Vegan Flavor Boosters

Spices give meals warmth and make it easy to create interesting international dishes with authentic flavor. Spice blends like curry powder provide complexity in one fell swoop. We often reach for chili powder to add a bold, multilayered heat to spicy dishes. We love the nut-based Egyptian spice blend dukkah (pictured) that’s also a condiment, or try citrusy, Middle Eastern za’atar.

Nothing spices up a dish like adding some heat. But chiles—canned, fresh, and dried—don't just make foods hot; they add nuanced layers of flavor. Jalapeños are fresh and grassy-tasting, canned chipotle chiles in adobo are smoky, and New Mexican chiles are earthy, for example. Roasting fresh chiles adds smoky char; toasting dried ones brings out their fragrant qualities. There’s really no end to what chiles can bring to the (vegan) party!

Beyond vinaigrettes, we use vinegars to perk up sauces, stews, soups, and grain dishes; to quick pickle onions for tacos or cauliflower for a grain bowl; or even to drizzle over ripe fresh fruit for an unexpected sweet-tart snack. Different types lend distinct flavors to dishes, and we reach for several varieties—red wine, white wine, balsamic, sherry, and even plain old distilled white vinegar—to lend nuanced flavor to recipes.

We frequently add lemon or lime juice (depending on the flavor profile of the dish) toward the end of cooking or just before serving to balance dishes with bright acidity. When purchasing lemons or limes at the supermarket, choose large ones that give to gentle pressure; hard ones have thicker skin and yield less juice. To get the most juice out of a lemon or lime, roll it vigorously on the counter before halving it. This will bruise, break up, and soften the rind's tissues while it tears the membrane of the juice vesicles (tear-shaped juice sacs), thereby filling the fruit with juice even before it's squeezed. For juicing, we prefer either a wooden reamer with a sharp tip that can pierce the flesh or a manual citrus juicer. Always juice lemons and limes at the last minute, as their flavor mellows quickly. And don’t forget about that zest! Remove the colored part of the citrus zest with a rasp-style grater before cutting the fruit and add it to sauces, vinaigrettes, and grain salads.

Soy sauce is an essential ingredient in vegan cooking; this salty liquid is made from fermented soybeans and wheat, barley, or rice, and it's rich in glutamates, taste bud stimulators that give food the meaty, savory flavor known as umami. Although it is traditionally an Asian ingredient, we use it in all types of dishes to add depth—think stews, pasta sauces, and marinades for tofu and tempeh.

These two refrigerator staples bring the same thing to the party: piquant brininess. Capers mimic the flavor that anchovies classically provide. Kalamata olives taste bright and pleasantly salty without needing cheese or cured meat, and green olives like castelvetranos are buttery and mild. Most olives are packed in oil or brine, but we also love meaty oil cured olives for an intense hit of saltiness and flavor.

Affectionately referred to as “nooch” by many, this savory, flaky substance is a vegan cook's best friend. Simply yeast that's grown on a mixture of beet molasses and sugarcane and heated to deactivate its leavening properties, it's often used to mimic the flavor of cheese for good reason—it has a funky, nutty, almost salty (although there's no salt in it) depth that matches cheese in its complexity. Why? Nutritional yeast is high in glutamates. We add it to dishes that are traditionally cheesy, like the homemade vegan Parmesan substitute in this class.

Dried mushrooms offer the same umami flavor as fresh mushrooms in a concentrated (and usually cost-effective) package, giving recipes a major dose of meatiness. When buying dried mushrooms, always inspect them closely. They should be either tan or brown, not black. Avoid dried mushrooms with small holes, or those with excess dust and grit. Nicely flavored dried mushrooms will have an earthy, not musty or stale, aroma. Depending on what you’re using them for you’ll either want to rinse or soak your mushrooms, and if you’re doing the latter don’t throw away that flavorful soaking liquid!

Miso paste is made by fermenting soybeans and sometimes grains (such as rice, barley, or rye) with a mold called koji. Although countless variations of the salty, deep-flavored ingredient are available, we use sweeter white miso (shiromiso) and more pungent red miso (akamiso). Flavor profiles are altered by changing the type of grain in the mix, adjusting the ratio of grain to soybeans, tweaking the amounts of salt and mold, and extending or decreasing the fermentation time, which can range from a few weeks to a few years. In addition to adding sweet-savory, pleasantly funky flavor, miso can give broths body and even sometimes a glossy sheen. Miso will easily keep for up to a year in the refrigerator (and some sources say it keeps indefinitely).

Tomato paste is tomato puree that's been cooked to remove almost all its moisture. It's often used to boost the tomato flavor in soups, stews, and sauces or to add a vegetal sweetness. Because it's so concentrated, it's also naturally full of glutamates. We find that when we add it to dishes it brings out subtle depths and savory notes. It adds to the meaty, long-cooked flavor of the mushroom bolognese in this class.

Store-bought curry paste provides a wallop of authentic Thai flavor—rich herbal notes, complexity, and heat—in one little jar. Green curry paste is made from fresh green Thai chiles, lemon grass, galangal (Thai ginger), garlic, and other spices. Red curry paste combines a number of hard-to-find authentic Thai aromatics—including galangal, red bird’s eye chiles, lemon grass, and makrut lime leaves. In other words, lots of bang for your buck.