Follow the recipes for canning low-acid vegetables for meats, poultry and seafoods, but omit salt. Canned meats and vegetables keep just as well without salt as with it. The amount called for in the recipes is too small to help prevent spoilage; it is there only for seasoning purposes.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My husband has been put on a low sodium diet. Does anyone have any recipes that would meet this description? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Search for low salt recipes on google.
I try to cook all our meals without adding any salt and try to use reduced sodium products or natural foods. Whoever wants salt can add it to their food at the table.
Living without salt in the diet is easy, just don't eat it or add it to foods and check all your labels for sodium content. You'll be surprised at how much sodium is in everything you eat without even realizing it.
You can cook with so many different other spices, that you don't even miss the salt. It is definitely a better and more healthy way to eat!
Try Mrs. Dash or other brands of salt free spices.
Another trick is to rinse all your canned veggies in running water, add back a little plain water, spices and heat.
Good luck.
Trying to cut down sodium is very challenging. I recently discovered Eden Organic canned beans. The ones I bought only had 15 mg sodium per serving versus well over 200 mg for regular canned beans.
When my husband was on a low sodium diet there was a very good site with recipes and many good products for sale. I am sorry I don't remember the name but if you search I am sure you will find many good ones.
The key to going low salt is use as little as possible processed foods and those u do use check the sodium content religiously. A biggie is processed meats, but look for hidden sodium in unexpected places like jello and pudding mixes. It is usually relatively easy to lower the sodium in your favorite recipes, most can be made without added salt safely or you can at least halve it.
Look up the DASH diet put out by the American Heart Association.
If you're a pizza addict like me, buy a bread machine to make the dough in a snap. My pizzas have between 300 - 500 mg of sodium depending on what I top it with. Most pizzas are between 4,000 and 7,000 mg.
Packaged foods are the worse culprits. They not only use salt for flavor but as a preservative as well. Be careful reading labels. Some are very deceptive. They list a very low sodium content per serving but when you look at the serving size you see why.
Braggs Amino Acid (soy sauce) is one of my pet peeves on this subject. People swear by it because it's low sodium. Lower then normal but still not that low. I rarely use soy sauce anymore but when I do, I use Trader Joes low sodium soy sauce. Don't have the labels with me but I do believe that soy sauce is at least 30% less then Braggs.
Sauces and condiments are usually high in sodium. So check the labels. Yes that's me in the middle of the aisle with the glasses on checking all the labels - ha, ha.
Does anyone on a sodium restricted diet (2000 mg) have any good recipes to share?
By Linda from IL
I don't have any specific recipes to share, but I do have some tips. Lemon juice is a great substitute for salt. It gives a lot of tang, but without the sodium. Lime juice also. The vinegars, cider and white can add a lot of flavor also. Instead of soy sauce, use Braggs Liquid Aminos (health food type stores). It is still pretty high in sodium ounce per ounce, but you can control it much better as it is a spray and therefore use considerably less of it.
Real Tamari soy sauce is lower in sodium that the regular kinds you buy @ the store. (Chinese markets, health food stores). There are a lot more lower sodium products at health food stores than regular grocery stores. Other countries pre-made foods are typically lower in salt than American food also. (English, French, etc.)
Vegenaise is an excellent low sodium, low fat, low sugar "mayo" product. It is a bit pricey and only available at health food and high end stores, but I think it is worth it. You can cut out or lower salt in most recipes. You don't need salt in the water in oatmeal or rice, etc. Sea salt is lower in sodium than regular table salt and has more minerals. The lowest sodium cheese is mozzarella packed in water. Mazo bread in place of crackers or make your own.
There are also no salt added tuna and salmon, also. Tends to be pricey, but do your research on sodium, as I didn't know that most chicken and turkey is allowed to sit in a brine of salt water (I suppose to kill germs) as it is being processed and the sodium in the meat goes up because of it. There is one chicken brand that is much lower in sodium than the others, but I can't recall which brand.
There is sodium in things you wouldn't think of, sweet pickles, jelly, etc. "Cooking without a grain of salt" - Elma Bagg, is a book I recommend. It is vintage, you will have to find it at a used book store or ebay. Also, all the books on Low Salt Cooking by Donald Gazzaniga, megaheart.com.
I have never added salt to anything when I cook. When you buy products that are low in salt, a lot of times they have more fat and sugar added to them to make up the taste. The same applies to low fat foods, they have a tendency to have more sodium and sugar to make up the flavor. Basically you can't win for losing.
Linda there are tons of Low Sodium recipes at the Mayo Clinic website and they look delish, too.
www.mayoclinic.com/
I quit using table salt over 30 + years ago. When I cook, I use Mrs. Dash.
I am looking for a tried and true recipe for cookies that have little or no salt. Looking especially for oatmeal type cookies. They are for my dad who just had a heart transplant and is on a very limited sodium intake diet. Thanks!
I don't know if this helps you; but I never add salt to baking recipes. You can buy low-sodium baking powders at the health food store. You can substitute unsalted butter for regular butter; or choose recipes that use oil. Better yet, you can substitute applesauce for oil in recipes for bar cookies or soft cookies. I expect some people here can share recipes; but if you're not afraid to experiment, do it! Just leave out the salt, and if the baking soda or powder is problematic ( because they contain sodium), look for the low sodium ones.
Jilson is correct you don't need to add salt to any baking reciept. She is also correct about her other suggestions, ref: using oil and apple sauce and low sodium baking powder and soda. My husband has high blood pressure etc. No salt - asside from baking for other cooking you can replace salt with other spices to add flovor.
I need help. My dear husband has to take out as much potassium and salt as possible due to being diabetic. He is trying to get on transplant list for new kidney. So I would like ideas on what I can cook. Also any package mixes like taco and all other mixes I can reduce salt content.
By Barbara
I'm not sure about Potasium but there are many resources for low sodium diets. The DASH diet seems to be the most popular. The biggest offenders of high sodium is processed foods. The food you normally buy that's pre-packaged. Salt is used as a preservative as well as flavor. So the more home cooked meals the better. But watch what you put in your meals as well.
A lot of the sauces and condiments are very high in Sodium. Be careful reading the labels as well. Some companies will list low sodium per helping. But their helpings are ridiculously low compared to other brands. The normal intake of sodium for people over 55 and African Americans should be 1500 mg. Most people get probably 3 times that amount. A typical pizza is sometimes as high as 6,000 to 7,000 mg. I make my own pizzas that ends up with about 300-500 mg. Restaurant foods are just as high in sodium, if not higher, then pre-packaged foods.
I watched an interesting DVD about a raw food diet over a year ago but can't remember the name of it. I'll have to look at home to see if I still have it. I'll post it if I find it. SUPPOSEDLY, it cured some people with type 2 diabetes.
