Lunch (at home)

June 13, 2011

Monday Morning Sandwich Cake

For a long time, I resisted using Twitter, Facebook, or FourSquare. Not because I was against the free sharing of private information. But because I thought it was really weird that people felt the need to constantly tell me (and the entire world) what they were eating. Thanks to these public broadcasting systems, it’s 11 am and I already know that Katie is enjoying a frozen yogurt with berries. And that Tom and six other friends are meeting at the local pub later to watch the game and eat some hot pepper pizza. And that Michelle has already had her […]

October 27, 2010

Salt-Free My Recipe: Mama's Enchiladas

A few weeks ago, I received the following, lovely letter from Sodium Girl reader Cindra Fox: Dear Sodium Girl, I’m on a low-sodium diet to prevent complications from migraines. I’ve been on it for over a year now and have found a whole new world of food and flavor that I ignored back when I could just grab a burger at the closest drive-through. What I miss the most, though, is Mom’s famous enchiladas. I’m half-Mexican and we would make these at least once a week. Now it’s been over a year since I’ve had them. But here’s the catch: […]

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 […]

June 1, 2010

Hot Potato

There are two things for which I always have an appetite: 1) crispy, fried potatoes and 2) my future mother-in-law’s curry chicken salad. So when food52.com posted their most recent challenge for the “best potato salad,” I knew exactly what I wanted to make: a Low Sodium, Hot Potato Salad with Curry Dressing. Since the potatoes are the true star of this dish, I decided to give them some extra special care by cooking them twice – first, a quick boil to soften them and second, a long roast in the oven to give them crunch. As for the other […]

April 9, 2010

Pack Up Your Picnic

As we head into the weekend – that is hopefully filled with sunshine and lawn games – I wanted to sign off with a perfect picnic recipe for curried chicken salad. There is something about the cool temperature of the chicken mixed with the flavorful heat of the curry that screams summer. Or at least whispers spring. And what really makes this dish a favorite is the balance between the creamy mayo and other crisp ingredients. But mayonnaise, the key ingredient, usually hovers around 100mg of sodium per tablespoon, and this recipe often doesn’t make the low sodium cut. Boy’s […]

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 1, 2010

Gimme A Beet

It is the end of February and that means San Francisco has had a few days of faux-spring weather, causing me to swap the soup ladle for the grill. While I love a good beef patty, there is something about the taste of a nutty veggie burger. But the pre-made brands are skyrocketing with sodium and, although I have tried creating a chickpea patty of my own, the addition of breadcrumbs made it taste more like a falafel than a hamburger. This isn’t a bad thing, just not the result I was looking for. So I wondered, what vegetable is […]

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 […]

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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