Add the cooked kidney beans and the remaining ingredients and cook an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot. Serves 6.
261 For convenience when you’re in a hurry, use canned beans. Just be sure to discard the salty liquid in the can and rinse the beans well with water. Taking a couple of minutes to do these two things sends much of the refined salt down the drain. One Salt Shaker.
262 Better yet, use very-low-sodium or salt-free canned beans. Here are two brands worth noting: American Prairie, which makes organic canned beans that are low in sodium, and Eden, which makes organic canned beans that have no salt added. Both brands are available in natural food stores. One Salt Shaker.
BONUS TIP: Don’t be afraid to add a few dashes of your own unrefined salt. It often helps with the digestion of beans.
263 Make refried beans at home without the salt by mashing canned pinto beans with a broth, heating them, and adding spices of your choice like cayenne pepper, coriander, and cumin. Refried beans made this way are especially tasty when mashed with a flavorful broth such as the Garlic Broth in tip 167. Here’s a dressed-up version of Refried Beans developed by Holly Sollars, a former demonstration chef from Canyon Ranch health resort. One Salt Shaker.
REFRIED BEANS
¼ onion, minced
¼ cup green chiles, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons fresh cilantro leaves, finely minced (optional)
⅛ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
Mr. Spice Tangy Bang! sauce to taste (optional) [see tip 289]
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (no-salt-added beans preferred)
¾ cup Garlic Broth [see tip 167]
½ medium tomato, diced
Sauté all the ingredients except the beans, Garlic Broth, and tomato for 4 to 5 minutes. Blend the beans and Garlic Broth in a food processor or blender or mash them with a potato masher, then add them to the sautéed vegetables. Add the tomato, and cook for another 5 minutes. Makes about 2 cups.
VEGETABLES SIDE AND CENTER
264 Eat vegetables liberally each and every day. Vegetables are high in potassium, antioxidants, and fiber and low in sodium, sugars, fat, and calories. They also contain phyto-chemicals—miraculous gifts from nature that help protect our bodies against many diseases, including cancer and heart disease. No matter what research you review, it all says the same thing: vegetables are just plain good for us. To ensure your best health, try to eat five vegetable servings daily. One Salt Shaker.
BONUS TIP: If you tried good-for-you greens like kale, mustard greens, or romaine lettuce hut don’t like their bitter taste, feel free to add a few dashes of unrefined salt to them. Salt appears to counteract bitter flavors, and just a small amount may make bitter foods like greens more palatable for normally staunch vegetable avoiders. Its much better to add salt to nutritious greens than to eat the salt hidden in processed foods. The high-potassium content of these valuable vegetables helps to counteract the sodium content in the salt. If a small amount of added salt helps you enjoy greens better, hopefully you’ll eat more of them.
265 Vary the vegetables you eat and use them in innovative ways to keep your diet interesting. (This is always important but especially when you’re trying to cut down on salt.) In the following recipe from The Yeast Connection Cookbook, Marjorie Hurt Jones cleverly uses red pepper to form the flavorful base of a sauce for cauliflower. She developed the recipe for anyone who wants to avoid cauliflower in traditionally salty cheese sauce. One Salt Shaker.
CAULIFLOWER IN RED PEPPER SAUCE
2 cups chopped cauliflower florets
1 to 2 whole red peppers, chopped
2 to 3 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Steam the cauliflower until done, about 10 minutes. While it’s steaming, sauté the chopped red peppers in the olive oil. Use medium-low heat so the peppers soften instead of brown. Just before serving, use a blender or food processor to puree the pepper mixture into a beautiful red sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste and pour over the cauliflower. Serves 4.
266 Choose fresh or frozen vegetables over canned vegetables whenever possible. Although you can wash away much of the unnecessary sodium in canned vegetables, you can’t restore the potassium that is eliminated during canning. (Canned vegetables lose at least one-third the potassium found in fresh vegetables.) One Salt Shaker.
267 Avoid frozen vegetables that have seasonings or sauces added to them. The main ingredient in most commercial seasonings and sauces is salt.
268 Seek out frozen lima beans and peas that are labeled “no salt added,” or use fresh or no-salt-added canned lima beans or peas. Before they are frozen, lima beans and peas are sorted by size in a bath of salted water, causing the vegetables to absorb additional salt. For this reason, regular, plain, frozen lima beans and peas always have more sodium than other plain frozen vegetables. One Salt Shaker.
269 Steam vegetables instead of boiling them. Steaming retains more of vegetables’ crunchy textures and fresh flavors (in addition to more of the minerals found in raw vegetables). Boiling, on the other hand, causes vegetables to wilt and to develop “washed out” tastes that usually need much more salt for flavor. One Salt Shaker.
270 Give piping hot vegetables an herbal touch: lightly toss them with a few teaspoons of Herb Butter, herbed oil (see tips 42, 44), herbed vinegar, or any low-sodium herbal vinaigrette. Try cooked cabbage with Caraway Butter (see tip 137), baked tomato slices with garlic-marjoram herbed oil, or steamed brussels sprouts with dill vinaigrette. One Salt Shaker.
271 Go nutty with vegetables: make flavorful dishes like green beans almondine or broccoli a la walnut by oven-toasting slivered or chopped nuts until light golden brown and fragrant, then sprinkling them on top of cooked vegetables. Toasted nuts give vegetables abundant flavor all by themselves, but if you want a bolder nutty flavor, try adding a few splashes of unrefined almond oil or walnut oil along with the nuts. One Salt Shaker.
272 Grill vegetables to give them a unique smoky flavor. Simply preheat a grill or broiler and glaze your favorite vegetables with olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, or sesame oil. (Eggplant and zucchini sliced lengthwise work particularly well.) Cook the vegetables for about 6 minutes, then turn them over and cook until tender. One Salt Shaker.
273 Stir-sauté vegetables, with or without meat. This method of cooking vegetables is a particularly popular one, and you can make stir-fries with different ethnic accents depending on the ingredients you use. Make Mediterranean-style vegetables by sautéing them in olive oil with garlic, oregano, and basil. One Salt Shaker.
274 Change the stir-fry to Thai-style by switching to peanut oil and adding seasonings such as garlic, chili powder, coriander, and lemongrass. One Salt Shaker.
275 Or prepare vegetables Oriental-style by using sesame oil, ginger, and garlic, as I have done in the following recipe. One Salt Shaker.
SESAME BROCCOLI AND CARROTS
2 cups broccoli florets
2 carrots, cut into rounds
1½ ablespoons sesame oil
1½-inch piece fresh gingerroot, finely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sesame salt (optional) (see tip 58)
Steam the broccoli and carrots until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Heat the sesame oil in a frying pan and add the ginger, garlic, and sesame seeds. Cook, stirring continuously, until the sesame seeds are lightly toasted, about 1 or 2 minutes. Add the steamed vegetables and stir together with sesame salt. Serves 4 to 6.
276 Satisfy your sweet tooth by using sweet spices on vegetables. Cinnamon tastes great on baked carrots, and grated orange peel with ground nutmeg is a delicious combination on baked winter squash. One sweet spice combination I enjoy using in vegetable stir-fries is Chinese five-spice powder, a mixture sold in the Oriental foods section of supermarkets. This spice mixture makes you totally forget about salt; it giv
es vegetables a sweet, slightly licoricelike flavor. To use it, sauté a colorful assortment of chopped vegetables in half a cup of low-sodium vegetable broth or chicken broth, then add cooked brown rice and ¼teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder to the mixture. Stir and serve. One Salt Shaker.
BONUS TIP: To make it easier to enjoy a wide variety of healthful vegetables when you don’t have the time or energy to chop them, buy ready-to-use bags of pre-cut vegetable combinations. They are becoming increasingly available in the produce and frozen food sections of most supermarkets. If your local grocery store has a salad bar, you also can select chopped vegetables from there to use in stir-fries and other dishes. These two coping skills make meal preparation ultra-quick and are lifesavers when you’re had a particularly hard day.
277 Try sautéing vegetables in the Quick Herb Stock (see tip 164) or the Garlic Broth (see tip 167). Either of these aromatic stocks will give vegetables plenty of flavor without salt or fat. One Salt Shaker.
If you love tomato-based dishes like spaghetti and chili, make salt-free tomato products staples in your kitchen. You can reduce salt in your diet dramatically just by switching from using regular canned tomato products to salt-free varieties. Here’s one example: use one 16-ounce can of unsalted chopped tomatoes and one 6-ounce can of unsalted tomato paste instead of the regular (salted) versions of these products in a recipe, and you cut the sodium in that one recipe alone by about 2,000 milligrams! One Salt Shaker.
278 Bake corn on the cob instead of boiling it in salted water. Roasting corn in its husk intensifies its flavor. One Salt Shaker.
ROASTED CORN ON THE COB*
4 ears corn on the cob, in the husk, with the silk removed
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Chili powder, garlic powder, or onion powder to taste (optional)
Soak especially dry ears of corn in water for a few minutes before roasting. Bake unhusked ears of corn in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove the husk and sprinkle with seasonings to taste. If desired, top each cob with a teaspoon of unsalted butter first, then add the seasonings. Serves 4.
280 Baked potatoes are so low in sodium and high in potassium that you can afford to add a few tablespoons of shredded cheese or a lightly salted tomato sauce for flavor if your taste buds desire. You certainly should feel free to enjoy baked potatoes the traditional way, too: with a tablespoon of sour cream and plenty of chopped chives. One to Two Salt Shakers.
281 What do you use as a healthy substitute for greasy french fries loaded with salt and salty ketchup? Oven-fried potatoes that are topped Canadian-style with tangy malt vine gar. Here’s a recipe that is a flavorful variation on that theme. It comes from the American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook. One Salt Shaker.
OVEN-FRIED POTATOES WITH OREGANO
3 medium baking potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons malt vinegar
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Scrub the potatoes thoroughly. Cut each potato lengthwise into 6 wedges. Place the wedges in a medium bowl and cover with cold water. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Place the potatoes and oil in a medium bowl and toss to coat evenly. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with the pepper and oregano.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with malt vinegar. Serves 6.
282 If you’d like a saltier taste on fries, buy a plastic spritzer bottle and spray baked potato wedges with a salty liquid like reduced-sodium tamari (see tip 63) or soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids. By squirting these condiments onto foods, you get a salty taste from every droplet, but you definitely use less and consume less salt than if you sprinkled these condiments from the bottle or by the spoonful. A plastic spritzer bottle is a cheap, handy tool that has plenty of uses, especially in low-salt cooking. Look for one in supermarkets or the gardening section of department stores. Two Salt Shakers.
283 Be a garlic lover: utilize this pungent, health-enhancing vegetable in every way imaginable. Whether you sauté garlic in a stir-fry, add it to broiled meat patties, or stew it a long time in a flavorful tomato sauce, garlic is the perfect antidote for salt-deprived taste buds. (We also know that its the ideal antidote for combatting high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and weakened immunity!) For a new way of experiencing the irresistible taste and aroma of garlic, try roasting it. Roasted garlic develops a more mellow, slightly nutty flavor, and it’s a great party pleaser. Its also simple to make, as this recipe demonstrates. One Salt Shaker.
ROASTED GARLIC
1 whole garlic bulb, unpeeled
Leave the garlic bulb intact and place it in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the garlic is tender. Remove the bulb from the oven when done and let it stand for a few minutes to cool slightly. Slice the bulb crosswise in half and let each dinner guest separate a clove from the bulb and squeeze the mushy garlic from its skin onto a piece of whole grain bread. The garlic can be spread with a knife as easily as butter. Serves 8.
BONUS TIP: Try using roasted garlic in other ways. Add a few cloves to soups or stews, or try it in mashed potatoes!
284 Use onions liberally: like garlic, they make flavorful additions to just about any meal and are believed to have similar health benefits (including the ability to lower high blood pressure). Branch out and start experimenting with onions flavorful relatives—scallions, chives, leeks, and shallots. Chopped chives and scallions (or green onions) not only garnish baked potatoes well, they also make tasteful additions to virtually any lettuce or grain salad or salad dressing. Although leeks and shallots are not as well known in this country as other members of the onion family, they, too, lend distinctive flavors to foods as an alternative to using salt. Try shallots or sliced leeks in soups and stews, or sautéed with other vegetables. One Salt Shaker.
A SAUCE FOR ALL SEASONS
285 The Latin root of the word sauce is salt. Knowing this, you probably aren’t surprised that sauces are pretty much synonymous with salt. If you avoid commercial sauces altogether, you can take a major step toward reducing salt in your diet, but entrees without sauces sometimes can be dry and boring. This section will show you that delicious sauces can be made with little salt, and believe it or not, sometimes with no salt.
286 Sugar and salt often go hand in hand in sauces. When they’re together, they often “cancel each other out,” fooling your taste buds into believing you’re not eating much of either. Processed foods are problematic for exactly this reason: they’re high sources of sugar and salt, yet many people don’t even realize it. Consequently, a good way to cut down your salt intake is to reduce your sugar intake. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has reported that when sugar is eliminated in foods, the amount of salt needed to satisfy taste drops dramatically. To help you avoid sugar (which, in turn, will help you cut down on salt), try to buy sauces that contain 5 grams of sugar or less per serving.
287 Don’t use salty sauces to “cover up” the taste of processed foods or poor-quality foods. Sauces should only be used to accentuate the flavor of whole-food entrees and side dishes, not to mask foods you would rather not eat.
288 Discover low-sodium sauces that don’t contain refined salt, refined sugar, or preservatives. Robbie’s is one line to look for. This company not only makes low-sodium Worcestershire sauce (see tip 227), but other handy and flavorful condiments like garlic sauce and barbecue sauce. Ask for this quality brand in health food stores. One Salt Shaker.
289 Even lower in sodium—in fact, sodium-free—are the sauces under the Mr. Spice label. They are the most helpful condiments I know of for individuals who need to be on low-sodium diets. “Mr. Spice” himself, David Lang, is an herbalist who has been able to use his knowledge of herbs and natural foods to create sauces that have great flavor without any salt, sodium, refined sugar, MSG, or pr
eservatives. In addition, except for his low-fat Thai Peanut Sauce, all of his sauces are fat-free. During the past several years, all nine varieties of Mr. Spice sauces have won Blue Ribbon Awards (ranking in the top ten of their respective categories) at the annual American Royal International Barbecue Sauce Contest. This means that judges in blind taste tests put Mr. Spice sauces at the top of their classes, ahead of countless other sauces that contained refined salt and other unwanted ingredients. Mr. Spice sauces can be found in most natural food and specialty stores and some supermarkets. They come in these tasty varieties: the original Tangy Bang!; Garlic Steak Sauce; Honey BBQ Sauce; Ginger Stir Fry Sauce; Thai Peanut Sauce; Honey Mustard Sauce; Sweet & Sour Sauce; Indian Curry Sauce; and Hot Wing! Sauce. One Salt Shaker.
290 What makes tomato sauce the classic Italian pasta sauce? Plenty of garlic, onions, and fresh herbs. The secret of good Italian sauces certainly isn’t the refined salt that is predominant in commercial spaghetti sauces. (The salt content is so high in pasta sauces that a half cup of most commercial brands supplies almost one-quarter of our daily recommended sodium allowance.) Here’s a low-sodium tomato sauce recipe that is real Italian. It was developed by my staff and works well on grains, whole grain pasta, or cooked vegetables. One Salt Shaker.
CLASSIC ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1½ medium onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1½ pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 28-ounce can of no-salt-added crushed tomatoes
⅓ cup no-salt-added tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves, or salt-free Italian seasoning
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