The minimalist spice cupboard

Condiments you should buy and use

If you want to cook a reasonably wide variety of dishes and minimize the chance that you don’t have an important spice ingredient, without accumulating jars of stuff that go stale without use, these are the spices and flavorings you should buy:

• Salt

• Ground cumin

• Ground coriander

• Paprika (optionally, also smoked paprika)

• Dried Italian herb blend

• Black pepper grinder

• Chilli flakes

• Chinese-style chili oil

• Harissa

• Fresh garlic

• Toasted sesame oil

• Soy sauce

With these ingredients, you can cover a wide variety of cuisines and dishes will taste reasonable even if you are missing some of the recommended spices.

• Italian → black pepper, garlic, chili flakes, Italian herb blend

• Spanish → smoked paprika, garlic

• Mexican → cumin, paprika, chilli flakes

• Indian → cumin, coriander, chilli flakes, garlic

• Chinese → garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili oil

• Middle-Eastern → harissa, garlic, cumin

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As an aside, when I was a kid I used to have a cooking blog that I have since wiped from the internet (for no particularly good reason). Perhaps I should restart and post more cooking-related things here also.