Dinner

August 9, 2010

Hot Pockets

It is true that the easiest way to lower your sodium is to cut out the prepared, packaged items from your diet. But it is false that home-cooked meals, made from scratch, have to be costly, time-consuming, and exhausting to create. Now, I’m not saying your assumption is wrong, because many dishes, like making your own mole sauce, could put you into an ingredient-induced coma for weeks. But thanks to inventions like the slow cooker and immersion blender, you can make flavorful, low sodium meals in the time it takes to order a pizza. For this particular story, let’s just […]

July 30, 2010

Salt-Free My Recipe: Peanut Sauce Pasta

Drumroll please. Today is the first user-submitted Salt-Free My Recipe. And isn’t it a beauty! The original dish, sent in by the wonderful CFoung, includes only one ingredient that this sodium girl can’t have: Jade Sichuan Peanut Sauce. But it is this nutty, spicy, creamy condiment that is the true star, if not the heart and soul, of the dish. Which poses a perfect low sodium challenge. Without the Sichuan Peanut Sauce, you are left with a somewhat boring and sauce-less stir fry. So it was time to put on my cooking cap and come up with a mind-blowing low […]

June 23, 2010

Creamy Chicken Curry

Pack your knives and hop into your time machine, because we are heading back to 2008. It’s time for another installment of the Biting Mr. Bittman, series and today we take a recipe from Mark’s Diner’s Journal column, in which he remixes an Indian classic – Creamy Chicken Curry. Before I launch into the recipe for this dish, I will take a second to add a small disclaimer: I’ve only eaten real chicken curry once before in my life, and that was almost eight years ago after a few bottles of beer (I was in Europe, so it was legal). So, I […]

June 17, 2010

Low-Sodium Yakisoba

For the second installment of the new, Biting Mr. Bittman series, I figured I should stop fooling around, take a big risk, and attack a recipe that relies heavily on salt. You know, just in case Mr. Bittman is actually reading this blog–good morning, Mark!–and wants some proof that this Sodium Girl really knows how to cook everything, without salt. So I scoured his recent recipes for a true challenge–searching for a dish that usually comes in a take-out box and that uses a lot of soy sauce–basically, something of Asian origin. And after sifting through asparagus pesto and laid-back […]

April 1, 2010

The Last (Moroccan) Meal

No April Fool’s Day joke here, my friends. This is truly the last of the recipes from the low sodium, highly organic, and super flavorful Moroccan feast. May I introduce to you the evening’s piece de resistance: vegetable couscous and lemon, chicken tagine. I have to admit that, for a while now, vegetable couscous has been a quick-fix favorite of mine. Couscous is very easy to cook and it is a wonderfully forgiving grain. You can mix whatever veggies you have in your fridge with a few spices and a cup of couscous, and you’ve got yourself something hearty and […]

March 29, 2010

Morocco Had a Little Lamb

Let’s kick off this week with a simple dish that features one of Spring’s finest cuts of meat: lamb. As an “appetizer” for our Moroccan Feast, we decided to begin with something light. Which in my world translates into a lamb stew cooked in orange juice, mint, and a bevy of other spices. Served, of course, with a cool cucumber and yogurt salad. It’s a palette cleanser fit for vikings. The trick, to making the lamb as succulent as it sounds, lies in two key steps: (1) marination and (2) slow cooking. So this recipe does take patience, but little […]

March 23, 2010

Risotto Cakes

I am sucker for texture. As a low sodium cook, it is essential to trick the senses with an unusual spice or unexpected crisp. When someone is overcome by food that is exciting, they do not have the time to miss the salt. It’s like a magician distracting the audience from noticing the cards already tucked up his or her sleeve. When it comes to noodles and rice, I also love to have a bit of broiled crunch on the top. Whether it is mac and cheese or in this case, risotto, the oven-fried pieces make the traditional “mushiness” all […]

March 19, 2010

The Grand Finale

Today, our Hawaiian journey comes to an end. Time to pack up your bags and head back home to oven cooked risotto cupcakes and Moroccan lamb. What? That’s not what you’re planning to make next week? Cause I am. But before we close out this chapter of our low sodium Hawaiian adventure, I have one last recipe that will really set your tongues wagging and heart racing. Low sodium, Char Sui Spare Ribs. This is that illustrious, unnaturally colored Chinese pork meat that always sends a pang of jealousy my way. Whenever Boy and I take a shopping excursion to […]

March 16, 2010

Kalua Pork – An Interpretation

I am a big fan of a luau and one of the most well-known dishes served at these celebrations is the famed Kalua pork. You just can’t have a luau without one – it’s almost as important as hula dancing. Almost. The word kalua literally means “cooked in an underground oven” and this is how the pork is traditionally prepared. Hot lava rocks lined with large banana leaves are used to form the underground oven, called an “imu.” Then, a salted pig is placed inside, covered with more banana leaves, a burlap sack, and dirt, and left to steam all […]

March 8, 2010

Puerto Rican Challenge

A cook club. It’s like a book club, but without all the reading and the guilt of only getting through the first 30 pages. Plus, your main focus is on eating and sharing in culinary delights. Now, that’s my kind of food for thought. Last week, I connected with fellow SF food blogger and adventure seeker, Anne Pao, for our first of many cook club gatherings. While she is not a “challenged” eater like myself – no dietary restrictions for this gal – she is always up for a dining adventure. Whether it is sucking crab meat directly from […]

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