How to Drop the Seasoning Salt and Cook with Herbs and Spices

I highly recommend Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute". It's a staple in my kitchen.

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When my Dad... years ago..found out he had heart trouble..salt had to be dropped entirely from his diet. He, and We, found a product call Mrs. Dash. No salt, lots of flavor, easy to use and leave right on the table as a condiment.
Since then, Mrs. Dash has come out with a lot of different varities. Until you learn to re-work your recipie books.. try this stuff. I have given a gift bottle to all my friends who have ..with age .. began to have blood pressure/ heart trouble. And just so you know. I am 53. The oldest of 6 kids, and the only one who does not have high blood pressure. My younger sister (49) is a surgical nurse and a tri-athlete..and has recently found out she has high blood pressure. High blood pressure can find anybody I guess. So try this and good luck to you.

1 mom found this helpful

I'm on a low sodium diet and I will tell you it is easy but hard at the same time! I wasn't a cook until I had to go on this diet, but I've learned a lot since then.

First, you will find fresh spices are a lot better than the stuff in jars. You probably will have to do some trial and error to see what you like best, but my family loves garlic and lemon right now. I invested in a zester which makes the garlic flow through the food much better.

Try to skip as much processed food as possible, and make your own as much as possible. Visit www.HealthyHeartMarket.com as they have a good selection of low sodium spices and food. There are also good low sodium cookbooks out there.

I am amazed at everywhere salt shows up in food, so you may want to also adjust what foods you eat as well. For instance, check the sodium levels of the chicken at the grocery. Some are soaked in a salt solution for preservation and others are not. Also, we now don't go out to eat all that much because restaurant meals are generally laden with salt.

I could go on and on, so send me a message if you want more information. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

My suggestions--sea salt if you really want a bit of the saltiness--and garlic. I'd also suggest The Spice House (based out of Milwaukee) and/or Penzey's Spices (an off-shoot of The Spice House but gone international. They have outstanding spices and you can find a nearby location or order online. www.penzeys.com or www.thespicehouse.com

Good luck!

My husband is a wonderful cook. We don't use a lot of seasoning salt...lot's of herbs. Here's a quick list...

Garlic: Any meat, especially, roasted pork, lamb, chicken, some beef, potatoes, vegetables, pasta

Rosemary: Roasted chicken, lamb, roasted potatoes

Thyme, eggs

Basil: Pastas, eggs, pizzas, tomato dishes

Caraway: Fowl dishes, pork roast

Dill: Seafood

Using sea salt (kosher) is a better choice than iodized/table salt and using crushed/ground black pepper is a good choice too. There are a lot of better choices than using seasoning salt, just explore. Good luck.

Good luck!

Hi,
Along with the home based businesses I have, I am also a nurse of 28 years, and I really hope the information I give you will be helpful. I know I can safely assume that you cook at home, and don't eat pre packaged foods and frozen dinners which contain high sodium content, but I do want to remind you that they do indeed have a high sodium content, sometimes well hidden in their packaging.
Canned foods do as well, so pitch canned vegetables-for the most part, they are very high in sodium. Almost every soda product on the market and sports drinks are high in sodium as well.
The best thing that has been put on the market as far as I am concerned, is Mrs dash. There is no salt in there, just herbs, and they have now come out with a line that takes the total guesswork out for you....
Here is a link to the website

http://www.mrsdash.com/products/seasoning-blends.aspx

You can count on the fact that garlic goes with just about anything, lemon pepper is nice with poultry, as is rosemary and thyme, basil and oregano are nice for italian seasoning, with garlic (think a nice rub onto red meat) as a marinade for your steaks. Pork, you can almost season anyway you see fit.
Be careful with sauces. Cook as "from scratch" as you can. I choose to get low sodium spaghetti sauce, for example, but I would be better to get the tomatoes and make my own.

Walking for exercise will also help with your blood pressure, and slow weaning to one caffeine product daily will help. If you smoke, nicorette is offering free nicorette gum samples on the website ( I think that is still going on)--so if that is an issue, those are worth looking into.
As for garlic, the best is the whole---you can get a garlic press. It is also proven to help with lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

Do use the walgreens free blood pressure check weekly. Sometimes your blood pressure will be high just BECAUSE you are at the Dr. office! Record your blood pressure too--it gives you a good idea if what you are doing is working.

I hope I have helped you! Have a good day!

Many have already suggested Mrs. Dash - I just wanted to add that there are a number of different Mrs. Dash flavors, so experiment with them. I love the southwest one. It's a bit spicy, but I love spicy food. There are also Mrs. Dash marinades. You could also go to www.mrsdash.com for some great recipes.

As for the herbs and spices, I'm just starting to research the health benefits, so I can't name any off the top of my head, but I know that curry powder (the tumeric mostly, I believe), cinnamon, and red pepper have a great number of health benefits. I would say do a quick online search for whatever kind of food you're cooking, and just compare a couple of recipes to see what kind of flavor is used where.

Also, using the lower-sodium chicken broth adds tons of flavor to some dishes.

Oh, and Morton's has a table salt that has only 50% of the sodium in regular salt.

I love love love Mrs. Dash and there are many different varieties now. My favorite is the original. I use it on everything. Especially for veggies. I buy those steam bags by ziploc and put the veggies in and sprinkle some mrs. dash in and shake. We don't even use any butter after that! Good luck.

I highly recommend checking out The Spice House (http://www.thespicehouse.com/). They have a location in Evanston and in the city. They have several salt free blends and we use their spices for everything!

Hello,

I love Mayoclinic.com When you get to the site click on healthy living and then on the recipes link. They have all kinds of recipes for different needs, one of them being a low sodium diet. Good Luck!

mrs dash works on all dishes and garlic powder I use mrs dash on every meat i cook

Go to the foodnetwork and put recipes without salt in the search engine. Or even google that phrase and see what you get. Here is an easy one that I don't believe has salt in it.

Cut two or three boneless chicken breasts into bite size strips or chunks. Marianate in 1/4 cup olive oil with two cloves minced garlic and a 1/2 tsp of black pepper for atleast thirty minutes to a few hours. Coat with bread crumbs that you mixed 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper into and bake at 475 on a baking sheet for 15 minutes, turn then 5 mintues more. The recipe says to serve warm and dip in honeyu mustard sauce. We just eat them plain. I've shared this recipe with friends, family and neighbors. They all love it. Surprisingly good.

I'm not sure what you mean by "seasoning" salt? There are "seasoning salts" on the market that contain other spices in them. If you are referring to this, then yes, by all means, it can be cut from your recipes! However, if you simply mean "sea salt", then that is another story.

Salt is actually not as much a seasoning as it is a flavor separator. A pinch of salt is often used even in desserts for this very reason. It has a way of bringing balance to all the different flavors in a dish so that they don't become muddled together. It is one of the best ways to create a recipe that has layers of flavor. That being said, some salt is pretty necessary if you want your dish to have any discernable flavor. But a pinch or two in a recipe should not be of concern. Where people get into trouble with salt is when they add it at the dinner table. If you refrain from adding salt after the meal is prepared, you will be in great shape.

As for herbs and their flavor combinations and uses, you can go to the foodnetwork website to learn more. Some herbs are often interchangeable, like parsely and cilantro. Basil has a certain sweetness, thyme has a lemony flavor, rosemary is very earthy. Herbs are a great way to add taste and complexity to a recipe without adding calories or extra salt. For example, a wonderful way to add flavor and kick to a skirt steak is with a fantastic chimichurri - a raw olive oil and herb sauce. It's easy to prepare and has simple ingredients, but adds a wonderful finish to the steak. YUM!!!

So keep reading, watching and experimenting with herbs. Before you know it, you'll get the hang of it and you'll also learn what flavor combos you like the best.

Have fun and happy cooking!

Try going to The Spice House in Chicago or in Evanston. They have wonderful spice combinations and it tells you right on the jar what foods they go best in. The Ukrainian Village seasoning is my favorite on vegetables. Good luck.

Try to avoid most commercially prepared jarred mixture spices as many of them contain salt. Just flip it over and look at the label and if salt is in the ingredient list, forget it!

The 'pinch of salt', if used in moderation should not be that bad for you. That pinch is mostly to allow foods to 'sweat out' their moisture. Usually it is about 1/8th of a teaspoon or less. When you break that down into serving sizes, the amount of sodium is negligible.

My all-time favorite spice is herbs de provence. It should be pretty easy to find. It goes great with most meats and poultries. Take a chicken breast, rub it with olive oil, then sprinkle on herbs de provence. Talk about easy!

You can also use a mixture of olive oil and chopped garlic on most meats for delicious flavor.

Mrs B- First of all do not buy anything processed-this is the main contributor to your health ailments. Go to Trader Joes or a decent grocery store with an organic section and buy the seasonings there-in addition buy celtic sea salt. You can use as much of it as you want. It is excellent for you and it is very similar to the taste of processed table salt. It comes in larger crystals but dissolves rapidly and you can use a salt grinder or a coffee bean grinder to make it finer.

If you have any additional questions please feel free to ask.

T.
Detox Coach

The American Heart Association has a website with links for healthy cooking including low salt/alternate seasoning type of recipes. Also I have found that a little of crushed red pepper can spice things up (but careful not to use too much).

Lemon take the place of salt. Garlic powder, onion powder, lemon pepper will bring out the best flavor. A little lemon zest freshly grated is nice also when possible.

One way to cut salt significantly is to cut down on the hidden salts. For example, instead of buying canned veggies, buy fresh or frozen. There is often a lot of salt in the canned veggies, even if you never pick up that salt shaker.

Speaking of shakers, take them off the table. In my house, we don't add salt when it's on the stove, and we don't have a salt shaker on the table. (It took us a while to get there, though.) Don't add salt to water to bring it to boil. Don't add salt to boxed potatoes or whatever. (I put the salt shaker back on the table when company comes over.)

And steer clear of fast food and restaurants. They are HIGH in salt. So are many soups, though you can get healthier versions of many soups now.

Remember that most of your taste of salt simply comes from what you're used to. Once you cut down, and stick with it for a while, you'll be surprised how distateful salty dishes can be. I sometimes have trouble eating soup in a restaurant now, because it now tastes like salt water, after being away from it for a while. And canned veggies can seem oversalted to me too, now. Fast food fries, or movie popcorn can be a real turn off now. It didn't happen overnight. But my taste buds did find new preferences.

I'm not so crazy about the Mrs Dash things. They're a great idea, and they might help as you transition away from salt, but after a while, they seem kind of overpowering to me. I bought a variety of bottles. I never emptied a single one of them.

I keep bay, sage, thyme, basil, parsley, garlic, pepper, rosemary, lemon and onion powder in my kitchen, but I don't use much else. I'd rather let the flavors of the meats and veggies and fruits come out on their own without all the salt. (Fresh garlic tastes so much better to me than garlic salt, and onions are better than onion salt. And lemon or pineapple on my chicken makes me wonder why on earth I ever used that salt shaker, lol!)

I didn't eliminate all salt. But when I do have it, it's on those few things that I just can't seem to enjoy without it. For example, I can eat frozen corn without salt and enjoy it, but I just can't get used to corn on the cob without salt and butter. It's a special treat for me, but I think my doc would forgive me, considering how rarely I indulge.

We use onion powder and garlic powder instead of the salt versions. You should be able to find these and more in the seasoning section of your local grocery store. Many seasonings come without salt. You just have to start reading labels really carefully. Goodluck!

I am a rep with Wildtree. Our products have no preservatives or MSG (hidden salt), additives or preservatives. Most - but not all, depending on the ingredients - are very low sodium. When we made the scampi, my husband asked what was missing; it was salt! He loved the flavors without the added salt that he hs to cut back on.
It's not just adding salt (and I love seasoned salt, BTW) - it's the hidden salt in processed foods, even herb blends. Go to my website www.vikinc.mywildtree.com. Under product information (not catalog) you can check out every product's ingredients and nutritional value. If you have any questions at all, email me.

Invest in a good learning cookbook like Fannie Farmer or the Joy of Cooking
A GREAT specialty cookbook with good suggestions for herb combos is Lidia Bastianch's "Lidia's Family Table" - she has a show on PBS and the book has great easy simple sauce and alist of meats to try each with.
Some quick ideas:
Chicken - oregano and lemon with some butter
- sesame seeds, honey and soy sauce
Turkey - sage, apples, thyme
Beef - oregano / basil plus garlic
Another cookbook that I find really helpful is "The Complete Italian Vegetarian" by Jack Bishop - - the ingredients list is short, it gives a good sense of staples, directions are never more than 4-5 steps
Another cook book is "The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook" - again, simple ingredients, no more then 4 steps for each item - and the meals are tasty, fast and good for you.
And lastly - allrecipes.com is the best recipe search out there.
One salt replacement / reduction tip - use lemon juice on top of your meal - - esp. good with broccoli, spinach and pasta.
Good luck and have fun!

You could also use Mrs. Dash which is salt free and I believe you can buy different versions for different things.

Hello I hope I can help a bit. When they tell you to take out the "salt" they are talking about the sodium in it. When this happened to my dad my mom found this salt that didnt have soduim in it and forgive me but I cant remember the name of it but she gets it at walmart in the same isle as the salt. It is in a small container and it is blue. It takes the same as salt but it just doesnt have the sodium in it. My dad now uses it instead of salt and my dad is a very picky eater and has to have his food takes good with the right seasoning on it. When the dr told him no salt we thought oh no because he was such a salt freak, but this product was great for him. Again Im sorry I dont know the name. But it is in a smaller blue container in the seasoning isle. Good Luck

Hello M. B,
My name is Shon and i was wondering if you could forward me some good info. about the same thing you requested once you get it?

Penzey's spices are really, really good plus they always offer recipes. They have a website also in addition to stores. Quality is top notch and prices are are reasonable. Experiment and see what you like.

Mrs. Dash has several seasoning blends that give suggestions which dish to use them with. We have not added salt to our meals for decades now, but our kids grab the shaker whenever we go out. Most canned foods and other processed foods already have a ton of salt in them, so if you are making spaghetti sauce, try to use unsalted tomatoes (although you pay more for them-wouldn't you think they'd be cheaper since they don't add it?) To go totally salt free cold turkey is rough. We are so used to such salty stuff, everything is horribly bland without it.
Try cutting the salt in your recipes in half, and if you can stand it, the next time cut a little more. Some of the salt substitutes have a distinctly chemical taste, so we opted to just skip it.
Eventually, your taste will adapt. Now, the fries at fast food places are way too salty for us.
My Betty Crocker cookbook has a page that lists the common spices and what meats and vegetables are complimented by them.
Some cooks use sea salt. It's still salt, so don't be fooled.
Good Luck!!

allrecipes.com
cooks.com

Both helpful websites--and you can almost always just omit the salt in recipes (except baking with yeast or something. When it's just for seasoning, cut it out. :)