When it’s time to spice things up

When you have extra time on your hands, it can be all to easy to lounge about scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest. While that is a fun pastime, it gets old after a while. If you are looking for something to do that doesn’t involve the computer and is cooking-related, head over to The Washington Post, where Becky Krystal is showing us how to make our own custom spice blends.

There are many advantages to making your own spice blends like ras el hanout or Cajun seasoning, says Krystal. One is that scaling up and down in quantity is easy, so you don’t have to make a huge commitment to a blend to experiment with it. Another bonus is that the blend will taste fresher and bolder than one that has been sitting on a shelf for who knows how long. Plus, it is easy to tweak it to suit your personal tastes instead of relying on what someone else thinks is best.

Krystal provides recipes for six different spice blends, although that only scratches the surface of options. You can use the EYB Library to find nearly unlimited options using the ‘Spice / herb blends + rubs‘ filter in combination with a particular regional filter or by typing the name of a specific spice. Here are a few Member favorites to provide inspiration:

• Zhoug from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
• AB’s chili powder from Food Network by Alton Brown
• Cooling spice blend with black salt (Chaat masala) from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer
• Tikka masala paste from Jamie’s Ministry of Food by Jamie Oliver (pictured above)
• Dukkah from The Edible Atlas by Mina Holland