Cutting out salt has been a bit of a learning curve for me. But we’re slowly falling into a good routine and I thought I’d share some ideas for inspiration.
I started making my own bread and whether it’s a coincidence or not the start of homemade bread consumption is when my blood pressure dipped below 120. At first I made soda bread because that’s so easy – it uses baking soda rather than yeast. It tastes nice too as I have a recipe that includes oats. But I got a bit sick of that so on the weekend I tried making regular bread with yeast. It turned out really well. I have previously tried making sourdough and ended up baking bricks but with yeast it’s quick and easy.
The kids are still eating commercial bread by choice. Ben has never been keen on salt and is happily adopting the new diet and homemade bread too.
I’ve also started making my own pesto sauce for pasta pesto. This is very easy if you have a food processor. I bung a heap of fresh basil, pine nuts, plain tofu, and cashews into it then turn it on. Then mix it with pasta and add salad things to it. That’s basically it. On the side is some roasted sweet potato. The kids prefer the homemade pesto to the bought stuff.
Last night I made curry puffs. These were delicious but unfortunately I did buy puff pastry. I am yet to successfully make my own puff pastry. There was a tiny bit of salt in the pastry but I bought the one with the lowest content I could find which turned out to be the Asda brand. It’s vegan too of course.
The curry puffs are filled with a lentil curry mixture I made that’s delicious and very easy. The kids love these. On the side is a kale and chickpea salad with orange. The kale is from my garden.
Last week Ben made a delicious cauliflower tikka masala. I didn’t get a photo of it but it was a recipe from The Hairy Bikers’ Veggie Feasts cookbook. Everything we’ve made from this book so far has been wonderful.
We’ve also been eating leftovers more and throwing out less which is a plus as it saves us money and reduces waste.
Yesterday, for the first time ever, I made my own stock. I haven’t used it yet so I’m not sure if it’ll be any good but it’s in the freezer in portions ready to go. The recipe is from the biker cookbook. Next I’d like to try making my own vegan burgers and sausages.
For sweets I have a permanent supply of almond chocolate truffles in the fridge.
I follow a recipe from Dr Greger’s How Not to Die cookbook. It doesn’t have any sugar in it other than dates and date syrup. There’s also a delicious chocolate pudding dessert which has no sugar at all and instead uses berries for sweetness. We’ve had that several times and it’s a hit.
I think it’s fair to say we have truly embraced slow food. I just hope we can keep it up!
rachel.blog 
I very much like the idea of slow food, but it’s a big and continuous time commitment, of course. However, everything is a trade off, and some wise words I’ve learned along the way are about weighing up what we’ll regret the most versus what we’ll regret the least from the choices and decisions we have to, or want to, make.
Yes it’s a big time commitment and if you hate cooking then it could make you miserable. We all have to do whatever works and fits into our lives at any given point. If I didn’t work from home I probably wouldn’t be able to do this.
Baking your own bread is the winning idea! I also like to put some seeds on top of it (for decoration but also some extra nutrients).
Yes great idea. I’ll do that next time.