Cook your veggies right

Sauteeing or roasting vegetables brings out their natural sugars. Steaming them can make them taste bland, pushing you to add salt and salty seasonings. Simply searing your chicken or other meats can also bring out natural flavor.

Learn your herbs

You’d be amazed how much herbs like cilantro, parsley, dill, basil and oregano can do to flavor your food, without any salt. And these are sodium-free and full of phytonutrients!

Add healthy fats

Keep avocado, coconut and tahini in the house. These increase the flavor of food plus they add that creamy, satisfying texture without butter or other cholesterol-increasing fats.

Find your own umami (Japanese for “delicious”)

Try this: mix small amounts of tamari, umeboshi plum paste, balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, dried mushroom or sea vegetables into your next stir-fry, sauce or stew. All of these pack immense flavor in tiny servings.

Get spicy

Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, clove, ginger, cayenne and chipotle pepper powder instantly kick up the flavor of a meal. Studies have found that spices can be helpful in making you eat slower because they grab the attention of your taste buds, making you focus on your food more.

Other kitchen essentials

Keep real vanilla extract, vanilla bean or coconut butter in your kitchen. These can often substitute for sugar in a recipe. Also keep lemon zest, pre-shredded, in little ziplock bags in your fridge for a little flavor burst.

Eat seasonally and locally

When you eat produce that is out of season or from somewhere else, it has usually gone through a lot of handling and traveling (or even artificial alterations) to get to you, diminishing its taste. For the most flavor, shop at your farmer’s market. Or better yet, grow your own produce!

Hydrate!

Digestion begins in your mouth with the work of your saliva. Saliva helps you pick up all the flavors in your food but if you’re dehydrated, you aren’t producing enough of it and you aren’t fully enjoying your food, which could provoke you to add salt and sugar.

Look at your medications

Some medications actually mess up your sense of taste and smell. Some even put a weird metallic taste in your mouth. Ask your doctor if this is a common side effect of anything you are taking.

Take your vitamins

Nutrient deficiency can also lead to an improper taste perception. You could probably benefit from taking several vitamins, but one that especially affects your sense of taste is zinc. Try eating foods rich in it like oysters, pecans, sunflower seeds and lentils.