Low Sodium, Big Flavor: 115 Recipes for Pantry Staples and Daily MealsPaperback (2024)

Description

"Cooks who are watching their sodium but looking to spice up their lives should give this book a look. Recommended to readers of all cooking levels who are looking to bring healthy but delicious foods into their lives."
—Booklist

These low-sodium but flavor-packed 115 recipes plus daily meal plans will improve cardiac health without sacrificing taste. A lack of salt often means that food tastes ho-hum, which can ruin your appetite and adversely affect your quality of life. Yet the reality is that sodium levels in packaged and processed foods—such as ketchup, canned broths, and soups, to name just a few—are shockingly high. To stick with a low-sodium diet long-term you want to savor the food you're eating (so important!), which means finding new ways to replace the flavors that salt naturally highlights.

Author Lara Ferroni, who adheres to a low-sodium diet herself, has spent years creating naturally flavorful recipes everyone will love. In this book, you will find 115 recipes for homemade condiments, spice blends, dressings, cheeses, breads, prepared meats, and other foods. In addition, she offers daily meal plans—breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert!—which contain less than a total of 2,000 mg of sodium, typically the daily amount allowed on a low-sodium diet. Ferroni, who is also a food photographer, has filled the book with enticing photos and shares her experiences of maintaining (and making peace with) a low-sodium diet. There is no need to feel deprived on a low-sodium diet. These recipes will help you love the food you eat while at the same time feel good about taking care of your health.

Product Details

About the Author

LARA FERRONI is a tech geek turned food geek who spends her days exploring food and co*cktail culture. As a writer and photographer, she can be found learning to make kimchi in the back room of a local church, foraging for wild berries or snapping away in some of the finest kitchens and bars. She is the author of five cookbooks, including Doughnuts, An Avocado a Day, Real Snacks and Put an Egg on It.

Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

Several years ago, I was diagnosed with M.ni.re’s disease, a syndrome most known for a combination of hearing loss and drop attacks (sudden vertigo where the world goes topsy-turvy). My diagnosis came after two years of intermittent hearing loss and tinnitus in one ear. So far,
I’m one of the lucky ones who hasn’t had any drop attacks (yes, that’s wood you hear me knocking on). Still, my balance is not what it used to be, and I have associated BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo)
attacks, along with some serious brain fog during my episodes.
The good news is that, while it can be incredibly debilitating,
M.ni.re’s isn’t fatal. Many sufferers can control it with diet and lifestyle changes: eliminating caffeine, cutting back significantly on alcohol, and keeping daily sodium to 1,500 milligrams or less.
I’m a food writer, recipe developer, and photographer, and I really love to eat good food. Until my diagnosis, I always had the luxury of consuming what I wanted without having to think about it. Now I had to make changes, and my first thought was, What the @#!%$ am I
going to eat?
I realized I had no idea how much sodium was in my food, so I did what most people do: I googled. My first question was, How much sodium is in a teaspoon of salt? Google’s answer didn’t make me happy. In turns out that a single teaspoon of table salt contains 2,325
milligrams of sodium—30 percent more than I was aiming to consume in a day! Doesn’t every recipe call for about a teaspoon of salt? OK, I
reasoned, I can just cut way down on the salt in recipes. That should do it, right?
Unfortunately, there are all sorts of sneaky sodium sources that I
never even realized. While the recommended daily sodium allowance for a healthy person is 2,500 milligrams, I’ve come to seriously doubt that most people consume anywhere near that number. Just one slice of cheese pizza contains about 1,500 milligrams. A plain bagel has
400. That blueberry muffin that doesn’t taste salty at all? It probably has about 500 milligrams, thanks to the baking powder in it. Heck, a few cups of kale contains 50 milligrams, and even celery, which is like eating crunchy air, has 32 milligrams per stalk. My guess is that I was previously consuming 4,000 to 6,000 milligrams a day.
The first time I went grocery shopping after committing to a reduced-sodium diet, I found myself standing in the aisle, in shock,
thinking I’d never be able to eat anything good again. Everything I
picked up seemed to have more sodium than I expected. Trying to figure out what I could eat was overwhelming. I managed to pick up a few random things and made myself a dinner that tasted like . . . well,
like it needed salt.
I spent about a week wallowing in self-pity, painstakingly monitoring my sodium intake. On most days I kept it to under 1,000 milligrams by mostly eating super-plain food. I ate a lot of oatmeal that first week. Lots and lots of oatmeal.
But it got better. Slowly, as I learned how to amp up flavor with spices and acids, and my palate adjusted, eating started to become a joy again and not (for the most part) a stress-induced nightmare.
In this book I share my low-sodium cooking techniques, tips, and recipes for anyone who needs to manage their sodium. News flash:
I’m not a doctor, and I’m not a nutritionist. Be sure to consult your doctor regarding recommended nutritional requirements.
Each recipe in this book provides a total sodium count and, where it makes sense, a per-serving sodium amount. Note that optional ingredients are factored into the total. To calculate the sodium in a recipe,
I used information from ingredient labels or reliable sources that I
trust, such as the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, and the UK Department of Health and Social Care. For recipes such as the fresh cheeses (pages 105 to 109), where sodium can’t accurately be calculated from the ingredients, I used a sodium ion meter to measure the sodium count. That said, the ingredients you purchase may have different sodium levels than mine. Where it makes sense, I list specific brands, or alert you to brands that contain less sodium. I urge you to read labels carefully for sodium levels.
In the first section, I include recipes for low-sodium versions of pantry staples that you probably currently buy premade, such as condiments,
soup stocks, and breads. These recipes may take a bit more time and energy, but the effort is well worth it because they save you both sodium and money.
In the second section, you’ll find recipes for daily dishes, so you have lots of options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They are easily paired with other recipes for complete low-sodium meals, and most make use of the low-sodium sauces, condiments, and spice mixes in the book as well. Because having time to cook—especially if you are also making your own pantry staples—is a luxury, most of the recipes are designed to come together quickly, with options for one-pot mains and yields that give you leftovers for even quicker serving later.
You can also visit my website LowSodiumBigFlavor.com for more tools to help you manage your daily intake. There you’ll find mealplan suggestions that make it easy to keep within a 1,200 to 1,800
milligram daily range. I also provide a searchable database of approximate sodium counts for common foods that goes beyond the Sodium
Counts for Common Ingredients table on page 243. Knowing your ingredients will help you make smart substitutions in the recipes you already love to cook, or those you want to try.
I hope you enjoy the recipes in this book as much as I do, and that they bring a new variety of meals to your dinner table. Most importantly,
my goal is that once you’ve gotten the hang of how and when to substitute ingredients and enhance flavor without salt, you’ll be comfortable adapting recipes from any cookbook or website.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Before You Begin xii

Part I Staples 1

Condiments 2

Ketchup 3

Mustard 4

Mayonnaise 5

Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce 6

Sriracha 7

Harissa 8

Barbecue Sauce 9

Tkemali Sauce 12

Pico de Gallo 14

Mango Salsa 15

Sweet Pickles 16

Dill Pickles 17

Salad Dressings 18

Classic Vinaigrette 19

Balsamic Vinaigrette 20

Raspberry Vinaigrette 21

Green Goddess Dressing 22

French Dressing 23

Lemon Cream Dressing 24

Ranch Dressing 25

Poppy Seed Dressing 28

Honey Mustard Dressing 29

Creamy Italian Dressing 30

Sesame Ginger Dressing 31

Spice Blends 32

Popcorn Seasoning 33

Barbecue Dry Rub 34

Taco Seasoning 35

Lemon Pepper 36

Cajun Seasoning 37

Jerk Spice 40

Za'atar 41

Baked Goods 42

Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread 43

Oatmeal Batter Bread 47

Baguette 49

Bagels 53

Focaccia 56

Pizza Dough 58

Flour Tortillas 61

Naan 64

Biscuits 66

Brown Butter Sage Corn Bread 68

Mix-In Muffins or Quick Bread 71

Pie Dough 73

"Box" Yellow Cake Mix 74

Stocks, Beans & Sauces 76

Chicken Stock 77

Beef Stock 78

Vegetable Broth 79

Thick-Skinned Beans 80

Chickpeas 82

Refried Beans 85

Black Beans 86

Pomodoro (Tomato) Sauce 87

Red Chile Sauce 89

Green Chile Sauce 90

Meats, Cheeses & Spreads 92

Beef & Pork Meatballs 93

Italian Sausage 94

Breakfast Sausage Patties 96

Bacon 98

Merguez 101

Roasted Turkey Lunch Meat 103

Ricotta 105

Chèvre (Fresh Goat Cheese) 107

Cream Cheese 109

Hummus 110

Part II Recipes for Daily Meals 113

Breakfast 114

Yeasted Waffles 115

Pancakes 117

Baked Apple & Blueberry Oatmeal 120

Banana Bread 122

Granola 124

Frittata Bites 127

Huevos Rancheros 128

Hash Browns 129

Lighter Fare 130

Farro Salad 131

Beet & Israeli Couscous Salad 133

Vegetable Chopped Salad 134

Mushroom Barley Soup 136

Egg Drop Soup 139

Green Gazpacho 140

Seared Mushroom Toast 143

Club Sandwich 144

Tuna Melt 147

Tomato Pie 149

Sriracha Chicken Wings 151

Beans & Rice 152

Mains 154

Chicken & Rice Stew 155

One-Pot Chicken 156

Cashew Chicken 159

Chicken Chana Masala 160

Chicken Chile Verde 163

Chicken Potpie 165

Cornish Pasties 169

Italian Sausage & Mushroom Pizza 171

Beef & Bean Chili 174

Spiced Harissa Ragù 177

Roasted Pork Tacos 179

Barbecue Ribs 182

Orecchiette with Merguez & Asparagus 185

Tuna Noodle Casserole 187

Salmon with Mango Salsa 191

Salmon Chowder 193

Vegetarian Bolognese 195

Ratatouille 198

Butternut Squash Curry 200

Sides 202

Lemon Brown Butter Cauliflower Bake 203

Blistered Cherry Tomatoes 206

Spaghetti Squash with Caramelized Onions 208

Spiced Roasted Carrots 210

Roasted Potatoes with Za'atar 213

Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges 214

Dutch Oven Herbed Rice 216

Spiced Basmati Rice 219

Vegetable Fried Rice 221

Desserts 224

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 225

Lemon Cupcakes 229

Peach Cuppa Cuppa Stikka Buckle 231

Butter Tarts 234

Pumpkin Slab Pie 236

Brown Butter Blondies 238

Acknowledgments 241

Sodium Counts for Common Ingredients 243

Index 247