Hello,
My name is Pat and i have been cooking for a long time (40 yrs).
My cooking came to a complete change when my husband found out he has a kidney problem. The Dr. said NO SALT! So I have to eliminate as much salt as possible. I think I am doing a pretty good job. And I am also benefiting from it too. I got myself a few low-sodium/no sodium cookbooks to start and it has gone pretty good.
I work part time with my husband in his business. He is an electrical contractor.
Hope to hear from some of you .
have a great day,
Pat

Hello Pat and welcome to spice place. My husband had high blood pressure and I am also always trying to cut the salt in recipes. He isn't to the point that he has been banned salt but knowing he has this tendancy I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. His blood pressure is normal now.

Some things to think about when cooking with less or no salt is what the purpose of salt is in food. Salt it's self has no flavor. What salt does is to act as a conductor of flavors. It acts on your tongue to make it more receptive to the flavors in food. The good news is that there are other ingredients you can use which will do the same thing to varying degrees. The first of these is acid. This means lemon juice, wine, vinegar etc. These ingredients liven foods up and allow you to enjoy flavors more fully.

Other things which will help are ingredients with Umame. Many of these unfortunately contain a lot of salt such as parmesan cheese and anchovies but others like low sodium tomato paste work very well.

Lastly on my list of suggestions are spices. appropriate suggestion for this site don't you think? But if you add more herbs, spices or other aromatics such as onions and garlic than usual you can up the flavor in foods with out extra salt.

I try to employ all of these techniques when I'm cooking. This will give you a depth of flavor with out extra salt.

I hope that helps and I hope you will come back often to participate.

Thanks for all those suggestions. It's funny because after 2 weeks with not adding salt or using no salt-low salt ingredients food tasted much better to me. things like Chicken soup, and mashed potatoes were a little harder, but I managed it. I keep lemon juice on hand, vinegars, and lots of herbs and spices.
thanks,
Pat

I think you are right! I notice the same thing. You start to be able to taste things again when you don't have all that salt. It takes a while for your palate to adjust but in the end all that salt really isn't necessary.

nice thread. I so agree about the acids. I personally love lime juice, squeezed on proteins, fish of course, but also grilled beef and chicken. Lemon more on salads and veggies. Enjoy all vinegars, but eat a lot of grain, bean and legume dishes and for those cider vinegar seems a good match.
Must confess, a sort of bad thing, a few years ago started experimenting with French Gray Sea Salt, well, down the evil road! I now have about seven different finishing salts on hand. I don't have a salt problem, just never cared for it much. But these are a treat and it only takes a smidgen. I use my morter and pestle instead of a salt mill, so I can be careful. Hello, my name is Nan & I use finishing salts.
Take Care,
Nan