Spices are essential for creating delicious flavors in any kitchen. Yet, when you’re eating a healthy, whole foods, plant-based diet, they become even more important. Rather than relying on fat, salt, or refined oils, spices help make tasty recipes.
Knowing how to use spices can elevate a dish and make you a more intuitive cook. However, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by spices. There are so many! Plus, sometimes it’s hard to even figure out if our old spices are still good. Well, before you toss that bottle of rubbed sage, use this guide to get the basics on spices.
I’ve put together some helpful tips on how to use spices. This is my Spice Essentials Guide. I’ll walk you through:
- Basic Spice Flavors
- How to Tell if Spices are Still Good: The Spice Sniff Test
- How to Properly Store Spices
- Spice Tips for Beginners
- Exotic Spices: My favorite unique spices for professional-level cooking
5 Basic Spice Flavors
When beginning to learn about spices, think about different cuisines. Knowing which spices are often found together for specific cuisines will help you understand flavors. Plus, this concept will enable you to experiment with the spices in those cuisines.
Here’s a Quick Reference Guide for 5 Basic Spice Flavors:
- American Savory aka “Poultry” Seasoning: Sage, Thyme, Marjoram, Rosemary…and sometimes Black Pepper, Bay
- Mexican: Paprika, Cumin, Coriander, Garlic…and sometimes Chipotle, Cayenne, Mexican Oregano
- Italian and Mediterranean: Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Garlic…and sometimes Red Chili Flake, Rosemary
- Indian: Turmeric, Paprika, Ginger, Cumin, Coriander, Black Pepper…and sometimes Cardamom, Fenugreek, Cinnamon
- Pumpkin Spice Blend: Cinnamon, Ginger, Clove, Allspice
Chef’s Trick for Meal Prep: Make 2 Dinners at Once
- Make one BIG batch of sauteed veggies, like onions, peppers, and mushrooms
- Separate them into two separate containers
- Flavor them with two separate spice mixes.
In one round of cooking, you can have a Mexican-spiced filling for tacos…and an Italian blend for cooked pasta.
How to Tell if Spices are Still Good: The Spice Sniff Test
Many times we purchase a spice for one recipe…and then it gets shoved in the back corner of the spice cabinet, long forgotten. Just like that wilting head of lettuce in your refrigerator, spices also have a limited shelf life. But, how can you tell if a spice is still good? How do you know the difference between a fresh spice and something that should be tossed?
Similar to that lettuce that wilts in your fridge, a spice gradually loses its fresh flavor. A dried spice is always most potent when it is first purchased. Over the weeks, it will slowly start to lose flavor and color. When a spice is dead, it won’t do much good in your cooking. While most spices last about 6 months, that rule doesn’t always work. Plus, who remembers when they bought their spices?
While it might be wise to finally let go of that jar of Poultry seasoning from Thanksgiving 3 years ago (Mom, I’m talking to you!), it can be challenging to figure out the freshness of other spices. I recommend the Spice Sniff Test! This is an easy way to check your spices.
You can follow some basic guidelines on when to toss spices (yes, that jar of should jump into the garbage can). However, I’ve found creating an exact “6 months and toss” rule doesn’t always work.
The Spice Sniff Test:
- Get your spice container open
- Close your eyes
- Take a sniff
- Can you smell the spice? Can you identify what you’re smelling without looking at the bottle?
- If you can – keep it! It’s still good.
- If you need a second (or third or fourth) sniff to try to figure out the spice — toss it!
* This is also a fun way to test your partner or a friend on their spice knowledge. Makes a fun party game to “Name that Spice” with a blindfold and a row of spice jars.
Video of how to do the Spice Sniff Test:
How to Properly Store Spices
The best way to properly store your spices is in a cool, dark place. A dark cabinet, away from the stove is best. A pull-out drawer, away from heat, is very convenient. While it might be cute to have a spice rack on your counter, that is usually the WORST place to store spices. The light and heat (from the stove) will kill your spices faster than you can burn rice.
Spice Tips for Beginners
If you ever tour a culinary school, you’ll see the huge learning curve in learning flavor. Visit the new students, dicing onions and carrots, and they’re still trying to memorize that fresh thyme and bay leaf go into a French bouquet garni. Take a trip over to the advanced students, and you’ll spot them working with complicated Curry blends and exotic saffron.
As with anything that is new, it takes a while for your palette to learn new flavors. When you’re new to cooking or just starting to explore the world of spices, keep a few tips in mind to help the tasting process:
1) Repeat Something New 3-4 times
When experimenting with a new spice, you need to use it repeatedly a few times in cooking. I recommend setting aside one day a week (say Monday night) to make your “new flavor” night. Use your new spices in cooking that night for about a month. Let’s say you’re using Herbs de Provence. Use it on roasted veggies the first week, boiled potatoes another week, and simmered lentils a third week. After a few weeks of using this new spice blend, you’ll be much more familiar with it. You’ll have a sense of which vegetables and grains work well with it. You’ll be able to imagine its flavor in future recipes and your cooking will improve.
2) Taste and Take Notes
When trying a new spice, make notes. Think of it the same way you would with a wine tasting or beer tasting — make notes on sweetness, bitterness, heat…and whether you like it or not.
3) Buy from Bulk
Most groceries these days have spices available in the bulk section. Not only is this a great way to only try a little bit of a spice, the spices are also fresher than the bottles that have been sitting on the shelf.
4) Start with Pre-Made Blends
If you’re ready to invest in a whole bottle of cumin simply for one taco night, a pre-made Mexican blend is your answer. There is such a wide variety of pre-made flavor blends on the market these days…from Italian to Mexican to North Indian Curry powder.
Chef Katie Pro Tip: Check the Label
When trying these spice blends, read the back label. The ingredients list will tell you what spices are in the blend, which will help you get a better sense of where the flavor is coming from.
Exotic Spices: My favorite unique spices for professional-level cooking
When you’re ready to take your spice game to the next level, try some of these more unique blends. These are my Top 5 Exotic Spices to try:
1) Ras el Hanouj
Ras el Hanout is kind of like Middle Eastern chili powder. The name literally means “Head of the Shop” in Arabic. Hence, each “shop” (or household) is meant to have its own unique blend.
You find Ras el Hanout in Northern Africa – in countries like Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Each country has its own unique blends. However, the basic spices will include cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, and black pepper. There might also be nutmeg, paprika, ginger, or fenugreek.
I love using Ras el Hanout in a hearty Middle Eastern Green Lentil Stew with Potatoes. Big chunks of vegetables and brown lentils take you on a trip to the Middle East. This blend includes the ground spices turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper,
2) Berbere Spice
Berbere is a mix of spices named after the Berber people, indigenous to Northern Africa. It’s found in the Ethiopia and Eritrea region of Africa. It combines spicy peppers with Indian flavors like ginger and fenugreek.
The spice blend reflects the geographic location of Ethiopia. As a center point between Africa, India, and Europe, flavors from these regions merge. A good-quality organic Berbere mix will include: chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, korarima, rue, ajwain or radhuni, nigella, and fenugreek.
I love using Berbere in African Black Barley Salad with Coconut Berbere Dressing
3) Chinese Five Spice
Chinese Five Spice is a blend of five spices: cinnamon, anise seed, fennel, clove, and pepper. The pepper component in an authentic blend is spicy Szechuan pepper. Many blends also use ground white pepper.
This is a unique blend of licorice flavor with a spicy-sweet note. It pairs really nicely with fruit. Add it to a homemade Strawberry Jam. Or use for Five Spice Poached Pears.
4) Za’atar
Za’atar is another Middle Easter spice blend I love using on vegetables. This combination of dried thyme, oregano, marjoram, and sesame seeds makes a delicious finishing touch for roasted or grilled vegetables. It combines herbaceous thyme with deep, nutty flavor from the sesame seeds.
Za’atar is delicious sprinkled over hummus or Quinoa Tabbouleh. My favorite recipes is Za’atar Spiced Rainbow Carrots. The simple spice adds an interesting, impressive flavor.
5) Cajun/Creole
When the cold weather hits, I love the spicy heat of a Creole or Cajun spice blend. Cayenne, garlic, onion, bay leaf — these flavors all remind me of the “Old Bay Seasoning” that flavored so many roasted chickens during my childhood. Nowadays, I love using it as a base for some Hoppin’ John: Southern Black-Eyed Pea Stew with Rice. It’s all delicious sprinkled on Oil-Free Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges.
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