Comments on: tasty popcorn toppings

Question: tasty popcorn toppings

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:59:56 -0800

What are some tasty toppings I can put on air-popped popcorn that contain no cholesterol, no salt, few calories and are vegetarian?

By: trevyn

trevyn — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:01:30 -0800

Garlic & olive oil.

By: mds35

mds35 — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:01:52 -0800

Paprika or cayenne pepper, depending upon your tolerance for heat.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:04:42 -0800

A couple dashes of balsamic vinegar.

By: riffola

riffola — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:06:57 -0800

Tabasco sauce.

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:08:11 -0800

Lots of interesting oils have no cholesterol. Try chili oil, sesame oil, garlic oil or olive oil maybe. And you can add spices.

By: holgate

holgate — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:15:30 -0800

Nutritional yeast. As mentioned here.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:45:25 -0800

second the cayenne

yumm

By: zardoz

zardoz — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:49:13 -0800

black pepper. much tastier than it sounds.

By: luriete

luriete — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:53:21 -0800

a fine mist of soy and sesame oil is good, and roasted sesame seeds with a bit of seasoned nori. there might be a little salt in there, but not much.

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:55:37 -0800

roasted garlic, thinned with a little oil or lemon juice or vodka
orange zest and black pepper
a medley of citrus zests
basil and garlic, thinned with vodka
garam masala, gently warmed in a pan before tossing with the popcorn
make a vinaigrette?

do report back.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:04:28 -0800

one garlic powder two paprika

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:09:24 -0800

soy sauce. trust me, its damn good.

By: idiotfactory

idiotfactory — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:53:35 -0800

hot hungarian paprika. oh yes.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:10:39 -0800

Ugh. Why?
Few calories and no salt/cholesterol/whathaveyou— 3:1 Cayenne to sugar. It'll be just sweet enough that you'll keep popping it in your mouth, but hot enough to punish you for it. An indian couple in my neighborhood made popcorn like that for me and I love it, though since my girlfriend hates spicy food, we can't have it together.
You can also try rosemary and a bit of onion powder, or the aforementioned garlic, or pretty much any other flavor you might like. Popcorn's kinda a blank slate.

By: rob511

rob511 — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 02:45:20 -0800

Grated hard cheese, like Parmesan, is pretty low in fat. 1 T. of Parmesan contains 4 mg of cholesterol, if that's acceptable.

In any case, as k² noted, popcorn is the tofu of movie snacks. Add a flavoring that you ordinarily like in cooking, but might not think of. So, to your larder!

By: wallaby

wallaby — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 03:09:05 -0800

cinnamon

By: plinth

plinth — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 03:43:18 -0800

curry powder.

By: Wiggo

Wiggo — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 04:38:16 -0800

I crave this stuff bi-nightly. Plus the guy just lives around the corner, so it's convenient for those "Oh-crap-I'm-out" nights.

I don't know if his website (yeah, it needs help) mentions it, but he now makes a popcorn topping with cheese powder and the chipotle stuff. YUM.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 05:36:35 -0800

Old Bay seasoning is orgasmic on popcorn, although I think it may have celery salt in it. It's also fab on fries.

Cinnamon and sugar is yummy too.

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 07:24:34 -0800

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. This is for the healthy workplace committee at my job.

I joined the committee because I'm trying to get them to add fruits and veggies to the array of chocolates and candy corn available for free in the office. In the process, I got "volunteered" to bring in a snack that everyone can eat.

Normally I use about a half stick of butter and a bunch of salt for my popcorn, but there are people high blood pressure and cholesterol problems who will be eating this stuff, as well as severely overweight people dieting for the first time.

Now I get to spend the next week or so experimenting before I decide which flavors to introduce. Yum.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 07:27:31 -0800

I use fake sweeteners - specifically splenda - on popcorn to good effect.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 08:22:17 -0800

Old Bay contains salt. As does Tony Chachere's which would have been my suggestion. There is Tony's Lite with 1/3 less sodium, which puts it on par with Old Bay (160 mg), or even Tony's Salt Free!

Maybe the best way if you really want that Old Bay flavor is to mix up the same general ingredients, just omitting the salt. For Old Bay the recipe would be:

Ground Celery Seed
Ground Mustard
Red Pepper
Black Pepper
Bay Leaf (ground)
Ground Cloves
Ground Allspice
Ginger
Cinnamon
Mace
Cardamom
Paprika

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 08:48:25 -0800

Second the nutritional yeast, but I must correct a comment in the referenced thread. Brewer's yeast and nutritional yeast are not the same. They have a different flavour and texture. Brewer's yeast is more bitter and nuttier, while nutritional yeast is sort of buttery and cheesy. Also, you may find brewer's yeast in a package at your normal grocer, but nutritional yeast is hard to find outside of a store that specializes in natural foods.

By: Juliet Banana

Juliet Banana — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 08:49:35 -0800

Soy sauce has lots of salt in it.

You might want to throw some unsalted peanuts in there, maybe.

By: filmgoerjuan

filmgoerjuan — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:04:20 -0800

Thirding the suggestion for nutritional (I've always heard it called "engevita") yeast. That stuff is addictive!

By: luneray

luneray — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:10:43 -0800

My roommate would always put Bragg's Liquid Aminos* on her popcorn. Tasty.

And the local indy movie theater offers wasabi as a seasoning choice. Even tastier.

*Bragg's is found in health food stores. It tastes a lot like soy sauce, but I believe it has less salt.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:13:24 -0800

Tony Chachere's would even make dirt taste good.

I like the cayenne suggestion, but I'd go for something a tad milder and more flavorful, like ancho.

Recado rojo, often sold simply as "achiote", is delicious and can be found in exotic spice stores.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:58:32 -0800

Nacho powder. You wouldn't need so much of it that it would have any significant quantity of calories/fat/cholesterol. They have it in the popcorn section of my local supermarket.

By: verysleeping

verysleeping — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:36:37 -0800

Lemon Pepper is crazy delicious on popcorn (and frankly is an amazing substitute for black pepper in general).

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:38:05 -0800

I second the nutritional yeast and the soy sauce (preferably tamari). Add kelp powder.

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:39:29 -0800

Err, I mean I FOURTH the suggestion for nutritional yeast. My cat loves it too.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:09:04 -0800

Vegemite. Sorry about the salt, but it's deeelicious on popcorn.

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:25:03 -0800

So far I've tried:
sugar & cinnamon -- yummy, though weird. Marking as best, as only suggestion that fit my low-cal requirement, tasted good and didn't ruin the texture of the popcorn (of those that I've tried so far)

parmesan -- good, but doesn't stick to popcorn

parmesan & olive oil -- sticks to popcorn, tasty but too high cal for my purposes

soy sauce -- so-so taste, but saturates the popcorn, ruining texture. Too much sodium, too

balsamic vinegar -- OK taste, but saturates the popcorn, ruining texture.

clove powder -- not good; weird

Bragg liquid amino acid -- somehow avoided saturating the popcorn, but fails the taste test.

paprika -- eh. Not sure if ordinary paprika is different than Hungarian.

vegemite -- I bought that shite once. Never again. Yuck.

I also squeezed a lemon over some popcorn & sprinkled with sugar. It was a little saturated, but oddly delicious.

I'm marking "lemon zest" as best, even though it's not quite the same thing, because that's what gave me the idea.

I'll look for lemon pepper, nutritional yeast, old bay & other interesting spices next time I go to the store.

I think I'll always be a butter lover, but this should give me some ideas for my healthy popcorn presentation at work.