What can I use instead of salt?
Oh, the flavors in all the things we eat — so complex! Tangy, bitter, sweet, sour, umami — and each of them enhanced by the magical ingredient known as salt. Salt itself is worth a column for all the different types available and their many versatile uses (note to self ) but alas, this one is for the readers who are looking to reduce their intake, generally for health-related reasons.
One of my colleagues recently echoed her mother’s own frustration over how bland food seemed to taste when she began to limit sodium in her diet.
There are other steps you can take to reduce salt, even before cutting it in home recipes — using fresh cuts of meat over packaged (sorry, bacon), increasing your fresh fruit and vegetable consumption and reading those food labels at the grocery store — the salt content in some of your favorite things may shock you.
At home, though, there are so many ingredients you can use to enhance flavor without a shred of salt. In time and with patience, you may find your palate expanding into new spaces — the zing of that mint in fresh tabbouleh, the homey sage in mashed sweet potatoes — and realize you don’t miss the salt as much.
Here are a few other ingredients that can help you get past the sorrow over lost salt.
Lemon
Salt may be one of the culinary world’s most important flavors, but so, too is acid. Lemon — the juice and zest — acts similarly to salt in that it can enhance so many other flavors. In fact, do your research because the entire citrus family is a boon to sweet- and savory-minded chefs. Use lemon with poultry and seafood, sauces, dressings and marinades. Its tartness balances well with super sweet things, like dates. It brightens vegetable dishes. And it pairs beautifully with sage in one of my favorite Nigella Lawson dishes: One-pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage. So easy, so good — and you can double up on the chicken and cut out the sausage for optimal salt/fat reduction. Use thighs and keep it extra juicy.
Nutritional Yeast
Vegans know this handy, dandy ingredient — sometimes called “nooch” — very well. It’s sold in powder and flake form. I’m familiar with the latter, which smells wonderfully rich and cheesy, and is why it makes a phenomenal sub for the hard-grated cheese in homemade pesto. Seriously, during my vegan days, I’d serve it to my kids and they were none the wiser. As such, you can use nooch in place of high-salt cheeses in the same fashion, sprinkling it atop pasta or baked potatoes. By the way, it’s dairyfree, too, if that’s something else you’re watching.
Ginger
Oh, the smell of ginger — one of the world’s best, methinks. It’s sweet with a spicy bite and is wonderful
raw, cooked, pickled, candied, you name it. It’s also been used medicinally for eons as an anti-inflammatory
among other things. I love using ginger in Asian dishes — whether sauces, marinades or stir fry. It’s
killer with root vegetables — think ginger-carrot soup or as an inclusion in a roasted beet salad. You can toss it in a smoothie or even juice it straight (which lights up your belly like Disney fireworks, if that’s something you’re into).
Smoked paprika
It’s a leveled-up version of its regular self. Dust your next roast chicken with it while dialing back or eliminating the salt. It’s a spicy (not too spicy) addition to ground meat for nachos and tacos — in particular, lighter ones like chicken or turkey, where you’re also looking to replenish flavor from missing fat. This pairs well in places where you’re also using garlic, cumin and onion. It’s a star in Spanish dishes — like paella or Romesco — but can be used to jazz up something as basic as ranch dressing or lentils.
Garlic
These bulbous beauts are potent in flavor and pair well with a near-infinite number of dishes. Cut back the salt and double the garlic in your favorite recipes, like hummus or scampi (but, hey watch that grated cheese!). Roast it in the oven and use the heat-mellowed cloves to enhance sauces and dressings, or just squeeze them out to spread on crusty bread instead of butter. Now you’ve cut salt and fat! And possibly your social life, but garlic is better than most people, anyway. Bonus: no vampires!
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