A quick healthy cooking tip

Posted: Wed, Nov 30 2011, 3:08 pm Post subject: A quick healthy cooking tip

I think all of us in call camps of the "what is healthy cooking" spectrum will agree that the fewer sweeteners, whether honey, sugar, stevia, xylitol, or splenda, the better.

This is a quick tip that can help you lower your sweetener intake without compromising taste.

Ever make a food that is tart, so you need sweetener to balance it out and not make it too sour? Like fruit compote or tomato based dishes?

While the food is cooking, add a pinch of baking soda. The baking soda will react with the acid and neutralize the acidity, making it less tart. Add a little baking soda at a time, until you minimize the tartness to an extent that you enjoy it. This way, you either need no sweetener at all, or can use less altogether.

I just made a really yummy tomato sauce with no sweetener. At first, it was way too tart as it was, but I added a pinch of baking soda at a time, probably a teaspoon all together, and once the tartness was mostly gone, the natural sweetness of the tomatoes was able to shine.

Just wanted to share this tip with you.

Posted: Wed, Nov 30 2011, 3:28 pm Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

I never put sweetener in tomato sauce. why would I?

Posted: Wed, Nov 30 2011, 3:33 pm Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

Thanks for the tip!

Could adding baking soda make the sauce less nutritious by any chance, like it does when added to beans?
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But then you have to worry about the aluminum? I know baking powder has it; does baking soda also have it?

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Don't you need to eliminate/reduce the salt? Baking soda tastes really salty.

I like the tart taste, I don't like tomato sauce that has sugar added and I always bake or cook with the tartest apples I can fine.

Posted: Fri, Dec 02 2011, 1:28 am Post subject:

Posted: Fri, Dec 02 2011, 6:45 am Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

Thanks for the tip.
Yes Ewa-jo. In Israel, unfortunately, most of the tomato pastes have "fructose". It makes me so mad. Evil or Very Mad

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Posted: Fri, Dec 02 2011, 7:00 am Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

Tal brand tomato paste is the only Israeli brand I've found that has nothing but tomatoes in it. No sweeteners added.

And I'm going to second whoever said... 'tomato sauce with sweetener'? Who does that?
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Do you think this would work with cranberry sauce?

I tried making it with honey instead of sugar, and while it tasted fine when I ate it with another food, when I ate the plain cranberry sauce there was a strong honey flavor. I was going to try it with just less honey, but maybe this will work instead.

Posted: Sun, Dec 04 2011, 2:25 pm Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

use organic then it has only tomatoes in it.
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Posted: Sun, Dec 04 2011, 2:42 pm Post subject: re: A quick healthy cooking tip

Cranberry sauce is suppose to be tart sweet. It is extremely tart without sweetening.
Tomato sauce I add maybe 1/2 a tsp of sugar if that to a whole saucepan.
It isn't tartness of tomatoes, it is acidic, there is a different quality. I can try a bit of baking soda and see if that works, but really what the sugar does is bring out the flavor of the tomatoes and reduce the acidic bite. The flavors "marry" better, that is there is no overriding flavor of sweet/salty/tart/bitter etc, but a delicate tomato flavor.

Since I use so little, I can't imagine that much of a difference in the end but I'll give it a whirl.

BTW I use either tomatoes, or tomato paste without sugar or anything else. I really prefer to use my own tomatoes.
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