Be fearless in your choice of “accessories” and you’ll create some memorable dishes. Here, a piece of broiled halibut is garnished with fresh-snipped dill and other herbs, then draped with a “scarf” of prosciutto. Photo courtesy of ParmaHam.com.
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KAREN HOCHMAN, Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE, prefers plating and garnishing to the actual cooking.
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November 2005
Updated April 2009
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Garnish Glamour
Page 2: Garnishing Savory Dishes
This is Page 2 of a three-page article. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.
Garnishes can include herbs, sauces, breads (crackers, croutons), flavored oils...fruits are also a delicious garnish counterpoint to many savory dishes. Think outside the box: dried apple chips on a sweet vegetable soup, such as tomato or root vegetable, is an exciting choice. Layer your garnishes: In addition to the apple chips, for extra flavor and color, snip fresh chives or dill atop that soup!
Three Ways To Garnish A Bowl Of Soup
There are many, of course, to garnish a bowl of vegetable soup. You can choose a different garnish from each row in the chart below. But, these photos show that you can garnish a bowl of soup in many ways.
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| Heavy cream is drizzled to make a design on top of this cream of carrot soup. |
In this cream of celery soup, a crouton is topped with melted cheese and fresh herbs. |
Tomato soup gets a garnish of lump crabmeat, fresh basil, shredded Grana Padano cheese and snipped chives. |
Photos courtesy of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.
Garnishes For Savory Dishes
| Category |
Options |
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| Breadstuffs |
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| Dairy |
- Whipped cream,
sour cream, or yogurt flavored with dill, Parmesan, or other matching flavor
- Crème fraîche
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- Cream dabbed onto plate or
piped from a pastry bag
- Grated or shaved cheese
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| Flowers |
- Edible flowers like
hollyhocks, nasturtiums,
pansies and violets
- Herb blossoms (if you grow herbs and your plants are in flower, snip them; or look to buy herbs that are flowering)
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- Shot glasses or soy sauce
bowls with sprigs of
flower blossoms as plate
centerpieces (arrange
food around them)
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| Fruits |
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- Peel curls: citrus fruit, carrot
- Skewered mixed color
grapes
- Sliced star fruit
*Cut with hors d’oeuvre “cookie cutters”; use lemon juice to prevent discoloration |
| Herbs, Spices & Seasonings |
- Basil (especially Thai and
purple basil)
- Bay Leaf
- Capers & caperberries
- Chives
- Dandelion
- Dill
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- Display spices*
*Not meant to be eaten, but to provide artistic flourishes or otherwise showcase the food, e.g. clove-studded apple slices, scatterings of mustard seeds, beds of kosher salt for oysters
- Pink peppercorns
- Rosemary
- Tarragon
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Oils &
Condiments |
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| Prepared Foods |
- Cheese wedges or rounds
- Prosciutto-stuffed peppers
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- Rolled prosciutto, Parma or
serrano ham
- Stuffed dates or prunes
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| Roe & Seafood |
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- Crabmeat, baby shrimp or a
large shrimp, a scallop or piece of lobster meat
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| Vegetables |
- Carrot peel curls
- Chiles
- Curly cress
- Cherry tomatoes
(halved
or skewered)
- Grape tomatoes (orange,
red and yellow)
- Gherkins, slicked pickles and
pickled vegetables
- Microgreens (baby arugula, mustard greens, mizuna,
purslane, rapini, tatsoi,
sorrel)
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- Miniature vegetables
- Mixed skewered olives or
olives
and cocktail onions
- Mushrooms (enoki, trumpets,
other exotic varieties)
- Scored cucumbers
- Scored yellow and green
zucchini
- Sprouts (pea, radish,
sunflower)
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| Snack-Type Foods |
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Check farmers markets for beautiful microgreens and herbs you won’t generally find in other markets. And if you have a garden or window box...grow your own!
Continue To Page 3: Garnishing Sweet Dishes
Go To The Article Index Above
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