Okay, All You Fabulous Cooks!

[Guest Viola]

Hi all ... The doctor put my dear hubby on a (as low as possible) salt free diet. So ... anyone have any ideas on how to do salt free-gluten free? I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup today in the slow cooker, but even though I added things like garlic pepper, dill, parsley, and of course all the vegies including onions, mushrooms etc. it really is still quite bland I even browned the beef, onions and mushrooms first So .. anyone have any ideas? Need some for quick meals as well ... don't want to spend my whole life cooking, spring is here

[Lisa]

Hi all ... The doctor put my dear hubby on a (as low as possible) salt free diet. So ... anyone have any ideas on how to do salt free-gluten free? I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup today in the slow cooker, but even though I added things like garlic pepper, dill, parsley, and of course all the vegies including onions, mushrooms etc. it really is still quite bland I even browned the beef, onions and mushrooms first So .. anyone have any ideas? Need some for quick meals as well ... don't want to spend my whole life cooking, spring is here

S:

What about salt substitutes. I have seen something in the grocery about a salt sub. Will that work for you?

Lisa

[lonewolf]

I think that salt free is harder than gluten-free. I have kidney problems and am supposed to be careful about my salt intake. I've been on salt-free before. I ate a lot of grilled chicken, marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, grilled fish, grilled vegetables, plain rice, baked or boiled sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, sodium free rice cakes with almond butter and LOTS of salads with the olive oil and balsamic dressing, sodium-free tuna, and leftover chicken or turkey. And lots of fruit salad! Fire up your grill - it's great for gluten-free and low-sodium.

[ladyx]

I use Mrs. Dash original and extra spicy for those latin dishes... I am a vegetarian so I don't know if my meal ideas would help alot but I'll poke around in my recipe books and see what I can find for ideas:)

[Guest Robbin]

Salt free is very hard. I really have to watch it too and I think balsamic vinegar is great, as well as using lots of spices like garlic, onions, hot pepper flakes, and something I really use a lot on salads and veggies is lemon juice. I use it on fish and chicken too, but in addition to seasonings, I keep wedges of lemon in the fridge and experiment on different foods. I actually like it on cooked broccoli and cauliflower. Onion powder and garlic powder are good too to keep in a shaker on the table as well as the old standby pepper. Try a little pepper grinder if you haven't already, it really makes a difference. Sun-dried tomatoes (check the ingredients) are also good to use in recipes, since they have kind of a natural salty taste. Happy Cooking! (Remember, life is always an obstacle course and you can make it through this one! )

PS-A good blend is 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp salt substitute(like no-salt or your favorite) this is good for burgers and steaks.

[tarnalberry]

Hi all ... The doctor put my dear hubby on a (as low as possible) salt free diet. So ... anyone have any ideas on how to do salt free-gluten free? I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup today in the slow cooker, but even though I added things like garlic pepper, dill, parsley, and of course all the vegies including onions, mushrooms etc. it really is still quite bland I even browned the beef, onions and mushrooms first So .. anyone have any ideas? Need some for quick meals as well ... don't want to spend my whole life cooking, spring is here

The most important ingredient in salt-free cooking is time. Time for your tastebuds to adapt away from the salt overload they're used to. The second most important is using the freshest ingredients possible, particularly in the herbs and aromatics.

[Carriefaith]

Try some of the following foods to help flavour your food:

Mrs. Dash can be added to almost anything to give lots of flavour

Hot chili sauce works well in stir frys, omlettes, chienese, and thai foods

Olive oil tastes great cooked with fresh vegetables

Chili powder can also be added to almost anything to give a sweet yet hot flavour

Brown sugar can sweeten up your food.

[Guest Viola]

Thanks everyone...I didn't even know there was a salt substitute I will have to look for that next time we are in town. Unfortunately salads aren't an option as hubby keeps telling me that he isn't a rabbit However I do eat lots of them. I'd forgotten about good old onion powder, I use lots of fresh onions, but the powder is more concentrated for sure, and never thought of Mrs. Dash when we were in town, will have to pick up some of that as well.

It's really strange because I have been reading labels for 17 years for gluten, but never bothered checking the salt content. Actually, gluten free foods such as bread, cereal etc. is naturally low in salt, but hubby's cereals, bread etc. is awful! And of course canned soups go up to 42% of your daily allowable salt. So now he will have to stick to home made soup, and if I'm spending all that time cooking homemade, it better be gluten free as well for myself. Can't afford two diets! Salt free, or low salt is just as expensive as gluten free. He won't be able to have his favourite chicken nuggets, and coated fishes anymore... which means the more expensive fresh meats and fishes. Oh well, guess we will muddle through, but any additional ideas will really be welcome! Oh ... hot sauces are out for the most part as we are on acid reflux medications Could maybe use them in tiny amounts

[elonwy]

I had to cook low salt for my ex husband and I got the American Heart Associations low salt cookbook, fun easy stuff, obviously have to adapt for gluten-free, but it was a very useful reasourse, and let me add to the rest, salt-free seasoning blends are now your best friend.

Elonwy

[debbiewil]

Shirley,

Try new spices, or use familiar ones in unfamiliar ways. If the taste of the whole dish is new, the absence of salt isn't obvious. I like cinnamon on meat for instance - rub it all over a roast before cooking. Try out all those spices that you never use, or use a sweet spice for a meat dish, a hot spice for a dessert dish, etc. Make it taste like something new and exotic, and it won't need the taste of salt.

Debbie

[Guest Viola]

Shirley,

Try new spices, or use familiar ones in unfamiliar ways. If the taste of the whole dish is new, the absence of salt isn't obvious. I like cinnamon on meat for instance - rub it all over a roast before cooking. Try out all those spices that you never use, or use a sweet spice for a meat dish, a hot spice for a dessert dish, etc. Make it taste like something new and exotic, and it won't need the taste of salt.

Debbie

Debbie, I never thought of cinnamon on meat, however my mother-in-law accidently used it in Turkey gravy years ago and it was pretty good! Will have to keep that in mind.

[Carriefaith]

A mixture of cinnamon, chili powder, brown sugar, and a small amount of water tastes great on salmon.

[eleep]

Lemon and lime work great for me -- especially lime juice squeezed over baked sweet potatoes. I'm also a huge chili fan and I eat a lot of steamed broccoli tossed with garlic, olive oil and red chili pepper flakes. Garlic -- now there's something that tends to curb the salt urge for me!

[Guest Viola]

I love lemon ... on most things and I do use a lot of garlic. We had the soup for lunch just now, and it did taste better. I think it was too fresh yesterday and didn't have time to soak in all the flavours. Is that possible?

I've got McCormicks cinnamon and have been having problems with it. Has anyone had problems with gluten in McCormicks cinnamon? I've done the Cinnamon toast twice now, the first time I blamed it on the fact that we had eaten out the same day, but tried it again not long ago when we stayed home and I still got raised blisters and all the other bathroom etc. problems

Funny, because all my spices are McCormicks and I have no problem with anything else.

[Guest BERNESES]

I love salt! But I try not to use a lot of it. You've gotten a lot of good advice. Some of the spices I've grown to really love since going gluten free are GARLIC, chives, cayenne pepper ( a variety of other peppers too), fresh basil and rosemary, and some stuff I never thought I'd try like sage and dill.

I just made salmon the other night with maple syrup, cayenne pepper and ginger (I think it would work well on pork chops, chicken etc too) and it was really good.

I think tarnalberry is right- like anything else it takes time for your taste buds to adjust. last year I switched from sugar to honey in my tea as a sweetener and I didn't like it at all at first. Now I can't stand sugar and want my honey.

[elonwy]

I use McCormick's Cinnamon. You could have a Cinnamon allergy, I have a friend whose tongue swells up if she eats cinnamon. She gets a burning sensation if she eats it though. Its like she's eating a chili pepper, and then her tongue puffs up. Kinda scary.

An additional comment on salt. I actually don't even add salt to anything, unless I'm baking. I buy lower sodium products often and never add salt, and usually just amp up very slightly any other spices I'm using in it. Going on that low-sodium diet with my ex made me realize just how horridly salty everything is. I'm a big fan of pepper, even on things like french fries. Once your taste buds stop missing the salt, its really hard to eat salty food again.

Elonwy

[Guest Viola]

I use McCormick's Cinnamon. You could have a Cinnamon allergy, I have a friend whose tongue swells up if she eats cinnamon. She gets a burning sensation if she eats it though. Its like she's eating a chili pepper, and then her tongue puffs up. Kinda scary.

Elonwy

You could be right about the allergy... I hope not though, I love Cinnamon toast, and rolls I think I'll wait for awhile and try it again later.

[codetalker]

So now he will have to stick to home made soup....

There are worse fates. I do almost all my own cooking and use no salt or salt substitutes whatsoever. I am currently finishing off two pots of soup: one split pea and one lentil. The only "spice" used was bay leaves. Nonetheless (and ignoring the obvious bias), I have never tasted better. The store equivalents on the other hand are not palatable.

The trick is too embrace "no salt", rather than "reduced salt". The latter just perpetuates your salt craving. As long as you have that, anything without moderate to high levels of salt will taste bland. However, a "no salt" approach results in losing the craving. When that happens, things flip-flop. Salty foods and snacks become unpalatable. They will simply be too salty. Salt-free foods become delicious and little, if anything, has to be done to compensate for the lack of salt. However, store soups will still lack taste appeal.

If you don't believe it, try it. You'll be surprised.

[Carriefaith]

Some of my recipes are salt free and they are tasty.

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[Guest Viola]

There are worse fates. I do almost all my own cooking and use no salt or salt substitutes whatsoever. I am currently finishing off two pots of soup: one split pea and one lentil. The only "spice" used was bay leaves. Nonetheless (and ignoring the obvious bias), I have never tasted better. The store equivalents on the other hand are not palatable.

The trick is too embrace "no salt", rather than "reduced salt". The latter just perpetuates your salt craving. As long as you have that, anything without moderate to high levels of salt will taste bland. However, a "no salt" approach results in losing the craving. When that happens, things flip-flop. Salty foods and snacks become unpalatable. They will simply be too salty. Salt-free foods become delicious and little, if anything, has to be done to compensate for the lack of salt. However, store soups will still lack taste appeal.

If you don't believe it, try it. You'll be surprised.

Actually, I won't have any trouble adjusting to the low salt diet as I've never cared for salty stuff anyway, it's my hubby that has to adjust...he was eating about 4 times the allowable daily allowance and loves salty stuff.

My big problem is the time and expense of doing it. I HATE to cook, which is my problem, I know, but I have always hated handling food because it has made me sick most of my life. (25 years undiagnosed). And even though I'm now reasonably healthy, I still stress out (yup, I really stress out!) cooking.

I always said it was such a waste of time and energy as you eat it and run to the toilet. Well, I don't run quite as quick as I used to, but come on...you spend 3 hours in the kitchen just the preparation and cooking (without the clean up) and ten minutes on the can to get rid of it. Never made much sense to me If I didn't have to eat to live, I wouldn't bother.

Anyway, I am going to be stuck with this, so will be checking out recipes (thanks for those Carrie!) and see what I can do. The only other alternative is to teach my hubby to cook ..... yeah right

One other thing.... I do pretty well in most restaurants with the gluten free diet ... how do you manage salt free?

[jerseyangel]

I always said it was such a waste of time and energy as you eat it and run to the toilet. Well, I don't run quite as quick as I used to, but come on...you spend 3 hours in the kitchen just the preparation and cooking (without the clean up) and ten minutes on the can to get rid of it. Never made much sense to me If I didn't have to eat to live, I wouldn't bother.

Shirley--That is classic! (but true)

[Guest BERNESES]

Shirley- That is hysterical!!!! I don't know about salt in restaurants. I bet you could do pretty well though as I would imagine many people are on low salt diets for blood pressure/heart disease etc.

[Guest Viola]

I know you can order Chinese without soy sauce, but I expect the salt is already in things like gravies etc. Somehow I can't see hubby giving up his gravy when he has veal cuttlets ... hmmm, I'll bet the coating on the veal would be salty too ... maybe no more veal cuttlets for him

Now you all know what I'm thinking about when I'm "wasting" time in the kitchen. If we didn't have to eat, I would have all kinds of time to do fun things and not to mention all that money going down the toilet

[awesomeame]

i don't add salt to anything, and i don't think my food tastes bland as was mentioned earlier, just cook without any salt for awhile, taste buds will adjust, and you'll actually be able to taste the food you're eating...and it will be GOOD!

& maybe your hubby needs to learn how to cook, he may discover a hidden talent

--matt

[skoki-mom]

I think salt is one of those things you develop a taste and tolerance for over the years. My ex was on a low sodium diet a number of years ago, and I cut the added salt from all my cooking. I thought it tasted really bland at first, but got used to it, and now I rarely add salt to anything. I don't salt vegetables when I cook them, I don't salt meats etc. I don't miss it anymore, and I find stuff tastes salty to me now when it is salted. The only exception is potatoes (esp mashed potates) really need some help from salt!! We tried Mrs. Dash, it was ok. Luckily, salt is one of those things you can cheat on once in a while, so be good most of the time, but he can indulge with a sprinkle from the shaker on occasion. My guess is that after awhile, you won't even miss it anymore.