and-spicy scale, yet still managed to taste sort of bland.

Next time I try this, I will use the normal amount of everything, leave out the salt, and add lemon juice to compensate. It still may need work at that point, but I think it will be an improvement. If I ever get this recipe to taste good, I will publish it here. Don't hold your breath!

The next low sodium meal was much better. PDM (that's my husband) grilled some steaks and did everything he would normally do except omit the salt from the seasoning he rubs on prior to grilling. I missed the salt just a little bit, but the steaks were still flavorful and delicious. I cooked some corn on the cob and didn't have to change a thing - I never use salt in the cooking water and fresh corn on the cob is so good you don't even need butter on it. And since corn tastes great all by itself, we'll probably eat a lot more of it this summer. I also cooked a zucchini dish that is normally delicious, but I once again over seasoned it to make up for not using salt and it did not work out very well. Again, I suspect that keeping the other ingredient amounts the same and substituting lemon juice for the salt will be the way to go.