Skip to content

Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician

Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.

Recipes

In short

These are twelve everyday recipes written for this handbook: three breakfasts, three lunches, four dinners and two snacks or desserts. Every recipe shows carbohydrate per serving for your insulin plan, and potassium, phosphorus, sodium, protein and fluid per serving. The numbers are computed from USDA FoodData Central values for each ingredient (FDC) and checked by a script, so they stay correct when a recipe changes. No recipe uses salt, salt substitutes, or foods with phosphate additives.

Starting points, not your prescription

These numbers are typical starting points from guidelines. Your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian set your own numbers from your blood tests, urine output and medicines, and change them as your labs change. If your lab report or your team says something different, they win.

The recipes

Breakfasts

Recipe Serves Carb g Protein g Potassium mg Phosphorus mg Sodium mg Tags
Cinnamon apple Cream of Wheat 2 38 3.8 103 45 18 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Vegetarian
Pepper and onion egg-white scramble on toast 2 34 23.0 421 188 523 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly, Vegetarian
Berry crepes with cream cheese 2 44 12.2 267 184 237 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Vegetarian

Lunches

Recipe Serves Carb g Protein g Potassium mg Phosphorus mg Sodium mg Tags
Lemon chicken salad sandwich with grapes 2 37 23.6 396 207 426 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly, Make ahead
Sesame-ginger noodle salad with chicken 2 51 22.0 398 208 215 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly, Make ahead
Home-style chicken noodle soup 4 22 21.4 463 214 129 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Freezes well

Dinners

Recipe Serves Carb g Protein g Potassium mg Phosphorus mg Sodium mg Tags
Lemon-garlic chicken with herbed rice and green beans 4 41 31.2 397 271 68 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly, Freezes well
Herb-crumb baked cod with lemon couscous and cucumber salad 4 40 25.9 421 179 147 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly
Turkey burgers with tangy cabbage slaw 4 34 27.6 473 252 380 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly, Freezes well
Pork and cabbage stir-fry with rice 4 47 23.3 538 275 179 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Dialysis-friendly

Snacks and desserts

Recipe Serves Carb g Protein g Potassium mg Phosphorus mg Sodium mg Tags
Cinnamon-sugar popcorn 2 23 3.2 83 88 3 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Vegetarian
Peach and blueberry crisp 6 29 1.9 152 31 7 Lower potassium, Lower phosphorus, Vegetarian, Freezes well

Numbers are per serving.

How the recipes are checked

Each serving is checked against these lines. They are review lines to help you choose, not limits your team set for you.

Per serving A meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) A snack or dessert
Sodium, every recipe 600 mg or less 140 mg or less
"Lower potassium" tag 600 mg or less 200 mg or less
"Lower phosphorus" tag 300 mg or less 100 mg or less
"Dialysis-friendly" tag lower potassium and lower phosphorus, at least 20 g protein, and 120 mL fluid or less lower potassium and lower phosphorus, 120 mL fluid or less

Where the lines come from:

  • 600 mg per meal of sodium or potassium is a review line used in renal diet teaching: a dialysis provider's label guide says less than 600 mg of sodium per meal (Satellite Healthcare), and a kidney charity's dietitian suggests 600–700 mg of potassium per meal on a low-potassium diet (AKF Kidney Kitchen); the recipes use the lower end. Three meals at 600 mg plus snacks still fit a 2,000 mg sodium day.
  • 300 mg of phosphorus per meal is a third of the 900 mg starting ceiling at stage 5 (Eating well).
  • For snacks, 200 mg potassium is where NKF calls a serving "high" (NKF), 100 mg phosphorus is AKF's "low" line (AKF), and 140 mg sodium is the FDA meaning of "low sodium" (FDA).

How to use them

  • Check the carbohydrate box first. Most meal recipes have 34–51 g; the soup has 22 g. Each one says what to add to reach about 55 g, the amount the sample menus use. Your own amount comes from your diabetes team.
  • Check the serving size. The numbers are per serving. A bigger plate means bigger numbers.
  • Match the protein to your stage. The meat and fish portions are 1½–3 oz cooked; the dinners use 2½–3 oz, which suits dialysis. Before dialysis, each recipe says how to make a smaller protein portion (Protein).
  • Count soup as fluid if you have a fluid limit (Fluid).
  • Cook meat and fish to a safe temperature, and use a food thermometer: poultry 165 °F (74 °C); fish, and pork chops and roasts 145 °F (63 °C) (FoodSafety.gov). This matters most after a transplant.
  • Log it in the app. Each recipe lists the foods and grams per serving to log, or you can save them once as a meal (Planning and menus).

Cooking without salt or phosphate

  • Season with acid, heat and herbs. Lemon or lime juice, vinegar, black pepper, garlic, onion, ginger, paprika, oregano, dill and thyme. Use garlic powder, not garlic salt.
  • No salt substitutes. "NoSalt", "Lite Salt" and similar products contain potassium chloride (Sodium).
  • Skip baking powder and mixes. Most baking powders and pancake or biscuit mixes contain a phosphate: USDA lists 2,000–10,000 mg of phosphorus per 100 g of baking powder, and the low-sodium kind also has about 10,000 mg of potassium per 100 g (FDC; review of phosphate additives). Crepes and yeast doughs do not need it (Phosphate additives).
  • Cook grains and pasta without salt, and rinse canned vegetables and beans, which removes some of the sodium (FDA).
  • Buy plain meat and fish. Skip packages that say "enhanced", "self-basting" or "contains up to X % of a solution" (Grocery shopping).

Ask your care team

  1. How much carbohydrate should a meal have for me, and does a dessert need its own insulin?
  2. How much meat or fish should I eat at one meal before dialysis, or on dialysis?
  3. Which of these recipes fit my potassium and phosphorus limits, if I have them?
  4. Can you help me change a family favourite recipe so it fits my diet?

Get help now if…

  • You have a low you cannot treat yourself, chest pain or severe breathlessness: call 911 (or your local emergency number). See Get help now.

Sources

Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-06.