Help please: How to reduce sodium in curry

orangesmartie

Hi,

My favourite meal is a home made chinese chicken curry, using a curry paste which I buy from Wing Yip. Unfortunately the sodium per serving is quite huge at 890mg. I can't find another curry paste which gives me the flavour that i love, so I have now been having this only sparingly. But i love it - its quick and easy to make and tastes amazing. It doesn't taste salty at all.

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how i can reduce or 'draw out' the saltiness in this curry please? I don't want to add sugar/lemon juice to the curry.

Thanks for your help!

lauren3101

Could you not just skip the curry paste altogether? I gave it up when I started my healthy eating plan and now I just make my own curry sauce - it's much nicer.

Other than that, I go back to the old saying - 'everything in moderation'. If you are only having this meal occasionally, then a higher salt intake one day every now and then won't do you any harm. Enjoy.

ElleBee66

Can you tell what spices is in it? Your only option, I think, would be to isolate what the spices are, buy them ground and mix them yourself (unless you have a coffee grinder and can grind whole spices - which gives a much better flavour).

It's not hard to do, but a bit fiddly the first time. I grind spices all the time and make up a jar and keep it in the fridge.

orangesmartie

Thanks guys. I don't think I could isolate the spices in it, but I will have a look. I think if I don't use the paste I will lose all of the 'sauce'. I'll have to go hunting for recipes.

Lauren, would you mind sharing your recipe please?

orangesmartie

Further to your excellent suggestions i googled to see if I could find the spice/recipe list and came up with:

Ingredients

Good couple of splashes of oil or butter
1 teaspoon five spice powder
3 tablespoons curry powder (medium like madras etc)
Half teaspoon chilli powder (or more if you wish)
Half teaspoon garlic powder
Half teaspoon ginger powder
4 tablespoons plain flour - sifted
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
Half a litre of water

Mix all dry ingredients together, warm oil in a pan, add all dry ingredients, this will now bubble up like toffee, (a bubbling roux) cook for 60 seconds add water cook for around 10 mins for taste to develop and get to the right consistency, Hey Presto Chinese Curry Sause.

From another forum, so I will be giving this a go. Thanks for the inspiration!

smiffy645

Try this but moderate the salt as required:

Pinch of garlic powder
¼ teaspoon sugar
Pinch of turmeric
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons hot Madras curry powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2–3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 x 2.5 cm/1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
Water

In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, sugar, turmeric, plain flour, curry powder, paprika, chilli powder and salt. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan over a low heat. Add the chopped garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for 2–3 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add the bowl of combined flour, spices and salt and leave for 30 seconds. Stir-fry for a further 30 seconds. The pan’s contents will become very dry. Add water a little at a time, stirring until well combined. Continue adding water until a thin sauce is created. Bring the mixture to the boil, reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 1–2 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Pour the sauce into a serving bowl or tray and serve with chips and fried rice or use as a base for Chinese chicken curry.

orangesmartie

Try this but moderate the salt as required:

Pinch of garlic powder
¼ teaspoon sugar
Pinch of turmeric
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons hot Madras curry powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2–3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 x 2.5 cm/1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
Water

In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, sugar, turmeric, plain flour, curry powder, paprika, chilli powder and salt. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan over a low heat. Add the chopped garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for 2–3 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add the bowl of combined flour, spices and salt and leave for 30 seconds. Stir-fry for a further 30 seconds. The pan’s contents will become very dry. Add water a little at a time, stirring until well combined. Continue adding water until a thin sauce is created. Bring the mixture to the boil, reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 1–2 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Pour the sauce into a serving bowl or tray and serve with chips and fried rice or use as a base for Chinese chicken curry.

Great, thanks Smiffy I will give this a go over the weekend

lauren3101

Every curry I make has the same basic ingredients:

1 onion
garlic to taste (I normally use 2 cloves)
1 can of chopped tomatoes
Stock (depending on what meat you use)

I then add the spices according to what it is I want to cook. For example, if I just wanted a basic chicken curry then I'd use cumin, coriander, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some garam masala.

If you fancy a chicken tikka masala you could use a tikka powder and the trick is low fat natural yogurt - mix it in spoonful by spoonful and it will give the curry a creamy taste with none of the extra calories.

Biriyani is also good - just cook your rice, and while that's boiling cook whatever vegetables and meat you fancy (I use courgette, peppers, onions, mushrooms, sweetcorn and chicken). Add the spices to the meat and veg - pinch of cayenne pepper, and a couple of tablespoons each of garam masala and tumeric, and when they are cooked add to the rice and stir thoroughly - the spices will turn the rice a yellow colour. It's low in calories, filling and good for you, and tastes great. :-)

mikes99mail

Homemade curries are so much nicer than using sauce, I love making a huge chicken curry on a sunday which we freeze portions of and re-heat when we're home late during the week. I think we had it 4 nights last week

my take on it:
- if you've got time, marinade the chicken overnight in natural yoghurt plus some chilli, cumin & ginger powder (or garam masala) and a bit of lemon juice. If you dont have time, it's not a biggie.
- soften chopped onion. It needs to be fairly well done, and as soon as it's started cooking and you've turned the heat down, bung in quite a lot of whole cumin seeds and some chilli flakes, a couple of inch-long bits of cinnamon sticks, 3 or 4 whole cloves (not cloves of garlic, actual cloves), half a dozen crushed cardamon pods. You could add some sweet peppers too.
- when the onion is nearly done, add in some garlic some finely chopped chillis, couple of cloves of garlic (chopped) and about a cubic inch of chopped ginger root, and let them cook for a minute or two.
- then turn the heat back up to 'hot' and sling in the chicken and stir while it starts to cook
- when the chicken is starting to get brown bits, add a tin or two of tomatoes, some tomato puree and a biggish pinch of sugar (or just use kechup instead of puree). Add any mushrooms / aubergines / half-cooked and chopped potatoes here too
- let it cook for a few minutes, then add a load of powdered spices (cumin, turmeric, ginger, garam masala) and let it cook for another couple of minutes. Dont be shy with the spices, these ones give warmth, not heat. Heat comes next!
- taste the sauce, then add chilli powder and let it simmer for an hour or so, adding more chilli as you think it needs it. If you overdo it, add a bit of lime juice and sugar. If you *really* overdo it, add a dollop of plain yoghurt just before you serve it.

I quite like adding a chopped block of coconut at the same time as the tomato, but it's high calorie. Ghee is better than oil for the whole thing, but we've run out. When you're fed up of eating the same thing, change it by adding some coconut, or more veg, or sliced mango / banana. Daal is easy to make too, pretty similar to the above but without the tomato.

I normally serve it with some boiled vegetables (peas, broccoli or similar) but no rice, because white carbs are evil

orangesmartie

thanks for the recipes and suggestions, but I am allergic to tomatoes, so it does make things a lot more difficult

I make daal quite regularly, i love it.

lyttlewon

How much of a serving are you putting in the curry? If you are making a large pot one serving of curry paste isn't much sodium distributed throughout the dish.

gddrdld

How much of a serving are you putting in the curry? If you are making a large pot one serving of curry paste isn't much sodium distributed throughout the dish.

This. It may have 890mg of sodium but unless you are eating the entire pot, you are only getting a portion of that per serving.

mikes99mail

thanks for the recipes and suggestions, but I am allergic to tomatoes, so it does make things a lot more difficult

I make daal quite regularly, i love it.

you can use watered down coconut milk instead - it's lovely!

orangesmartie

How much of a serving are you putting in the curry? If you are making a large pot one serving of curry paste isn't much sodium distributed throughout the dish.

its 890mg per portion. I put the amount used into the recipe calculator on here with all the other ingredients and divide it by however many portions i get, and it tells me 890mg for each portion.

According to the calculator 200g of the paste is 3,400mg sodium.

That can't be right surely????

lisabinco

its 890mg per portion. I put the amount used into the recipe calculator on here with all the other ingredients and divide it by however many portions i get, and it tells me 890mg for each portion.

According to the calculator 200g of the paste is 3,400mg sodium.

That can't be right surely????

So you're using a curry paste, right? There must be other stuff in the paste. I only use dry powdered curry, nothing else. It's got nothing like the numbers you are getting.

bpmartyr

What's wrong with sodium?

lyttlewon

How much of a serving are you putting in the curry? If you are making a large pot one serving of curry paste isn't much sodium distributed throughout the dish.

its 890mg per portion. I put the amount used into the recipe calculator on here with all the other ingredients and divide it by however many portions i get, and it tells me 890mg for each portion.

According to the calculator 200g of the paste is 3,400mg sodium.

That can't be right surely????

How much does 200g equal in a measuring spoon? For reference a US penny weighs 2.5g so 200g of curry paste would be a lot. When I use curry paste I use the Patak's brand and a serving is 2 T or 35g. Not sure what brand or portions you are using but something doesn't sound right to me.

ETA are you using a concentrate? That might solve my confusion.