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?
I have never done spices on my own, but one time I was in a real pinch and put regular granulated white sugar in my coffee grinder and made powdered sugar. It was quick and easy and I have to admit I was surprised that it worked! But now I can buy my white sugar in bulk and then I can make my own powdered sugar and save some money
I already grow and dry a lot of my spices like rosemary, basil, lavender, etc. but I never thought to make onion or garlic powder. If it’s dehydrated it should last quite a while, right? What a great idea. And my own chili powder… hmmmm 🙂
What a great idea! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
I am definatley going to do this !! I have not thought about making my own ..but its now gonna happen 🙂 Thank You
THank you for all this information!
can you specify want kind of peppers? Are the jalapeno, poblano etc? I would really like to make my own chili powder. That is similar to the store but without the fillers.
it depends on how spicy you want it. anaheim and chili peppers make a
less spicy powder, where habenero or jalepeno make more spicy ones.
you can even use sweet peppers and get the taste without the heat.
Another thing about store bought spices is that they are often irridated and they don’t have to tell you that so I always ask but good luck trying to get a right answer. Trader Joe’s told me they don’t irridate theirs but the best way for sure is to buy organic ones or make your own. Great ideas thanks so much for them. Blessings!!!
what is irridate?
Basically use radiation to kill bacteria
The word is irradiate, not irridate. It is perfectly safe. There is nothing radioactive in it. You get far, far more radiation from the sun or an x-ray. Some CT scans can give you a dose of radiation as large as spending a year in the sun. I repeat – irradiated food has NOTHING radioactive left in it.
Irradiation damages the quality of food.
· Irradiation damages food by breaking up molecules and creating free radicals. The free radicals kill some bacteria, but they also bounce around in the food, damage vitamins and enzymes, and combine with existing chemicals (like pesticides) in the food to form new chemicals, called unique radiolytic products (URPs).
· Some of these URPs are known toxins (benzene, formaldehyde, lipid peroxides) and some are unique to irradiated foods. Scientists have not studied the long-term effect of these new chemicals in our diet. Therefore, we cannot assume they are safe.
https://youtu.be/Jsx-X_pNzGI
I have made both onion powder and garlic powder. Better by far in taste that store – bought.
Can’t wait to try this!
thank you for posting these recipes for people like me who like to cook and experience new things.
I enjoy learning how to make things from scratch – it never occurred to me to even make my own spices. Thank you!