In this post, I thought I'd sure a few cooking and baking tips that I implement on a daily basis to create dishes that are lower in sodium and sugar and overall provide more nutrients.
Whenever I read a recipe, I make a mental note of all the ingredients that have sodium in them. If the dish calls for salt, I normally omit it since plenty of sodium will come in other ways. For example, if a recipe calls for cheese, soy sauce (even low sodium), broths, or other high sodium ingredients, I've found that the dish is always more than tasty not adding the salt. The exception would be yeast breads where the salt is essential for a good-tasting result.
When stir frying vegetables or meat, you can be just as successful replacing the oil with water.
When baking a sweet breads or any dessert, I normally half the sugar amounts - especially if the bread has fruit in it (such as apples or bananas). It is still plenty sweet but with half the calories!
Applesauce can be a replacement for oil in baking, and plain yogurt can be substituted for mayonnaises. I do this on a regular basis and notice nothing unusual in flavor or texture. If anything, applesauce will make food more moist.
When I bake yeast breads, I try to use both whole wheat and unbleached flour. The whole wheat flour can make bread more dense, but the added fiber has so many benefits.
When I bake sandwich breads or rolls, I sometimes throw in a little wheat germ or some chai seeds for added nutrition.
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