If you’ve ever bought spices from the store, you probably noticed that they often contain ingredients like “anti-caking agent” or “natural flavor” (aka MSG). Many often contain trace amounts of soy or other fillers, and sometimes these don’t even have to be listed on the ingredients.
Mystery fillers aside, these spices also often sit on the shelf, in plastic bottles, for a long time. By the time you bring them home, they have lost much of their flavor (and did I mention they might contain soy, MSG, or other additives!)
As with many aspects of natural living, simple is often cheaper, easier, and more healthy. Making your own garlic, onion, and chili powders (or a blend of all three) can be one of the easiest and tastiest changes you can make. These are also a great addition to homemade spice blends!
The gist of making these homemade seasonings is to simply dehydrate pieces of garlic, onion, or pepper in a dehydrator or on the lowest setting of the oven until the pieces are dry and brittle. Then, just powder them in a coffee grinder or blender and store.
Fun fact: Did you know that paprika is actually a type of chili powder that uses only sweet red peppers?
Garlic, Onion, & Chili Powder Recipe
Ingredients
- fresh onions garlic cloves, or chili peppers of choice
Instructions
- Gather a few onions, several heads of garlic, or 8-10 peppers.
- Make sure all vegetables are clean, and peel onions and garlic cloves.
- Slice onions and garlic into thin slices and put on a sheet in the dehydrator or on lowest setting in the oven. Slice peppers in half and remove seeds and place on dehydrator sheet or on baking sheet in oven on lowest setting.
- Dehydrate until they are completely dry and not leathery. They should be brittle enough to break by hand. Check every few hours and remove any pieces that are done.
- When all are done drying, put into coffee grinder, food processor, or blender. If you want individual spices, blend separately.
- Once they are finely powdered, leave them in the food processor or blender with the lid on for at least 10 minutes to let it settle. This is important! Trust me... I learned the hard way! Opening it too soon will lead to a rapid sinus cleanse 🙂
- Store in glass jars and enjoy!
Notes
- Use a mix of sweet and spicy peppers to make chili powder. If you like spicier chili powder, use spicier peppers.
- You can mix onion, garlic, and chili powders with salt, pepper, and paprika to make an all purpose seasoned salt
Nutrition
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Ever made your own spices? How did they turn out?
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Went to make tacos last night and found that I forgot the taco seasoning. I wasn’t gonna go to the store again so I googled taco seasoning homemade and up popped your receipt. I had all ingredients except powered onion so I made it anyway minus the powered onion. It was really good! I have tried homemade before and did not like it. This was great!