The word ‘umami’ appears everywhere these days. In a plant based diet, it transforms food into something rather special. It’s a depth of flavour that can be difficult to create with vegetables alone. There are loads of ways to create a richness with either soy, nutritional yeast or fish but it is thin on the ground when using just vegetables.

For many months, I had been searching for and thinking about creating a spice blend to create an ‘umami’ flavour when I found what I was looking for at Herbies Spices (located on-line and in-store on the central coast in NSW, Australia). Called ‘Umami Seasoning’ it relies on two crucial ingredients; porcini mushroom powder and black garlic. If you have never heard of black garlic before, it is garlic fermented under controlled conditions. The garlic cloves change inside to a soft, black, sweet, umami-like taste. Herbies blend also contains sweet paprika, tomato powder, sea salt, onion and garlic powders. (You can purchase it on-line here:https://www.herbies.com.au/?s=Umami+seasoning).

This morning I wanted to eat my cold noodle salad (for recipe see blog dated 18 February 2022, ‘Crunch, Raw Vegetables Star In This Dish…Cold Noodle Salad With Spicy Tahini Dressing) with a lighter dressing containing no fish sauce, shrimp paste or chilli. I came up with the dressing below using Herbies Umami Seasoning and I think it has a great taste! I am not sure what to call it so I have labelled it Honey Lime Dressing!

Honey Lime Dressing

Ingredients

juice from 1 lime

1 tsp-1 tbs raw honey (depending on how sweet you like it and how juicy your lime is)

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and crushed in a press

1/2 tsp Herbie’s umami seasoning

1/4-1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

Juice lime. Add all the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly and adjust the seasoning as desired.

This dressing works for any asian noodle dish.