Know Your Spices Before You Cook!

One unique quality of Indian food is its taste. It is the mixture of various herbs and spices and that often leads to a very particular taste as well as an unforgettable aroma. Many spices and herbs are combined to lend an Indian dish a particular taste. While these online Indian spices and Italian seasoning online are used to give the recipe a good aroma and flavour, they also have their health benefits. Let’s learn about some of the spices used for Indian cooking.

Usually, spices are roasted dry so that they release their essential oil before they are grounded into spice mixes. Some spices can be grounded using a mortar, others require a blender which is powerful enough to ground the spices finely. This is because certain spices like cassia bark are very hard to ground and blend into a thin powder.

Cardamom comes in two types mainly green and black. Green is more common and is used for cooking everything from spice mixes to Indian savoury drinks and desserts. With a tinge of eucalyptus note, the flavour is light and sweet. A garam masala spice mix also uses a blend of green cardamom. Black cardamom is very strong and smoky. It is best to pull it out of the dish before using as it can make the recipe very spicy.

Clove is one of the common online Indian spices and can be spotted in many Indian dishes thanks to its unique anise notes. Essential oils give clove its strong and almost medicine like flavour. If you are wondering, cloves look like flowers then yes, they are. A lot of oils held by them are pressed out before they are dried and used for cooking. They do not need to be used carefully; however, they tend to overpower other delicate spices.

The most abundant Indian spice is coriander. It can be spotted by its golden-yellow colour, they have an aromatic seed with a citrus note and also one of the first spice to be known in the world. For spice mixes you can use whole coriander while on the other hand the most common ground spice is ground coriander as the name suggests. They need to start dancing and popping in the pan and need to be roasted dry like those of cumin seeds until you can spot a tinge which is light golden-brown in colour.

Oregano is a very famous herb derived from purple flowers and olive-green leaves. Growing to about 3 feet in height, it is from the herb family that also consists of thyme, mint, marjoram, basil, sage, and lavender. Used sometimes as a medicine, it is mainly used in cooking as leaves which are fresh and dry. Used as a spice and preservative in certain foods, oregano is most famous to be used on pizzas. You can get online Indian spices from a supermarket near you, and you can also find the best peri peri masala brand that suits your taste buds.

The above spices also have their own health benefits. There are herbs and spices that are specifically used for healing and are being used by ancient medicine. However, if you have any underlying medical condition, then you must consult your doctor before you start taking these for medicinal purposes.