After spending years trapped in cycles of food restriction and following diet “rules”<\/a> as a teenager, Gastman believes life is too short to eat food you don’t enjoy. ” Ultimately, if your diet isn’t something that you enjoy, then it’s not healthy,” she said.<\/p>\n She thinks about adding protein, fiber, and a variety of plants to dishes \u2014 and doesn’t overdo it on ultra-processed foods<\/a> \u2014 but emphasizes that nutrition is just one element of food. “If something doesn’t taste good, I don’t want to eat it,” Gastman, the author of “Find Your Healthy,” said.<\/p>\n To make her meals taste good, Gastman leans on the flavor boosters that she always has in her kitchen. “I always have a lot of jars of various things like chili oils and various kind of saucey things,” she said.<\/p>\n She shared her four favorite flavor boosters.<\/p>\n Chili oil<\/p>\n Gastman loves Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp.\u00a0<\/p>\n vm2002\/Getty Images<\/p>\n “I’ve got about 15 million different chili oils,” Gastman joked.<\/p>\n She has two favorites. The first is Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp, an umami Chinese chili oil containing dried chili, crispy fried onions, fermented soybeans<\/a>, and Sichuan peppercorns. She likes to use it on dumplings, eggs, noodles, fried rice, soups, and avocado toast.<\/p>\n The second is White Mausu Peanut Rayu, a crispy chili oil with peanuts and sesame. “This one’s brilliant if you want something a bit nuttier and less spicy,” she said. It goes well with spooned over greens, eggs, and noodle dishes, she said.<\/p>\n Pickled anything<\/p>\n There are always pickled cucumbers, onions, and jalape\u00f1os in Gastman’s fridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marina Cavusoglu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Gastman keeps her fridge stocked with different types of pickles to add acidity and saltiness to her food. “They can completely transform a dish,” she said.<\/p>\n She likes adding pickled cucumbers <\/a>to sandwiches, burgers, and potato salad for a bit of crunch, and has a dill pickle hummus recipe in her cookbook, which calls for pickle brine in the hummus itself and chopped pickles on top.<\/p>\n Pickled onions make an “amazing garnish” on salads, tacos, or with avocado and eggs on toast, she said, and olives are delicious stirred through Mediterranean-style dishes<\/a> like pastas and traybakes.<\/p>\n She also makes good use of capers, often chopping them finely into salad dressings, stirring them through potato salad or pasta dishes, or pairing them with smoked salmon and cream cheese.<\/p>\n Pickled jalape\u00f1os and anchar, a type of South Asian pickle, are staples for Gastman too.<\/p>\n Herbs and spices<\/p>\n Gastman’s go-to herbs are cilantro and parsley.\u00a0<\/p>\n MoMo Productions\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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