I had a great vegetarian lunch at Seasons52 so here is my low-sodium version. It was a summer tasting plate with grilled tomato and grilled mushroom, a glass of quinoa with a wedge of watermelon, a soft tortilla filled with mushrooms and pineapple salsa, and totally delicious tofu served on a small piece of wood.

Quinoa with craisons

Cook the quinoa according the the recipe (I add white vinegar, lime juice and olive oil to make up for not using salt). Cook the craisons in with the quinoa.
Ideally serve it in a cone-shaped glass with a wedge of cold watermelon.I served the quinoa luke-warm, but the restaurant had chilled it. Judgement? Quinoa is quinoa but the watermelon wedge was an amazing touch.

Flour Tortillas

2 cups flour
½ tsp. salt (You can omit this altogether; I used ¼ tsp.)
¼ cup lard/shortening
1 tsp. baking powder (low sodium or sodium free baking powder)
½ cup WARM water (plus a bit more)

Place flour, salt, baking powder in bowl and mix (hand mixer is my thing) and add WARM water; process to make a soft dough. Dough should be soft but not wet and sticky. Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes. Really easy to make

Divide dough into 8 – 10 pieces and shape into balls. Roll each ball out into a 7-9 inch circle. Dough should be thin.Cook on a dry hot grill or frying pan on medium heat, turning once. Do not overcook or they will be hard. 25 -30 seconds per side. Once you’ve got a few brown spots on the 2nd side, it’s time to remove them from the heat) Butter and roll up and wrap in tea towel to keep warm as you cook the other tortillas. You can layer them with squares of baking parchment. You can butter them or not.) Judgement – great-yum-yum! Like real naan or tortillas, and no awareness of the lack of salt.

Filling

Sliced mushrooms, with a nip of unsalted butter, cardomon,and oregano. (No idea what the restaurant used, so i was making it up.) I let them water and then dry out in the pan. This got 5 stars.

Topping

Summer salsa: Green jalapenos (no seeds – but the result was not enough heat for my family), onions, yellow sweet peppers and fresh pineapple, all chopped and stir-friend. I didn’t touch it. I don’t go near jalapenos, not matter how mild people say they are 🙂

Judgement 4.5 stars for the salsa but needed more heat.

Grilled tomato

A standard half grilled tomato. Seasons53 did their mushroom like this too, but I needed something besides salsa to fill my tortillas.

Tofu

Seasons52 had the most amazing marinated and grilled tofu, served on cedar. I marinated mine in lime, honey, cilantro (fresh) and whatever else seemed possible, and grilled them. The thinner ones absorbed the flavor better.  My judgement: okay but still tasted just like tofu. Cut too thick-cut. The restaurant got the flavors through thinner cutting and longer marinating.