low sodium, low fat veg recipes
Posted by chickpea27 on Apr 12, 2009 · Member since Jul 2007 · 465 posts
My dad just got out of the hospital and he has very high blood pressure. basically he has to cut back a lot on salt and he needs to be eating way better. he is not a vegan. he doesn't eat meat, but he eats fish and all dairy.
if you could post recipes that are very low in salt and pretty low in fat, that would be so much help. my mom is a great cook and could pull off anything.
thanks so much vegweb.
I don't have anything specific, there is a (small) low/no fat recipe category on VW: http://vegweb.com/index.php?board=559.0
and tons of recipes on fatfreevegan: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/
Dairy is not going help him, and it's definitely not low fat (naturally)!
If your mom already has certain dishes that she makes a lot, it might be possible to just cut down on the salt, and use water/broth for the oil, so forth.
The easiest way to go low salt is eat more whole foods.
As you adjust you will notice you do not need the salt.
Allot of spices like Cumin for example will give you all the flavoring you need.
Indian Spices are great since they are mixed with a few different things.
Since he eats fish that makes a really good natural flavoring for most dishes.
I will come back over when I locate some of the books I use.
Had a few people I used to cook for that required no or low sodium.
A second for fat free vegan. If you go to the website rather than the blog (www.fatfreevegan.com) they organize their recipes by suitiability for certain diet programs. For example, they have tags for Eat To Live recipes, which will be low in fat and sodium. (McDougall may be as well but I'm less familiar with it).
Watch out for "hidden" sodium. Most of the sodium we consume is in processed foods (canned beans, tomatoes, soups, sauces, broths, etc.). Look for "no salt added" or "low sodium" versions of these things ("reduced sodium" usually only means a 25% reduction and there is usually still a ton of salt in there). Even breakfast cereals and breads can have a lot of salt. Like uzbekjoe mentioned, the more whole foods, the better, because there are few whole foods that have naturally high sodium contents (in fact, I can't think of any). Also, most recipes that call for salt, you can usually just leave it out or add a fraction of the amount called for (NOTE**this does not apply to baking. The salt plays a chemical role and the results won't be the same).
U.S. processed foods are full of sodium. The last time I was in the US I came with in an ace of sodium poisoning.
If he is a bean lover, make sure he has a pressure cooker and learns to soak and boil his own legumes. Canned food in general has way too much sodium in the US. For other things, strain and rinse before using to get rid of as much as poss.
In the FAQ thread there's a topic on soaking/cooking your own legumes.