Some foods only "go," so to speak, with a limited number of other edible options. Others, though? Well, let's just say that foods that go with everything exist — and that there are far more of them than you probably thought there were. There's nothing like a little crowdsourcing to expanding your palate, is there?
Today's mealtime inspiration comes from the ever-useful AskReddit forum, where Redditor Sheharizadian recently posed the oh-so-eloquently stated question, "What is your 'I put that sh*t on everything' food?" The denizens of the content sharing community were, of course, happy to oblige with thousands upon thousands of suggestions. If you want to get technical, most of them are more in the condiment arena than that of actual, standalone foods; I think that's splitting hairs, though. If it's edible, it counts as food, so who are we to question it?
My own contribution to the list? Balsamic vinegar. Seriously. For savory foods, it’s just fine on its own; it’s also fine all by itself on sweet things, but if you want to, say, take some strawberries to the next level, stick your balsamic in a pan with a little sugar and cook it on low heat until it’s reduced down to a sweet and tangy syrup. Then slice up your berries, drizzle your reduction on top, and enjoy. You can also put the whole thing on top of some vanilla ice cream if you want to get really fancy.
Here are 12 of my favorite picks; head on over to AskReddit for more. Raise your hand if you're currently reevaluating every food choice you have ever made — ever.
1. Parmesan
Truly the cheese of the people.
2. Garlic
Pro tip: Slice the top off a head of garlic, drizzle it with olive oil, wrap it in foil, and bake it at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Bam — roasted garlic. Rub it on toast. Rub it on everything.
3. Crushed Red Pepper
We’ve probably all done the crushed-red-pepper-on-pizza trick at least once in our lives (and if you haven’t, you have not truly lived), but it’s worth breaking out whenever you want to give something a kick that isn’t as saucy (literally) as actual hot sauce. If you’re into cooked greens, I like to sautee spinach with it and a little garlic; my favorite shrimp scampi recipe also involves tossing some of it into the mix.
4. Old Bay Seasoning
I’ve never actually had Old Bay Seasoning, but I know three things about it: One, it is a blend of a whopping 18 spices, including celery salt, a couple of kinds of pepper, and paprika; two, it’s great on seafood; and three, people in Maryland are obsessed with it.
5. Tajin
A Mexican “fruit seasoning,” Tajin can apparently be difficult to get a hold of in the States. Those who have experienced it, though, swear by it:
That’s dedication.
6. Cinnamon
There’s another vote for garlic in here, too, but the cinnamon suggestion is spot on. It’s not just for sweet stuff — anything with tomato makes for a particularly good pairing.
7. Lemon
There’s a reason so many of the things you can order in restaurants come with little wedges of lemon on the side. Squeeze it over everything — even French fries. It’s like magic.
8. Tortillas
Or wraps, or whatever your foldable flatbread of choice is. Bonus: Wrapping something up makes it a lot more portable.
9. Caramelized Onions
The trick to perfectly caramelizing onions is melting a good slug of butter, then just letting your sliced onions sit in the pan, mostly undisturbed, for a really, really long time. You want them so cooked that they’ve almost completely broken down. Then you can spread them on anything, and it will be amazing. Obviously you can’t go wrong with sticking them on a burger, but get creative. It’s worth it.
10. ...Pineapple?
Your mileage may vary with all of these suggestions, of course, but I feel like that’s especially the case with pineapple. If you’re not a pineapple-on-pizza person, for example, pineapple lasagna might not be your speed. But hey, everything is worth trying once, right?
11. Egg Yolks
Sounds weird. Is actually quite common. Point: aquacarrot.
12. Your Hot Sauce of Choice
A wide variety of hot sauces made their way into the thread, some multiple times. Whether you’re a Cholula fan, a Sriracha devotee, on Team Tabasco, or a supporter of any number of other hot sauces, odds are, it’s just what you need to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to your lunch, or your dinner, or your breakfast, or your second breakfast, or your fourth meal, or whatever. Knock yourselves out, metaphorically speaking.
Images: mealmakeovermoms/Flickr; Giphy (4)
