Spices

Finally, some good news! Even if you can't use salt, there are literally a ton of low sodium or zero sodium spices you can add to your food to make it taste great. With the right combination of spices, you may not even miss the salt (with time:)). There are also a whole host of spice blends which can really make your life easier.

When beginning with spices, I definitely suggest getting yourself organized, and having a dedicated space in your pantry for the spices and blends you will be collecting. At the beginning, I spent so much time just searching for the right spice in my pantry. The recipe could have been done by the time I found the coriander! Buy yourself a label maker, which will also come in handy for freezing some of your Building Block ingredients.

Below is a list of some of the spice blends available that have no salt. You can also check out our list of frequently used spices and their sodium per serving. Be careful -- not every spice is sodium free. Everything But The Bagel spice blend from Trader Joe's, has 80 mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp! Clearly anything with salt in the title of the spice is a no go -- ahem....celery salt. But others are not as obvious -- Chili Powder ranks up there, with 25.3 mg of sodium per 1 Tsp serving. That's not to say you can't have Chili Powder -- it just means use caution!

And you can always make your own spice blends. Check out our very own Everything But the Bagel...and the Salt. It is a great replacement and has zero sodium.

There are many other individual spices out there from other companies with zero sodium. But don't assume that because one spice is zero sodium, that all the spices from that same company are. For example, the Buttery Cinnamon Roll spice from Flavor God has zero sodium, but their same Bacon Lover's Seasoning (Yes! It's actually kosher with supervision from the OU), has 30 mg per 1/4 Tsp.

If you want to see the sodium content of various spices, I recommend Self Nutrition Data.