Soups & Stews

April 14, 2010

Grape Expectations

For any cook – low sodium or not – constant inspiration is essential to keeping your food fresh and fun.  And there are two places, in particular, where I know I can always find my cooking muse: the farmer’s market and TV cooking shows. A few nights ago, while trying to distract myself from the third day of a liquid-only diet, I watched one of the best Iron Chef America shows I had seen in a while.  Battle Grape.  Now, I had already been introduced to the surprisingly, sweet compliment that grapes can add to savory dishes.  Boy had made […]

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April 12, 2010

Prep Work

There is one low-sodium topic that we have yet to cover.  Although rare, it’s definitely important, and as someone on a restricted diet, it’s definitely a bit more complicated. Surgery.  I’m having it.  And no, it’s not for any “enhancements” and no, it’s not a big deal.  I’ll be back blogging and cooking by Wednesday.  And all of this personal pish posh is beyond the point.  So let’s move on to the more interesting content. For many procedures, doctors require you to take certain precautions to – I’ll gently put it this way – clean out your system.  But many […]

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February 25, 2010

The Vampire Slayer

While I am not a Twilight junkie, I’ll admit that I am quite intrigued by the current living dead cultural phenomenon.  If I knew pale skin and stringy hair was “hot,” I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to soak up sun and groom myself.  I also would have bought those Ray-Bans from the ’90s.  But it isn’t just the Vampire look that excites me, it is the social embrace of an aromatic that I dearly love.  Garlic, welcome home. I rely heavily on garlic to infuse my low sodium foods with a deeper flavor.  A few cloves will […]

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February 16, 2010

All Sunchoked Up

There are certain foods that are in your cooking comfort zone – tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, even eggplant to a degree.  Then there are others which you know taste good – they said so on Top Chef – but are so alien to you, that any time you see them in the grocery store, you hurry past and hope they didn’t see you coming.  Sunchokes are one of those foods. I most commonly have heard of sunchokes as the base of a creamy, wintery soup for which people hmm and haw over its delicate taste.  As a relative of the sunflower, […]

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February 12, 2010

A Super(bowl) Makeover Story

I don’t know about you, but I rolled home last sunday full of chili, chips, and chicken wings.  I love Super Bowl Sunday for a variety of reasons – mainly good time spent with friends and the excuse to be overly-gluttonous.  But I forgot that on Super Bowl Sunday, even more so than on my second favorite holiday of the year – Thanksgiving – our eyes become much bigger than our stomachs.  And I came home on Sunday evening with a tupperware tub full of spicy, ginger chicken wings that needed to be consumed. Now, wasting food annoys me more […]

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January 19, 2010

Soup's On

Say hello to a bowl of caramelized fennel corn chowder. It was noon thirty on Sunday and I was hungry. But it was raining, I was pretty full from breakfast, and what I really needed to focus on was cleaning the house. Never a good sign when your feet turn dusty gray from walking around barefoot. So I did what I always do when I want something healthy, light, and quick to eat. I made soup. But I’m not talking pour-it-from-a-can, chunky chicken and wimpy noodle soup. I’m talking about a delicate, earthy soup that is complex in flavor and […]

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December 11, 2009

A Big Bowl of Warm

Yesterday, I had a bad case of the coldies. The skies were gray and I left my house well guarded with 4 layers of shirt/sweater/coat/and scarf, a large coffee, and one orange umbrella. But none of this winter armor could protect me from the fierce chill we are experiencing here in the Bay. Clearly, exterior fixes were not the answer. I needed something that would heat me up from the inside. Aka, the belly. When I finished braving the stormy weather, I decided to brave a new dinner recipe – minestrone. Believe it or not, I’ve never eaten minestrone before. […]

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July 6, 2009

Pea Soup

My mom, boy’s mom, and I decided to meet for lunch one beautifully sunny afternoon and I wanted to treat them both to something light, bright, and delicious. I was aiming to fix a meal that was quick to make, full of flavor, and of course, sodium-free. So, I settled on curried egg salad sandwiches and some cold pea soup – my cup of soup, of course, is the one topped with hot red chili flakes – it may have been chilled, but I am always hankering for some heat. The recipes are simple and the tastes are just complex […]

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