Many beginners have problem in adding salt. Either they add less salt to the curry or gravy or add more of it. Adding too much salt not only makes the dish unpalatable but is also not good for our health. Today I am going to share with your tips on how to remove excess salt from a gravy or curry which I have gathered from my mom, friends and books. Before going to that I would like to tell you that adding less salt is always better as we can add it later. But if you add more salt, the food becomes unpalatable and at times difficult to repair. I have the habit of sprinkling salt all over the dish using my fingers as this helps to gauge and also control how much salt goes into the dish and prevents you from adding too much salt.
Tips to remove excess salt from gravies, curries, dals, raithas and soups-
# Wash, peel the skin of a raw potato, cut it into 4 pieces and add to the gravy or dal. Let it remain in the dish for 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can also cook for a few minutes with the potatoes. The potato will absorb the excess salt from gravies or soups. Do not forget to discard the potatoes before serving.
# For Indian gravies, adding 2-3 tbsp of yogurt or malai (fresh cream) helps to balance the excess salt.
# If it is an onion tomato based gravy, you can prepare more onion tomato gravy without salt and add to the dish. This will balance the excess salt in the dish/cooked food.
# Coconut milk can be added to gravies to balance the excess salt.
# This tip comes from a friend of mine. Add a few small balls of chapati dough (kneaded)and boil the gravy or dal with it for 3-4 minutes. This helps to soak up the excess salt in soups and dal. Discard the balls after 10 minutes.
# If the gravy is too salty, drain off the liquid, add fresh liquid and then adjust the seasoning as required.
# Another quick fix is to add a little sugar to the soup.
# If you end up adding more salt to your vegetable curries, convert it into a gravy. Fry 2 onions until transparent, add 2 chopped tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become mushy. Prepare it without salt and then add it to the curry along with 1/2 cup of water. Cook for 4-5 minutes until everything gets combined well.
# Depending on the curry, you can add finely chopped tomatoes or tomato puree and cook for few more minutes.
# Another option is to prepare another batch (without salt )of the same vegetable or any other vegetable that pairs well with the curry and mix both together. For example- if it is a potato curry, cook capsicum or peas separately without salt and mix it with the potato curry. Another example -If it is a brinjal or lady’s finger curry, you can cook potatoes (peeled and chopped) without salt and add it to the brinjal or lady’s finger curry. Then cook until both gets blended well. Adjust seasoning.
# For excess salt in raitas – grind freshly grated coconut to a fine paste and add it to raitas or pachadi.
Reader can share any new tips not mentioned above, in the comment section so that it will be useful for others.
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wow..really nice tips..
very useful post…
Useful tips tku
Any tips for rectifying dry / main course dishes
Thanks for those useful tips. Very helpful.
Thanks for such useful tips.
Deepa
Those are really great tips. very useful.
Nice
very useful tip. Thanks for sharing..
Nice tips and thanks for sharing the tips 🙂
Great idea.thanks
What should I do if I add excess Salt in briyani? Could u please help me with this?
I tried the potato method and didn't work. I let it cook for even longer than 10 minutes. My tongue was just becoming desensitized to the excess salt. But thanks for the ideas!
Thank u very much…with guests coming home I needed a quick fix for my salty gravy…hv put a few pieces of potato and dough as well…keeping fingers crossed
Thanks for these wonderful tips!
Adding corn flour will yield good results for removing excess salt. I tried and tested. Though potatoes will absorb salt the dish may not be to the expected levels. Cut potatoes into cubes of about a dozen per potatoe tie it loosely in a neat and unused cotton cloth and can be soaked in the excess salt dish for about 20 monutes and then the bunch of potatoes can be discarded or fried as a cuery
Hi. depending upon the Disha being prepared. Tamarind juice does wonders to remove not just excess salt but also extra chilli. again depending upon the dish coarsely ground powder of roasted sesame plus groundnut and melon seeds (which I keep in my kitchen in a jar) also helps in neutralizing excess salt.
Thank you for the useful tips. They saved my efforts … Uff what a relief.
What solution for extra salt in chapathi batter once its mixed ???
Make a another set of dough without salt and knead both together.
Great
Nice tips
Swarna
I followed ur tip of adding tomato onion puree without salt. Worked well. Thanks
what to do if idli batter is salty???
I have 3 suggestions – If idli batter is salty
1. Make idlis as usual and make upma out of it. Do not add salt when making the upma.
2. Make vegetable uthappam or vegetable stuffed idli (check my recipe using the search box).Do not add salt for the prepared vegetables.
3. Add ragi or any millet flour to the salty idli batter and make dosas.
Hi. .. What to do If I my drumstick pickle becomes too salty
How to remove excess salt from upma ?
Cook veggies including potato without salt and mix with the upma.