Extra tl;dr: I created a base sauce for a bunch of other common recipes. I had a health scare, now it’s low sodium and heart healthy.

 

 

I’m that friend who’ll eat anything (at least once). A Central European and Middle Eastern transplant to Brooklyn who was never a picky eater. At about 5 years old I had a stint of preferring only pasta with parmesan, which  my parents will never let me forget. But I promptly overcame that when I discovered that sucking brains out of shrimp was gloriously tasty and hilariously gross. Entertainment gold to a 6 year old.

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Growing up with a mom who is a great cook in a place that didn’t really have processed food available meant that each meal at home was made from scratch with fresh, local ingredients. It’s given me a great foundation of knowledge and appreciation for cooking in general.

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I really began to work on my technique when I was a young teenager and decided I preferred warm dinners over the customary sandwiches. I told my mother as much, she laughed and told me to piss off and to make my own dinners if I wanted them warm. So here I am, still making my own damn warm dinners, they’ve just gotten a bit fancier over the years.

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After high school I moved to Brooklyn and had the great pleasure of discovering all the cuisines. Being broke and in college however meant that eating out too often was not an option, so I put quite a bit of effort into learning new herbs and spices and how to use them. Much to my delight I found that many recipes just aren’t that difficult once you break them down. At some point in college, I decided to join a chili cook off and went on a mission to make my very first chili. And to my surprise I found that many chili recipes are actually just like my mom’s Bolognese recipe, but with different spices and veggies. Easy-peasy. Then I discovered the same about Moussaka, and Sloppy Joes, and so on. Thus the invention of the MothaSauce.

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Last year I unfortunately had a health scare that landed me in the hospital. There they figured out, amongst other things, that I am extremely sensitive to sodium. The conversation with the specialist went something like this:

“You need to be on a very low sodium diet.” –

“But I really don’t add that much salt to things.” –

“No, I mean low sodium in general.” –

“What like cheese?” –

“Yes, and bread, and cold cuts, and condiments…” –

“NO CHEESE???”

To say the least, I was quite unhappy. Sodium is in everything. So I decided I needed to better understand sodium supplements and how to use them. And in the end I have to say that the change in diet really improved my health and wellbeing. I reinvented my recipes to be more heart healthy, and it wasn’t that hard. I discovered a great many products that aren’t listed as low sodium, but still fit the bill. While I’ve also discovered that a great many grocery store items that are listed as heart healthy just taste like shit.

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I’ve dedicated a section of this site to explaining sodium substitutes and how to cook with them. For some reason that information is not actually that easy to come by on the internet.

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So here I am, with the encouragement of friends and family, I’m finally putting together that cook book that they have been asking for. It’s still a work in progress, so I plan to update the site as I go along. All my recipes are meant to be tinkered with, and I’d be happy to see reader’s own creations and tips. There are also recipes that I simply like and have nothing to do with the MothaSauce. Enjoy!