Umami, known as the fifth taste, is what makes certain foods savory and deeply flavorful.

When you taste something with complex layers of flavor that fill the mouth and satisfy the soul, it’s likely you’re tasting umami. Umami is famously present in many animal products including cheeses, aged meats like salami, salted fish like anchovies, and fresh meats and seafood that have been caramelized at high temperatures. Luckily for vegetarians and vegans, umami exists in any food that contains the amino acid L-glutamate, including many plant-based foods.

Great vegan and vegetarian cooks know how to use umami-containing or umami-friendly ingredients to their best advantage to unlock the flavor in their dishes. Read on to learn their secrets.

Soy Sauce or Tamari—Fermentation is one way to develop umami in food. Soy sauce and tamari, both made from fermented soy beans, are rich in umami and salt. A tiny dash in salad dressings, drizzled into soups or veggie stews, or onto plain steamed vegetables can intensify the flavors of the other ingredients.

Bragg’s—Bragg’s Amino Acids is another fermented soybean product. Popular in raw food preparation, Bragg’s contains 16 of the 20 amino acids needed for balanced health. Use it as you would soy sauce or tamari.

Ume Plum Vinegar—A Japanese condiment that is derived from traditional Japanese pickled plums, this vinegar is salty, and a little bit sweet, with lovely floral characteristics. When you taste a dish and think that it just “needs something,” this might be the something it needs. Much more complex than Bragg’s or soy sauce, it can be used in the same ways suggested above. Don’t be afraid to tweak a Western vegetable soup with this Eastern condiment. It works.

Nutritional Yeast—Available in health food stores -and hip, independent theaters that sell popcorn- nutritional yeast is beloved by vegans for its nutty, cheesy flavor. Sprinkle it on popcorn, add to mashed or baked potatoes, or stir it into vegan casseroles.

Toasted Nuts and Seeds—Toasting seeds and nuts really brings out their flavor, and truly makes a difference in the umami quotient of your cooking. Grain salads, pilafs, and green salads can all benefit from the savory addition of toasted pumpkin or sesame seeds, or nuts, such as walnuts, almonds, and peanuts.

Dried Mushrooms—Mushrooms are treasure troves of naturally occurring umami. Drying them simply concentrates what’s already there. Reconstitute some dried shiitakes and add them to a winter squash stew or a brothy Asian noodle soup. Dried porcinis make swoony risotto and will help your barley soup sing.

Miso—Adding a spoonful of this fermented soybean product is a great way to add depth to vegetarian soups. Simply stir it in at the end of cooking, when you’re adjusting the seasoning. When combined with lemon juice, garlic, and herbs and spices, it makes a great marinade for grilled or roasted vegetables. These same ingredients can also double as a salad dressing.

Nori—why is sushi so crave-worthy? Partially because of the toasty, unique flavor of the nori that it’s wrapped in. You can buy nori in sheets and use scissors to snip it over vegetarian soups, stews and salads, or purchase it in flake form in the versatile Japanese condiment furikake, which is used to season plain rice. When buying furikake, read the ingredients, as some versions contain bonito or other fish.

Tomato Paste or Dried Tomatoes—Like mushrooms, ripe tomatoes contain a naturally occurring form of umami. When dried or concentrated into a paste, the umami characteristics are amplified. Add dried tomatoes or tomato paste to beans, marinades, or vegetable stews for a more complex flavor.

Caraway Seeds—Though spices don’t technically contain umami, they can bring out the umami in certain foods. Caraway seeds add a light smokiness and have a particular affinity for cabbage and potatoes. Add them to potato salads, coleslaws, and breads or rolls.

Cumin—Toasted cumin seeds can make almost any bean or lentil dish better. They have an intense savoriness of their own that adds a meaty character to foods into which they are incorporated.

Smoked Paprika—Adding smoked paprika to a bean dish or split pea soup is a great way to make as if you’ve used bacon. Need I say more? Even if you’re not into pretend meat, you might like to stir a little smoky paprika into potato salad, your favorite vinaigrette, hummus, baba ganoush, or a marinade for grilled vegetables.

Images: Rooey, Creative Tools, thepinkpeppercorn, jmurawski, fboyd, arminflikr, jackson3, miansari66

I like to spend an hour or so on the weekends making soup for the week. It’s a meditative process that helps the entire week go more smoothly.

A little time invested means you will have soup to take to work for lunches and soup to enjoy for dinner on nights when you’ve worked late, gone to the gym, or simply don’t feel like cooking. This recipe is easy to double for a big batch. The great thing about a basic, pureed vegetable soup is that you can use this method and roughly these proportions to make any type of vegetable soup.

To customize, vary the broth according to your preference or diet, add cream or make it vegan, thicken it as described or not at all, garnish with fresh herbs, crème fraîche, yogurt, croutons, or anything you like. Add miso, lemon juice, or other aromatics like ginger. Once the vegetables are prepped, any soup of this sort is easy and quick to make. Seasonal variations include asparagus, artichokes, sweet peas, potatoes, zucchini, winter squash, sweet potatoes, celery root, parsnips, or any of the roots.

Easy Pureed Seasonal Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

2 to 2 1/2 pounds seasonal vegetables, prepped and cut into even pieces
4 to 5 cups broth or water
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1 large leek, sliced and rinsed well or 1/2 of an onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
4 to 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (optional)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Dairy finish (if desired and to desired thickness)
Desired garnishes

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the broth to a simmer. In a large soup pot, over medium heat, warm the oil or butter. Add the leek or onion, celery, and garlic and cook gently until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Don’t let the vegetables brown. Add the flour and stir for 2 minutes, without letting it brown. Slowly whisk in the warm broth and bring to a simmer. Add the vegetables to the pot along with a little salt and pepper. Return to a simmer, lower the heat, and cover partially. Let the soup cook until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Let the soup cool slightly and then transfer it to a blender or food processor to purée (or use an immersion blender). Process in batches to avoid splattering. Return the pureed soup to the pot, warm it up, thin with more liquid or a dairy addition, if desired, and taste for salt and pepper. Serve in warmed bowls with desired garnishes.

Image: the dabble

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

Use organic and local ingredients whenever possible

An obstacle people often face when trying to eat a healthy, green, reasonably priced diet is a lack of cooking skills. Cookbooks don’t always help. Most food authors attempt to teach people how to cook real food (as opposed to opening packages, dumping and stirring) and assume the reader already knows something about cooking.

Other cookbooks are written as if people who don’t already know how to cook must not really want to know how to cook. These cookbooks seem to think that people should just be happy to combine processed foods in innumerable ways to create “quick and easy meals”.

That’s where this new book comes in. Cook Food – which is earning rave reviews – can teach people how to cook simple, tasty, nourishing, whole foods quickly, cheaply, and above all, intelligently. If you know someone who cares about the environment, their body, animals, and taste, yet nobody has ever taught them to cook, give them this book.

Lisa Jervis, who is perhaps best known for being the Founding Editor and Publisher of the magazine Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture, has written a slim, no nonsense book with a can-do attitude. Don’t expect glossy photos. This isn’t aspirational food porn. This is a manualfesto!

Vegan Approach to Sensitive Cooking and Eating

Jervis’s  book is entirely vegan, with very occasional suggestions for adding dairy products if desired, but that’s not really the point, so don’t stop reading just because you don’t happen to be vegan. The book’s main message is that cooking for oneself shouldn’t be challenging, expensive, or time-consuming.

Jervis stresses cooking and eating consciously for your health and the planet. Whether we are meat eaters or not, we all need to eat our vegetables. And most of us could lower our meat consumption for the sake of both our bodies and the planet. Knowing how to prepare tasty veg-centric meals and getting in the habit of eating more of them is a great skill to have.

A Look at Our Food System

By way of introduction as to why the recipes in the book are vegan and almost always seasonal and unprocessed, the author gives a succinct primer on what’s wrong with our food system with many nods to authors like Michael Pollan and Raj Patel.

She touches on complex issues such as why processed soy products aren’t as good for the environment as some people think, and how affordability is relative, and why we shouldn’t worry too much about micronutrients, or (gasp!) salt – all of which serve to get the reader thinking deeply about food.

But Jervis doesn’t want us to think so deeply that we become paralyzed about our food choices, so she ends with a very smart bit of advice: “In the end, we can all only do the best we can, which actually means a lot.”

A Well Stocked Kitchen

Before getting down to cooking, Jervis wants you to have the right supplies. The entire first section of the book talks about what tools, spices and pantry items you absolutely need and which ones you can actually do without. There are different tiers from “must haves” to “nice to haves” to “splurges,” and as a cook, I can say the advice is solid.

Just as solid are her explanations of cooking techniques. Using a friendly, approachable style, Jervis sets out to teach you how to cook. I mean really cook. She defines and describes sautéing, blanching, roasting. She tells why to salt early in the process, how caramelization builds flavor, and how dried herbs behave more like spices and therefore should be added at the beginning, while fresh herbs lose flavor if cooked to long.

The tone is matter-of-fact rather than pedantic, and none of the techniques are dumbed down in the least. Simplified, not stupid. Rather than just imparting recipes, she teaches how to build flavor in a dish, merrily dispensing variation suggestions throughout in order to coax cooks into trusting their own instincts.

Roasting Veggies

My favorite part of the book is the section on roasting vegetables. People are always shocked by how good roasted vegetables done properly with olive oil, salt, and high heat can taste. It’s such a simple thing, yet there is a lot of technique involved that most experienced cooks just do unconsciously, and most cookbooks don’t even attempt to explain.

Jervis’ mini-treatise tells why not to crowd the vegetables (they steam) why you should use a dark pan (they brown better), how to cut (so as to have lots of surfaces to brown) and why to toss them in olive oil with your hands (so the oil penetrates into all the cracks and crevices), and more. Next time someone asks me how I get my roasted vegetables to taste so good, I’m just going to hand them that section of Cook Food.

What You Will Learn From the Book

In the end, the reader gets simple food prepared with solid techniques that can be used for a lifetime of cooking.

Even experienced cooks might learn something from Cook Food. In the recipe for Ginger-Garlic-Sesame Tofu with Spinach, I learned why my tofu doesn’t ever taste all that great when I marinate it and sauté it – because I’ve never pressed it. Turns out that removing all the excess liquid lets the tofu absorb the marinade better and leads to more efficient caramelizing.

I also love the three recipes for Beans n’ Greens (Italian style, Indian style, and Chili style) because such recipes are a great way to eat. Filling, healthy, streamlined, green, efficient. You can feed a lot of people or just yourself all week long with one dish.

My only quibble: I think both the flavor and texture of dried beans from scratch are so superior to canned that it would be a service to readers to tell them that it’s mostly the planning that hangs people up, not the actually process. You don’t have to do anything to the beans while they are cooking, other than to stir and check them occasionally, and you can use a crockpot, making it even easier. And then you have the beans around to use for quick meals. But then, as the author of a cookbook devoted entirely to dried beans, I would say that!

I’d like people to cook more dried beans so they can experience how good they are, but at the risk of making the perfect the enemy of the good, I’ll agree with Jervis. If the best you can do on any given night is open a can of beans, that’s okay, “because it actually means a lot.”

Main Image: Amazon

Image One: East Bay Express

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Though I’m an omnivore, I eat vegetarian (or even vegan) most of the time, so that I can afford to buy the most sustainable, delicious, pasture raised meat and poultry from local family farms. For protein, I rely on legumes and eggs.

I’m going to share one of my favorite dishes, mujaddara, with you. This popular Middle Eastern dish basically consists of three ingredients that you can find anywhere (lentils, rice, and onions).

It’s simple, quick, healthy, super green, tasty, versatile and here’s maybe the best thing about it: It’s really, really cheap. I priced it out once and the tab came to 40 cents a serving. I like to serve this as a one-dish meal with sautéed greens on the side.

This recipe will make 4 to 6 servings. Leftovers formed into rough cakes and fried with an egg are very enjoyable. Enhance with chopped parsley or cilantro and your favorite hot sauce or harissa, if you like.

There are many versions of this dish, with the rice and lentils cooked in varying proportions. For best flavor, make sure you salt a little at different stages. Here’s how I make it.

Mujaddara

2 large yellow onions, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup regular brown lentils
1/2 cup long-grain white rice
Salt

Dice one-half of one of the onions and slice the remaining onions very thinly.

In a medium saucepan with a tight fitting lid, over medium high heat, warm one tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the diced onion and a pinch of salt. Stir while cooking until it begins to brown. Add the lentils and rice, along with 3 cups of water and a healthy pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and add the sliced onions and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are brown and very caramelized. You truly want them on the verge of burnt. This is what gives the dish flavor. This will take about the same amount of time as the lentils and rice take to cook.

When the rice and lentils are tender, turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes to steam. Serve with the caramelized onions on top and a dollop of yogurt if you like.

Buy organic whenever possible!

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

It’s soup weather again. High protein, tasty lentils make an eco-friendly and satisfying meatless meal. Plenty of vegetables make this soup balanced. And lentils don’t take long to cook, so this can even work as a weeknight dinner. The lemon and spinach give this soup a bit of a Mediterranean flair. If you like, it’s nice garnished with a sprinkle of feta or other Greek cheese.

This recipe makes a pretty large batch of soup so you can take the leftovers to work the following day. If you like the lentils to remain intact without breaking down, use French green lentils. If you don’t mind a less defined lentil, brown lentils are more common and more economical. Both make a great soup.

Lentil Soup with Spinach and Lemon

Serves 6

8 cups water, chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups green or brown lentils, picked through and rinsed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 pinch dried oregano
1 bunch spinach, washed and stemmed
3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the water or broth and lentils in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until mostly tender, but still whole, about 20 minutes. Salt to taste.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil until warm. Add the onion, celery, carrot and pepper, along with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one to two minutes. Add the herbs and some freshly ground pepper and stir. Remove from heat, and add to the soup pot with the lentils and broth. Bring to a simmer and add the spinach. Simmer for 15 minutes to blend flavors. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Use organic ingredients and organic and local vegetables whenever possible.

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

Image: Maggie Hoffman