Taste is gift #5 of the 12 Gifts of Mindful Eating. For 12 days, we are sharing a mini-mindful eating exercise to help you focus on the gift of each day. Each one is intentionally short, simple, and powerful.
The Gift of Taste
Your tongue detects 5 tastes (at least that scientists have identified so far):
- Sweet
- Salty
- Bitter
- Sour
- Savory
My husband Owen is a professional chef (I know; lucky me!). One of his culinary secrets is layering ingredients that capture all the taste sensations to create a multidimensional eating experience.
Variety is the spice of life!
Today, conduct your own Flavor Experiment by making a salad or sandwich that intentionally features items representative of as many of the five tastes as possible. Taste the ingredients as you assemble your salad and identify whether it is predominantly sweet, salty, bitter, sour, savory, or a combination.
Owen’s recipe for Five Tastes Arugula Salad with Oranges, Almonds, and Shaved Parmesan is a great example of this concept. What did you come up with?
