Miso Ginger Salad with a Pinch of Perception

Why my salad tastes better than yours and reflections from a Harvard convening

The first time I made homemade salad dressing was at my friend Sarah Howard's house in second grade. Sarah’s mom, Betsy, is an exceptional cook. I’ve always been captivated by Betsy's skillful knack for creating delicious meals, and I still make her salad dressing today. However, it never tastes quite as good as Betsy’s versions. Yes, Betsy is a fantastic cook, but how can the same recipe taste so different? Well, taste is more than just what happens on our tongues—it's a perception influenced by a combination of factors, including the environment, textures, sounds, and even our expectations.

Expectation bias plays a significant role in how we perceive flavors. For example, the same bottle of wine you sipped in a vineyard in Tuscany might taste better than the exact same bottle of wine you sipped from the comfort of your living room. Or a salad made by someone else (especially Betsy) might taste better than the salad you made yourself when you are on a health kick and trying to use a moldy cucumber from your refrigerator.

So, while I might joke that my salad tastes better than yours, the truth is that it probably doesn’t. Taste, after all, is as much about context as it is about ingredients.

However, you can do a few little things to play with your senses. Below is a recipe for a Miso Ginger Kale Salad that introduces a few tips and tricks. And, if you have time, this week, the Digest will discuss some of my takeaways from last week's convening at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute.

Miso Ginger Kale Salad

Miso is a fermented soybean paste that originated in ancient China and later became a staple of Japanese cuisine. I didn’t invent or introduce miso to U.S. kitchens, but I am a big fan. I rely on it as a staple in my refrigerator because it adds depth of flavor, lasts forever, and packs a nutritional punch as a fermented food that supports a healthy gut microbiome. If ever you feel that something needs more umami (or savory flavor), add some miso. There are many types of miso, from sweet to spicy, and I recommend you try them all! My favorite store-bought brand is Hikari Organic White Miso Paste, but many choices exist.

The miso dressing for this salad is adapted from Mark Bittman (who likely adapted it from someone else). Blended with carrots, the dressing offers a vibrant contrast to the dark leafy greens without the chunky texture of traditional chopped vegetables.

The secret to a standout kale salad is massaging the greens—yes, massaging! Kale and other fibrous greens, like collard greens, can be tough to chew due to their high fiber content. Add a drizzle of olive oil and massage the greens for about a minute. You'll notice they soften to the touch and turn a deeper green, making them more tender and enjoyable to eat.

This recipe also calls for roasted nuts or seeds, a step worth the extra effort. Roasting enhances their crunch and adds a rich, caramelized flavor, taking this salad from ordinary to extraordinary. Best of all, you can buy nuts and seeds pre-roasted! It's these small touches that make all the difference! Now, play into perception and serve this in a big white bowl to make the colors pop. Pile the salad to give the illusion of abundance and top it with extra nuts or seeds or a few slices of carrots for garnish. I added some marinated tofu to my salad for extra protein and to make it a meal, but you could serve this alongside baked salmon, roasted chicken, spicy meatballs, or any other protein you have in the fridge.

Miso Ginger Kale Salade Recipe (PDF)

Digestif

Last week, I traveled to Boston to attend a convening at the Harvard Radcliffe Institutetitled titled “Improving Nutrition Equity and Security to Tackle the Health of the Planet and its Inhabitants: Defining Culinary Medicine to Advance Patient-Centered Nutrition Education.”

Doctors Rani Polak and Edward Phillips invited 15 culinary medicine experts from various backgrounds (and 2 research facilitators) to discuss definitions and competencies that will hopefully be used to help better define the field of culinary medicine.

That said, I want to clarify: this group of "experts" did not invent the idea of using food and cooking for health. This practice dates back centuries, from the wisdom of ancient ancestors to the traditions passed down by our grandmas, abuelas, nonnas, and beyond. So, what makes culinary medicine different? Or is it even different?

If you want a more in-depth answer, you can listen to a podcast I appeared on a few months ago. Teaching people how to nourish themselves is a core component of being human, but many of these skills have been lost. Culinary medicine helps address this issue by integrating food skills into healthcare to enhance traditional nutrition education.

But enough about culinary medicine—let's get to the heart of the matter. One key theme that emerged during our discussion was the difference between skill-based learning and traditional culinary education. The group agreed that culinary medicine isn't about training the next great chef. Instead, it's about equipping people with practical skills. The goal is to help individuals master a few go-to techniques that can easily rotate into weekly meal plans, making cooking both manageable and sustainable.

I've been exploring this concept for some time now. Imagine creating a rotating meal plan focused on mastering specific skills while varying the ingredients. This approach keeps your meals exciting and fresh but allows you to go on autopilot because the techniques remain the same, even when the ingredients change. This idea is also not novel; most home cooks do this naturally without thinking about it. We all have the dishes that we have on rotation.

Take, for example, the kale salad recipe in this post. You could swap the miso dressing for a lemon-mustard vinaigrette, switch almonds for feta cheese, and toss some juicy tomatoes. With these small changes, you've got a completely different dish, but the core skills needed to prepare it stay the same. We went from flavors inspired by North Asian cuisine to flavors from along the Mediterranean Sea.

This concept can help people plan meals. Imagine a four-week rotation of different dish types, switching out ingredients. It feels like variety to your taste buds and eyes, yet you're sticking to a familiar set of skills. We even tested this concept in a research study at a YMCA, and it worked beautifully.

Here is the meal plan we used for the study. It needs work and is a little sloppy, but it gives you a good example of the idea. Excitingly, we are exploring this concept more in our forthcoming cookbook and will be able to provide flexible recipes that complement a meal plan similar to the one you see here (but better!). Try it out for eight weeks, and let me know what you think. 

Thanks for reading, and remember to mix it up!