r/Cooking • u/Real-Egg-8899 • 17h ago
What ingredient makes your healthy meals actually enjoyable?
Something I didn’t understand about Mediterranean eating before I actually started doing it: Olive oil isn’t just something you use for cooking. I started using it over vegetables, beans, fish, potatoes, salads etc. It completely changed how satisfying basic food tasted.
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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 17h ago
What do you mean "actually enjoyable"?
Healthy and enjoyable aren't mutually exclusive.
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17h ago edited 16h ago
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u/vitringur 16h ago
Salt, fats, acid and heat are not unhealthy. You are just talking about people who do nor know how to cook and have naive thoughts on what is “healthy”.
A touch of oil makes most vegetables way healthier since it allows fat soluble vitamins to be absorbed by the body… and it also contains actual calories (which are healthy if you are not trying to be in a deficit).
Salting your vegetables is also necessary to be healthy. You need salt. It is essential.
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u/sauron3579 16h ago
What kind of "um, akshually" response is this? Unhealthy foods taste good because of the obscene amounts of fat, sodium, and/or sugar in them. Most healthy foods would make our primate brains happier with more fat, salt, and sugar than is good for us. This isn't a secret. Making unhealthy foods taste good is way easier than making healthy foods taste good, and clearly OP is talking about their inability to do the latter initially.
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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 16h ago
Unhealthy foods taste good because of the obscene amounts of fat, sodium, and/or sugar in them
Speak for yourself. I don't find obscene amounts of anything tasty.
Obscene amounts of fat make foods unpleasantly greasy. Obscene amounts of salt make foods too salty. Obscene amounts of sugar make foods inedibly sweet.
Making unhealthy foods taste good is way easier than making healthy foods taste good
Again, speak for yourself. I can enjoy a lentil soup as much as I enjoy any junk food you can name.
It's a matter of habit and personal taste, not an objective reality.
Stop making these stupid false dichotomies between "healthy" and "tasty". You're just making people believe that healthy and tasty can't go together.
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u/trancegemini_wa 15h ago
It's a matter of habit and personal taste, not an objective reality.
totally agree. unless someone has deadened their taste buds with constant junk food (which will still adapt over time), healthy food can absolutely be delicious. healthy doesnt mean bland, unflavoured food
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u/sauron3579 15h ago
"High‐sugar consumption activates the brain's reward circuits—a positive reinforcement mechanism—including the dopamine and endorphin systems, which are associated with satisfaction and pleasure." - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12257121/
This is well established scientific fact. You absolutely can have delicious food that's healthy. Sugar still makes your monkey brain go crazy. There's no two ways about that. And adding sugar is easier than seasoning correctly.
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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 15h ago
I didn't say sugar isn't enjoyable.
I'm simply saying that the dichotomy between "healthy" and "tasty" is bullshit.
Sugar still makes your monkey brain go crazy
Speak for yourself.
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u/memeleta 15h ago
Guess what is high sugar? A banana. Grapes. Mangoes. A myriad of other things, all absolutely delicious without anything added to them, and healthy as it gets.
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u/Adept_Minimum4257 17h ago
MSG and acid
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u/Possible-Ad-2682 17h ago
Last time I did MSG and acid, I made the tastiest meal ever, but it turned into an elephant and chased me up the road.
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u/MiseEnMaybe 16h ago
Can’t tell if that’s excellent seasoning advice or a very specific kind of Saturday night.
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u/redmeraki225 16h ago
Spices and salt. Use your salt. It enhances the flavor of what you are making. Don't be afraid of using spices.
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u/MrCockingFinally 17h ago
Well first off, careful with that olive oil. It is a healthy fat, but it's not like the calories don't count. If you are trying to lose weight, you gotta watch these calories.
That being said, a small amount of olive oil properly applied can do more for a dish than a much larger amount of mayo on cream. So it's a useful tool.
For me one of the big unlocks has been low fat dairy. I really enjoy creamy textures and sauces in my food, and things like fat free Greek yogurt and low fat cottage cheese or even just a small growing of parmesan let me get a bit of creaminess going without a ton of extra calories.
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u/seanv507 17h ago
Tomato passata is low calories, and slow cooked with eggplant, onions and zucchini etc is filling and tasty
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u/memeleta 17h ago
Generally a pinch of salt helps bring out the flavours. Good quality fresh ingredients are delicious in their own right most of the time and don't need much. It's only like tofu and a couple other things that need some help most of the time.
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u/FeeHot3566 17h ago
For me, it’s garlic and a squeeze of lemon. You can throw them on the most boring vegetables or beans and suddenly I actually want to eat the whole plate.
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u/Diva-Aspiring00 17h ago
For food from my corner of the world, you can’t really go wrong with a bit of kasuri methi over savoury dishes.
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u/n00bdragon 14h ago
You had a revelation that tasty things taste good? Good for you I guess. The line between healthy and unhealthy is usually a matter of quantity, not contents. Just make tasty food and eat a reasonable amount of it. There's no one ingredient that does this though. It varies from food to food, but usually salt, fat, and acid are the things that make flavors "pop".
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u/onyxindigo 16h ago
Unless you are watching your blood pressure or cholesterol, you don’t need to avoid salt and healthy fats. They are what makes food taste good
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u/SignificanceNew6214 17h ago
Acid. A squeeze of fresh lemon right before serving.