Garlic, onions, celery, and carrots—aromatics like these make dishes build a flavor foundation for everything from sauces to sautes. Cook Smarts offers this helpful guide to aromatics and how to combine them for dishes from different cuisines.
The “holy trinity” for Cajun cooking, for example, entails onion, celery, and green bell peppers, heated in olive oil and butter. You’ll find the common aromatics used for Chinese, French, Indian, Italian, Latin, Middle Eastern, and Thai foods. The graphic also helpfully offers suggestions for other ingredients you can add to create your own variations.
