Topic: Low-salt curries; how can you make them taste as good as restaurant ones?

[ericbristow]

Hi all, first post so be kind and all that!

Like everyone else on here, I love curry and have spent many happy hours in the kitchen of late trying to replicate the best ones you get in restaurants.

However, there is one sticking point for me personally; having been diagnosed with high blood pressure last year, I've been advised by my GP to stick to a low salt diet. Indeed, I've become rather obsessive about it, to the extent that I always check everything I buy for its salt content and never add salt when cooking my own meals from scratch. Of course, some ingredients such as prepackaged spice mixes and stock cubes already contain salt, but I try to keep these to a minimum. Were it not for my girlfriend, I wouldn't keep any salt in the house at all!

This of course creates a problem when trying to replicate restaurant curries, as many of them are extremely high in salt; it's not always noticeable if you're used to salty food, but since going on my low-salt diet, I find it extremely noticeable to the extent that some meals I used to enjoy I now find virtually inedible!

So my question is; is it possible to create restaurant-standard curries without using salt?

[Razor]

Hi Eric (I so wish/hope you're the real Eric, he was/is a legend to me) and a warm welcome to cr0.

As for Salt, forum member Phil(chaa006) uses it in large amounts and can't get enough of the stuff.  I don't use it in such quantities and have often left it out of my main dish, and have still enjoyed a good curry.

I think that there are enough spices in a curry to get away with not using salt but I guess it's a personal thing, and something that you're going to need to play with.

All the best,

Ray

[PaulP]

Hi Eric,

It's worth remembering that you would die if you didn't eat any salt at all.

I don't like my food too salty and I aim for between 1.5 and 2 grams of salt per portion.
That's close to between a quarter and a third of a teaspoon.

I figured out that my curry meals are about 800 calories, which is a third of my daily requirements.
So in effect I'm eating a third of my calories with a third of my recommended daily salt maximum which is about 6 grams.

Compare that to some supermarket cans of soup with only 300 calories and 2.4 grams of salt.
I would continue to put some salt in your curries, food can taste really bland without it even with all those spices.

You have to read the labels carefully if you're trying to lower your salt consumption. Bread is quite high and most ready meals and tinned meals can be very high. Corned beef is really high in salt although I do like the occasional corn beef sarnie.

No doubt Phil will be along to say he likes curry with his salt. 

Cheers,

Paul

[Peripatetic Phil]

No doubt Phil will be along to say he likes curry with his salt. 

There may be some truth in that   Certainly in my teenage years the landlord of my local (then "The Farmhouse", on the Eltham/Chislehurst border; landlord's name Mark Medhurst) would ask if I would like some pie with my mustard (each evening I would have one of his kept-hot-for-72-hours-non-stop pies, and would cover it with sufficient mustard to disguise the "flavour" of the gunge that lurked inside ...).  But curries and salt -- well, personal preferences apart, there is one rule that I have never seen documented elsewhere, yet to me it is vital : as the heat goes up (i.e., the chilli content), so must the salt.  At the time when I was still eating Bangalore Phals as my everyday lunchtime or evening treat, I soon learned that nothing ruins a Phal more than upping the chilli content without upping the salt to match.

But to Eric (180) Bristow : my blood pressure is always low, so I can easily tolerate high salt levels; as yours is high, follow your own good inclinations and don't listen to idiots like me who don't have to worry about such things ...

** Phil.

P.S. My current tendon injury (right shoulder) was caused by darts, so there is no risk of my challenging for your title !

[Razor]

Hey Phil,

there is one rule that I have never seen documented elsewhere, yet to me it is vital : as the heat goes up (i.e., the chilli content), so must the salt.

I have never heard that before, very interesting.  I have read a recipe once where it was said "don't worry about the high level of sugar, the chilli content will balance it out" or words to that effect.

I could live without salt in my curries though but I couldn't cut it out altogether I don't think.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

I have never heard that before, very interesting.  I have read a recipe once where it was said "don't worry about the high level of sugar, the chilli content will balance it out" or words to that effect.

May be a similar effect.  What I found, specifically, was that if the chilli content was increased but the salt content was not, then the chilli flavour would completely mask all of the other, more subtle, spices; adding salt restored the balance, in that it did nothing to enhance either the flavour or the heat of the chillies but it /did/ enhance the flavour of the less pungent spices.

** Phil.

[loveitspicy]

wwwwwonnnnnnn huuuuuuundred annnnnnnnnd eeeeighty! and now for double top!! Wow what a star if you are?

Listen mate a pinch (dont pinch too much) to a quarter of a tsp (not heaped) in at the start with the garlic and ginger then the normal spices etc etc and base and all the other ingredients that you are using - a little pinch of salt helps sweeten the g&g - thats what ive found and you dont have to use too much at all

I like my salt in my curries but the above will help you keep some flavour and not too much salt at all - in fact there will be probably less than if you would shake some on a bag of chips - if you know what i mean

best, Rich

[chewytikka]

Hi EB
Welcome to cR0
Loads of Lo-Salt alternatives on the market.

Why not try some of the cR0 recipes with and without salt and see how it goes.
Most of my recipes only call for a pinch of salt and that's just a reflex in my cooking.

cheers Chewy

[curryhell]

You could also try using all purpose seasoning  as a substitute.   I believe there is either some salt or even msg in it but it does make a good substitute.  I use it regularly for the taste rather than out of necessity.  Welcome to CR0 Crafty Cockney

[PaulP]

You could also try using all purpose seasoning  as a substitute.   I believe there is either some salt or even msg in it but it does make a good substitute.  I use it regularly for the taste rather than out of necessity.  Welcome to CR0 Crafty Cockney

Good point CH, I keep meaning to get some then forgeting again. Must be my age 

Cheers,

Paul