The Surprising Way To Make Veggies Taste 10x Better, From An Award-Winning Chef

You probably already know that even the same type of vegetable can deliver a slightly skewed flavor profile. Example: Ever had a crunchy, flavorful, almost juicy carrot, as opposed to a bland one that feels chalky and bone-dry? It's like you can taste the flavonoids and nutrients in the former, while the latter simply, well, lacks luster. 

So how do you grace your taste buds with the aforementioned delicious carrot? According to Dan Barber, award-winning chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Farm, it's all about the soil: "You can't get truly jaw-dropping, delicious flavor, unless it's from good, biologically active soil," he explains on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast.

Remember when we told you how soil affects the quality of your veggies? Plant a seed in biodiverse, rich soil, and it'll grow into a more nutritious vegetable—as opposed to seeds planted in over-tilled soil stripped of its microbial life. 

Barber wholeheartedly agrees with that sentiment, although he takes it a step further: The more biodiverse the soil, and the more nutrient-dense the vegetable, the better it'll taste. "The flavonoids are flavors," he says. So when you curate nutrition, you're also inherently curating taste. 

To circle back to our carrot example: "A delicious carrot is defined by a seed that's full of nutrient density and flavonoids," Barber explains. These nutrients, he adds, also tend to develop in response to the surrounding environment.

For instance, "Pick a carrot that lived through near-freezing temperatures in the last four or five days—that temperature converted the starches in the carrot to sugars and raised the brix," says Barber. "And when you raise the brix, you get all sorts of nutrition that wasn't there before, and you also get sweetness because brix is sugar." 

This all sounds lovely in theory, but you may be asking yourself: How can I cook veggies that are grown in this rich, diverse soil? Well, according to Barber, shopping from local farms is your best bet. That includes heading to the farmers market if you can, which we realize might not be realistic for every grocery trip; Barber suggests finding local options at your supermarket and supporting restaurants that source from small farms. 

"There's a whole restaurant community that is supporting the local food chain, and there are products in supermarkets now that are supporting local farmers," he says. "There are more ways to support local agriculture now than there ever have been in the history of the United States."