Umami Bomb

Book excerpt: One of Food52's Best Cookbooks of Fall 2019 One of Epicurious' 12 Best Gift Ideas for the Vegetarian in Your Life “Umami Bomb is your go-to guide for infusing every meal with deliciousness....Thanks to Raquel’s clever ideas and the abundant flavor in her smart, streamlined recipes, this book is set to become a kitchen classic.” —Lindsay Maitland Hunt, author of Healthyish and Help Yourself Ingeniously built around the use of eight umami-rich ingredients—aged cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, miso, caramelized onions, smoke, and nutritional yeast—Umami Bomb's 75 recipes are bursting with the sublime, savory fifth taste—and they're vegetarian! Turn mushrooms into “lardons” for a bold take on Southern black-eyed peas and greens. Caramelize onions to use in the best grilled cheese ever. Add a secret spoonful of soy sauce to the frosting of your next chocolate cake—the soy taste disappears but leaves behind an unexpected depth of flavor. Part of the brilliance of Umami Bomb is how the recipes layer these key ingredients to amplify their effect—like adding miso to an already cheesy cacio e pepe sauce for pasta so savory and delicious you’ll do a double take. Umami Bomb "addresses the “depth” issue for vegetarian cooks with a love letter to umami... [Pelzel's] insanely next-level grilled cheese recipe deploys two umami bombs — miso and caramelized onions — and, dare I say, is as satisfyingly decadent as a burger." —Jenny Rosenstrach, A Cup of Jo