h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Sue,
Here is the basic yogurt dressing:

150g/5 oz carton natural yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh single cream
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 level teaspoon icing sugar or castor sugar
1/4 level teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
Place the yogurt in a bowl. Beat in the cream, lemon juice and sugar and season with low salt and pepper. Leave for 15 minutes in a cool place before using.

I reckon that you could experiment with this and use a low fat yogurt and omit the salt or use LOW SALT and some finely chopped parsley or marjoram (depends upon that with which it is to be served) or some tender young tarragon leaves, finely chopped if serving with a salad as an accompaniment to something like roast chicken/poached salmon - which you can eat - just not the chicken skin, at the moment, until you get your fat/salt levels under control.

Curry Yogurt dressing - add 2 teaspoons of curry powder plus I level tablespoon of a sweet pickle to the basic recipe. Cover and refrigerate to allow the flavours to blend and meld together. This could be used for a potato salad with the addition of a VERY finely diced onion and garlic or sliced spring onions OR in a rice salad with the addition of raisins/sultanas and diced pineapple and would be good with griddled chicken. You could make your own curry powder and I have a no salt one if you would like it.

The PIQUANT Yogurt dressing - uses the basic yogurt dressing to which one adds 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, a good pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of paprika and a 1/2 finely chopped clove of garlic. Just got the bottle of Lea and Perrins out of the cupboard and, whilst salt is listed in the ingredients, there is no nutritional breakdown so I would suggest that you OMIT salt from the basic recipe and add the Worecestershire sauce as the Worc. sauce contains salt - hope this makes sense.

The final recipe I have in the recipe book which I used to use when teaching students is a tomato yogurt dressing. However, on looking more fully at the recipe, I don`t think it is suitable as it uses a basic french dressing to which one adds a can of condensed tomato soup which would be too high in added salt! However, this makes me think that there could be a possibility for using passatta to create a dressing. The consistency of the passatta and a french dressing with a kick of fresh horseradish would (should?) work. The only way I can think of describing what I have in mind is a "Bloody Mary" dressing.

My last posting on the BBC messageboard mentioned the salt content of WEETABIX. I would suggest/advise that you look very carefully at the salt per 100 gms of the product. I suspect, although I may be completely wrong, that the own label or cheapest brand will be lowest in salt. I make my own muesli by mixing rolled oats with dried fruit like raisins/sultanas and then grating brazil nuts into the mix. So, I use a 1 kilo bag of oats, 500g bag of dried fruit (and you could use different dried fruits) plus a 100gm bag of brazil nut which I grate and mix in, in a large bowl and then place in a large sealed container ready for brekkie! I`ve just checked my bag of raisins from Morrisons to discover, to my horror, that two ingredients are listed: raisins and vegetable oil. I suspect the latter is used to prevent clumping. However, I`m sure that other dried fruits, including raisins etc., may be bought without any added vegetable oil from other suppliers!

Picking up from another thread on the message board, what about prunes, soaked overnight in tea with orange peel or lemon peel and a clove or two and served with yogurt (low fat/fat free) for breakfast or prunes soaked overnight with grated fresh ginger (or any other mix of dried fruits) and eaten with yogurt for breakfast or a dessert? I`m wondering whether you could do a dried fruit brulée as a dessert. Here`s what I have in mind - dried fruits such as prunes, apricots and pears steeped overnight in a mix of tea with citrus rind, cloves, star anise etc. Next day, when all the fruits are really plumped up, remove the fruits and place into ramekins. Add a little juice to each, cover with cling film and put into the fridge. When ready to serve the dessert, place the grill onto to the hottest, cover the pots with Greek Low Fat/Greek Style Low fat yogurt, dredge with sugar and brown - a low fat fruit brulée!

Finally, you can make desserts using yogurt and call them fools!

Sue, I hope this helps,
God bless,
Archiduc

Thank you so much for this - it is just the information I need, and I am really greatful for all your time and input.

As I said on the food board, it is a long learning curve, but one which I have to make.

I will check out the salt content of the breakfast cereals - again another learning curve - but home made muesli is always an option!