10 Back-To-School Spices & Herbs for Lunchboxes

Looking for inspiration to make the kids' lunchboxes more interesting and varied? Want to start introducing your kids to spices in their meals? Want to aid their digestion and boost the antioxidants in their meals?

We've put together just a handful of suggestions on how to incorporate spices more into your kids' diets and make their lunchboxes so delicious they'll come back empty every day!

Sandwich Spreads

• Pureed Avocado with garlic, salt and pepper
• Fruit chia jams with a hint of cardamom to ease digestion
• Hummus with cumin or even a more traditional Moroccan spice blend in it
• Pesto with some nigella seeds added into the mix

Snacks

• Peanut Butter mixed with some True Cinnamon with Apple Slices
• Fruit Salad with a Maple Syrup and Sweet Delight Spice Blend dressing
• Banana Bread using some aflatoxin free nutmeg

Drinks

• Flavoured Water with fresh Mint & Cucumber
• Mango smoothie with a hint of cardamom
• Fresh pressed Pineapple Juice with black pepper
• Orange juice mixed with a little ginger and nutmeg

There you have it.. at least 10 spices and herbs you can easily use to tasty up your children's lunchboxes!

The Meaning of Quality Spices

In my career as a lawyer, we used to call words such as "reasonable" or "significant"  weasel words because what they meant to one person would be totally different to another person. In my new world of spices, I now consider words like "high quality", "premium" or "superior" as weasel words.

When spice companies describe their spices as being of 'high quality', 'premium' or 'superior' what do they mean? What do they mean to the consumer?

Spice quality could be measured by so many things - best grades, freshness by recent harvest, clean, organic, free of fillers, free of MSG and so on.

As a consumer, should and do you just take the brand's word for it or should the brand be telling you why or in what ways they define their products to be good quality?

At the Spice Sanctuary, we pride ourselves on giving as much information as we can to consumers. If they don't understand what a grade means or the impact of a certain harvesting methods, we hope to inspire them to research and find out more about these attributes. We strongly believe organic is not enough when it comes to our spices just like not every bottle of chardonnay wine is the same.

Here are just a few suggestions on how you, the consumer, can test what quality of spices mean to you:

• "Organic" does not mean the spices are fresher or have more volatile oil content. Organic farming of spices merely means that no pesticides or chemicals are used, making them purer.

• "Freshness" doesn't start from the point you buy spices from your store but rather, depends on the time when they were harvested and how short the supply chain was. It can also be determined by how much you use in dishes to get the right flavour. Less is best.

• "Quality" is not always determined by aroma - of course the more aromatic, the better the quality but quality also comes through taste, differing levels of bitterness, pungency, sharpness etc.

• Just like at school, grades matter! There is a strong correlation between the best grades translating into better quality so long as all other factors pertinent to quality are also observed.

We're always keen to know how our spices measure up for our customers, so let us know!

Spicing it up with Juices

With the bounty of summer produce and fruits well on their way to stores and farmers markets, I have become obsessed with juicing. And not just obsessed with the act of juicing but the fact that I have another outlet for creating recipes and incorporating spices into them!

Juicing is a really good way to detox the body without depriving it of essential nutrients and always use organic produce. Here are just a few of the recipes I have been working with and some ideas on how to bring those digestive spices out to help clean out the system even more!

Beet, Carrot & Cumin (pictured)

1 medium beet, peeled

8 juicing carrots, peeled

2 mini cucumbers

1 tsp toasted cumin seeds (added at the end)

Carrot, Apple & Ginger

8 juicing carrots, peeled

4 red apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces

2 celery stalks

2 rhubarb stalks

tiny piece of fresh ginger

Mango, Apple & Cardamom

2 Ataulfo or very ripe mangoes

4 apples

1 banana

1/2 tsp Coorg Bold Cardamom (add at the end)

Other spices that would go really well with any vegetable and/or fruit juice include:

Turmeric Powder

Black Pepper (try it with pineapple or orange)

Paprika (great with a green juice)

Nigella Seeds (if juicing squash or sweet potato)

Buy Local, Buy Organic, Buy Online!

Over the past year or so, we have personally seen an increase in the number of sustainable online grocery delivery companies that have listed the Spice Sanctuary spices. Coming from the UK, online grocery shopping is quite a tried and tested phenomenon and it is so exciting for me to see that growing in Canada!

The emphasis here, though, is on these companies offering locally grown or sourced, organic and sustainable produce, groceries and more. It is changing the mindset of the consumer from driving to the grocery store or multiple stores if one store does not carry everything to having it all delivered to you. It has never been easier to support local farmers, local producers, Canadian brands and eat more sustainably and healthier. Check out these five reasons to eat local below (while our spices may not be grown in Canada, our Farm to Pantry and Best Grade Promise means these reasons also easily apply to our products).

 

The Organic Box, Spud.ca, Green Earth Organics, On The Move Organics, Peacefull Pantry, Farm Box, Eat it by Vitahealth all carry and offer our organic spices and blends but more importantly, they are all stewards and shining examples of where the natural food retail industry is heading in Canada.

What Spice Recalls Mean for Canadian Consumers

Just a few days ago, a major US brand issued a recall both in the States and Canada of their whole organic peppercorns for salmonella. 

The full recall notice can be found here as well as details of what to do if you have bought the affected items:

 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2014-04-05/eng/1396736705517/1396736719852?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#recall-media

The impact a recall can have on both consumer and brand is significant. Organic spices are a food product (usually free from irradiation and fumigation) and therefore not immune from microbiological issues and pathogens. Indeed, no food company is immune from this happening to their products or spices but there are ways this can be mitigated by both the brand and consumer (believe it or not), especially as not all organic spices are the same. 

There are many factors that contribute to pathogens like storage conditions, transit times, micro analysis at harvest and beyond. However, the larger the company, the more likely they are to buy their products in very large quantities leading to potentially longer warehouse and storage time until sold, increasing the risk of pathogens growing in the product. This also increases the reach of people who could have bought the products, taking longer and making it harder to contain the issue and to ensure safe return of affected products. Recalls on a large scale may also cause price fluctuations in the affected product for other brands and ultimately you, the consumer. So what can you do?

What can consumers to do to mitigate their risk?

• Buy from local or smaller companies.
• Don't be afraid to try other brands - you might be pleasantly surprised!
• Don't be afraid to ask questions to the brand. You are the consumer and you have the right to know!
• Consider buying packaged versus bulk organic spices as this ensure better traceability in case of recall issues.
• Consider choosing brands that offer the shortest supply or most recent harvest.
• Use your spices everyday to avoid long term storage issues in your home.

What does Spice Sanctuary to do to mitigate this risk?

• Buy their products in smaller batches
• Ensure products meet all requisite screening parameters before and after buying them
• Ensure products are recent harvest to maximize freshness and minimize spoilage
• Ensure products are only packaged the once - rebranded or repackaged goods are exposed to multiple environments that may contribute to contaminants.
• Ensure spices are the best grades available - high volatile oils can act as inhibitors to bacterial micro-organisms

Creating Moroccan Harmony in Your Kitchen

One of the most amazing gifts the spices in our cupboards gives us is the ability to go on a culinary journey around the world right from our kitchen! This weekend, I hosted a dinner party and the theme was Morocco! Although the food was themed, the preparation and ingredients used all had another common theme: they can be used in and for so many other dishes.

The harmony of flavours created from cumin, coriander, chili, mint, cinnamon, garlic, orange flower water, rose water and nuts is quintessentially Moroccan but why just use them for this when there is a whole world of food and dishes to explore too!

Eggplant Boats

We started with an eggplant dish that I created using the Spice Sanctuary Moroccan Harmony Spice Blend. Just 3 Tablespoons of the blend mixed with some garlic, honey, lemon juice and a little oil and voila! A marinade you can use on almost anything! Try on steaks, lamb, as a salad dressing...

Harissa, Tagine and More!

Our mains consisted of one of the very first recipes I ever created - a chickpea and butternut squash tagine. This was accompanied by Harissa shrimp and a divine nutty rice dish cooked in a tagine which our friends brought!

This was the first time I made Harissa and again, I quickly realized just how versatile this paste can be too! You can use this as a hot and fiery pasta sauce, as a flavouring for soups, in place of store bought Ketchup too....

For my version of a Harissa paste, click here! 

For the other recipes mentioned, it's a tease but you'll have to wait for the cookbook :)

The Spice for all Bellys: Asafoetida (Hing)

Do you end up avoiding foods that are good for you but give you gas?

 What if you could find a simple everyday ingredient that would allow you to digest these gas prone foods better?

Sometimes named the "Food of the Gods", this is the spice that every belly needs! Asafoetida (Hing) (pr. asa-fe-teeda) is traditionally used in Ayurveda and Indian sub-continent cuisine where the diet is predominantly lentil or bean based. Asafoetida is a resin that is extracted from a perennial herb plant. The resin dries to a dark red, brown colour and on its own is difficult to grate or ingest as it is so potent. It is, therefore, more commonly found and consumed in a compound form where the powdered asafoetida is mixed with wheat and gum arabic.

The hunt for a certified organic asafoetida which was suitable for celiacs was proving really difficult but with perseverance, research and development, we were ecstatic to finally source a very good version. It is gluten free, grain free and has a minimum of 30% asafoetida resin content, making a little go a long way!

HOW DO I USE IT?

If you've used asafoetida before, you will know that it has a sulphuric smell but don't let this put you off! As soon as you add it to your cooking, the smell and taste dissipates.

Our recommendation is that you always use about 1/4 tsp in any dish (doesn't have to be Indian!) that uses the following ingredients:

Beans

Lentils

Pulses

Brocolli

Cabbage

Brussel Sprouts

Asparagus

Starches like potatoes

It is also a great substitute for onions and garlic if you have none in the house!

WHAT ELSE IS IT GOOD FOR?

Apart from being heavily used as a digestive aid, Asafoetida is a proven anti-bacterial and thought to be excellent at fighting influenza and candida. In fact, scientists even found it really effective in fighting the H1N1 virus!