Umami is known as the fifth flavor and is an excellent flavor enhancer. This article explains a little about the umami taste and shows how to add umami to dishes with 12 umami-packed ingredients that are plant-based.
No one will ever accuse your vegetarian dishes of being bland again.
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So what's all the fuss about umami flavor and what is it? Well, if you want to cook vegetarian (or vegan) dishes that you love, you need to know.
🤷♀️ What is the umami flavor?
There are five basic tastes, according to many chefs: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Umami, commonly known as the fifth taste, is a Japanese word translated as "a pleasant savory taste".
It's the deep savory flavor that lingers on the tongue longer than other flavors and encourages salivation. It makes you want to keep eating. Found naturally in many foods, such as the ones listed below, it's enhanced by MSG (monosodium glutamate).
Think of umami as a flavor bomb. When vegetarian and vegan foods lack umami, we feel there's something missing in a dish.
If you don't follow a plant-based or vegetarian diet, other sources of these rich flavors include aged cheeses (especially Parmigiano Reggiano), Worcestershire sauce (there are vegan versions of this sauce), fish sauce, and grilled meats - especially cured meats.
But if you're exploring vegetarian and vegan diets, here are 12 umami-rich foods to add to your plant-based meals.
🍅 Tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the best plant-based sources of umami flavor, particularly when the flavor is concentrated. For example: tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, slow roasted, and fire-roasted tomatoes.
Some ways to use concentrated tomatoes include adding them to casseroles, soups, stews, and curry.
Make this Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and toss it with pasta, slow roast tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and add them to a pasta sauce, or make your own fire-roasted tomatoes.
🍄🟫 Mushrooms
Just as dried tomatoes have more umami punch than tomatoes fresh from the vine, dried mushrooms are superior to fresh mushrooms. David Chang famously pulverizes dried shiitake mushrooms into a powder. He then adds this "umami dust" to vegetable dishes and ramen broth. Here are more ideas for using mushrooms:
- Grind dried mushrooms to a powder and add to your next batch of bread crumbs for a pasta topping (or purchase Porcini Mushroom Powder)
- Briefly rehydrate dried mushrooms and chop. Add them to soups and a mushroom gravy.
- Roast baby bella mushrooms with balsamic vinegar to stuff with miso potatoes.
- Roast meaty portabello mushrooms.
🫘 Miso Paste
Miso is a soybean-based fermented paste that's a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine. The fermentation process infuses a rich umami flavor to many dishes.
White miso goes through one fermentation process and is the form of miso often used in making miso soup. It's very mild as compared to yellow miso, which has two fermentation processes, and red miso. Red miso is the most intensely umami-flavored paste as it goes through three fermentation processes.
I particularly like to add it to mashed potatoes, your next salad dressing, and soups.
Miso paste packs a lot of flavor in small amounts, so start with only a little when adding it to a dish.
🫒 Briny Olives and Capers
Other fermented foods that add umami flavor are briny capers and olives, especially kalamata olives.
I add kalamatas to a lot of vegetable dishes, pastas and salads, like my Moroccan Citrus Salad. The below pictured Easy Swiss Chard Sauté with Quinoa is one of the long-time popular recipes here on the blog. It uses both olives and capers!
🫙 Fermented Sauces
Fermentation is an aging process that transforms substances over time to develop complex flavors, textures, and aid in preservation. Hoisin is made from a base of fermented soybean paste, and is packed with umami. It's an excellent vegetarian substitute for fish sauce and oyster sauce that's found in Asian cuisine.
Or add a dash of soy sauce or Tamari to soups, stews, and sauces, especially ones that are mushroom-based.
Vinegars are also great spurts of umami, and balsamic vinegar is the most powerful of them all with a ton of umami. Sherry wine vinegar is another excellent condiment to add.
If you use Worcestershire sauce, be sure to purchase one that's labeled vegan. The regular version includes anchovies to give it its savory depth.
🫖 Green Tea
Green tea naturally contains umami primarily due to two amino acids, with the intensity varying by tea type. This is particularly true in Japanese varieties such as matcha.
👩⚕️ Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional yeast is loaded with healthy nutrients and is a complete protein. It's considered one of the super foods we should all be eating.
Add it to soups, pasta dishes, sauces and vegetables. For example, it’s delicious sprinkled on zucchini and then sautéed.
My favorite way of using this fabulous ingredient is making nutritional yeast popcorn. Warning: it’s completely addictive.
🌰 Roasted Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds, particularly when roasted, add both umami and crunch to dishes. I always have pan roasted pepitas on hand to add to salads and vegetable dishes like this Stuffed Delicata Squash.
🧅 Onions and Garlic
Onions and garlic both offer some umami flavor to dishes, but caramelized onions and roasted garlic really hit the mark! Check out this Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts dinner for a great example of this. It uses both caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar to amp up the umami flavor!
🌊 Kombu Seaweed
Kombu, an edible seaweed, is often referred to as the king of seaweeds for both its flavor and nutritional value.
If you're looking for ways to use it, Vegetarian dashi, a Japanese soup stock full of umami flavor, is always made with kombu. Or add it to stews, salads, or your next pot of dried beans to make them more digestable.
For an easy way to try kombu, try it on dishes using these freeze-dried flakes.
🌱 Marmite
Marmite is a sticky, dark brown spread made from a yeast extract. It's intensely flavored and very salty - think of it as a yeasty-salty-soy saucey flavor. If you're familiar with Vegemite, Marmite is a little milder and slightly sweeter.
A popular way to use Marmite is in a pasta dish, like this one.
🥣 Better Than Bouillon
I'm a huge fan of the Better Than Bouillon products. They have a line of 6 products that are vegan / vegetarian. My favorites, that I always have in my pantry, are their Seasoned Vegetable Base and No-Chicken Base. I also like their Roasted Garlic Base and Mushroom Base.
I add it to many soups (such as a simple White Bean Soup pictured below), lentil stews for Shepherds Pie, potato gratin and chickpea curries with great success when I need an extra oomph of umami.
Try adding of couple of these umami flavor boosts to your next vegetarian and vegan dishes, and you'll be shocked at the fullness of flavor they give. For an extra boost, combine umami-rich ingredients in the same dish.
Rita
Umami flavor boosts really make a difference. One of my favorites is Angostura bitters. Of course you have to have it in your liquor cabinet :o)
The Wimpy Vegetarian
You are so correct! I do in fact have some Angostura bitters in my liquor cabinet for my Pisco Sours, among other things, but I hadn't thought of them for amping up umami in foods!! 🤦♀️Thanks so much for that suggestion.
Debi
Great list. I read through it thinking of all my favorites. I think you hit them all. Maybe I'd add that roasting things like veggies brings out the nutty umami flavors too. I admit that I have a jar of Vegemite (similar to Marmite) in the fridge (at least I think it's still there) that I have no idea what to do with. Maybe I could add a spoonful to soups. ??? And I agree on the Better Than Bouillion - I use it all the time!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I completely agree with roasting veggies to bring out some umami flavors. Smoking and or charring them on on the grill helps too! Thanks for the reminder!! You could definitely add vegemite to soups. Also, tossed with pasta and some broccolini, or add to a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.
Sharon allen
Yes, Umami is really the fifth taste in all taste, it makes food tasty, using umami for cooking also make food fast and delicious.