How to flavour your food without salt
Eating too much salt raises our blood pressure. Raised blood pressure is the leading cause of death and disability among humans, so bear this in mind every time you blithely shake the salt cellar onto your food at the start of your dinner! You may be apprehensive that cutting down on salt will leave your food tasting bland, though – and you’d be right, but only to start with: as salt intake falls, the salt taste receptors in the mouth adapt and become more receptive to lower concentrations of salt within a short few weeks, and this reduction in salt may very genuinely add extra years to your lifespan.
So let’s have a look at some of the ways in which you can jazz up your dinner without having to pile on the salt….
It’s fiery, lip-smacking and incredibly good for you! Pepper contains an active ingredient called piperine, which research suggests not only has superb anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties but also actually increases the absorption of other beneficial nutrients in your diet. That’s why supplements containing things like the hugely healthy spice Turmeric are often paired with black pepper so that our bodies can use it to its full potential. So buy some peppercorns, get out your pepper mill and get grinding!
Nutritional yeast is a product that needs a snappy name change! It doesn’t sound very appetising, but those ‘in the know’ are aware of what a wonderful product this is. Deeply cheesy to a degree that a lot of vegan cheese struggles to achieve, it’s hugely versatile and can be used in sauces, pastry, toppings and a whole host of dishes. Incredibly savoury, it gives a delicious ‘umami’ hit to food, and is an essential ingredient in vegan mac & cheese. It’s also an excellent source of B-vitamins and various essential minerals, and all of course without any animal involvement. Truly a win-win situation!
There are few things finer than the sultry taste of smoked paprika sprinkled over a pan of slowly-fried peppers with onions and garlic. A mainstay of South American cooking, paprika is full of carotenoids, capsanthin, capsorubin and loads of other beneficial plant compounds. It’s great for people who can’t handle the heat of chillies but still want all the warm flavour. Why not try this awesome vegan paprika cheese recipe?
Aminos are pretty much indistinguishable from soy sauce in looks, taste, consistency and usefulness, but with a smaller amount of sodium, which makes them a more heart-healthy choice. They’re most commonly made using coconut and are brilliant sprinkled on noodles, chow mein, fried mushrooms and an array of dishes which require a salty, savoury addition.
The alliums - garlic, onion and chives
Most of us would be lost in the kicthen if we didn’t start most of the dishes we make by chopping up an onion! We’ve come to accept the fact we have to have a little chopping-time cry to be able to enjoy the mellow, savoury-sweet unctuousness of slow-cooked onions. The flavour boost that they (and their pungent cousin garlic) give to dishes is immense, and when you factor in the whole family (chives and leeks especially), it’s almost impossible to make flavourless food! They also come with a massive range of health benefits, especially garlic, which studies suggest can fight everything from heart disease and cancer to the common cold.
Heat! Chillies, horseradish, mustard and wasabi
While not for everyone, a blast of fiery heat from ingredients like these can delight and tantalise your taste buds. Chillies come in hundreds of shapes, varieties and levels of intensity, and their main active ingredient capsaicin has been shown to have powerful anti-obesity effects. Mustard is equally at home in a sandwich in its condiment form, or used whole at the start of cooking a curry, while horseradish and wasabi are often seen as different sides of the same coin and lend a distinct burst of joy to sushi and veggie dishes alike.
Vinegar is a brilliant ingredient, and comes in many forms, from the fresh, zippy hit of Apple Cider Vinegar to the sweeter, mellower flavour of Balsamic Vinegar. It gives a brisk, sprightly boost to vinaigrettes and marinades and is an essential preservative for making pickles with. Best of all, it appears to activate an enzyme in humans called AMPK, which tells our bodies to stop storing fat and start burning it. Studies have suggested it also slows down the rate at which food leaves the stomach, which makes us feel fuller for longer.
You have to watch out with stock cubes! So many of them contain fearsome amounts of salt these days. Luckily, Kallo has managed to get buckets of lovely flavour into their tiny little squares of savouriness, but without the colossal sodium levels of some of their competitors – so unwrap, crumble, stir and enjoy! We love their Vegetable Stock Cubes especially, as the flavour in intensified with the addition of several garden herbs such as lovage, rosemary, thyme and oregano.
