Our taste-buds have acquired the taste for salt, and most people believe that food will taste bland without salt. However, the preference for salty flavours can be changed, and making use of other ingredients can help enhance the flavour of foods. But WHAT ingredients, we hear you ask? Don’t worry, you won’t be stuck for choice in this department.
Using fresh and dry herbs, spices, homemade stock and citrus such as lemons and limes to add delicious flavour to your cooking means that you can get away with using less salt. Ingredients such as tomatoes, onions and garlic provide a tasty base for many popular dishes and can serve the same purpose.
Herbs and spices are key to creating satisfying and deeper tastes
- Fresh herbs work wonders in most dishes, from pasta sauces to vegetables and salads, but dried herbs can also be used in most cases to replace fresh. What’s great about herbs is that they are also really easy to grow – even if you don’t have a garden! Just keep a couple of pots of your favourite herbs on your kitchen windowsill, and you’ll be good to go.
- When it comes to spices, lightly toasting them in a pan before adding other ingredients enhances the flavour of the spices and minimises any bitterness.
How can I adapt recipes to make them lower in salt?
- If you need to adapt a recipe, the first thing to think about is whether the dish relies on salt for flavour. For example, a recipe which uses a lot of soy sauce or fish sauce (which are high in salt) are difficult to adapt. In this case, try to use these ingredients as little as possible.
- For all other dishes, simply leave the salt out, taste the dish as it cooks, and boost the flavour with more spices, herbs, black pepper or a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
- If a dish already contains salty ingredients, such as feta and other cheeses, olives, pickles, yeast extracts, smoked and cured meats, avoid adding extra salt to the meal.
Start slow, stay steady
At the end of the day, it’s possible to retrain your taste-buds, and they will become more sensitive to lower levels of salt. The problem comes in when people go back to old eating habits. The trick is to start by slowly reducing the amount of salt you use when cooking, and try as many different herbs and spices as possible. The more you try, the more likely you are to find a flavour that you like more than salt. It also helps to avoid eating processed and convenience foods, which are often packed with salt (sodium).