Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My mom is trying to lower her blood pressure by majorly reducing salt and animal products from her diet (yay!) She's experimenting with tofu now and looking for suggestions on how to cook it. She is a really really good cook and loves vegetables, just doesn't have much experience with tofu. Any suggestions for her? She likes flavorful dishes, but nothing spicy.

We used to make a lot of stir frys for my dad without any salt. We would use a lot of garlic and ginger. Toasted sesame oil will also add a lot of flavor. It's hard to get used to no salt at first, but it starts to taste normal after a while.

When I was growing up, my mom used to special order this salt free soy sauce from a Japanese market. I remember it had alcohol in it, but I don't remember a brand name or anything and we would use that, too.

if you marinated tofu in a lot of garlic, lemon juice, vinegar and maybe salt free broth, you can get a lot of flavor without the salt.

I've seen a lot of pins from http://www.carrieonvegan.com, who doesn't use any salt in her recipes, on pinterest and as far as I can see she has two tofu recipes: Cannelini bean tofu spread and tofu burger. I haven't tried any of this blogger's recipes, but maybe it could be something for your mom to try, or just give her some inspiration.

I don't have any specific recipes in mind, but I have noticed that when I add lemon juice to a recipe, it seems to override my desire to add salt.

This may be a 'no duh' suggestion, but if she eats a lot of frozen meals and the like, cutting out those will really help with salt because even vegan, organic frozen meals load up on sodium.

I agree with this. I made a really lemony batch of hummus the other day, and I hardly needed to add any salt at all.

Fourthing lemon juice and lime. I like salt a little bit too much, but I love a lemony herby tofu.

i also like a lot of the Mrs. Dash seasonings, which are a good salt-free option.

Also maybe marinating it for longer that you might otherwise marinate would be helpful so that it's super flavorful. Also if she's going salt-free, maybe don't also try to go too low fat. Pan fried tofu cooked in a little olive oil tastes good to me on its own.

Scrambles! Sometimes I just crush it up in the frying pan with a little oil and lot of salsa, then have it on toast or in a tortilla. Not sure if jarred salsa usually has salt in it, but if it does then you can use homemade instead.

Like everyone else has said, lemon, garlic, fresh ginger, and toasted sesame oil help a lot, along with Mirin for marinades and stirfrys. I also use a lot of Med. type herbs - basil, rosemary, thyme. I sprinkle popcorn with nutritional yeast and garlic powder, so don't miss salt at all (and I'm a former salt addict.)