Every cook wants to serve flavor sensations. Most cooks that I know are also pressed for time. Are there ingredients that will easily give a dish the oomph it needs to warrant oohs and aahs? Or at least not moans and groans? Yes.

In her newly released cookbook “Umami Bomb” (Workman, $19.95), author Raquel Pelzel explores the magic of umami, also known as the fifth taste. Chapters focus on Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, miso, caramelized onion, smoke and soy sauce.

“Umami Bomb: 75 Vegetarian Recipes That Explode With Flavor” by Raquel Pelzel (Workman Publishing). Copyright © 2019. CONTRIBUTED BY WORKMAN PUBLISHING
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“When you have a great soy sauce, you can just tell,” she writes in the introduction to the soy sauce chapter. “It’s round and sweet and has a mushroomy, fermented quality that is almost like sherry.”

She puts soy sauce to work with red wine as a sauce to be poured over soba noodles, broiled tofu and veggies brightened by rice wine and lime juice.

This savory, room-temperature dish is a belly-filling flavor sensation. It doesn’t require heavy lifting and makes for a lovely meal in early autumn.

Excerpted from “Umami Bomb: 75 Vegetarian Recipes That Explode With Flavor” by Raquel Pelzel (Workman Publishing). Copyright © 2019.

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