Chipotle Pepper, Corn, and Chicken Chowder #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: With December upon us, the search for a delicious low-sodium soup continues! In this case, I wanted to make a chicken, corn, chipotle combination, as John has been yearning for a corn, potato, and sausage chowder that I used to make but can't eat right now. (Most sausage is laced with sodium.)
The secret, I'm finding, is lots of other flavor...

Then I realized that I'd finished up my chipotles, so I substituted Penzey's Arizona Dreamin' spice mix, which has no salt but lots of yummy peppers among other spices. I also found no-salt added versions of corn and creamed corn--a score! We liked the cilantro garnish a lot, and also used hot pepper sauce at the table (and John, some salt!)

Ingredients:

1 tsp Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming, or 1 or 2 dried chipotle chiles, soaked in 2 tbsp olive oil and chopped, or 1 tsp cumin
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bunch scallions, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large box chicken stock, low sodium
5-6 small red potatoes, peeled and diced small
3-4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded 
2 cups diced, cooked chicken
1 can sweet corn, drained (no salt added)
1 can cream-style corn (no salt added)
Chopped cilantro, to garnish Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a soup pan and saute the chopped red peppers, the scallions, the chipotle peppers, and the spices until the vegetables are soft. Add the flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring so it doesn’t stick.Slowly stir in the box of chicken stock, stir until thick and bubbly. Add the potatoes and simmer about ten minutes. Add the chicken and both kinds of corn and heat through. (You can thin this down with some milk or a little more broth if it seems too thick.) Stir in the cheese and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve with Tabasco or other hot sauce on the side.

 Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries.  Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

Cauliflower Stuffed Potatoes #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Who doesn't love a baked potato stuffed full of cheese, sour cream, butter, and crispy bacon? But for those of us who can't or shouldn't indulge in those treats, here's another more grown-up option. These potatoes do well served alongside any meat or even stand alone as part of the vegetarian dinner if you add a lovely green salad.

 

Ingredients
6 to 8 russet potatoes
One head of cauliflower
Low salt chicken broth or milk
2 to 3 Bay leaves
3 tablespoons butter
Shredded Swiss or Parmesan cheese, optional
Freshly ground black pepper
 
Preheat the oven to 350, and bake the whole potatoes until soft. Time will vary according to the size of the potatoes you have chosen. Meanwhile, cut the flowers off the cauliflower stalks and steam them in an inch or so of milk or chicken broth along with the bay leaves.

When the cauliflower is soft, remove the bay leaves, add the butter, and mash with an immersion blender or mixer. (Don't throw away the liquid!) When the potatoes are done baking, let them cool. Cut them lengthwise and then scrape the insides into the pot with the mashed cauliflower. Mix well, and add cheese and freshly ground pepper to taste. 




Stuff the potato shells with this mixture and bake another half hour until the tops are brown and potato skins crispy. (If you are a garlic lover, you might a couple of cloves of roasted garlic beaten into the potato mixture.)






Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries.  Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

Potato Leek Asparagus Soup #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Always on the hunt for a decent low-sodium soup, I decided to try a potato leek version. Lately I've been using Daily Pantry brand organic low-sodium chicken broth, and it's pretty good--more flavor than some of the others. I also planned to add celery, thyme, garlic and two bay leaves for extra zip. 

who could resist this?

And then John showed up with a lovely bunch of asparagus, so I took the thinnest stalks and sautéed them in a little more butter, to be sprinkled on the top with chopped chives. I'm not going to lie, the soup would be better with a half teaspoon of salt stirred in. But it was pretty darn good as is. And the folks who aren't worried about sodium can add salt at the table.

Ingredients

Three leeks
One clove garlic
Three stalks celery
Three large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
One large box good quality low-sodium chicken broth
Four ounces unsalted butter
Two sprigs of fresh thyme
Two bay leaves
4-6 stalks tender asparagus
Heavy cream
Fresh chives
Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Trim the leeks so you are working only with the white and palest green parts. Cut them in half lengthwise and wash them well, as there is nothing worse then grit in your soup. (Or suit, as my dictation program insisted. And that's probably true!) Chop the leeks along with the celery, and one or more cloves of garlic. Melt three tablespoons of butter in a large pot and add the chopped vegetables. When everything is well wilted, add the stock along with the chunks of peeled potato, the bay leaves, and the thyme.
Simmer until the potatoes are soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Then use your immersion blender to to purée the cooked mixture. You may leave some chunky sections if you like that texture. Add about a half cup heavy cream and stir that in. 

soup is so hard to photograph!

Serve the soup with the sautéed asparagus and chopped chives and freshly ground pepper on top.

We had a salad on the side, but you couldn't go wrong with a nice plate of biscuits or some crusty peasant bread.

The seventh Key West mystery, KILLER TAKEOUT, is on bookshelves everywhere. What about yours?

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My Tweaked Version of Jane Brody’s Stuffed Cabbage, #lowsodium @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I've been making Jane Brody’s stuffed cabbage from her Good Food Cookbook for years. It takes some time to put it together, but it makes a huge pot that can be eaten for several meals. Or eat some now and freeze the rest for later. 

It's perfect for early March, a hearty dish not quite ready for spring. Of course I made my low-sodium tweaks, using no salt tomatoes and low salt sodium chicken broth, but it was really pretty darn good. 
The only tricky part is the cabbage leaves. My advice is to boil the whole head of cabbage until the outer leaves get soft. Then cut them off, return the head to the simmering water, repeat. To make the rolls behave, cut out the vein. You don't have to worry  about making the rolls perfect, as they'll all come together in the end.

 
Ingredients

one head green cabbage
2 onions, one half finally chopped, the other 1 and 1/2 thinly sliced
16 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 pound ground beef
3 Tbsp uncooked rice
3 Tbsp water
1 egg
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup honey

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil and drop the cabbage in. Cut off the leaves as they soften, returning the head to the pot each time. 


Combine the ground beef, uncooked rice, egg, finely chopped onion, water and mix this together well. Take about two tablespoons of the meat mixture and roll it into a leaf. 
 





Continue until the stuffing is gone, and then chop any remaining cabbage. 


Meanwhile, sauté the onions until soft, and then add the tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer.

Nestle the rolls in sauce along with any leftover cabbage and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Add the lemon juice,honey, and raisins and simmer another half hour. Serve in soup bowls. Mmmm, I've made myself hungry!

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Chickpeas for Dinner? Say what?? #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Did you know that sautéed or roasted chickpeas are back in vogue? I figured this out when I saw a recipe in Bon Appétit and another on a site I've been cruising called Blue zones, which is about the places in the world where people live the longest and happiest. Of course researchers are very interested in what they eat (and don't eat.)

John was surprised to see this as his supper, but after he got over the shock, we quite enjoyed it as a light meal on the way out to the movies. And another bonus: you can feel very good about what you've eaten! (Maybe even slip in a little bowl of ice cream later...)

Ingredients

One 15 ounce can of low-sodium chickpeas
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil and a pat of butter if you like
Two crushed cloves fresh garlic
Several dashes spices--this can be cumin or cayenne or chili pepper or turmeric; I used Penzey's Arizona Dreaming
Quarter cup chopped herbs of your choice (we used basil and dill)
Several generous handfuls fresh kale
Two eggs
Rinse the chickpeas well. Sauté them in olive oil and butter with the crushed garlic and spices, 10 to 15 minutes until they begin to brown. Don't go too long or they'll get dry. Mix in the fresh herbs and set aside.
 





Sauté the kale quickly until it just wilts. In another pan, cook the eggs to your liking, ours were over medium.
 




Assemble the dinner: mix chickpeas and kale on the plate and arrange the fried egg to the side of the greens. That's it! Dinner is served and then off to the movies...

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Company-Worthy Roast Chicken #recipe #lowsodium @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: In addition to casting about for low salt dishes that I can enjoy, I've had the challenge of identifying things to cook that guests will like. I've had a couple of very kind friends make delicious low sodium dinners for me. How I appreciate that! 

Here's the note that my friend Pat left by my plate when we went to her home. Isn't this sweet? She was astonished at how much sodium is in everything.

Anyway, enough about that today! Instead of any more whining, I will give you a roast chicken that's not hard to make and is full of flavor. And then your sodium fiends can add salt as necessary. 


The important key to this is to choose a good chicken. I use either Publix greenwise organic chickens or Bell and Evans. Neither of these have been pre-brined, important if you are watching sodium, and which you might not even think you had to think of! They are more expensive, but to my mind well worth it.

Ingredients

One whole chicken (I'll say it again, please don't scrimp here!)
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1 to 2 teaspoons lemon zest
The lemon that has been zested
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

For the side dish, carrots and small potatoes, olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Remove the wrappings from the chicken, cut off any big pieces of excess fat, and make sure the cavity is empty. Mash together the lemon zest, garlic, parsley and butter. Carefully loosen the skin from the top of the chicken and use your fingers to spread the butter mixture under the skin. For a more lemony flavor, stuff the quarters of the lemon you zested into the chicken cavity.

Roast the chicken until a meat thermometer reads 165 and the juices run clear when you cut into the joint between leg and breast. The timing is going to vary depending on your oven. (Like MJ/Victoria, I also have a rocky relationship with my oven.)

 



While the chicken is cooking, cut the fingerlings in two lengthwise, and peel the carrots and cut them into chunks. Douse them in olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper on a baking sheet. 

(If I was eating salt, I would also salt them. Instead, I used some Benton's Table Tasty for some extra flavor.) 

 


About a half hour into the roasting, place the vegetables into the oven and roast them too, until they are soft and brown . Serve with something green and you have a delicious company-worthy dinner!




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Spaghetti Sauce with or without Meatballs #lowsodium #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Finding a decent lower sodium red pasta sauce is harder than you might think. In the past, I've used Classico red pepper sauce when a shortcut was needed for an Italian dish. But the sodium count in that sauce is higher than I should be eating. I tried a few low or no salt sauces and found them lacking in taste. Honestly? They were terrible. So what's a girl to do? Make her own, in a big batch, in order to freeze some for the future. And keep in mind, you can adjust ingredients as you prefer.

Ingredients for the sauce

Three large cans diced tomatoes in juice, no salt added
One large can crushed tomatoes in sauce
Two large onions
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
Five carrots
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon or more hot red pepper flakes
Two bay leaves
1 tablespoon sugar, more to taste
1/2 cup red wine
A handful of fresh parsley, chopped
8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
One can tomato paste

Grind the carrots in your food processor, followed by the onions and garlic. Sauté all this in a large pot with 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil. When the vegetables are soft, add the tomato products, plus oregano hot pepper flakes, bay leaves, and red wine. 

Once that mixture has simmered for 15 minutes, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar depending on your taste, and the chopped parsley and basil.

Simmer the sauce for 1 to 2 hours. I used some of it for spaghetti and meatballs, and saved the rest for a giant pan of stuffed shells.

Here's my recipe for low-sodium meatballs:
 
1 1/4 pound organic ground beef
Three squares of low sodium cornbread (I had some in my freezer, made using my regular cornbread recipe, only replacing no sodium baking powder for the regular baking powder, and cutting the salt)
One egg
1 teaspoon lower sodium Worcestershire sauce (I like the Annie's organic brand, 75 mg per teaspoon)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
One large garlic clove, crushed
 
Crumble the cornbread. Mix all the ingredients together, taking care to distribute everything so you don't leave little packets of garlic or spices. In a 350 oven, bake the meatballs until browned, about half an hour. I did mine on a cookie tray lined with parchment, so the cleanup was very easy. Turn the meatballs halfway through so both sides brown.

Mix the cooked meatballs with the sauce and serve with a little fresh grated Parmesan. (I'm sorry to say that we ate this dinner before I remembered to take a photo:). 

All the tomato products added up to about 1500 mg of sodium, and there are probably 15 servings in the pot. Compare that to the sauce I formerly used, Classico spicy red pepper, 310 mg for half a cup. 1500 for the jar, which serves five.

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Sally Bell’s Potato Salad Knockoff #recipe #lowsodium @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE:  when we drive to Florida in the fall, and back north in the spring, we have developed one must-stop lunch place. Sally Bell’s Kitchen is in downtown Richmond and when you walk in, you feel like you’ve fallen back to an earlier time, with grandmothers in aprons and hairnets making you a Southern lunch. You choose your preferred sandwich and cupcake (strawberry in this case, though the caramel icing is killer,) and then potato salad, a deviled egg, and a Parmesan wafer are added. And the packaging is adorable—each lunch comes in a little white cardboard box, tied up with string.

We love everything about the lunch, but especially the potato salad. I wondered if I could make something that tasted like Sally Bell’s potato salad, which is a little sweet, and thus maybe lower-sodium. I started with Vicky Yates’s recipe and then tweaked. Here’re my results, which we liked a lot. 

Ingredients
Servings: 6-8

    2 1/2 pounds medium red-skinned potatoes, washed, with bad spots cut out (about 7-8)
    1  teaspoon BENTON’S TABLE TASTY (or salt if you don’t need low sodium)
    1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Woodstock organic)
    3 tablespoons Rick’s pickle relish with juice (or other sweet, high-quality)
    1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more
    5 large hard-boiled eggs, just the yolks folks
    2 tablespoons chopped red onion
    2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
    Paprika


    Cut the potatoes into quarters, cover with water and simmer until tender when pierced with a knife, 20–30 minutes. Drain. Place potatoes in a large bowl and let cool slightly.

    Meanwhile, whisk mayonnaise, pickle relish, Dijon mustard, sugar, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 1 tsp. Table Tasty in a small bowl for dressing.  Add onion and parsley.
    



Using a large wooden spoon or potato masher, coarsely smash potatoes.
    Add egg yolks to potatoes and coarsely smash them together. Then gently mix in the dressing. Cover and chill.
    
 Dust the top of the bowl with paprika.

Sodium count for the whole bowl, which made at least 10 servings: Benton’s Table Tasty, 0 mg, 5 egg yolks, 170 mg, potatoes, under 70 mg, Rick’s pickle relish, 225/3 TBSP, Woodstock organic mayo, 480/half cup, Dijon mustard, about 200 mg/1.5 TBSP. Approximately 130 mg sodium for a BIG serving.

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