Healthy Slovenian Buckwheat Baby for Father's Day

Everyone loves the eggy, skillet-baked pancake that most Americans call a Dutch Baby.

What happens if you add a little buckwheat flour?

I wish I could claim this as my own Slovenian-inspired innovation.

But the credit goes to Deb, over at the popular Smitten Kitten blog.  She paired the pancake with a rich, salt-kissed caramel topping.  No surprise that her recipe for Buckwheat Baby with Salted Caramel Syrup has spread like wildfire.

The dish looked delectable. The addition of buckwheat flour spoke to my Slovenian heart. In fact, it seemed reminiscent of my own creation, Buckwheat Breakfast Crumbles.  But with salt in the pancake and salt in the topping, this Baby was not exactly a good fit for our new low-sodium lifestyle.

So I decided to make a healthy version for Father's Day. No salt.  Less fat.  I had planned to use vegetable oil instead of butter, but my husband suggested we try his latest discovery: coconut oil. And instead of that decadent salty caramel sauce, I improvised a nice light fruit topping: strawberries and blueberries mixed with apricot preserves, almonds, and touch of amaretto.  Not too shabby.

For the batter, I followed the basic flour-milk-egg proportions suggested in Smitten Kitten. I eliminated the salt and added brown sugar and vanilla as a flavor boost.  I also increased the quantities by half, since I thought that Baby might puff up a little more sucessfully.

I decided to call my adaptation a Slovenian Buckwheat Baby Pancake.
 

Slovenian Buckwheat Baby Pancake  (a healthy adaptation from Smitten Kitten)

Pancake
4-1/2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
4-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup lowfat milk
1/2 t. vanilla
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons coconut oil



Fruit Topping
strawberries, cut up
blueberries
low-sugar apricot preserves, to taste
whole almonds
splash of amaretto

Confectioner's sugar for topping.


For fruit topping: Mix ingredients together in whatever proportions you wish.  Let sit so flavors can blend. 

For the pancake, mix all ingredients together in a shaker (as I did) or by beating in a bowl until smooth.   Heat coconut oil in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove until hot.  Pour in the batter and place in a 400 degree oven.  Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until puffed and golden.

Remove pancake from the oven.  Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Cut into wedges and serve with fruit topping and (if desired) Greek yogurt on the side.

For the verdict, read on.

This was delicious!  The buckwheat provided a nice hearty tang. The coconut oil allowed the pancake to brown just right and it added a mild, intriguing flavor. (No wonder the New York Times calls it the new darling of the health food world!) The fruit topping was light and flavorful without being overwhelming.  And best of all: no added salt. 

Another LoSoSlo success!

Smoked Paprika Chicken Breasts, a Low-Sodium Update

Back in August, I discovered an online recipe for smoked paprika chicken. This easy, elegant grilled entree seemed very much in the Slovenian spirit. I adapted the recipe slightly and served it as part of my Week 31 Dinner.  Since then, it had become one of our favorites.

The prep is easy.  Boneless chicken is pounded thin and then brushed with a simple paste of oil, smoked paprika and seasoned salt.  Lots of it.

The Shiksa in the Kitchen, whose version of the dish first inspired me, cautions that it is important to not skimp on the salt. Don't worry, she says, the finished dish won't taste too salty.

By my old standards, she was right. But that was then and this is now, as the old cliché goes.  The salt had to go.

I wasn't sure this particular dish could survive without the salt.  I wasn't  too worried about the change in taste.  But I was concerned that the salt might be an essential component of the paste. It provided texture that the powdery paprika by itself did not.  I suspected it might play a role in tenderizing the chicken or sealing in the juice.

But it was worth a chance.  So I made the dish with the easiest possible substitution: A commercially prepared no-salt seasoning mix.

I am not a big believer in pre-mixed seasoning blends.  We rarely use them.  But I happened to have one on hand: Mrs. Dash salt-free garlic and herb blend.  So that's what I used.

The verdict?

The chicken cooked beautifully on the grill.  We sliced it and arranged it on a platter.   My husband had prepared two salt-free side dishes: a mixed green salad and kasha with mushrooms.

As always, the chicken was moist and delicious.  Everything was low-sodium Slovenian. Or at least Slovenian-inspired.

Whatever you call it, we enjoyed another LoSoSlo feast!

Smoked Paprika Chicken Breasts, salt-free

2 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 lb)

1 T. smoked paprika

1 ½ T. olive oil

2 t. no-salt seasoning mix (I used Mrs. Dash garlic and herb blend)

Place chicken breasts between 2 layers of plastic wrap. Pound with the side of a sturdy plate (or, if you have one, a meat mallet) to flatten into a thin, even layer. Mix the paprika, oil, and no-salt seasoning mix into a paste. Rub into both sides of chicken. Refrigerate for a half hour.

Grill, turning when browned on one side.  (Or use a broiler.) When done, remove to a platter. Let cool slightly. Slice into strips and serve.

Balkan Cevapcici vs. American Burger & Fries: A Sodium Throwdown

Low-sodium cevapcici feast

cevapcici

Big Mac (source: Wikipedia)  

A hamburger on a bun, the all-American fast food?  Or how about the Balkan contender, cevapcici with flatbread?  What should you choose, if you are watching your sodium intake?

The raw materials are the same.  Ground meat and white flour.  Both are relatively inoffensive, salt-wise.

Plain ground meat (whatever the source) does have naturally occurring sodium, but not much: 60-75 mg in a quarter pound, before cooking.  Whatever the problems with meat consumption (and there are many), salt is not one of them.    

Flour has negligible sodium. But bread is usually made with added salt, so it can add up. The typical hamburger bun or a medium pita both contain 200+ mg of sodium.  The count drops to almost 0, if you can find commercially made salt-free pita, or if you follow my salt-free lepinja recipe.  

In theory, a simple meal of grilled meat and plain bread doesn't have to be salt-laden.  But the reality is different. 

First, a reminder: The recommended daily sodium limits are no more than 2300 mg a day. Most adults should aim for 1500 mg.  To be considered low sodium, a meal should be under 450 mg.

Nutritional profiles for fast foods are easy to find.  McDonald's is particularly obliging. They spell it all out here.  

It is pretty shocking.

A McDonald's Big Mac contains 970 mg of sodium.  A large order of fries is 350 mg.  That is practically your entire daily salt quota in a single meal.  What if you skip the fries and have a small side salad? That's just 10 mg of sodium.  Unless you add a packet of low calorie balsamic vinaigrette dressing, which adds an astonishing 470 mg of sodium.

Considering a Big Mac alternative?  There are 1490 mg of sodium in a chicken-bacon wrap or in a bacon, egg and cheese bagel. (Please note: McDonald's is no worse than most other popular fast food chains.  If nothing else, they are transparent.)

So where does all the sodium sneak in?

Salt is often added to the ground meat mixture before cooking, whether the end product is a burger or cevapcici.  When you do the cooking yourself, it is easy enough to leave it out.  And be sure to skip the baking soda, if you are aiming for low sodium cevapcici.

The real difference between the American and the Balkan fast food meal?  It's in the add-ons.   The accompaniments and the side dishes.

  

Burger and Fries (source: Wikipedia)

What goes with cevapcici, besides flatbread?  The little sausages are traditionally served with ajvar, a red pepper relish, either homemade or the commercial variety.  Along with that, there is kajmak, a sort of clotted cream that is hard to find in the United States. Labne or Greek yogurt make good substitutes.  Grilled onions and peppers, along with tart raw vegetable salads, will often round out the meal.  

But consider the American hamburger.  It  arrives with a double helping of starch, a bun and salty French fries.  Then there are the high sodium garnishes: a slice of processed cheese, dill pickle slices, catsup, and perhaps other "special sauces."  If there is coleslaw or a green salad, it is usually saturated with a high sodium dressing.  

The Balkan meal wins, hands down.  It is lower in sodium.  Probably lower in fat and calories.  More flavorful.  And it is real food!

To inspire you, below are some sodium numbers, with the preferred choices in bold.

Na Zdravje!  To your health! 

  

Sodium Counts for Burger and Cevapcici Accompaniments

1 oz slice of American (processed) cheese   396 mg       

1/4 cup Greek yogurt                                   31 mg

1/4 cup kajmak (clotted cream)                   48 mg    

McDonald's Special Sauce                           unknown (but high)

1 T. catsup                                                    150 mg

1 T. ajvar (red pepper relish)                      50 mg    

l hamburger bun                                           200+ mg

1 medium pita                                               200+ mg  

1 salt-free pita                                                 0

                      

1 medium dill pickle                                     560 mg

1 whole cucumber                                       6 mg

McDonald's fries, medium                            270 mg 

McDonald's fries, medium, no salt                  55 mg

  

Salt-Free Lepinja (Serbian Flatbread)

Traditionally, cevapcici are served with a flatbread that resembles a thick sort of pita. It goes by various names, depending on where you are.  Serbian flatbread.  Bosnian bread. Lepinja or lepinje. Somun. Slovenians make a version called pogača.

I had already made an impromptu attempt at Balkan-style flatbread for my first cevapcici meal, early in my year of Slovenian cooking.  I just used part of the dough I'd put together for my grandmother's homemade white bread. The next time around, I resolved to use a more authentic flatbread recipe, which usually involves a simpler yeast dough and multiple risings.  I had found a good, basic recipe on Barbara Rolek's comprehensive Eastern European cooking site.

Now the time had come. But I had a new challenge: I wanted to make the bread without salt, to go along with the cevapcici for my very first Low Sodium Balkan Feast.  So I went back to the recipe I'd found and made a few changes.  For starters, I cut it in half. I skipped the salt and coated both the bowl and dough liberally with olive oil, for a little added moistness and flavor.

It turns out that salt serves two important functions in bread-making.  It adds to the taste. Perhaps more importantly, it enhances the structure of the dough by slowing down the growth of the yeast.  Without salt, bread can over-rise and collapse.  For that reason, some bakers argue that flatbreads and other small, individual breads lend themselves more readily to salt-free makeovers.  

The verdict?

Well, as you can see from the photos, the flatbread looked lovely.  It puffed up nicely. (Was it a little too high-rising?) Inside, it had the coarse, uneven texture that is typical of these breads.  The flavor?  Well, there is no getting around it: Plain white bread tastes a little flat without the salt.  But it's not bad.  And it serves as a good foil for the assertive flavors of the rest of a cevapcici feast:  Spicy, charred meat.  Tangy ajvar. Tart greek yogurt.  You don't really miss the salt.

Burger and fries? No thanks. The Balkan equivalent is so much tastier and healthier, with and especially without the salt!  To see how the two compare, go to the next post.

Salt-Free Lepinja (Serbian Flatbread)

1 package dry yeast
7 T. water, lukewarm
1/2 t. sugar
1-1/2 t. flour

3-1/2 c. flour*
about 1 c. water, lukewarm

olive oil for bowl
sesame seeds for top of bread

*original recipe calls for 1-1/2 t. salt to be mixed with flour



First, proof the yeast: In small bowl, mix water, sugar, and flour.  Sprinkle on yeast and mix well.  Let sit until mixture beings to bubble.

Put remaining flour in a large bowl.  Add the yeast sponge and enough of the 1 cup water to make a soft dough.  Mix well and place dough in well-oiled large bowl.  Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled.  (This may go faster without salt!)

When dough is doubled, punch it down, remove from bowl, and knead briefly on floured board.  Return dough to oiled bowl, cover and let rise again until doubled.

After the second rising, place dough on floured board, knead briefly, and divide into four balls.  Cover let rest for 10 minutes or a little more.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Flatten or roll each ball into a 1/2 inch thick round. Note that this is thicker than pita. Place each round on baking baking sheet lined parchment paper.  Using the dull side of a knife, make a criss-cross pattern on top of each round.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 450 degrees until flatbreads start to brown.  Lower oven to 300 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

Let cool on rack.  Best when warm or freshly made.

Cevapcici and Lepinja, Low Sodium Balkan Feast # 1

Menu
Salt-Free Cevapcici
Salt-Free Lepinja (Serbian Flatbread)
Ajvar
Greek Yogurt
Green Salad
Coleslaw


Low Sodium Slovenian cooking?  It sounds like an oxymoron.

Hide the salt shaker.  Forget about bacon, sausage and ham.  Sauerkraut no longer qualifies as healthy. Olives? Forget it.

What's left?  Why even bother?

Well, I wasn't about to abandon my developing passion for Slovenian and Balkan food. So there had to be a way to make it fit with our new low sodium lifestyle.

Yes, it would be challenging.  And not only because so many smoked, pickled, and preserved ethnic favorites are loaded with salt.

The other big problem?  A basic tenet of low sodium cooking is to compensate for the lack of salt by boosting other flavors, especially spices.  But traditional Slovenian food tends to be simply and mildly seasoned.

So I cheated a little.  For my first official low sodium dinner (for short: LoSoSlo), I looked to Slovenia's southern neighbors for inspiration.  What better place to start than with spicy grilled cevapcici? The little "skinless sausages" are popular in Slovenia, throughout the Balkans, and all over Europe.  But the dish is usually described as Serbian or Bosnian.  The origins are probably Turkish.

You can read about my first experiences with cevapcici here.

Since that first attempt, I had made a half-dozen versions of cevapcici, with a variety of ground meat and spice combinations. Beef and pork, beef and lamb, and most recently all-turkey. It seemed to be a never-fail dish, perfect for entertaining.  Festive when cooked outdoors, but equally successful with our trusty Le Creuset stovetop grill pan.

A low sodium version would be easy: Leave out the salt and increase the other spices to compensate.  To lighten the meat mixture, I would use carbonated water instead of high-sodium baking soda. I tried that once, using one of my earlier recipes, and it tasted fine, if a little mild.

Then I had a brainstorm.  How about adding some liquid smoke?  A little research convinced me that this rather odd product is inoffensive.   It's just distilled essence of wood smoke. Salt free and no dangerous additives.  So that is what I did for this first full-on low sodium feast.

(Here's a great home sausage-making site, which addresses the liquid smoke and salt-free options.)

Cevapcici tastes best with ajvar, the traditional Balkan red pepper relish.  I was pleased to discover that our brand is quite low in sodium: 50 mg a tablespoon, compared to 150 mg for catsup.  (It also has more fiber and less sugar.) Greek yogurt, my usual substitute for kajmak or clotted cream, is also fairly low in sodium.

As I suspected, the biggest challenge turned out to be making a salt-free lepinja, or Serbian flatbread.  I'll save that recipe, as well as the final verdict on the entire dinner, for my next post.

Meanwhile, here is the new, improved, salt-free cevapcici recipe.

Salt-Free Cevapcici

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground lamb
2-3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 T. parsley, minced
1/2 t. cayenne
1-1/2 t. smoked paprika
1-1/2 t. hot paprika
1/2 t. black pepper
3 T seltzer water mixed with 1/2 t. liquid smoke

Mix all the ingredients lightly together.  If possible, refrigerate for several hours so flavor can develop.  Form into little  1 x 3 inch sausage shapes and grill outdoors or on top of the stove.  (We've had good results with our Le Creuset grill pan.) Serve with the traditional accompaniments: ajvar, Greek yogurt or kajmak, and pita or lepinja/Serbian flatbread.

Enjoy!

Salt Free Granola with a Slovenian Flair

Is it challenging to make granola without salt?  Not especially, although you might be surprised at how much sodium is lurking in some commercial varieties.

Is granola a traditional Slovenian food?  Hardly.  Slovenians are much more inclined to eat muesli, the uncooked Swiss version of an oats-fruit-nut breakfast blend.  Granola and muesli were both developed as health foods in the late nineteenth century.  Muesli seems to have remained true to its healthy European roots, while American granola has evolved into a sweet confection that borders on crumbled cookies.

So I'll admit it: Granola was an odd choice for my first venture into low sodium cooking. But I was captivated by the description of Pomegranate Granola Fruit Chunks in Sodium Girl's Limitless Low-Sodium Cookbook, Jessica Goldman Foung's guide to the low salt lifestyle we are starting to adopt at my house. (Take a look at her blog for an online version of a very similar recipe for sort-of granola bars.)

Jessica's unusual granola recipe exemplifies her approach to low sodium cooking. The key is to compensate for the absence of salt by using intense and varied flavors in unexpected ways.  In this case, the flavor surprise is the rich, deep tang of pomegranate molasses, along with grated orange rind and orange juice.

I have made four versions of Jessica's granola recipe.  I started out with a few healthy modifications, since I was aiming for a breakfast cereal rather than a sweet snack.  The original recipe calls for butter, plenty of dried fruit, and no nuts.  I substituted vegetable oil,  added some nuts, and cut down on the sugary fried fruit.  It was delicious.

The next time, I got the bright idea of introducing some special Slovenian touches: Buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed oil.  The next time around, I added walnuts and cinnamon.  I have experimented with different combinations of dried fruits. Once, I mistakenly used pomegranate syrup instead of molasses.  It seems to work every time.

A note about pomegranate molasses: This was the first time I used this amazing sweetener, which seems to have become everyone's secret ingredient.   It has an incomparable flavor: tangy, sweet, and slightly bitter.  Any Middle Eastern grocery should carry it, but many mainstream supermarkets also stock it. If you must, you can substitute pomegranate syrup, regular molasses, or honey.

For the latest version of this always-evolving dish, read on!

Granola, Salt Free and with a Slovenian Flair


Dry Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup whole buckwheat groats, untoasted

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup dried figs or dates, diced
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Liquid mixture:
1 T. vegetable oil
1 T. pumpkin seed oil
3 T. honey
2 T. pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
grated rind and juice of 1 orange
1 t. cinnamon


Mix the rolled oats and untoasted buckwheat groats together and spread in a 9 by 12 inch pan or cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees.

Pour the toasted oats and buckwheat into a large mixing bowl.  Add the remaining dry ingredients and combine.

Line the cooled baking pan with parchment paper.

Heat the oils in a small pan.  Add the honey and pomegranate molasses; blend well.  Add the brown sugar, orange rind and juice, and cinnamon and mix together.  Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 2 minutes.

Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients in the large bowl.  Mix well.

Spread the granola onto the lined baking pan, using your hands or a spatula to flatten. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.   Turn the pan during baking.  (Watch so it doesn't overbrown!)

Let cool for at least 45 minutes or until hardened.  Break into chunks or crumbles.

Serve with fruit and yogurt.  It's also good sprinkled on ice cream or as an anytime snack.

Warning: This is addictive!

A New Challenge: Raising the Salt Alarm

Can Slovenian cooking be healthy?  In my recent thinking and writing about this knotty problem, I overlooked something.

I had forgotten the salt.

Or, to be more exact: I never forgot the salt.

I used to reach for the salt shaker before tasting my food, until my husband started nagging me about it. He had raised my consciousness, but only up to a point.  In fact, neither of us had worried too much about the issue. We eat almost no fast food and very little processed food.  We follow a healthy diet.  He does most of the cooking.

So what changed?

His blood pressure.  It tends to go up as we age, and the majority of Americans will eventually develop hypertension. He had finally crossed that line, despite more than three decades as a non-smoking runner who kept his weight down and ate a healthy diet. You can't change genetics or family history, so what was left for us to do?

Ironically, I was the one who raised the salt alarm.  I realized it was the one lifestyle change we hadn't considered.  So I started doing some research and learned that everyone seemed to be raising the salt alarm.

The suggested sodium limits for Americans recently became more stringent. The CDC's recommendations are now 2300 mg a day if you are low risk, or 1500 mg a day for everyone over 50 or with high blood pressure. That second figure, which applies to most adults, is about a third of what the average American consumes.  It is the equivalent of a half teaspoon of table salt.

I started adding up the numbers.  It is amazing how much sodium lurks in even some innocent-looking foods.  Breads and crackers.  Breakfast cereals.  Pickles and olives.

When I looked at lists of forbidden high salt foods, my Slovenian heart sank.

No more of these, if you believe the experts:

Bacon

Sausage
Ham

Sauerkraut

No doubt about it. This was going to be a challenge.  Much harder than reducing fat or cutting carbs.  It would have to be a whole new way of cooking and eating.

Luckily, I discovered a wonderful new guidebook: Sodium Girl's Limitless Low-Sodium Cookbook, by Jessica Goldman Foung, a young San Francisco woman with an inspiring story.  She had been a college student, on dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant, when she adopted a radical low sodium diet. It worked.  Today her illness is under control and she is getting considerable acclaim for her low sodium cooking blog and her just-published book.  So that put our situation in perspective.

I wasn't sure how many traditional Slovenian favorites could be transformed into low salt dishes.  But I figured I could still be inspired by some of what I had discovered.  Even if sausage and sauerkraut would take a back seat, other flavors could be carried forward.

At least I hoped so.

In that spirit, I decided to make a Slovenian-inspired granola, based on a delectable version I discovered in Sodium Girl's cookbook.   I'll be posting my recipe soon.  (Update: Here it is!)

In the meantime,  you can take a look at Sodium Girl's recipe, which began as a sort-of granola bar. It's here, on her blog.

Stay tuned for more low sodium kitchen adventures!