All of us are striving to cook in a way that’s healthy and simple. Unfortunately, healthy and simple can sometimes add up to bland: A piece of broiled fish all by itself isn’t particularly exciting.
The remedy for the healthy-but-boring dilemma is easy: Stock your pantry with a few strategic items that consistently bring spark to your cooking, without adding significant cost or calories. Start with great basic ingredients, prepare them simply and then add a punch of flavor to really elevate the dish.
In a recent article for SparkPeople.com, No More Bland Diet Food!, I shared a list of five “secret” ingredients that fit the bill:
- Lemon—both fresh lemon juice (for brightness) and preserved lemon
- Garlic—obvious, but I shared a trick for getting the biggest kick of flavor by making a garlic paste
- Pepper—not your basic black pepper, but interesting flavors like Pimenton
- Herb blends—including our favorite, Lakeshore Drive Seasoning from The Spice House
- Sauces—like Chimichurri, fresh salsa, pesto and this roasted red pepper sauce recipe
thanks for this, bryn! i’m all about making diet-friendly pantry foods, i’ll comb this one for new ideas. one particular use of lemon i swear by now is zesting every one of them before use, and reserving the zest as a seasoning. it brightens up so many dishes and drinks, yet many times we just throw out all the peels and just use the juice.
Heather, I love the idea of automatically zesting every lemon and reserving all that lemon zest for future use in recipes. I’m going to start doing that!
Thanks for the mention Bryn! Hope things are going well for you!
Hi, Jeff — I didn’t know you had landed at SparkPeople.com. Great! I write for Nicole on a monthly basis about food, recipes and healthy eating, and love it!