From low-sodium alternatives to being more mindful about when to season your cooking, these simple tips will help you keep the flavour without the health risks.
Becky Krystal
Of all the various dietary needs, limiting the amount of sodium in recipes is among the most common requests. The good news is that, if you’re eating mostly home-cooked food, you’re already well on your way to reducing your salt intake, as around 75 per cent of dietary sodium comes from packaged or prepared food, according to Dietitians Australia.
The next step is to be mindful about how you’re making that from-scratch fare. Reducing (or eliminating, if necessary) salt is about more than refraining from grabbing that shaker, though. Beginning with your trip to the grocery store and up to the point you season your food at the end of cooking, there are plenty of opportunities throughout the process that can help you be smarter about salt.
Here are a few tips.
Buy no-salt-added products
Standard pantry ingredients can contain sodium — sometimes large amounts — that you might not know about unless you scrutinise the labels. Common culprits include canned tomatoes, broth or stock, canned beans, tomato paste, and other canned vegetables. No-salt-added versions of these types of products, however, are readily available.
Choose reduced-sodium options
No-salt-added isn’t the only option for store-bought staples. Plenty of ingredients are available in reduced- or less-sodium versions. The best example is soy sauce. My standard bottle is always one with less sodium, and I have never found the seasoning lacking. You can also find less-sodium options for jarred pasta sauces, broth and stock, cheese, canned beans, and salsa, among other items.
Make your own pantry items
If you’re not starting with no-salt-added canned beans, fear not. A quick rinse can make a significant difference. Cook’s Illustrated commissioned a lab to see how much sodium you can eliminate simply by rinsing canned beans. Looking at cans of store-bought cannellini, pinto and black beans, plus chickpeas, the lab found that draining and rinsing them cut the sodium by about 100 milligrams per half-cup serving, roughly 25 per cent.
Add salt smartly
Depending on your own health situation, cutting back on sodium may not mean not using salt ever. So focus on getting more bang for your buck, flavour-wise. As Samin Nosrat says in her book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat it matters when you use salt.
“Add it in the right amount, at the right time, in the right form. A smaller amount of salt applied while cooking will often do more to improve flavour than a larger amount added at the table.” So, salt your meat in advance, sprinkle some on your vegetables before roasting, and add it to the water in which you’ll be boiling vegetables, pasta and grains. That way you’re giving the salt time to work and season from within.
Try other assertive flavours
Nothing is an exact replacement for salt. (Some people find alternatives such as potassium chloride too metallic, and it’s best used in consultation with a physician since it can be problematic in the presence of certain medical conditions.) Still, you can experiment with other flavours, either in conjunction with less salt or in place of it. Consider citrus juice or zest, vinegar, herbs and spices. Especially at the end of cooking, a hit of vinegar or lemon juice can brighten and sharpen a dish when you might otherwise add salt.
Good spices or seasoning blends that help perk up a completed dish
- Sumac
- Za’atar. Some blends include salt, so read the label.
- Everything spice. You can make your own and leave out the salt.
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Shichimi togarashi
- Crushed red pepper flakes
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