How to Garnish Food, and Why

How food looks is just as important for our digestion as how it tastes and smells. More than that, how the food looks will dramatically affect how it tastes. We eat with our eyes first. How you serve and garnish your food will affect how satisfying your meal is and how much food you will eat as well. Studies show that presentation matters. Color, texture and shape all play a big role in how we feel before, during and after a meal.

If the food we ate was a pale bucket of mash (even if it’s a bucket of chocolate) we would not feel fully satisfied. We would need a larger portion and we would need to eat something else shortly after just to feel better. Our brains simply don’t register the meal the same way if it’s colorless, has no contrast or texture. Volume alone doesn’t fix that satisfaction point that comes with every meal. What does it is the entire experience. It’s almost like a ritual and skipping steps in favor of saving time on presentation only ensures a poorer end result. We will not feel satisfied enough, full enough and nourished enough. We all deserve better.  

And you don’t have to be an artist to make your food look good, you just need to know a few basic techniques and they’ll elevate your every meal - and help your fitness and your mental health, too. 

Sprinkle With Freshly Ground Black Pepper

The absolute easiest method is to use a pepper mill and sprinkle your food with freshly ground black pepper right before serving. The ground pepper adds details and character to your food making it more interesting and appealing. Once the peppercorns are broken by the blades they release a refreshing aroma giving your food that extra dimension. And it takes seconds.

Sprinkle With Seeds

Another easy method to quickly garnish your food is to simply sprinkle a teaspoon of sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds or hemp hearts over your ready dish. It works with nearly all types of dishes. The seeds work the same way as ground pepper does by adding detail and flavor.

Sesame seeds also come in two colors: golden and black. You can use black sesame seeds with predominantly white dishes like rice or cauliflower creating a beautiful contrast and exotic look.

Go the extra mile and toast the seeds before garnishing. It’ll add aroma and extra flavor to all your dishes.

Garnish With Nuts

When you garnish your food with crushed nuts you are not just adding extra texture that is pleasing to the eye, you are also adding extra crunch and extra nutritional value. Nuts are a highly nutrient-dense food so a little goes a long way. 

You can crush, slice or grate nuts to play with different textures. Walnuts work best crushed whereis almonds tend to stand out more if you slice them lengthwise. The ideal quantity for garnishing with nuts is 1 tablespoon per person. 

Garnish With Fresh Herbs or Spring Onions

Apart from the refreshing flavor, garnishing with greens will often create contrast on your plate. We are wired to respond to bright colors in foods, it stimulates our brains and encourages the release of digestive enzymes. That’s why we digest our food better if it looks appetizing. Boiling, roasting and frying leeches color out of our food making it look dull and lifeless. And even if it tastes amazing we won’t respond to it the same we would if it looked colorful and bright. Finishing your dish with a touch of color is an easy way to fix that. 

Use fresh parsley, dill, basil, mint or spring onions on any dish that doesn’t have any contrast in it e.g., soups, pasta, rice etc. You can always have ready-to-go herbs if you freeze parsley and dill. It takes seconds but it makes a massive difference in how satisfying your meal looks and tastes. 

Garnish With (Pickled) Red Onion

Pink is a strong color and we react to it. It excites our taste buds, too. That’s why adding red onion to salads makes them look a lot more appetizing. The drawback? It’s a raw onion. It can have a very strong overpowering taste. You can take the bite out by soaking cut onions in hot water for 5 minutes or so and it’ll mellow out the taste. Better yet, you can quick-pickle them for a sweet and sour note.

How to quick pickle a red onion: 

1. Quarter a small red onion lengthwise then slice into strips. Add to a small saucepan.
2. Add ½ cup water, ½ cup red wine vinegar and 2 tbsp of agave syrup (or sugar).
3. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Let sit in the syrup for 5 minutes then transfer the onions and the syrup into a jar or tupperware container (preferably made of glass).
4. Keep in the fridge for up to a week and use as needed.