Salt, in large quantities, is not good for us. It messes up body chemistry by changing the ratio of salts to water. But it does taste good, and some is needed. Tastebuds get very used to lots of salt in bags of crisps and other snacks and often in ready meals. What do you do to wean your self off using a lot of salt?
Here are my four tips.
1)
Use tamari soy sauce in very small quantities, not in the raw dish itself but as a seasoning to have on the table, ideally in a spray so that only a little goes on the food while it still tastes salty. That way you can have less salt even if others have more. The tamari adds that elusive savoury taste that the Japanese call umami, which is good to know for vegan food.
2)
Use seaweeds in your meals. In America you can buy very good dried dulse flakes to sprinkle on instead of using salt. I haven’t seen that here in England so I make my own bu drying dulse seaweed until crisp in my dehydrator (at lower that 46 centigrade/117 farenheit )and then blitzing it in a blender till reduced to a mix of powder and tiny flakes. It’s delicious. Even if you are not used to seaweed as a food give it a try because it’s highly nutritious as well as being lower in salt that plain salt.
3)
Celery has a good salty taste of its own. Adding it to raw dishes brings in a lightly salty flavour. If you have a dehydrator, slice a whole head of celery very thinly and lay the slices out on dehydrator trays until completely, crisply dry. Grind in a blender or grinder to a powder. Keep tightly sealed and sprinkle of food instead of salt.
4)
Make some savoury dishes entirely without salt. That reduces the overall salt content of the meal while providing an interesting contrast and foil to seasoned dishes. This easy raw recipe is an example of that. Coarsely grate some carrot and add a very little finely grated fresh horseradish root. Stir the horseradish into the carrot, adding more if you wish. Serve just like that. Very simple, delicious and very low salt.
Enjoy these tips, and please do get in touch in comments here with your thoughts and questions.