Spice it up challenge

Melodieccurn
Melodieccurn Posts: 966 Member
edited April 2016 in Social Groups
Nix the salt this week . Try a new spice. My new favorite spice is smoked paprika. Gives food a slightly smoky flavor. I use on beef and chicken and I also use it on home made sweet potato fries with cinnamon and chili powder and curry.
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Replies

  • LemonSocks
    LemonSocks Posts: 238 Member
    I love smoked paprika and cayenne pepper on homemade baked sweet potato fries. No salt required (and very little oil).

    Chicken I will usually season with a little chilli and some lime, though it depends what kind of theme I'm going for.

    I'll pick up a new spice this week and try something a little different.
  • lupie777
    lupie777 Posts: 217 Member
    I think I'm going for turmeric this week.
  • mswanger09
    mswanger09 Posts: 863 Member
    There aren't too many spices that I haven't tried. I have 3 jars of unopened spices at home, and I decided to use this as the push to open one of them. I will be making chicken curry later on this week. I opted for that since I already have most of the ingredients at home, just need to grab a couple of things to complete it.
  • BJerzy
    BJerzy Posts: 1,844 Member
    I'm with @mswanger09 we eat a lot of spices in my house. I love paprika, but we usually go for the Hot Hungarian kind. Mmmmm chicken paprikash. To try something new, I found a few spice concoctions for marinades, so I think I'll be trying to make herbs de province. It has 11 different spices, including things I haven't had a lot of like tarragon, fennel, marjoram and lavender! We have a bulk spice place I've never been to so I'm going to go there and see what I can find. I'll post back later when I've made something!

    (Oh I also found a recipe for Chicken Manicotti Alfredo that uses marjoram, but it's also like 800 calories per serving so I think I'll skip that for now.)
  • leti126
    leti126 Posts: 179 Member
    I used curry tonight in my dinner. I rarely use salt anyway. I made a pork and veggie stir fry with many different seasoning but mostly consisted of curry and cumin and it was delicious
  • 120maggie
    120maggie Posts: 5,239 Member
    Made a chicken and rice dish that used curry, ginger, and cinnamon. I can't remember the last time I used the curry and I usually think of cinnamon for baking! I use a lot of cumin, chili powder, and cilantro.
  • ka97
    ka97 Posts: 1,984 Member
    I rarely add salt to my food or when cooking. Regardless, tonight I made an egg white omelet and added some thyme and basil - pretty good.
  • hawkins410
    hawkins410 Posts: 2,105 Member
    I'm a pretty bland type of gal, not very spicy at all. It is probably because my husband (who is the real cook in the house) loves so much garlic, salt, curry, cumin and cayenne that the food gets so stinky and spicy, most of the time I can't stand it! Sooo, this week for the challenge, I will try paprika, probably on my eggs and veggies. Paprika is considered an anti-oxidant & anti-inflammatory, loaded w/ B6 for energy, an aide in digestion, and helps promote sleep.
    I'll also throw some cinnamon in my homemade spinach and blueberry smoothies. Cinnamon can help anything taste sweeter and has been shown to help relieve indigestion too! :)
  • smiphette
    smiphette Posts: 177 Member
    Today I had ground grains of paradise on my tomato slices instead of salt. It had a mellow, peppery flavor with a little citrus note. I missed the salt, but it was an interesting change.
  • lbenson2006
    lbenson2006 Posts: 3,372 Member
    Aside from the sodium in all the processed foods I eat, I do not add salt on anything anymore. I didn't really know what to do for this piece of this week's challenge and didn't know what I would be cooking later on this week. So there I stood, in the spice aisle at the grocery store last night trying to figure something out. I found a little thing for Rosemary with two suggestions on how to use rosemary "to trim the fat", one of which was to sprinkle on green beans. I don't like green beans a whole bunch so I thought I would use this opportunity to see if that would help. I tried it at lunch today and I could eat it, but it really didn't do a whole lot for me. The feel/texture of it was a little strange. It's already on the rest of the green beans, so I will be trying it again for the next day or two, so I'll see if my mind changes.
  • hawkins410
    hawkins410 Posts: 2,105 Member
    Posting for @tmn2016 (no access to thread this week): She has found an organic allspice which is a combination of paprika, mustard seed, peppercorns, coriander, onions, garlic, and cayenne pepper. The combo is really good and she added it into her veggies, which totally eliminated the need for salt!
  • LizFitIt34
    LizFitIt34 Posts: 125 Member
    I don't use very much oil or salt when cooking. I like to pre marinate my chicken for extra flavor and because I eat almost the same thing everyday I mix up spices to change the flavor. My favorite spices are lemon pepper, smoked paprika, all spice which is a combination of everything and garlic. A lot of fresh garlic.
  • ashorey87
    ashorey87 Posts: 173 Member
    I don't even have salt in my house. Never add it to food or when cooking. I have oodles and oodles of spices and herbs in my house too, even fresh ones growing in my window sills. My favourites are garlic, basil, thyme and cayenne.
  • Jewls2317
    Jewls2317 Posts: 14 Member
    Tried a new recipe from Pinterest for baked garlic Parmesan chicken, which called for lemon pepper as the spice. Turned out pretty good :)
  • Diana6ft
    Diana6ft Posts: 126 Member
    PENSY'S that's a spice company. Look them up. They have many salt free blends. Everyone thinks I'm an awesome cook and it's because I use their spices. They are sooooooo good.

    I have started this thing that my family is obsessed with. Sliced cucumber with lime juice and this new pepper blend that has red and black pepper. So good! You can adjust the seasoning depending on what type of meal you're eating.
  • leannev68
    leannev68 Posts: 482 Member
    I got hooked back on to tuna fish pitas again after the fish challenge last week. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed tuna. Still had some left this week so I tried adding a bit of curry to my tuna mixture and it was quite nice. Made me think I was eating something a little exotic! Lol
  • HASWLRS
    HASWLRS Posts: 8,001 Member
    I have a lot of spices in my house, so I wasn't going to buy a new one. I also have left over red lentils from the Egyptian red lentil soup that I made a couple weeks back! So I found a recipe in my low-fat cookbook (I know, old school) for an Indian inspired red lentil and rice dish with coriander, cumin, turmeric and curry. It also calls for salt and pepper; I left the salt out. The turmeric is a stronger flavour to me; don't love it. Just as an aside, years ago there was a restaurant in town that put curry on their home fried potatoes....very good!
  • 120maggie
    120maggie Posts: 5,239 Member
    Expensive but very flavorful and different Garam Masala. I use it in stir fries. Also baked winter squash.
  • mswanger09
    mswanger09 Posts: 863 Member
    I made my Chicken Curry tonight for the first time, it was soooo yummy! Thank you for this challenge to get me to finally make it myself!
  • laurab384
    laurab384 Posts: 75 Member
    This past Christmas I had to buy some Herbes de Provence for a Christmas gift, I'd never heard of it but it is amazing! My jar is a blend of oregano, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, anise and lavender.

    We had it this week on pork chops with some ground mustard mixed in, delicious! I also rub it on chicken for roasting or mixed with roast vegetables.
  • bm1409
    bm1409 Posts: 1,715 Member
    My daughter loves spices so I borrowed some from her. I decided on a spice blend called Hot Habanero & Green Chili. It says it tastes great on fish, but I used it on chicken. I probably used a little too much, but it was good. It had a nice kick to it.
  • farmerpam1
    farmerpam1 Posts: 402 Member
    I don't use salt when cooking. (I'm finally off the high blood pressure pills!) I'm not too familiar with curry, so I made a sweet potato curry tonight. Tasty!
  • lsabeIIe
    lsabeIIe Posts: 566 Member
    My boyfriend is the specialist when it comes to spices in our home.
    I can thank him for developing my taste for spicy hot sauces, I REALLY enjoy it now.
    This week, I cooked a chicken and I sparkle lots of Zathaar on it. :)
  • khalley888
    khalley888 Posts: 42 Member
    I love the spice cumin. I add it to avocado (with garlic powder, pepper, and cayenne pepper). Makes a delicious 2 minute guacamole.
  • BJerzy
    BJerzy Posts: 1,844 Member
    I made the herbs de province and used it to flavor my rice. It was really good to have flavorful rice without having to purchase something separate.
  • jazzypdx
    jazzypdx Posts: 178 Member
    I roasted some sliced baby red potatoes that I marinated for about an hour in olive oil, Rosemary and Fennel, delicious. For a new spice I found saffron flowers at a tienda near by, mixed some into Greek yogurt (along with my usual cinnamon, nutmeg) spooned over diced apples and pineapple, okay but will try alone. One savory and one sweet experiment this week. I use tumeric and/or a curry blend 3-4 days a week, and make tumeric milk occasionally, which I did this week 'cause my ankle was bothering me.
  • melissasue0317
    melissasue0317 Posts: 338 Member
    Spices at our place are usually about the same, hot or garlic lol. Stepped out this week and tried a kimchi mixed salsa on chicken. Was good but the premade salsa was fairly watered down after opening it. Bummer.

    Marinating several bags of cubed chicken over night. Bbq sauce, satay sauce (new!), and a "fajita" sauce blend that my kiddos love.
  • enuf2
    enuf2 Posts: 272 Member
    I rarely add salt to my food, and love trying new spices. Today I am making a Curry Roasted Cauliflower with pine nuts and chickpeas side dish. I use curry a lot, so that is not new, but I did purchase Mango Chutney specifically for this recipe. Not really a spice, but a new flavour!!
    I am also making a Roasted Red pepper and sweet potato soup that is to die for! No salt added, only Italian Seasonings. Yummy!
  • sukkara
    sukkara Posts: 51 Member
    edited April 2016
    We cook with a lot of spices. Without exaggeration, there are over 40 jars of different spices in the cupboard! didn't go grocery shopping this week so instead decided to use a spice in a new way and use another that I haven't in a long time.
    -Lemon pepper, cumin, saffron, lemon & chicken (yum!), still needed some salt but much less than usual.
    - Rice with mustard seed (did not add to flavour)
    - Made a healthy cheese spread: strained non-fat yogurt, added zaatar (which I had bought some time ago but hadn't used), sumac, dried mint and dill (double yum!)
    - Tried adding anise seeds to hot water as herbal tea. Has a nice sweet taste and excellent for GIT and IBS (grandmother's very wise suggestion).
  • plainanjelik
    plainanjelik Posts: 232 Member
    Made yellow curry cauliflower rice plus had some cajun pasta earlier this week.