The One Ingredient You Should Be Adding to All Your Plant-Based Recipes

We’re all familiar with the four basic tastes — sweet, salty, sour, and bitter — but umami, the mysterious “fifth taste,” remains an enigma. Umami is responsible for giving foods their deep, savory flavor. When used properly, umami adds a pleasant richness to plant-based meals, balances the natural bitterness of nutrient-dense vegetables, and simplifies cooking by reducing the need for salt and other flavor-enhancing ingredients.

Umami can be found in everything from corn, tomatoes, and mushrooms to aged cheeses, nori and soy sauce. While it’s easy to find foods that contain umami, it’s not always as simple to coax that savory flavor out of them, which is why umami remains an underutilized culinary tool in many home kitchens across America.

That’s why the team at Meatless Monday was so thrilled to work with Yondu Vegetable Umami to develop a free, downloadable e-cookbook complete with umami-rich plant-based recipes. When scrolling through the recipes, you’ll see the breadth and versatility of this one simple ingredient.

But tasting is believing.

For starters, try this super simple 3-Minute Veggie Soup, which includes aromatic leeks, sugary snap peas, cool slices of fennel, and a couple of tablespoons of vegetable umami. At only 54 calories per serving, it’s a nice, light way to open a meal. Catering to a crowd? Pulse together a creamy Minted Pea and Walnut Dip in a matter of minutes. Have some leftover cauliflower? A spattering of chili flakes and lemons zest, along with a drizzle of olive oil and umami will transform this simple vegetable into a Quick Roasted Cauliflower worthy of any restaurant menu.

Download your free copy of the e-cookbook HERE and click over to Amazon to purchase a bottle of Yondu, $8.99 (lasts quite a while).

Thanks to Yondu’s vegetable umami, you can effortlessly add a richness to any of your Monday meals. Need more inspiration? Check out Yondu.Us for more recipes.

Tag @MeatlessMonday and @Yondu.USA in your umami food posts and share the e-cookbook link with friends and family to inspire easy Meatless Monday meal ideas.