Lowering the Sodium, if not the fat: Perogy Casserole

This was a favourite before we started having to lower the sodium in recipes, and I’ve been thinking for awhile about ways to do that, especially since I noticed that instant mashed potatoes can be prepared to be low in sodium. So this post is about the process of playing with ingredients—and doing the math.

The recipe for Lazy Perogy Casserole or Perogy Lasagna has been posted all over the Internet. Basically you have three layers of cooked lasagna noodles. Between one layer you put a mixture of cottage cheese, egg and onion salt (see substitutions below). Between the other you put mashed potatoes—homemade or instant--mixed with cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and more onion salt. Over the top you pour chopped onions cooked soft in a generous amount of butter or margarine (obviously this is not a low-fat recipe either), and “serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese.” (The Recipezaar version says it makes 8 servings with 706 mg per serving; cut into 6 servings would put it up over 940 mg per serving.)

(Note on the amount of margarine: the original recipe calls for cooking the onion in a whole cupful of margarine, but I've never used that much--half a cup seems to be enough. I will admit that the top layer of noodles can get a bit tough with the smaller amount of fat--so make sure they're covered with a lid or with foil, and try not to overcook them.)

When I looked at the sodium content of the ingredients, the really high sodium culprits were the cheddar cheese and the cottage cheese. Since cottage cheese has traditionally been a “diet food,” it isn’t one of the first things you think of as being high in sodium, but it often is. We had two different brands in the fridge, and the lower-sodium of the two (Nordica 2%) has 410 mg sodium per half cup. The recipe calls for two cups of cottage cheese, which is going to add a honkin’ 1,640 mg sodium to the recipe. So one problem right there. (See the comment about using no-salt cottage cheese--that would definitely help! On the other hand, Please Don't Pass the Salt doesn't care for no-salt cottage cheese but has a couple of alternatives.)

The choice of cheddar or another cheese to mix with the potatoes is the other problem. You could just omit it entirely. Or you could add just a little. We had some mild Cheddar in the fridge that contains 210 mg sodium per ounce (or per 30 g). One ounce is not a very big piece; the recipe calls for a whole cup of shredded cheese, which is obviously going to be too much; but one ounce is a bit skimpy.

Homemade mashed potatoes, mashed with water and without any milk or margarine, would lower the sodium content a bit too; but I used instant mashed potato flakes, prepared without salt and using no-salt margarine and 1% milk.

And obviously you are going to substitute onion powder for onion salt.

I added up the sodium content of the basic ingredients, using one ounce of Cheddar:

Onions: about 2 mg per onion
Pepper, onion powder: about 1 mg total
No-salt margarine: 0 mg
Egg replacer, 1 tsp. (we're out of eggs): 15 mg. 1 med egg is 55 mg sod, 1 large is 63. (So in this case being out of something was a good thing!)
Nordica 2% Cottage Cheese, 2 cups: 1,640 mg
Mild cheddar, 1 oz.: 210 mg (this is somewhat higher than the 176 mg listed in the Sodium Content of Common Foods--so maybe the cheese you get would be lower than ours)
Idahoan instant potato flakes: 75 mg
1% milk (used in potatoes): 60 mg
Lasagna noodles: 0 mg

Total sodium in the recipe: about 2000 mg.
Guessing about 6 servings, that would be 333 mg sodium per serving.

Not horrendous, but it's still higher than a typical entree in the low-sodium cookbooks.

So here's where you can start to play with the numbers. Would you rather have less of that sodium-loaded cottage cheese, or skip the cheddar? There really aren't any other places to cut back.

I decided to cut the cottage cheese in half and use two ounces of cheddar--losing a total 820 mg sodium but adding 210 mg per recipe makes 1390 total mg, divided by six servings comes out to 231.6 mg sodium per serving, with the ingredients we used. (Your mileage may vary.)

To sum it up, here's the revised recipe:

Cook 15 lasagna noodles in a potful of boiling water.
Prepare 2 cupfuls of mashed potatoes (you can use the same pot.)
Grate or chop 2 ounces Cheddar cheese and mix with the mashed potatoes; add some pepper and 1/4 tsp. onion powder.
Mix 1 cup cottage cheese with 1 egg or equivalent replacer, and another 1/4 tsp. onion powder.
Melt 1/2 cup no-salt margarine in a small skillet or pot; add 1 small onion, chopped small; cook until onion is soft.

Grease or spray a 9 x 13 inch pan; if you have one with a lid, use that; otherwise you'll have to cover the pan with foil.
Line the bottom of the pan with 1/3 of the noodles.
Cover with cottage cheese mixture.
Cover with second layer of noodles.
Cover with mashed potato mixture.
Cover with third layer of noodles.
Cover with hot cooked onions and margarine.

Cover the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until it seems done. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with a salad, something colourful preferred.

P.S. Opinion after we ate it? Pretty good...one of our offspring ran for the salt shaker, but otherwise it seemed about as good as it ever did. I think it might be brightened up by adding some fresh parsley somewhere along the line, maybe just as a garnish. A little extra pepper would be good if you like that.