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While researching broccoli salads, I made a puzzling discovery; they almost without exception have cumin in the dressing, and this is for a variety of flavor profiles. When I mentioned this to my aunt, she said that she was taught that when you cook spinach, the secret to getting better flavor and less bitterness is, once again, cumin. So my question to all you experts is; is this just a bunch of coincidences, or is cumin actually doing something to counteract the bitterness in bitter veggies?

Very Amateur
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    I don't think so? Cumin is generally considered to be on the "bitter" flavor spectrum itself. But I have no way to verify a negative. – FuzzyChef Oct 13 '22 at 22:46
  • Perhaps the recipe makers like the bitterness of cumin and it overpowers or masks other bitterness? As someone that considers cumin a spice generally best left out of things I'm going to eat, or occasionally used in very small quantities (and all too frequently overdone when eating food made by others) I would not be a good subject for that argument, but I could see some of the folks who overdo it in my opinion leaning that way, perhaps. – Ecnerwal Oct 14 '22 at 01:40
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    Confirmation bias or your browser needing a cache reset (locale or previous searches skewing the results)? You claim “almost all” recipes, yet my first three google results have no cumin whatsoever? – Stephie Oct 14 '22 at 06:16
  • I don't know of anything that could skew search results towards cumin, LOL, and I copied out every recipe I looked at, so this isn't an issue of bias distorting my memories or perceptions. I only looked at recipes with high ratings, so maybe the issue is that the BEST broccoli salad recipes all have cumin? None of which of course addresses the question of whether or not cumin is particularly good with bitter vegetables… – Very Amateur Oct 14 '22 at 17:17
  • none of the top 5 (>4.7 stars with many reviews) "broccoli salad" recipes I found on Google have cumin. I know my in-laws cook broccoli with cumin (and I don't like it), but I don't know anything about it being good with bitter vegetables. The entire question seems very opinion-based, and I'm not sure what an objective answer would look like. – Esther Oct 26 '22 at 19:55

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I've made a new friend who works at a Michelin star restaurant in the UK, and her response to this issue was that NUTMEG is the best spice to use to counteract veggie bitterness. I figured I'd toss that in here to help anyone who might stumble across this thread in search of ways to make the bitter veggies edible.

Very Amateur
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