Over-salted a dish? No worries! There are tried and tested ways to fix the situation. You can add something, dilute it with something, or supplement it – read our article for more details on how to improve the taste of an over-salted dish.
An oversalted dish is not only unappetizing, but also quite harmful, especially for people who are health-conscious. But it’s a shame to throw it away. To fix a dish that has been ruined by salt, follow our simple tips.
- Dilute the dish with water
You can save an oversalted dish by adding clean water to it. First, pour 2-4 tablespoons of water into the dish, bring it to a boil, and taste it. If necessary, add a little more water, bring it to a boil, and taste it again. This method is suitable for improving the taste of sauces and gravies for main courses. However, it is not worth saving oversalted soup in this way—the water will make it cloudy and it will lose its flavor.
- Rinse with water
Oversalted vegetables, grains, and pasta can be rinsed under running water or re-covered with water, brought to a boil, and left to stand for a couple of minutes until the water absorbs the excess salt from the food.
- Add something sour
An oversalted meat or fish dish, as well as an overly salty sauce, can be saved by adding a sour ingredient such as citric acid, vinegar, or mustard. However, be careful — add the acid drop by drop so as not to ruin a dish that is already spoiled by salt.
- Add something sweet
Sugar, honey, and sweet vegetables such as carrots will help remove excess salt from sauces or soups. Like acidic foods, sweet foods should also be added in small amounts.
- Add something fatty or creamy
Heavy cream, sour cream, coconut milk, or avocado will perfectly balance the oversalted taste of goulash, soup, or sauce, making it milder. Depending on the dish, add a spoonful of sour cream or a slice of ripe avocado to taste. Over-salted meat or fish can be covered with sour cream sauce, brought to a boil, and simmered for a while.
- Add an absorbent product
Some foods have useful absorbent properties, i.e., they can absorb excess salt. These include potatoes, starchy grains, pasta, and fresh herbs. For example, you can add a few chopped potatoes or 100-150 g of rice to oversalted soup—these ingredients will absorb the excess salt. If you don’t want to spoil the dish with extra ingredients, you can add a whole potato so that it is easy to remove later, and place the grains in a cloth bag in the soup.
- Dilute the dish with vegetables or grains
You can add grated raw potatoes, onions, zucchini, carrots, or boiled rice to oversalted minced meat. You can add raw vegetables to meat or fish dishes and simmer them to make both a main course and a vegetable side dish.
- Repurpose oversalted foods
For example, you can make a delicious and filling pie filling from oversalted meat or fish by adding additional ingredients (vegetables, grains). Oversalted vegetables can be turned into mashed potatoes by adding mashed potatoes made from vegetables boiled without salt.
- Add a bland side dish or something “sparkling”
If you have oversalted the main course and it cannot be fixed, serve it with a simple side dish—cereal porridge, unsalted mashed potatoes, or vegetables stewed without salt. All together, it will taste more harmonious. If you don’t have time to prepare a side dish, serve sparkling wine or champagne with the oversalted dish — the bubbles it contains will neutralize the excess saltiness right on the tongue, and a couple of glasses will make you forget about the failed dish altogether.