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The Ultimate Guide to Saving Your Dish: The Secret Ingredient to Rescue Your Over-Salted Soup

10 September, 2024

Soup is an indispensable dish in every Vietnamese family meal. If you accidentally make the soup too salty, don’t rush to add more water as it will dilute the soup and reduce its nutritional value and taste. Learn from wise housewives how to handle this situation.

Some quick fixes for salty soup

+ Add cornstarch or rice flour

First, find a clean gauze, preferably sterilized and specifically designed for food use. Wrap two teaspoons of cornstarch, rice flour, or regular rice in the gauze, stir it into the soup, and cook. The excess salt will be absorbed by the flour, naturally reducing the saltiness of the soup. This way, you can still enjoy a delicious soup even if you’ve added too much salt.

+ Add a few boiled eggs to the soup

Soaking peeled boiled eggs in the soup for a while can also help reduce its saltiness.

Eggs are great at absorbing salt. When we fry eggs, we often notice that the dish becomes sweeter while the eggs turn out salty. Therefore, soaking peeled boiled eggs in the soup for a while can also help reduce its saltiness. The yolk, in particular, absorbs salt better than the white.

+ Add some potato slices to the soup

Potatoes are effective in absorbing salt without altering the original flavors of the soup. If your soup is too salty, peel and slice a potato thinly. Add the slices to the soup, wait for a minute, and then taste it again. If it’s still too salty, add another potato slice until the desired level of saltiness is achieved. Be careful not to cut the potatoes too thin, as they might disintegrate into the soup.

+ Add sugar

You can also try adding a sugar cube to the soup and removing it as soon as it starts to melt. Sugar can help counteract excess salt in the soup. If one cube is not enough, you can repeat this process until you achieve the desired taste.

+ Add tomatoes or tofu

Adding an appropriate amount of tomatoes or tofu can help reduce the saltiness of the soup.

When cooking soup, if you accidentally add too much salt, try throwing in some tomatoes or tofu to balance out the saltiness.

So, the next time your soup turns out too salty, don’t panic and add water, ruining the flavor. Instead, try one of the methods mentioned above to reduce the saltiness while preserving the original taste of the dish.

One thing to avoid when cooking soup

Some people believe that cooking soup for more than three hours is necessary to enhance its nutritional value and taste. However, this is a common misconception. Prolonged cooking can actually reduce the nutritional content of the soup and even lead to the formation of harmful substances like high levels of uric acid, which can cause gout. For example, certain vegetables, when cooked for extended periods, may produce “nitrites,” which are detrimental to human health and affect the appearance of the dish.

Frequently asked questions

If your soup is too salty, don’t panic! There are a few tricks you can use to rescue it. First, try adding more ingredients to dilute the saltiness. You can add more water, stock, or even plain unsalted butter. Another trick is to peel and chop a raw potato and add it to the soup. Potatoes act as a natural salt absorber and will help tone down the saltiness. Simmer the soup for a little longer to allow the flavors to meld, then remove the potato before serving. You can also try adding a pinch of sugar or a splash of acid like lemon juice or vinegar to balance out the saltiness.

There are a few reasons why your soup may have ended up too salty. The most common reason is simply adding too much salt during the cooking process. This can happen if you’re not careful with measuring or if you’re using a salty stock or canned goods. Another reason could be that you’re using a salty cooking vessel like a cast-iron pot that hasn’t been seasoned properly, which can leach salt into the soup.

The best way to avoid ending up with an oversalted soup is to taste and season as you go. Start with a small amount of salt and gradually add more to your taste preferences. Remember that you can always add more salt, but you can’t take it away, so it’s better to be cautious. Also, be mindful of the salt content in your ingredients, especially if you’re using canned goods or pre-made stocks, as these can already be quite salty.

If you’ve oversalted a dish, you can try adding dairy products like yogurt, sour cream, or cream to help balance out the saltiness. For dishes like pasta or rice, you can try rinsing them under running water to remove some of the excess salt. In general, serving an oversalted dish with a starchy side, like bread or potatoes, can also help as these foods will absorb some of the salt.