When cooking a meal, some may never think to add spice. From salt to turmeric, there is a wide array of different seasonings to make any meal go from bland to grand. While I have grown as a cook, I have learned the value of seasonings. First, most of them are little to no calories. This means you can alter the taste of food for almost zero calories. This is a steal! A great example of seasonings working is in vegetables. For me, I never liked vegetables until I learned to add salt, garlic, onion powder, etc. Soon I loved vegetables, and it was all because of seasonings. After months of eating vegetables with different seasonings, I ended up liking all sorts of vegetables with or without seasoning. Before I get onto a tangent about vegetables and why they are amazing, I will get back to seasoning. Before we get further into seasonings, it is best to look at the history of seasonings.

As far back as 3500 BC, Egyptians were using spices to flavor foods, color cosmetics, and preserving dead people. Soon after, spices spread all around Asia and a new food culture began. Heck, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 for spices. From there, the spice trade grew and spices soon were used worldwide. Now, lets get to the better part of the article: why to use spices.

There are a wide array of spices, some make the dish have a tangier taste, some give food sweeter taste. One spice I personally believe belongs in every savory dish is salt. Whether it be a pinch or a handful, salt compliments every dish. Salt can actually get rid of the bitter part of foods and vegetables in particular. It can extract different flavors in the food and make the food have a new aroma. Spices are a dry compound, so when added to food, which has water, the spice actually extracts the juices from the foods which mix with the spice to make new flavors.

All in all, there are thousands of spices to use. Do not be afraid to test new ones. I make the same dish all of the time and will add a new seasoning every day to see how it changes the flavor, for better or for worse. My biggest advice in trying new spices is to buy a variety of spices and try them out on the same dish to find your favorite spices.