Most recipes call for sautéing onion before adding other ingredients. The onion acts as a base to the rest of the dish; when you eat the dish, the onion flavor won’t be a primary flavor. To enhance the onion flavor, sauté some of the onion as the recipe indicates and add the rest of the onion halfway through the cooking process. If a recipe calls for three cloves of garlic, find three opportunities to add it to the dish. Sauté it at first with the onion, squeeze another clove in when the sautéing is done and add a third clove toward the end of the cooking process to give the dish a garlic bite.

Below is a recipe for Lentil and Roasted Squash Soup. It is written in two ways. The first is the way the recipe would be written in a cookbook; the second demonstrates how to layer the flavors. Even with the added steps, the soup takes only 60 minutes start to finish and 40 minutes of that time is simmering time.

In the layered version, a bit of the squash is added at the beginning to enhance the flavor base. This is a basic principal of flavor layering. Add a bit of an ingredient at the beginning and more as you cook to make the flavors sing. Add a bit of finely chopped raw shrimp to the base of your soup or pasta dish; tiny pieces of sausage or meat cooked with the onions and celery will give more depth to your sauce or stew and please your palate in unexpected ways.

Roasted Squash and Lentil Soup

1 butternut squash, peeled

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 celery rib, diced fine

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Kosher salt

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

3/4 cup dried lentils

Black pepper

To roast the squash:

Preheat oven to 425.

Cube the squash to a size to fit on a spoon in the soup. In a bowl, toss the cubed squash with 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil until coated. Tip the squash onto a foil lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with Kosher salt.

Roast on the lower rack of the oven for about 10 minutes (until starting to brown). Turn the squash cubes and roast another 10 minutes (until starting to brown).

To make the soup:

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pot. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic and sauté until soft.  

Add the broth, water and lentils to the pot, bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 40 minutes, until the lentils are cooked. Stir in the cooked squash, season with black pepper.

Alternate method — layering the flavors:

Use the same ingredient list and same squash recipe as above; however, cut three-quarters of the onion fine and one-quarter rough chop. Cut one carrot fine and one rough chop.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a soup pot. One at a time (about 30 seconds apart), add the finely chopped onion then 1 finely chopped carrot, then all the celery, then 1 clove of garlic and a few cubes of diced squash (can be cooked or raw). Sprinkle with kosher salt. Once all the vegetables are added, turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and allow the vegetables to sweat until soft. Once the veggies are soft, add another garlic clove. Give it 30 seconds in the pot. Add the water, broth and lentils. Simmer for 25 minutes. Add the rough cut carrot, onion and remaining garlic clove. Simmer until the vegetables and lentils are cooked, about 10 more minutes. Stir in the cooked squash. Season with black pepper.