SPICED BEEF WITH WINE, GINGER, AND GARLIC
1 pound flank steak, all visible fat removed
¾ cup dry red wine
4 teaspoons low-sodium Worcestershire sauce (see tip 227)
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
4 garlic cloves, mashed
Place the flank steak in a baking dish and cover with a mixture of wine, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, and garlic. Marinate for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Preheat the broiler. Broil about 8 to 9 minutes on each side until done to preference. Serve hot from the oven with a salad and vegetable. Serves 4.
230 Stir-fry beef or chicken strips in a small amount of herbed oil. (See tip 44.) This is another way to impart flavor without the salt. One Salt Shaker.
231 If you have to load burgers with salty ketchup and mustard to make them flavorful, learn to put the flavor inside the burgers instead of on top of them. Elma W. Bagg does exactly that with her creation of these delightful Herbed Hamburgers from Cooking Without a Grain of Salt. One Salt Shaker.
HERBED HAMBURGER
2 pounds ground lean beef (or ground round)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ teaspoon garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon marjoram
¼ teaspoon basil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cold water
Combine all the ingredients, make into 10 patties, and broil or grill until done. Serves 10.
232 Here’s another example of how to make tasty burgers—give them a south-of-the-border flavor. This sassy recipe comes from Cooking for Healthy Healing by Linda Rector-Page. One Salt Shaker.
MEXICAN TURKEY BURGERS ON THE GRILL
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons salt-free chili powder legg
¼ teaspoon pepper
Preheat and oil the grill. Combine all the ingredients, form into 6 burgers, and grill until no longer pink in the center. Serve with salt-free salsa and a squeeze of lime. Serves 6.
233 Be adventurous when using salt-free seasonings. Just because a salt-free blend may be packaged as an onion dip mix, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t also a great addition to meat-loaf, casseroles, or other dishes. Try using mixes in imaginative ways and see what kind of new taste twists you can add to everyday meals. One Salt Shaker.
234 Avoid chicken or turkey that is “prebasted” or “deep basted.” You may not have realized it, but prebasted chicken or turkey always has extra salt added to it. It usually is injected with solutions that contain not only refined salt but also things like partially hydrogenated oil, artificial flavor, and sodium-containing preservatives. Avoid these potentially harmful ingredients by seeking out fresh, unprocessed chicken and turkey every time you shop.
235 Also shun premarinated chicken or turkey breast cutlets. No matter whether the poultry is marinated in lemon-herb, teriyaki, or barbecue sauce, salt is almost always one of the marinade’s top ingredients.
236 Give chicken a taste of India by using exotic spices like ginger, coriander, cumin, and garam masala (a mixture of cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves) in marinades. If you aren’t familiar with Indian food, try this simple Tandoori Chicken recipe from Indian Recipes for a Healthy Heart by Mrs. Lakhani. You’ll discover that even without salt, Indian food is tantalizing to the taste buds. One to Two Salt Shakers.
TANDOORI CHICKEN
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced ginger root
1 green chile, seeded and minced (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
½ teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ cup low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons salt-free tomato paste
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 (5-ounce) chicken breasts, skinned, with the fat removed
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the chicken and make a smooth marinade. Make 2 diagonal cuts in each chicken breast and marinate for 3 to 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Broil or grill chicken, occasionally basting with the marinade for 5 to 7 minutes on each side, or until cooked but not dry. Serves 4.
237 Here’s a creative way to give chicken a piquant flavor and moister texture: loosen the skin on chicken breasts or thighs and tuck a mixture of herbs in between the skin and the flesh before baking. You can create a flavorful “underskin” by using an endless variety of herb mixtures, but here is one combination I particularly like: 4 crushed garlic cloves, 1½ tablespoons grated lemon zest, and 1½ cups finely chopped parsley. Use only the amount you need for each meal, being careful to prevent any leftover herb mixture from coming in contact with the raw chicken. Remove the skin of the chicken before eating, but be sure to eat all that wonderful “underskin.” One Salt Shaker.
238 Learn how to reduce the sodium content of Chinese stir-fries. One simple way is to use sodium-reduced tamari (see tip 63) in place of the standard tamari. If you have only regular tamari soy sauce, though, stretch it with salt-free ingredients like water, sherry, or unsalted broth. The Center for Science in the Public Interest did this in the following recipe for Szechuan Chicken with Peanuts from its book Salt: The Brand Name Guide to Sodium Content. This dish contains 302 milligrams of sodium per serving, which is a substantial reduction from the 1,000 milligrams or more per serving in traditional Szechuan-style stir-fries. Three Salt Shakers.
SZECHUAN CHICKEN WITH PEANUTS
2 whole chicken breasts, split, skinned, and boned
1 tablespoon oil
1 thin slice fresh gingerroot
1 garlic clove, peeled
3 Szechuan chile peppers, halved
⅓ cup unsalted peanuts
½ pound snow peas, stems removed
1 tablespoon [sodium-reduced] tamari soy sauce [see tip 63]
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 teaspoon arrowroot
3 tablespoons cold water
2 scallions, cut in 1-inch pieces
Trim the fat from the chicken breasts and cut each into long, ½-inch-wide strips.
Heat the oil in a wok, skillet, or sauté pan, add the ginger, garlic, and chile peppers, and cook for 2 minutes over medium heat. Add the chicken and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the peanuts, snow peas, tamari, and sherry; stir and continue cooking another minute or two.
Mix the arrowroot and water until smooth. Add the mixture to the skillet and stir until the sauce thickens.
Add the scallions, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 30 seconds. Remove the garlic, peppers, and ginger. Serves 4.
239 Try using low-sodium Worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce in recipes. Robbie’s low-sodium Worcestershire sauce contains 45 milligrams of sodium per tablespoon, compared to 1,000 milligrams of sodium per tablespoon of soy sauce. One Salt Shaker.
240 If you enjoy the convenience of heating up a TV dinner from time to time, look in health food stores for brands that are lower in salt (and healthier in other ways) than mainstream TV dinners. Shelton’s Whole-Wheat Turkey Pie, for example, is made with whole-grain flour instead of refined white flour, sea salt instead of refined salt, no hydrogenated oils or preservatives, and 360 milligrams of sodium. It’s not low in sodium, but it is 80 percent lower in sodium than the Stouffer’s Turkey Pie, which has a hard-to-imagine 1,735 milligrams of sodium as well as hydrogenated oils and preservatives. Three Salt Shakers.
GO FISH
241 Saltwater fish have only slightly more sodium than freshwater fish, but both kinds are low in sodium. Whether you prefer saltwater cod or halibut, o
r freshwater trout or catfish, prepare fish with low-sodium ingredients and enjoy! One Salt Shaker.
242 Buy fresh fish. According to the American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook, frozen fish is usually frozen in salty brine. Besides, even if frozen fish isn’t packed in a salty solution, fresh fish always tastes better. One Salt Shaker.
243 Lemonize fish. Freshly squeezed lemon juice is a natural for topping fish. Its tang complements fish so nicely that often no salt is needed. One Salt Shaker.
BONUS TIP: If you use freshly squeezed lemon juice regularly in your cooking, try this trick: squeeze ½ cups at a time and pour the juice into an ice cube tray to freeze. This gives you instant fresh lemon juice cubes that you can add to cooked dishes and saves you from squeezing the juice fresh each and every time.
244 Brush fish lightly with melted Herb Butter or herbed oil (in tips 42 or 44). Top with additional herbs like dill if desired, and bake until done. Fish cooked this way is so simple to prepare, yet so good. One Salt Shaker.
BONUS TIP: The time needed to cook fish will vary, depending on the thickness of the fish. As a general rule, ten minutes of baking is needed per inch of fish thickness.
245 Ground mustard powder has such a robust flavor that it can eliminate the need for salt in recipes. Try adding ¼ teaspoon of mustard powder to a marinade or baste for four people. Here’s one simple example: ⅓ cup fresh lemon juice combined with ¼ teaspoon dry mustard powder and ½ teaspoon tarragon leaves. Use to brush over fish before broiling. One Salt Shaker.
246 Be sure to eat cold-water fish rich in Omega 3 essential fatty acids (EFAs)—fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, haddock, and tuna. Omega 3 EFAs are protective for the heart and known to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. One low-sodium entree that’s rich in Omega 3 EFAs as well as delicious and easy to prepare is trout almondine. Make it by topping each baked or broiled piece of trout with a drizzle of almond oil and a few teaspoons of home-toasted slivered almonds. One Salt Shaker.
247 Avoid breaded commercial fish fillets. Not only are they fried, but the breading used to coat them is also high in salt. (Two Gorton’s Breaded Fish Fillets, for example, contain 480 milligrams of sodium.) In this recipe from Cooking for Healthy Healing, Linda Rector-Page has developed a healthier “fried” fish that has a crunchy, nutty coating made out of sesame seeds. Two Salt Shakers.
SESAME FISH
2 pounds 1-inch-thick white fish fillets, rinsed and cut into 6 serving pieces
Dash of black pepper and several sprinkles of sesame salt
Whole grain flour
½ cup whole grain bread crumbs
4 tablespoons pan-roasted sesame seeds
l egg
2 tablespoons water or white wine
Olive oil
Lightly season fish pieces with pepper and sesame salt, then dust them with whole grain flour. Combine the bread crumbs and sesame seeds. Separately mix the egg and water or wine. Dip the fish pieces in the egg mix, then in the crumb mixture to coat well. Cover the bottom of a shallow baking dish with olive oil. Lay the fish pieces in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until the fish is firm and white. If you’d like a simple, low-sodium sauce, mix together ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, ½ cup lemon juice, and ½ cup chopped green onions and spoon it over the fish when serving. Serves 6.
248 Keep down the sodium content of meals that contain shellfish by preparing foods like shrimp and scallops with low-sodium ingredients. (Especially avoid using salted butter sauces or soy sauce.) Try tasty, low-sodium combinations such as herbed oil, lemon juice, and minced garlic; low-sodium tomato juice, onions, green peppers, and Italian seasonings; or Herb Butter (see tip 42) and white wine. One to Two Salt Shakers.
AMBER WAVES OF GRAINS AND BEANS
249 Although it has become a favorite in much of America, commercial white pasta is a poor food choice when you’re getting the salt out of your diet. It is true that pasta is quite low in sodium, but it also is exceedingly low in most other minerals, especially minerals that balance sodium. When whole wheat grain is refined into white flour, 60 percent of its calcium, 77 percent of its potassium, and 84 percent of its magnesium are removed. Pasta made from white flour, therefore, is light on nutrition as well as being so bland that it almost requires salty sauces to give it some taste. Whole grain pasta, on the other hand, is more nutritious and has a unique, almost nutty flavor that stands well on its own.
BONUS TIP: It bears repeating that pasta is not the wonder food some low fat diet gurus have made it out to be. Although pasta has been deemed a low-fat food that will help you keep the weight off, this idea recently has been refuted, even by notable publications like the New York Times. It’s now known that high-carbohydrate meals like those centered around pasta cause the pancreas to secrete insulin, which is a fat-storage hormone. For an increasing number of people, eating too many carbohydrates like pasta can cause not only weight gain but also an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. My books Get the Sugar Out and Your Body Knows Best cover this complex topic more thoroughly, but the most important thing to know is that its best to eat whole grain pasta as a side dish with some protein instead of as a meal by itself.
250 Skip sodium-rich Parmesan or Romano cheese on grains and pasta, and replace it with the flavorful, low-sodium combination of lemon zest and minced garlic. One Salt Shaker.
251 Use brown rice instead of white rice in your cooking. Brown rice is higher in minerals and has a chewy texture and delightful, almost nutty flavor that beats the blandness of white rice hands down. When my clients try brown rice, they find they simply don’t have to butter and salt it, as they do white rice. To make brown rice, add 2 cups of salt-free vegetable, chicken, or beef stock and 1 cup of brown rice in a saucepan, heat it to a boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for 40 to 50 minutes (usually 40 minutes for short-grain and 50 minutes for long-grain). If you like, add some herb blends or a pinch of saffron to the cooking water for extra flavor. Serves 4 to 6. One Salt Shaker.
252 For a variation, make the same recipe using a combination of one cup of water combined with one cup of low-sodium tomato juice. One Salt Shaker.
253 If you live life in the fast lane, buy quick-cooking plain brown rice. Make it using a flavorful broth and season it to taste with herb and vegetable combinations or a teaspoon or two of reduced-sodium tamari (see tip 63) for a saltier flavor. One to Two Salt Shakers.
254 Avoid living life in the salty lane: stay away from instant flavored rice mixes like Rice-A-Roni. Half a cup of herb-and-butter-flavored Rice-A-Roni contains 790 milligrams of sodium and half a cup of its Spanish rice mix contains a whopping 1,090 milligrams. One to Two Salt Shakers.
255 Combine brown rice with higher-sodium vegetables like spinach to give the rice more of a salty flavor. That’s precisely what nutritionist Melissa Diane Smith does in the flavorful recipe that follows. One Salt Shaker.
GREEK-STYLE SPINACH AND BROWN RICE*
1 cup short-or long-grain uncooked brown rice
2 cups homemade or low-sodium canned chicken broth
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ small to medium yellow onion, diced
2 to 4 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves (according to your preference)
Juice of 1 lemon or lemon juice to taste
Combine the brown rice in the broth in a medium pan and cook as directed in tip 251.
In a large saucepan or skillet, heat olive oil and sauté the diced onion for a few minutes until translucent. Then add the chopped spinach leaves and sauté just until wilted, about 1 minute. Add the spinach-onion mixture to the cooked brown rice along with the amount of lemon juice you desire and stir well. Serves 4.
256 To make the above recipe slightly richer, soak and drain one ounce of Greek feta cheese (as described in tip 197) and crumble it into the dish just before serving. One Salt Shaker.
257 Try other grains such as barley, buckwheat, brown basmati rice, or wild rice in side dishes. When you get th
e salt out, it’s important to start putting other new flavors in. Whole grains add interesting variety to the diet, and if you prepare them without salt, you can rest assured that they’re low in sodium but packed with other minerals we need. One Salt Shaker.
258 If you soak and cook dried beans from scratch, never add salt to the beans’ soaking water. Don’t add salt during cooking, either, until beans are tender: salt added beforehand toughens beans and prevents water absorption.
259 Add partially cooked beans to unsalted soups, casseroles, and sauces. Beans must be thoroughly cooked before you salt them or combine them with salt-containing ingredients.
260 Use hot spices to liven up bland beans. That’s what the American Heart Association does in this recipe from its Low-Salt Cookbook. One Salt Shaker.
VEGETARIAN CHILI
1 cup dry kidney beans
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped green bell peppers
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup no-salt-added canned tomatoes, chopped
1 cup bulgur wheat
1½ tablespoons chili powder (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Soak the beans overnight in 3 cups of water. Drain the beans and place them in a large saucepan. Add 3 cups of fresh water and cook, uncovered, 1½ hours, or until tender. Drain, rinse, and set aside.
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, place the oil, onions, green bell peppers, and garlic. Sauté 8 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Add the tomatoes, 2 cups of water, and the bulgur. Simmer 45 to 60 minutes.
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