Healthy low/no salt dishes for Thanksgiving? FIL can't have salt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for extended family but FIL just had a major heart issue and can't have salt or high fat food (like butter, etc.), I don't know what to cook. It would be rude to cook regular Thanksgiving dishes but give him something different to eat, at the same time, are there healthy recipes that everyone would enjoy? Thank you!

You should give him his own unsalted/low fat dishes, instead of making everyone at dinner suffer. Unseasoned food is not appetizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t salt be added afterward for most foods? Let people salt their own foods.

Not if you want it to taste good. Seasoning and salt during cooking produces a different flavor and texture then if you salt after.

You should just make him a separate meal.

+1. I would just pull out portions for him when cooking and leave them unsalted. I wouldn't serve all the other guests unsalted food. That seems more rude to me than making a separate plate for the one person with a dietary issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can cook and divide:

Mashed potatoes: cook them, mash them, take a portion out. Season the remainder as normal. In the portion, you can add butter, milk, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder or alternatively season with one of the Mrs Dash's seasonings.
Steamed veggies, you can steam them, then separate and season. steam veggies with a touch of butter, oregano, basil, and great
Dressing, you can mix up the bread with everything but the salt, dish out a portion then salt the rest. Put the dished out portion into a smaller baking dish and adjust the seasonings if needed, then bake the two together.

And so on. It isn't that hard to cook the same dishes and take out portions before salting and then cooking together. If you don't have separate dishes, you can get foil pans of all different sizes from the supermarket when you are shopping and cook the salt-free portions in those. It also helps you identify for everyone else which portions are the salt-free ones for your FIL.

If he truly is on a no/very limited sodium diet than dress/stuffing is out! Bread is very high in sodium to begin with.

[Anonymous]

I would ask him what his favorite dishes are and focus on having acceptable options for those. No sense in making a recipe for no salt, no butter Brussels sprouts and then discover he hates BS.

[Anonymous]

Can he really have NO salt? Or is he limited to 1500 mg daily? Find out -- I somewhat doubt it's truly a "zero salt" diet.

[Anonymous]

Salt free antipasto…artichoke hearts (can in water), cherry tomatoes, cucumber, hummus, mini naan rounds, few slices of fresh mozzzarella drizzle with evoo and sweet balsamic (a dab will do ya) filet mignon grilled in pan with seasonings other than salt, baked or roasted sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t salt be added afterward for most foods? Let people salt their own foods.

This is what my mom does, because she has to eat minimal salt. We all understand, but the food is pretty bad. Brining a turkey is much different than salting a dry turkey. Mashed potatoes made with salted butter is much different than made with unsalted butter and salted after.

I would focus on some vegetable side dishes that are low salt, and then make a few things special for the FIL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Salt free antipasto…artichoke hearts (can in water), cherry tomatoes, cucumber, hummus, mini naan rounds, few slices of fresh mozzzarella drizzle with evoo and sweet balsamic (a dab will do ya) filet mignon grilled in pan with seasonings other than salt, baked or roasted sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce

DP: You might want to Check the sodium counts for the artichoke hearts, the naan, the hummus, and maybe the mozzarella — unless the naan and the hummus are homemade. Depending on the brand, all of these foods can be quite high in sodium per serving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can he really have NO salt? Or is he limited to 1500 mg daily? Find out -- I somewhat doubt it's truly a "zero salt" diet.

I agree with this.
Also, my grandfather couldn't eat much salt because of heart issues (he lived to 92...he really managed it well). I was taught to cook with very little salt, although I certainly use more now than I used to. Also, I regularly cook for different family members with other health issues that avoid different things.
Depending on your FIL (his personality, your relationship, etc), I would recommend:
* finding out how much he can actually have
* find out if he has a few dishes that are really important to him-- figure out how to adapt them and/or make some separately for him
* make sure that there are a few things that he 'knows' he can eat. He doesn't need to 'have' everything

When you do cook, herbs are really critical without salt. Yes, most food tastes better with salt ...but quite a bit of food can be very tasty without it, esp if someone is not accustomed to already eating a lot of salt

Here are some lower salt things related to traditional thanksgiving that I would recommend:
cranberry sauce (easy to make without salt; not sure about the canned, but you can make it fresh with cranberries, orange juice, sugar, seasoning like nutmeg, vanilla)
roasted and/or steamed veggies- many taste better with salt, but perfectly tasty without-- use olive oil and some herbs. You can add salt to roasted veggies at the end anyway, so you can keep some salt free if you want
consider if he would want fresh fish vs. turkey; fresh fish like a piece of fresh baked salmon is easy to have salt-free but with lots of flavor like herbs and lemon (this non-thanksgiving dish may be the most controversial thing I'm writing
cornbread is tough because bread and cake tend to have a lot of salt but you could always make a corn salad also
I agree with the other rec for sweet potatoes-- they are very tasty if cooked and served with some butter or olive oil. Personally, I don't like white potatoes without salt.




For dessert, you can offer Berries and Cream

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sweet potatoes? The sweet potato casserole I make isn't high salt or fat (but it is higher sugar). But mostly I would really question whether you need to adapt that much. Its one meal. If his issues are larger requiring a broader lifestyle change than does one meal on a special occasion really matter? If its more acute and he would have bad outcomes from one meal I would try to accommodate and hold small portions on the side for him. I would not try to cook a low salt meal for a group.

+1 this

[Anonymous]

The fact that people are having a fit about the possibility of eating unsalted foods is a good indicator of the dietary challenges in this country.

[Anonymous]

Just don't add salt to anything, and don't use pre-seasoned stuffing croutons. Season it yourself.

[Anonymous]

And use olive oil rather than butter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t salt be added afterward for most foods? Let people salt their own foods.

This is what my mom does, because she has to eat minimal salt. We all understand, but the food is pretty bad. Brining a turkey is much different than salting a dry turkey. Mashed potatoes made with salted butter is much different than made with unsalted butter and salted after.

I would focus on some vegetable side dishes that are low salt, and then make a few things special for the FIL.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that people are having a fit about the possibility of eating unsalted foods is a good indicator of the dietary challenges in this country.

There’s an ocean (salty pun intended) separating a high sodium diet and not cooking with salt at all.
Count me in the camp who says cook him separate side dishes (steamed vegetables sound like his best bet if he’s to avoid too much sodium and fat) with some turkey breast as the main.