Soups

Soups are tricky. Without salt just isn't so good. Even a year and a half after going LoSo, I still struggle with making my soup tasty. Everyone said I would get used to the low salt, and I have mostly -- except for when I eat soup.

Workarounds

There are a few workarounds that I have found to make it edible.

First, start with a decent base. Even if your base has some sodium, it will give your soup some flavor, without you pouring in salt. Trader Joe's and Imagine have some low sodium options available, which I have listed below. But be careful to buy the low sodium ones -- the packing does look somewhat similar. Also, don't use the whole container! Usually 1 Cup of these bases contain 140 mg of sodium. If you use one cup throughout one pot of soup, it won't do major damage to your sodium totals.

Second, spice it up! Use your spices liberally to give your soup some life. I have tried the Pereg Hawij Blend, a Yemenite spice which contains Cumin, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Cardamom, and Clove. Bragg's Organic Sprinkle (0 mg of sodium) is also a great addition.

Third, make it sweet. I find that without the salt, making something sweet helps mask the lack of salt. One of my favorites is a butternut Squash/Sweet Potato soup -- because it doesn't need salt to make it have some taste. The sweet vegetables give it taste. It also helps that Trader Joe's makes a low sodium Butternnut Squash base, with only 95 mg of sodium per 1 cup.

Now for the holy grail - chicken soup. We eat this every Friday night. Even when I try to cut it out in the summer, my kids complain that it just isn't Friday night without it. I have been working my chicken soup for the last year and a half, and I finally feel that I have found something that I like. Check out my recipe here.

Beef and Onion Soup Mix

One of the biggest struggles I have had when going LoSo is the lack of a low sodium beef base or a low sodium onion mix. If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned the Herb Ox Low Sodium Beef broth as amazing, I would be a very rich woman.

It is very frustrating that the kosher market has nothing comparable. I did try the Spicify No Chicken Instant Soup and Seasoning Mix, as well as the Spicify Onion Instant Soup and Seasoning Mix. They were OK, but not quite what I was looking for in terms of taste. They each have only 10 mg of sodium, so if they are to your liking, go for it! You can also try making your own onion soup mix seasoning. I have tried Jamie Geller's recipe, which still has salt, but no MSG. I made it without the salt, and it was decent. I am still on the hunt!

In the meantime try out the soup products below using some of our soup recipes, and see if any of them work for you!