Spice Blog

Understanding Spices

What is cassava? Cassava, also known as manioc or yuca, is a root vegetable and the underground part of the cassava shrub. Native to South America, it’s also widely grown...

Understanding Spices

If you’re trying to get more vegetables into your diet, there’s a high chance that salads see a regular spot on your dinner table. It’s a great way to up...

Seasonal Ideas

With Christmas just around the corner (it seems to come faster every year), you may find yourself in a familiar position. It’s secret Santa at work and you’ve drawn somebody...

Health and Wellbeing

Celebrate with salt! From 'salt' to 'marriage' might seem a bit of a stretch but the many qualities of salt typify the positive values necessary in the making of a...

Understanding Spices

What is berbere spice blend? Berbere is a traditional spice blend that is the foundation of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. The name itself means ‘pepper’ or ‘hot’ in Amharic, the...

Spicy Adventures

June 25th is known by those in the culinary world and many fans alike as ‘Bourdain day’. This is the day that marks the late, great Anthony Bourdain’s birthday and...

Featured, Understanding Spices

The good news keeps on coming here at Seasoned Pioneers. After six of our products won at the Great Taste Awards 2020 (one of the highest awards in the food...

Spicy Adventures

Planning a culinary adventure through Europe? You’re spoilt for choice. Europe is so diverse and each city has its own speciality. The food scenes in different cities are constantly evolving,...

Spicy Adventures

The Wiener Schnitzel (sometimes the words are joined to form wienerschnitzel) is a favourite of many European nations. In Austria, it’s a national dish - the pride of Vienna. Walk...

Understanding Spices

What is dukkah? Dukkah is a mix of spices, herbs, nuts and seeds which originated in Egypt but is found all over the Middle East and North Africa. Dukkah has...

Health and Wellbeing

Getting a good night’s sleep is very important for your health. Sleep can affect everything from your mood to your immune system, and getting enough of it can keep your...

Health and Wellbeing

If there was one thing that increased during lockdown, it was the number of runners out there. Over the course of a few weeks, suddenly everyone was out running around,...

Meet the Expert

Tell us a little about yourself I have written 27 cookbooks so far and book number 28 is in the pipeline. My first book.  The Complete Indian Cookbook, sold more...

Spicy Adventures

Bizarre Foods - Gross or gourmet? Imagine eating a beating cobra heart, bird's saliva, fish eyes, animal testicles or bull's semen! From the mildly distasteful to the truly repugnant, bizarre...

Understanding Spices

What is pandan? Pandan is a tropical plant in the Pandanus (screwpine) genus, which is found extensively in Southeast Asia. Similar to the palm, the plant has spiky, bright green...

Understanding Spices

Smoothies are a great way to incorporate more vitamins and nutrients into your diet. They’re colourful, taste delicious and are easy to knock down in just a few sips. While...

Understanding Spices

What is baharat? Baharat, meaning ‘spices’ in Arabic, is a popular Middle Eastern spice blend. It’s as essential to Middle Eastern cuisine as garam masala is to Indian food. The...

Understanding Spices

Sumac is a staple within Middle Eastern cuisine, just like salt and pepper in the UK.  Sumac is a focal point in Turkish, Lebanese and Arabian cooking, where it adds...

Understanding Spices

Shakshuka (also spelt with an O, shakshouka), is a staple dish on any Israeli breakfast table. In fact, they eat it at breakfast, lunch and dinner - both at home...

Understanding Spices

If you’ve never seen black garlic before, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just regular garlic gone bad. But don’t bin it just yet – black garlic is actually a...

Spicy Adventures

Recently, the news gave us a welcome respite from the never-ending world pandemic. For a few days, we were all distracted and enthralled by the story of a container ship...

Spicy Adventures

When it comes to desserts, it doesn’t get better than the ones you find in Indonesia. Everyone seems to have a sweet tooth and it’s easy to see why. Cakes,...

Spicy Adventures

For as long as life has existed on Earth, it has always needed energy to survive. This energy has often come in the form of food - something that’s edible...

Spicy Adventures

Spread across 17,000 islands and home to 270 million people, Indonesia is a diverse mix of landscapes, people, cultures and traditions. It also has a rich food heritage which has...

Understanding Spices

The woman who taught England to cook Ask just about any person in the UK if they know who Nigella Lawson is and they’ll look at you as if you’re...

Spicy Adventures

With Easter fast approaching (seriously, where has the time gone?) you may be thinking about this year’s Easter menu. While roasted lamb and hot cross buns are your typical Easter...

Meet the Expert

Monisha Bharadwaj is an award winning author, chef, food historian and a food writer based in London, UK. Many of her 16 books have been shortlisted for and won several...

Understanding Spices

What is Cajun blackening? Blackening is a traditional Cajun cooking technique that adds a complex flavour and dark colour to fish, shellfish and chicken. The meat is dipped in butter,...

Spicy Adventures

For as long as any of us living beings can remember, frogs legs have always been synonymous with French cuisine. You can’t go to Paris without trying frogs legs. Oh...

Spicy Adventures

Best organic review ever! Queen of the kitchen Nigella Lawson gave us a nice surprise recently and shared a video of her delicious version of Moroccan Lamb…using our very own...

Spicy Adventures

Picture this. A large group of gruff, sweaty men stand atop a hill in Gloucestershire, south-west England. They’re kitted out in a mismatch of multicoloured exercise gear, as if they’re...

Understanding Spices

What are cloves? Cloves are one of the oldest spices in existence and have a culinary and medical history dating back thousands of years. This pungent, aromatic spice comes from...

Meet the Expert

Tell us about yourself I’ve been writing about food for longer than I care to admit, nearly twenty five years as YOU Magazine’s cookery writer, and over twenty books (my...

Spicy Adventures

Picture this: a beautiful tropical island tucked away in the Indonesian archipelago. It’s a place where you’ll find stunning, empty beaches. Rolling hills covered in lush, green rainforest that tumbles...

Featured, Understanding Spices

What is Jerk Seasoning? No matter where you are in the world, Jamaican cooking can transport you to the tropics  thanks to the distinctive flavours of the ubiquitous jerk seasoning....

Understanding Spices

What is khmeli suneli? The fun sounding khmeli suneli is a Georgian spice blend which is used in many different recipes from the Caucasus region. Translating to ‘dried spices’, the...