Every family has some favorite recipes the origins of which are lost in
time. I thought it would be a good idea to document a few of ours.
Note some of these recipes use SALT
SKIP baking powder and stock
powders. For availability see The
hunt for Less
Sodium (Stock Powder),
cup = 250ml. T = tablespoon 20ml. t =
teaspoon 5ml all measurements are leveled.
Pizza
To make a low salt pizza follow one of the methods and recipes on the web but:- Make your own no added salt base and sauce. Use any fresh vegetables for topping but no salted olives or sausage or other salted product. Use
cheese with a sodium level of 300mg/100g or less and calculate the
sodium and confirm that the finished result is less than
120mg/100g. The pizza above is 275mm in diameter and weighs 650g cooked. It contains 70g of sliced Bocconcini style mozzarella (270mg/100g) and 70g of grated Nimbin cheese (300mg/100g). A low salt 650g pizza could contain up to 780mg of sodium. The cheese I used contributes around 400mg, leaving 380mg spare. Perhaps another 50mg would be in the sauce and vegetables and 70mg or so in some of the home made spicy meat loaf I crumbled on. The result is about 80mg/100g. This would be reduced to about 60mg/100g if the Nimbin was replaced with Salt Skip cheese. Note Nimbin cheese now called Norco Natural and mozzarella cheeses with sodium around 100mg/100g are available see main section.
Creamed Corn
No
Added Salt (NAS) Creamed Corn has been discontinued but There are
cans of NAS corn kernels available which can be transformed.
1 420g Can NAS corn kernels (3mg/100g) I used Edgell 3 teaspoons NAS butter or margarine 1 tablespoon corn flour 3 tablespoons skim or other milk powder
Make a sweet corn milk by whisking the milk powder with the strained off liquid from the can. Heat the butter in a pot and cook the corn flour slightly. Slowly add the milk while whisking. Cook and whisk until thickened then add the kernels and cook for about 10 minutes. Use a hand blender to puree the creamed corn leaving some kernels unbroken. Serve on low salt toast spiced with your choice of ground pepper, nutmeg or rosemary. The use of the cans liquid adds plenty of corn flavour. Sodium for the creamed corn is 30mg/100g mainly from the milk powder
Served with Microwaved frozen vegetables (gee! those baby peas were
green)
800g
Chicken thigh fillet trimmed of fat and cut up for processing 1/4
teaspoon pepper white preferably 1 Teaspoon Salt Skip Chicken Stock
Powder 1
teaspoon cinnamon
1
egg
1
tablespoon olive oil
3
cloves garlic chopped finely
3
stalks chopped celery (6mm cubes)
200g 800g
(1 large or 2 small tins) Roma tomatoes with 25mg or less sodium
per
100g. .
In
a pan with a lid boil up the chopped celery in a little water for
5 minutes
Use the food processor (with blade) to turn the tomatoes
into a puree.
Drain the celery and add the garlic and oil
and gently fry a little.
Add the tomato puree and gently cook the
sauce.
Without cleaning the processor:-
add the chicken, pepper,
cinnamon, egg, stock powder and process to a paste.
Start the tap
running slowly and with wet hands make 18 balls.
You will need to pop your
hands under the tap occasionally.
Cook with lid on for 20
minutes.
Serve with boiled or microwaved vegetables.
Serves 6 and has about 203mg of sodium per serve (250g) ie.
82mg/100g.
These spicy balls and the thick sauce go well with some microwaved
vegetables.
To Make the balls put the following in a bowl. 1 Small onion chopped fine
(approx 90g) 2 T Green capsicum chopped
fine 1/2 Cup short grain rice 1/4 t Cinnamon 1/4 t Clove powder 1 T Tomato sauce (No
added salt type) 1/4 t White pepper 1/4 t Vegetable stock powder
(preferably low sodium but reduced sodium OK) otherwise delete.
Mix the above together then add 500g Minced steak
Mix together and make into 18 small balls
To make the sauce place the following in blender and blend until fluid. 500ml Water 4 T Tomato paste (No added salt type) 1 400g can of
tomatoes (select 10mg sodium per 100g or less) 1 T Brown sugar 1 T Worcestershire sauce
( Lea & Perrins, salty stuff but lots of taste) 1/4 t Clove powder 1/4 t Cinnamon
In a pan with a lid boil up the sauce 5 minutes add balls
and simmer with lid on for 20 minutes.
Spoon the sauce over the balls and scrape below them and boil down with
the lid off until the sauce thickens.
As the sauce will continue to thicken it is best left a little on the
thin side. You will need a spatter guard.
If you do not have clove powder use 5
cloves in the sauce only.
Serves 6 and has about 120mg of sodium per serve (240g) ie.
50mg/100g.
Vegetable & Meat Hot Pot
We just have it with some home made low sodium grain bread.
500g Minced steak 2 T Canola oil 1/2 Cabbage shredded (keep the
best parts only) 4 Carrots sliced 2 Medium onions chopped 4 Stalks celery sliced 3 Cups water 1 Cup green beans or peas 4 t Salt Skip Chicken Stock
Powder (1 Pkt chicken
noodle soup if sodium is not a problem) + 2 t
Calcium
Glutamate (optional). 3 T Rice 1 1/2 T or to taste Medium curry
powder with no salt listed on the ingredients label.
Brown the mince in the oil add carrots, celery, onion and beans
and
cook with lid on for 5 minutes.
Add peas and other ingredients.
Cook gently with the lid on 40 minutes stirring occasionally to
stop
it sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Serves 6 as a complete meal for about 220mg of sodium per 420g
serve (52mg/100 food)
using the Salt Skip stock powder.
Beans Tomato and Onion.
Accompanies many meals.
500g Green Beans 400g Tin of Whole Roma Tomatoes
(Sodium less than 10mg Per 100g) 2 Medium Brown Onions about 200g total 2 T Light Olive Oil 4 Cloves of Garlic 1/4 t Pepper
Cut the ends off then peel the onions. Cut in half from end to
end then proceed to cut from end to end into segments about 1 cm wide
in the middle, like a mandarin.
Top and tail beans then cut into 4cm lengths.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Using a pan with a lid heat the oil and stir fry the onion until soft
and it is broken up.
Add the garlic and the beans and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Do not
burn the garlic.
Just cover with water add the pepper and cook with the lid on until the
beans are almost soft.
Cut the tomatoes into 2 cm pieces and add them and their juice.
Cook with the lid off until the sauce thickens stirring occasionally.
Sodium approximately 11 mg PER 100g.
Chicken and Mushroom Hot Pot
Just add potatoes for a meal.
2 Large Carrots Approx. 300g sliced 2 Zucchinis sliced Approx. 250g 250g Mushrooms sliced to yield Approx.
180g 9 Chicken Thigh Cutlets (with bone and
no skin) Approx 1·1 Kg 1/4 Cup Flour 1 Cup Frozen Green Peas 1 t Salt Skip Vegetable Stock
Powder dissolved in 250ml water. 1 t Tamari 1 Bay leaf 1/4 t Pepper
Trim the fat from the chicken and place it in the pot. Add
carrots, stock liquid, pepper and bay leaf cover and boil gently for 20
minutes.
Mix 3 T water with the flour and tamari and make a paste,stir into the
pot so as to not make lumps.
Add remaining ingredients. Do not be tempted to add extra water at this
point because the mushrooms and zucchinis will produce plenty.
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Use a flat tool to scrape the bottom
of the pot occasionally to prevent the build up of material.
Serves 6 Sodium approximately 230mg per serve. The Tamari
provides
about 35 mg of sodium per serve.
Grilled Lebanese Wholemeal bread & Pickles
Roll these up for a tasty lunch.for two.
Lebanese bread can be less salty than normal bread but it is still around 350mg/100g. To make a low salt meal it must be combined with about double its weight of a non salty food. The fact that it is so thin makes it easier to use less salty bread and more non salty filling. When I buy a bag I cut the rounds in half and freeze them.
Prepare some home made "pickles" the day or so before by soaking sliced onion, tomato and cucumber in brown vinegar. Keep your soaking "pickles" in the fridge and you will find other uses for them I am sure. To prepare the lunch shown above I took 2 halves of bread direct from the freezer and topped it with.
180g of the pickles (10mg) 100g of cold cooked chicken (90mg) or other meat 10g Nimbin grated cheese (30mg) and
placed it under the griller until the cheese melted and the exposed
bread crisped a little but could still be rolled up to eat. My side was sprinkled with some Mexican chili powder. The bread weighed 83g (277mg) Total sodium in each item shown in ( ) The total sodium was 407mg and the finished weight 367g which put the sodium level at 111mg/100g. The sodium level can be reduced further to 57mg/100g if you split a half of bread into tops and bottoms.
Toasted Cheese and Tomato.
A quick lunch. I prefer the cheese on top.
1 slice of home made no added salt
bread 60g containing 12mg sodium
3 X 2·5mm Nimbin cheese slices for a total of 30g of cheese containing 90mg
sodium
Total weight 90g (but less toasted)
and total sodium 102mg so you get about 120mg sodium/100g food
Adding 50g of tomato (no
sodium) and you get down to about 70mg sodium /100g food.
A Slice of Life.
This is a regular with the morning cuppa..
For the recipe you will have to
visit http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/recipes.php?i=48
Because I make this so often I have
worked out a few tricks.
I peel and freeze the ginger then
grate off about 40g on a course grater while still frozen.
Put the ginger on your digital scales and reset them to zero then grate
away until the diminishing lump weighs in at - 40g.
I hope your scales work this way because some do not.
The malt extract is hard to measure so
I twist some (about 40g) onto a flat spatula and then mix
it into the moist mix.
Sultanas are OK to use instead of raisins and I add 100g of chopped
dried apricots.
I make it in two 23 X 12 cm loaf tins and cut it into 32 slices.
It is quite moist and it may not keep well so I freeze the slices and
thaw it in the microwave as required.
Per 46g Slice
Per 100g
ENERGY
426kj
996kj
PROTEIN
4.8g
10.3
FAT
4g
8.5g
CARBOHYDRATE
15g
32.6g
SUGAR
7.8g
16.9g
DIETARY FIBRE
3.4g
7.3g
SODIUM
21mg
44.7mg
Grilled Chicken Breast
Ouick and easy lunchen meat or dinner.
A low salt diet means deli meats are
out so why not make these easy grilled chicken breasts.
On the right are the two main parts of a breast that have been
marinaded for 3 hours in equal parts balsamic vinegar, lime or lemon
juice and olive oil with a couple of crushed cloves of garlic and some
Italian herbs. The rough edges of the breast were destined for some
wraps so lemon juice, olive oil. garlic and a teaspoon of ground
cumin spiced up with some chili was their marinade.
They were grilled slowly and turned once and checked for thorough
cooking.
This cake has great eye and mouth appeal and is simple to
make.
You will need to get Papaw spears. They are a low cost item $2.50/500g.
I get mine from Rick's at 179-183 Parammata road Homebush NSW.
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
In a bowl place:-
1 Cup Wholemeal Plain
flour 1 Cup Standard or
preferably Quick
cooking Oats ¼ Cup Sugar
(can be reduced)
¼ Cup Flaked Almonds (crushed a little) 3 Teaspoons Salt
Skip Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Citric Acid
Stir the dry ingredients around then add
1 Cup Sultanas ¾ Cup Papaw
spears chopped (see size in cake) ¼ Cup Mixed
Peal 1 Cup Light Soy Milk,
or skimmed milk ½ teaspoon
of almond essence
Stir some more. Then place in a greased loaf tin. (I cover the
inside
with baking paper)
Bake for 40 minutes then check the colour and if the top springs back
when pressed.
Set on a rack to cool.
Compare the low fat level
of this cake to a commercial one.
Note nutrition was calculated
using skim milk.
Traffic light Rice
An easy meal can be made with meat simmered in a jar of
sauce served with rice but you may like to add some vegetables so give
this a go.
A couple of suitable sauces are shown in my over
120 section.
½ Cup of each of the following. Rice Chopped carrot Frozen corn Frozen peas
Add the carrots to 2 L of cold water, bring to boil
add rice boil 5 minutes
add corn and peas and continue to boil until rice is cooked.
serves 2
250g (dry weight) Wholemeal Pasta
Spirals cooked in unsalted water (
San Remo is readily available at Coles & Woolworths) 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil 3 chopped Medium Onions 8 Cloves of garlic chopped 500g Spinach Pulled from the stalks (
Big bunch of Silver
beet or
Frozen spinach) ¼ Cup Canola oil 3 tablespoons Wholemeal Flour 800g Tinned chopped Tomatoes (with
sodium less than 25mg/100g) 2 Teaspoons Dried basil 1 Teaspoon Salt Skip Vegetable Stock
Powder (see below) ½ Teaspoon Black pepper 1 Teaspoon Savoury Yeast Flakes (Lotus) Crumbs and sprinkled yeast flakes to
finish.
Fry the onion and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil, add the spinach
(green
parts only) and cook with a lid on untill well wilted.
Chop it about with a spatula while cooking.
Mix the Canola oil and flour in a pot and heat until bubbling and cook
for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, basil, pepper, yeast flakes and vegetable stock
powder and cook until thickened and the tomatoes soften.
Add ¼ of the sauce to a large deep casserole dish then
cooked pasta and spinach continue layers ending with sauce.
Top with more yeast flakes a sprinkling of crumbs, some fresh ground
black pepper and spray with cooking spray.
Bake at 180ºC for half an hour.
Makes 4 serves as a complete meal.
Note:-
The bunches of "Spinach" you often see with white stalks with a shape
similar to celery are Silver Beet (Swiss Chard) which is quite salty
with 195mg/100g of sodium. The sodium level of the finished meal using
silver beet is still only 68mg/100g. If English spinach (30mg/100g ) is
used the result is 27mg/100g. The teaspoon of salt Skip stock powder
used adds 113mg of sodium to the recipe and contributes 6mg/100g to the
result. Frozen spinach (English has less sodium than NZ) can be used
but drain it after thawing.
Parmesan cheese would normally be used in a recipe of this type. It is
very salty but can be used sparingly as a total of 3 teaspoons would
only add 7mg/100g to the finished dish. you can lash out with Lotus
Savory Yeast Flakes as 3 teaspoons only adds about 0.12mg/100g. I have
given enough information for you to design your own dish. If you like
parmesan then balance the extra sodium in it by using English spinach.
With English spinach you may also get away with "normal" or salt
reduced stock powder. If you want the lowest sodium meal use English
spinach, salt Skip stock powder and Savory yeast flakes.
Yeast Pancakes
Very low sodium and fluffy without egg or baking powder.
1 Cup Wholemeal flour.
½ Cup Plain Flour.
2 teaspoons Brown sugar.
2 teaspoons granulated yeast.
1 cup tepid water.
Mix the dry ingredients then add the water and mix
well to form a sticky mass. Cover and let rise for an hour
then leave overnight in the refrigerator.
Add a cup of cold milk (skimmed if you like). Keeping everything cold preserves the gas in the mix.
Using a poiato masher work
the milk into the batter until somewhat smooth but do not over work it
if you want fluffy pancakes.
Cook in a hot greased pan and serve with your choice of topping.
If using maple syrup the real stuff or Steves has almost no sodium.
Bronze Aussies
This is my modification of the classic Anzac Biscuit recipe with much less saturated
fat. Oil & water replaces butter (7g/100g compared to
54g/100g). Wheat germ and coconut essence replaces desiccated coconut (1g/100g compared to 60g/100g). Wholemeal flour replaces white for better nutrition.
In a bowl place 1 cup quick cooking oats 3/4 cup wheat germ 1 cup wholemeal flour 3/4 cup of sugar
Stir the dry ingredients then in a another bowl whisk 1 egg (can be deleted see below) 4 tablespoons of a light tasting oil (I use canola) 2 Tablespoons water 1 tablespoon of golden syrup (perhaps honey) 2 teaspoons of coconut essence
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well. Form walnut sized balls in your hand and flatten out onto baking paper on a cookie tray. Bake in preheated 150C oven for 40 minutes. They will be slightly brown and a little still soft when cooked. Remove and cool on the sheet. Turn over when they are firmed up but still warm to dry the bottoms.
They are relatively soft and sweet and should be a nice bronze colour. For minimum saturated fat delete the egg and add 3 extra tablespoons of water. When made without the egg Fat is 16g/100g and Saturated fat 1.8g/100g. Sodium 6mg/100g I like to substitute almond essence for a rich taste.
