Foods That Will Add Color to Your Meal

Orange soup
Photo by Ruth Georgiev on Unsplash

One popular philosophy of food preparation is that “you eat with your eyes”. This theory says that how food looks will affect your enjoyment of it just as much as its taste and smell. You’ve probably noticed if you’ve ever watched cooking shows, too, that presentation is as important a category as taste and technique. So if you subscribe to this mentality or want to try it out, here are some foods and spices that will give your dishes a beautiful color.

Beets

Beets are a versatile vegetable, and more importantly, they are extremely purple-pink. Using them or their juice in a dish will give it anywhere from a deep magenta to a light purple color. You can use them in soups such as borscht, steam them and add to rice, make salads from them, or even use them in patties or meatballs.

Turmeric

Turmeric is commonly used to give Indian and Middle Eastern dishes a distinct yellow color. It has a great flavor, which is essential to many dishes, and is especially good for coloring rice dishes and curries as well as fritters.

Orange Veggies

There are a collection of orange veggies that can be pureed, made into soup, roasted, and more. These are all somewhat related and work well together: squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, etc. Each of these culinary veggies is slightly sweet and can even be used in desserts. They will add a pop of orange to your plate as a side dish, dessert, or mixed into a salad or pasta.