‘These eight spices are the only ones I need’

Is your spice rack overflowing? Nadiya Hussain is about explain how just eight spices are all you need to revolutionise your dishes.

Whether she’s making dinner, dessert, snacks or drinks, Nadiya Hussain loves to get spices involved. And, given her love of experimenting with different flavours, you might think this means her spice collection is out of control.

The thing is, over the years she has found herself coming back to the same eight spices time and time again, allowing her to streamline her spice selection.

Nadiya’s so passionate about these particular ingredients that she’s just published a recipe book dedicated to them. And from Wednesday 27 September you’ll be able to tune into her new series of the same name, Nadiya’s Simple Spices, on BBC Two and iPlayer, where the Bake Off winner shows us exactly how to make the most of her favourite spices.

So, which spices are we talking about here, why is she so enamoured with them and how should we be putting them to work in the kitchen?

Cardamom

“I love cardamom because while it has a very sweet scent and taste, you can change the intensity of it depending on how you use it. Add a whole cardamom pod to a dish and it’ll be mellow, but remove the little seeds and crush them down into a powder and you’ll have an intense flavour. There are just so many ways to use it.”

While many people associate cardamom with savoury dishes, Hussain frequently adds it to desserts too. In the series we see her use it in a recipe for kulfi ice cream bars: “There’s a biscuit base and then cardamom in the ice cream to bring spice – but between the two you have fresh raspberries.”

Cinnamon

“This is one of my favourites because it is so versatile. It can be used in savoury cooking as well as sweet. It’s the best all-round spice. In fact, in addition to food, I’ll add a stick of the bark to tea and coffee, because it gives your drink a lovely cinnamon swirl flavour.

“Cinnamon’s quite strong so you don’t need lots of it. This makes it a great value spice too because you only need to use a little and it lasts a long time.

“I use whole cinnamon sticks when I’m cooking curries. But what I love about it is that you can also grind it down to a powder to use in baking.”

Bay leaves

You may think of bay as more of a herb than a spice, but seeing it in a different light could help you to get the most out of it.

“They are really underrated. I think lots of people don’t really understand what bay leaves do in terms of adding flavour. Bay is really subtle, but it has a very sweet fragrance. It’s delicious with tea and curries, and is also good in puddings. A very useful whole spice.”

Want to start experimenting with bay leaves? Hussain has advice: “It’s not chewable at all and you’re not going to want to put it in your mouth. Instead, it’s meant to infuse food with a delicious flavour. Don’t remove it from your dish unless you’re going to eat the whole thing. If there will be leftovers, keep that bay leaf in there because it will continue to impart that flavour the longer you leave it.”

Turmeric

While you do need to be careful when using turmeric as it can stain clothes and kitchen equipment, it is worth getting it involved in your cooking, says Hussain.

“Turmeric is a spice that has an initial flavour hit, and then fades away and then comes back again. It’s got quite a stringent, smoky flavour. It’s not just about how it tastes, though; I love the colour that turmeric brings to a dish. You can’t get that yellow colour with anything else.”

Cumin

“Again, this is a really versatile spice, perfect for savoury cooking. If you want something smoky, I’d use cumin in abundance. That’s why you’ll see me on the show using it in a recipe for smoky aubergine pizza – which is a favourite of my kids’. It also includes the flavours that I grew up with, when the aubergine mix would have been cooked over a hot fire. But it works really well on a pizza.”

Chilli

“Chilli’s the only thing that’s going to give you that spicy hit. But it doesn’t have to be hot – you can tailor it to your tastes. If you really like heat, you could go really heavy on it, but by using just a small amount you’ll get a tingle without the intensity.”

If you’re cooking for people with different heat tolerances, Hussain has another suggestion:“In quite a lot of my recipes I’ve made chilli optional, but what you can do is leave it out of the dish and use it as a seasoning instead. Just combine equal parts chilli powder with salt, so you have your own chilli salt. That way, you’ll get a bit of heat without it taking over the whole dish.”

Another way Hussain cools down the impact of chilli is to pair it with a mellow ingredient. For example, in her paneer and chilli loaf, “the creaminess of the paneer really balances out the chilli.”

Curry powder

If you don’t have much drawer space and can only keep a couple of jars of spice at a time, Hussain would encourage you to make one of them curry powder.

“It’s an amazing ground spice, a really good all-rounder that’s great for a curry or dal. You really can get away with just using this blend instead of combining lots of individual spices.”

Fennel

This one won’t appeal to everyone because of its distinct flavour: “It’s very aniseed-like,” says Hussain. “But that’s what I love about it: it’s very different to all the other spices. When you bite into a dish with fennel in it, you get a little pop of that flavour which is delicious.”

Hussain uses it to complement another ingredient that might not spring to mind as a natural pairing. “Stewed pineapple is a fairly traditional [Bangladeshi dish]. It’s something we normally have with rice and cream, though I really like it served with ice cream.

“What I love about cooking pineapple is you can cook it down until it caramelises, but it will still retain that crunch. In my stewed pineapple dish, the fennel is the star of the show and goes so well with the pineapple.”

If you’re unsure or not confident about experimenting with spices, Hussain says to “try a recipe with as few spices as possible so it doesn’t feel too complicated. And then slowly work your way up, building your confidence by trying recipes that include more spices. You’ll realise how different each one is and learn to love them all.”

Watch Nadiya’s Simple Spices, weekly on BBC Two and iPlayer.

Originally published September 2023