Over the Salt

Mindful choices for healthy and low sodium cooking

Monthly Archives: June 2013


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Healthy Mexican burritos

My sweetie was telling me how he’s been reading restaurant sites to find the nutrition information. He was looking for Mexican food, something that he’s not been able to eat lately, due to the high salt. Can you hear the quest music in the background? I could. I was on a mission for the weekend to find low salt alternatives so we could make our own Mexican food.

making a skinny burrito - photos by Ria Loader

Skinny burrito – photos and collage by Ria Loader


The key elements were soft tortillas, fajita mix – peppers and onions, salsa with cilantro, refried black beans with low everything (fat, salt, additives), and fresh avacado. How hard could it be? I found most of the ingredients at Central Market, a great local place near our house. They make their own tortillas there, and I found an alternate that was pre-packaged. Some salt (about 180 per tortilla), but acceptable. Father’s day was coming up, so their kitchen had made fresh salsa. Don’t worry, we also came up with a no salt recipe. The beans came from a can, low fat, and only 300mg for a half-cup of beans. As we’d be using much less than that for a serving – more like 2 tablespoons, we’re looking at 100mg there. The whole meal came to 400mg of salt, well within the once-a-day-with-salt-meal-allowance. I will write a separate post on how much is too much salt. For now, let’s go with the daily amount of up to 1500-2000mg (or less than a teaspoon) of salt.

Tortillas
Your local market may have a low-salt variety.
Most have up to 200mg
Think about using corn ones if you are gluten sensitive

Fajita Mix
Sliced red onions
Sliced mixed red, yellow, green peppers
Fry in a skillet with olive oil until cooked and a little blackened

Black Beans
Easy to heat in a microwave or small saucepan
No additions unless you like extra spice

Salsa
Fresh tomatoes (1 cup chopped)
Fine chop fresh sweet onions (1 cup)
Cilantro to taste
Variation: Add mango, peaches or pineapple for some zing

Avacado or Guacamole
Use fresh slices of avacado (half an avacado per burrito)
Variation: Your favorite guacamole recipe
(we’ll have one later)

Making the skinny burrito
Cook the beans and the fajita mix, set aside
Heat the tortillas in a skillet, or microwave (dampen paper towel over the plate, heat for 10 seconds)
Assemble the contents in the center of the tortilla
Add shredded cheese
Roll the tortilla up and enjoy!

Variations
You can add rice, chicken, cooked meat, shrimp to the mix to make it a regular burrito

This experiment tasted amazing! I made up an extra one, put it in a gallon baggy, and nuked it for 30 seconds at work the next day. It was just as delicious a day later, and much more convenient than the mystery food at the cafeteria. Let me know if you try it out, and what you think.


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Eating foods in season

strawberries with curried cashews - snack

Strawberries + Curried Cashews

I love the idea that we live in a time when we can get any produce at any time, at least hypothetically. Yet recently, I’ve come to notice that foods that are forced to grow out of season just don’t taste as good. The out-of-season foods may be uniform in size and shape, and they are made to pack and travel well; that makes them reliable in a sense. Yet what is missing, for me, is the concentrated flavor and organic variation that makes the food visually and aesthetically pleasing. As an artist, I cannot imagine wanting to draw a perfect apple or raspberry; that would make for an artificial-looking image composition at best, more like wax than something edible. Apparently my taste buds feel the same way!

Lately, I’ve been making fresh fruit snacks from whatever fruit is in season, usually from local growers. Organic is a preference, where available, though a good wash removes most of the chemicals. I choose fruit that is just at, or nearly past, its peak, firm but starting to get a little soft. Ready to eat today or tomorrow is my general rule, and it has to be “smelly”, that is to say ripe. If there is no scent to the food, then I walk away. From May onwards, local farmers markets are opening in school parking lots and community centers, and that’s my favorite place to shop for fresh produce. It’s always good to learn something new from the grower, and the sensory experience of seeing the food and being amongst community members makes me feel connected. Being in the moment, and noticing what my body wants to eat is also part of the experience.

Balances of sweet and savory appeal to me most, things like pears with curry cashews and chopped dates, pistachios sprinkled over nectarines, accompanied by a sharp cheese (Beecher’s Flagship), some pickled onions, snappy crackers (Ritz baked). Here are some snacks I’ve enjoyed from March through May in Seattle.

pear and honey cashews

Pear + Honey Cashews
mango and strawberries

Mango Strawberry Parfait
strawberry and nectarine with dates

Strawberry Nectarine + Dates


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Vegetarian fried rice

Vege fried riceWhen we were deciding what to have for dinner one evening, I noticed we had some firm tofu on hand, and thought about doing a tofu scramble with some carbs. That led to wondering how hard it would be to make our own fried rice, rather than picking it up from the local Thai place. After heading to Bing to find some recipes, we thought we could put something together that may work. Our local favorite Thai place makes a killer basil fried rice with vegetables. My goal was to make a personal version that was just as delicious, and with no added salt.

Making the recipe
I like to use a non stick wok, though a skillet works just as well for most folks. First, I fried up an egg in a the wok and put it aside for later. Sauteed onions, sweet corn, tiny tomatoes (so sweet!), diced firm tofu, added garam masala spice (I like the savory flavor), stirred in a cup of cooked jasmine rice. I added the egg last, some basil infused oil, and dried basil. It took around five minutes to chop things, and 10 to cook it from start to finish. I’ve made it with several variations since, and it’s always delicious. Most often I take some for lunch the next day too.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Cooked rice
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon basil (chopped)
  • 1/4 cup corn
  • 1 cup chopped firm tofu
  • 2 eggs

Variations

Leave out the egg, add nuts or dried fruit if you like.

For seafood lovers, add some shrimp instead of tofu.

Photo credit: Ria Loader


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Over the Salt

Salt in various forms - image by frenchbyte from morguefile.comLet’s face it. There is too much salt in canned food, packaged food, and snacks. Gone are the days when salt was a rare condiment, when sitting “above the salt” indicated wealth or prestige. Now we’re in a world where salt is used as a preservative as much as a flavor enhancer. Sometimes, the amount of salt in recipes is too much for good health. Nowadays, I use much less salt in cooking, and when I do use it, I do so mindfully.

When my spouse had heart failure a few months back, a low salt diet became necessary for his recovery. Otherwise, he would have too much fluid build up in his body and lungs, and that would be what I’d call a very bad thing. When I took a look at the pantry, almost all the food had to go. Soups? Out. Frozen dinners? Gone. Breads? Only a few brands would work. Mystery food from restaurants? Gone forever. Needless to say, this prompted a re-evaluation of what constituted health food. It also meant an urgent call to my sister, Colleen, to provide recipe help. As a chef, I was sure she would have the scoop on approaches to take. I also asked my extended social networks, in person and online for suggestions.

I experimented with sauces, spices and snacks made from fresh ingredients. By reading all the labels, it was even possible to find brands that were okay to use as part of recipes. When my sister came to visit for a few weeks from Sydney this spring, we had a lot of fun finding recipes that could work as-is or be adapted. We’ve decided to share those here, and continue experimenting together as a Sydney to Seattle collaboration. We hope that others will join us in trying low salt, savory dishes that taste delicious.