{Be Nourished} Spice it Up!

Why is flavor so important?  Why do we enjoy eating so much? And why do we place so much importance on eating together?

One, flavor enhances an otherwise mundane act.  If we have to eat to survive, we might as well enjoy it.  Cooking and baking are art forms built on texture, flavor, procedure, and presentation.

Not only is it something that we want to enjoy, it brings us together.  In the New Testament, Jesus often preaches while eating with friends.  The only time in those ancient days that people put their weapons down was to lay in bed, and to eat. There were no weapons at the table.  This implies there was a certain kind of trust and intimacy when people ate together.  A piece of this still lingers in American culture.  Think about big family dinners.  Think about getting coffee with a friend.  Dates at a fancy restaurant.  A lot of our lives revolve around food.

And that is a good thing.

So what can you do to spruce up a dish?  Add some flavor!

Here are five ways to spice things up!

1:  Pre-make your own spice mixes.  If you are making any kind of Mexican dish, forget that store bought taco seasoning and make your own!  Here are my favorite recipes:

MEXICAN
PUMPKIN SPICE
GARAM MASALA

It’s actually cheaper, healthier, and tastes sooooo much better to do it this way!

2:  Don’t be afraid of heat.  Red pepper flakes, Thai chili paste, chili powder, chipotle, and my recent favorite: paprika.  Paprika, really?  Yes!  It’s actually not just for color, which I thought for a long time because my mom always put it on deviled eggs and never in anything else.  It’s  just a touch spicy, and now I use heaps of it in a lot of different dishes.  I especially love it on freshly popped popcorn!

3:  Grow your own herbs.  Here’s a fantastic article on how, and almost all herbs grow well indoors and can be started at any time of year.  The trick is to water them just enough and give them light.  Herbs are not big plants, and are very low maintenance.  Herbs love to be pruned, for the most part.  They grow faster, so the more you use, the better!  Remember that if they start to flower, you have to snip off the flowers or the plant will seed, lose flavor, and eventually die.  Also some plants have seeds that are a different spice than the leaves.  Example: cilantro is the leaf, coriander is the seed.  They taste very differently, but come from the same plant. The only caution I have is to make sure that you don’t plant herbs from the same family near each other, such as dill and cilantro/coriander.  They will cross-polinate and taste very strange. http://www.mslimalicious.com/2012/06/grown-your-own-herb-garden-fun-easy.html

4:  Buy fresh herbs from the store in the winter.  This can get pricy, but it’s a great alternative to using dried.  Especially good ones to go with are basil, ginger root, garlic, and cilantro.

5:  Trust your nose!  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  If it smells like it would go well in what you are making, put ½ or ¼ teaspoon in and go from there.  I recently started adding ginger to my homemade taco seasoning because I thought it would go well.  Find a spice you love and add it to different kinds of meals and see how it goes.

 

Colossians 4:6

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.