Flavour without garlic or onion

It is the number one question when you start: "without garlic and onion, food tastes of nothing". It does. What those two bring is mostly aroma and depth, and you can get that by other routes.

Garlic oil. Garlic fructans dissolve in water, not in fat: warm whole cloves in oil and take them out, and the flavour goes into the oil while the fructans stay in the clove. It is the best-proven substitute of all, and in this app garlic-infused oil is green with the highest provenance. Make it on the spot or buy an infused one; homemade keeps two or three days in the fridge at most, because garlic in oil without acid is a botulism risk. And beware: black garlic and garlic or onion powder are concentrated garlic and onion, not a substitute.

The greens. The green part of spring onions, the green leaves of leeks and chives give the onion flavour without the bulb, which is where fructans build up. They are the substitution the diet recommends; their page in the app says nobody has published a fructan measurement for them, so they go as a garnish, not as the base of a sofrito.

Spices. Fresh ginger, cumin, sweet or smoked paprika (half a teaspoon), pepper, chilli, lemongrass, fennel and mustard seeds. Paprika has a ceiling of about 3.5 g per serving, more than a teaspoon holds. And herbs: parsley, coriander, basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, mint.

Umami and acidity. Soy sauce (up to 40 g per serving), a little miso (12 g, amber), mustard, tomato paste (15 g), a squeeze of lemon or lime at the end, vinegar. And smoke: smoked paprika, smoked salmon or tofu.

What we cannot tell you. Asafoetida is used in Indian cooking in place of garlic and onion and many people recommend it; it is not in our database and we cannot tell you how much it carries. Commercial stocks almost always contain onion or garlic: read the label, or make it with water, herbs and the greens above.

Every recipe in the app that needs it has a "Flavour" line with the trick it uses.