Ethiopian Berbere. Trust me. You can add it to almost anything when it needs a kick of earthy umami. We keep tons of it on hand because it’s shockingly useful for something so rarely used.

i might be biased but chimichurri is pretty good for spicing things up with some punch.

My favourite unusual one is sichuan pepper powder on garlic bread. Originated in me rummaging through my spices for stuff to add to my garlic bread and I really liked this. I now add it to garlic bread, pizzas, that sort of thing.

Cumin is also a great all purpose spice I put on many things. Cumin+turmeric for curry-flavoured things, but also cumin+salt+pepper+rosemary+garlic granules for anything roasted.

Salt

Salt, pepper, allspice and cloves. Goes really nicely with olive oil and onions

Call me basic and whitewashed but I do love an oregano thyme rosemary moment. Rosemary makes me “oh mary” like Jorgeous

I also love garlic powder and paprika cuz I can avoid cutting vegetables and I’m a lazybones

I will say that I’m down with like 99% of spices but I absolutely loathe tumeric. Hate it. I’m convinced people put it in stuff just for colour cuz we love an orange-yellow serve but like who actually likes the taste

Espresso & cumin

This Japanese style curry powder tastes really good in a Japanese style curry.

It tastes similar to the S&B curry in the can, but fresher and without the orange peel. I should try adding some zest sometime, but otherwise it uses all things I have on hand. If I have S&B, I’ll mix them half and half to get the freshness of my mix with all the secret tricks the S&B has in it.

The curry recipe is a chickpea curry, but I also sub chicken thigh chunks for the chickpeas if I want a meat curry. Just as good either way.