I asked my coworker if there was any recipe she would like me to transform. The first thing she said was corned beef. At first I bawked at the idea. Corned beef is a cured meat. There was no way to make that low sodium. Then I actually took a look around. I ran into a recipe for Mock Corned Beef by Julie Conkling. Now I’m intrigued. One of the reasons I don’t buy corned beef is because it is a literal salt bomb. Not worth killing Tony’s blood pressure. I’m willing to try anything to bring stuff like this back. The recipe did say that it’s not exactly the same. I kinda figured it would not be. But with other substitutions, the flavor has to be good, even if it’s different. Pumpkin does wonders with tomato-based dishes. It brings a delicious flavor all its own. A couple of things I will have to do is add some other protein so the serving size isn’t small. Then load it up with veggies for a real hearty dish. Let’s see what we can do.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I added lentils to increase the bulk of the protein
• I added a pound of butternut squash to increase the vitamin A.
• I added three large carrots to increase the vitamin A.
• I increased the servings from 6 to 13 to reduce the overall calories.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

A lower sodium corned beef and vegetables

Serves 13

• 2 pounds beef brisket
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bottle Guinness Stout
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 10 whole cloves
• 3 tablespoons gin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dill seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mace
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 1 2 1/2-pound head of green cabbage, cored and cut into 1-inch strips
• 4 pounds small red potatoes, quartered
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup dry brown lentils

1. If you want to do this in the oven, preheat your oven to 400F.  Make sure to use a pot that can go from stove to oven.  In a large pot, add olive oil and heat. Sear the meat on all sides to brown. Remove meat from pot.

2. In the pot, stir together stout, brown sugar and spices. Return the meat to the pot and add water, as needed, to cover. Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 3 hours.  For the oven method, bring to a boil, then place in the oven for 3 hours.

3. Throughout the cooking time, continue to add water to cover the meat, as needed.

4. Remove cooked meat from the pot, cover and let rest. Add cabbage, potatoes, squash, carrots and lentils to pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. When vegetables are done, slice meat and serve in a bowl with the vegetables and a bit of the hot stock.