If you happen to be wandering through Washington Square Park
near NYU in New York City, be sure to look for NY Dosas, a vegan Indian food
cart. They are open for lunch Monday through Saturday and offer dishes
including masala dosas, uthappam, idly, roti and vegetables, samosas, and more.
A friend recently confided that she was trying to reduce her
sodium intake because her blood pressure is elevated and she’s trying, with her
doctor’s approval, to see if she can lower it through diet. As we talked, I realized, that, despite being
open to the idea of reducing sodium, she wasn’t sure what changes to make. She’s already on the right track – she
doesn’t use many processed foods and she eats a lot of fresh fruits and
vegetables and she enjoys cooking. Here are some ideas I shared with her.
1. Read the Nutrition Facts section of the label. Different
companies have products that vary in sodium content. Even if the label doesn’t
say “low sodium,” you may find a product that is lower in sodium than its
competitors. For example, looking at a supermarket shelf of canned beans, I
found a range of 90-450 milligrams of sodium per ½ cup serving. Choose the
lowest sodium product and you’ve saved as much as 360 milligrams of sodium.
2. Drain and rinse canned beans. You may have noticed that many recipes in Vegan Journal call for canned beans,
drained and rinsed. The reason we suggest this is that up to 40% of the sodium
in a canned product can be rinsed away. So, if you choose a can of beans with a
label value of 200 milligrams of sodium, you can reduce the sodium by as much
as 80 milligrams by draining and rinsing the beans.
3. Add no salt added tomato sauce to jarred pasta
sauce. Jarred vegan pasta sauce can be a
convenience whether you’re using it to top a pizza crust, in vegan lasagna, or
tossed with pasta. You can reduce its
sodium content by mixing it with purchased no salt added tomato sauce in the
ratio of your choice – 1 cup tomato sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, 2 cups tomato
sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, etc. Add a little oregano and basil, if you like. If
you decide to use the 1:1 ratio of pasta sauce to tomato sauce, you’ve reduced
the sodium in a ½ cup serving of pasta sauce from, say, 470 milligrams to 255
milligrams.
4. Mix salty snacks with unsalted snacks. If you like to snack on salted nuts or salted
pretzels, buy a bag of unsalted nuts or unsalted pretzels and make your own
reduced sodium mix. You can adjust the ratio of salted product to unsalted
product and as you get used to eating food with less salt, you may find that
you’re using much more of the unsalted product and less of the salted one. If
you start with a 1:1 ratio, you might save 75 milligrams of sodium in a ¼ cup
serving of nuts or as much as 250 milligrams of sodium in a 1 ounce serving of
pretzels.
5. Toss the flavoring packet. Products like ramen noodles are convenient
but they are super salty. Much of their salt comes from the flavoring packet.
You can discard it and flavor the noodles with a low sodium spice blend. If
that’s not an option, start by using just a small bit of the seasoning packet
and taste before adding more. If you’re eating a package of ramen noodles, you
could reduce their sodium from 730 milligrams to 25 milligrams just by
discarding the unopened flavoring packet.
6. Make your own condiments. Salad dressings, barbecue
sauce, salsa, even catsup can be sources of lots of sodium. While you may not
want to make all of these products, choosing a couple that you use frequently
and finding recipes for them where you control the added salt (and use reduced
sodium ingredients where possible) can cut sodium markedly. For instance, a
commercial barbecue sauce might have 300-400 milligrams of sodium per 2 Tablespoons.
Making your own with tomato paste could give you a product with 20 milligrams
of sodium per 2 Tablespoons. There are some commercial reduced sodium barbecue sauces,
but I could only find one kind in area stores.
7. Find or make a low-sodium vegetable broth. Many vegan
recipes call for vegetable broth.
Aseptically packaged vegan broths could have 600 milligrams or more of
sodium per cup. Vegan broth base or
bouillon could result in broth with as much as 800 milligrams of sodium per cup
of broth. You could make your own broth
using fresh vegetables and adding little or no salt, use a commercial low-sodium
vegan broth, or you could replace the broth called for in a recipe with 1 part
of regular commercial broth and 1 part of water (or even more water and less
broth). If you’re working with a well-seasoned recipe, it’s likely that you
won’t even notice that you didn’t use as much broth as was called for.
Replacing a cup of commercial vegan broth with a cup of low-sodium vegan broth
could save as much as 680 milligrams of sodium.
8. Flavor food creatively. Salt is often added to commercial
products as an inexpensive way to flavor food instead of using more expensive
herbs and spices for flavor. If you do your own cooking, you can change that.
Experiment with herbs, spices, vinegars, fruit juices, and other ingredients to
enable you to cut the salt without sacrificing flavor.
9. When using a recipe, don’t feel bound to use the amount
of salt called for. I’ve found that in many recipes I can use half or even less
of the salt in the recipe without noticing it. You can always add salt but it’s
hard to take it out once it’s been added to a dish. Many of our recipes in Vegan Journal call for salt to taste,
encouraging the person preparing the recipe to use their own judgement rather
than relying on someone else’s idea of how salty a dish needs to be. If you
don’t add a lot of salt to a recipe, people can add the amount of salt that
they like at the table.
10. Be aware of salty ingredients like miso, soy sauce,
tamari, and liquid aminos. If the recipe has these ingredients, it probably
doesn’t need additional salt added. And, just as you might do with table salt,
taste the dish before adding salty ingredients – it’s likely that you won’t
need as much as the recipe calls for.
Have you had the opportunity to enjoy all the vegan dining options in Maryland? If not, Maryland Vegan Restaurant Week(s) is the perfect time to enjoy different types of vegan cuisine including soul food from Land of Kush in Baltimore (we recommend their combo platter so you can try several dishes); Koshary in Clarksville serving up Egyptian street food including soups, salads, and bowls; Harmony Bakery in Baltimore caters to the gluten-free market with delicious baked goods and savory dishes; Stem + Farm and Kitchen located in RHouse in the Remington neighborhood of Baltimore offers healthy bowls, salads, fresh juices, and more; and also located in Remington Sweet 27’s vegan menu includes gluten-free items such as Orange Tofu, Garlic Tomato Tofu, Cauliflower Manchurian, and Ginger Cilantro Tofu.
The Vegetarian Resource Group is a vegan activist non-profit organization that does outreach all-year-long. For example, VRG has been participating in numerous virtual events by providing speakers on a wide variety of vegan topics. We also send literature free of charge to other groups/individuals doing educational activities in schools, hospitals, camps, restaurants, libraries, offices, etc. Our ability to continue doing this depends on people like you! Your donations allow us to promote the vegan message whenever we’re called upon for assistance. Please consider becoming a monthly, quarterly, or single-time donor to The Vegetarian Resource Group.
Thanks so much for your support.
You can make a donation online here: www.vrg.org/donate
Once again VRG staff members ate a delicious lunch at
Franchia located at 12 Park Ave. in Manhattan, NY. We were
able to dine outdoors (indoor seating is also available) and greatly enjoyed
their Asian fusion dishes including Mango Salad, Penang Noodles in Spicy Curry & Coconut
Broth, and Soy ‘Meat’ & Wonton with Noodles in Vegetable Broth.
Have you ever wondered if an
ingredient listed on a food label is vegan or not? The Vegetarian Resource
Group has an online guide to food ingredients that lets you now whether a
specific food ingredient is vegan, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, typically vegan,
typically vegetarian, may be non-vegetarian, or typically non-vegetarian.
Are you searching for vegan sporting goods? If so, you might
want to check out Eco Sports. Here you’ll
find items for both children and adults including basket balls, soccer balls, and
volley balls.
If you have an opportunity to visit Chinatown in New York
City, you should dine at Bodhi at 77 Mulberry Street. This vegan Chinese
restaurant serves a wide variety of vegan Dim Sum along with soups, sushi, and
main dishes. VRG staff members recently enjoyed their wonton soup and vegetable
chicken and corn soup, along with braised soybean skin with vegetables and chow
fun with vegan chicken.
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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