Do you ever feel like your food is bland? Do you wish you knew how to jazz things up and knock your meals out of the park? Sometimes adding one ingredient or changing the cooking method can be enough to lift the flavors of the entire dish. Here are some ways you can help make your food taste better.
Balance Fat and Acid
If you’ve ever made spaghetti sauce from scratch, you know that sometimes tomatoes can be extremely acidic. When this happens, add some fat to the dish to help mellow out the acid, You could do like the Italians do and add a healthy portion of olive oil or some cream to help develop an even richer sauce.
On the flip side, when you feel that your food is a bit too fatty, then add an acid to it. You could perhaps use a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on a piece of meat or a squeeze of lemon juice on a fatty piece of salmon. When using acids, remember that a little goes a long way, so start slowly.
Add Aromatics
The best dishes are the ones that layer flavors. Even if you’re making a quick 15-minute recipe, you want to start with aromatics. Onions, garlic, and dried herbs can be cooked in oil to help bring out their flavors and aromas and inject their flavor into every part of the dish. They help create a base for the dish that helps make the finished dish taste better.
Brown Your Meat
Whether you’re putting meat in your slow cooker or making a steak, you want to brown the meat. When caramelizing the outside of the meat, you help create a deeper, richer, meaty flavor in your dish.
If you’re doing a slow cooker meal, turn the slow cooker on high and sear the meat before turning the temp down and adding the rest of the ingredients. That way, you have the bits of meat that are stuck to the bottom of the pan and are often looked at as flavor bombs.