Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I bought some of their spices (Chili 9000, smoked paprika, greek) on vacation a few years ago and I'm going to put in an order. Fatfreevegan always walks about the Maharaj curry powder, which I'm going to try. Any other recommendations?

I've just recently received some! I have:
pasta sprinkle (it's a nice blend, and definitely good on pasta; recommend!)
Bavarian seasoning (also a nice blend, but might wait until you have something specific for it)
Parisien Bonnes Herbes (good, but like Bouquet garni better)
Bouquet garni (very versatile! recommend)
and my friend just sent me some coriander, which I'm sure is wonderful.

i really super love their shallot salt & sandwich sprinkle. both are yums!

I've also heard that there is a vegan ranch seasoning that's really good.

Ooh good thread. I always go in there and get overwhelmed when I can't decide, so I end up buying something familiar and boring. I do like the Pasta Sprinkle and their Dutch Processed cocoa powder.

Can everyone also share what they use their favorite penzey spices on? Their suggestions always include meat and I'm not that inventive. For instance, what do I do with the greek dressing spice blend (other than dressing)?

I got some as a gift not too long ago. I was disappointed to find that their ancho chili powder tasted like my 99 cent bottle of chili powder. I have a Bangok Blend or something that I have not tried yet. Mostly because I'd rather have garam masala.

I really like the Green Goddess dressing mix. I've made my own dressing with it but I've also just sprinkled it on some stuff.

Szechuan peppercorns are a favorite of mine.

Also, Catalina works there and sent me some Arizona hot spice, it is really good!

i use the shallot salt pretty much anywhere i use garlic salt and it's especially yummy in soups and on sauteed veggies.

the sammie sprinkle i do use on sammies, but i also use it when i make ranch dressing, i have used it in potato based soups before, and it's awesome on hashbrowns and on salads, too!

Ceylon Cinnamon!

Also, if you order online, you could usually use quite a few coupon codes for free spices. I think I was able to use at least 3 when I sent my sister a package from their website over the summer.

I like the Sunny Spain blend, it doesn't have salt but brightens up just about anything. And I love their Hot Chocolate Mix.

I used the greek seasoning mostly for pasta - just a sprinkle on pasta with good olive oil gives a little lemony, herby, salty flavour. I also used it to marinate/bake tofu.

Thanks for the tip! I couldn't find any for right now but there were lots of old ones. Maybe I'll hold off a little and see if something comes up.

This Bangkok Blend looks interesting (from the Penzeys site):

"Nice for seasoned noodles, toss 1 TB. Bangkok Blend, 2 TB. rice vinegar, 1 /4 Cup oil and 1 TB. peanut butter with 3 Cups noodles. Hand-mixed from: sweet peppers, garlic, ginger, black pepper, galangal, hot peppers, lemon grass, basil, cilantro."

Ooh that sounds good. Now I'm kind of mad that I have the last of my tofu already marinating or else I would have done that.

Bavarian seasoning is good. I love to add it to potato dishes - toss with roasting potatoes, mix into mashed.. Any kind of vegetable accompaniment to a German meal!

My latest favorite (I just posted about this on another thread) is the horseradish dip. Instead of the mayo-sour cream blend I use 1/3 c soygurt + 1/3 c sour supreme + 1/3 c vegenaise. You could probably up the ratio of soygurt for a healthier dip (straining the soygurt over a coffee filter if it needs to be thicker), it'd still be good.

I put tuscan sunset in anything italian. I don't keep dried basil around so things that call for basil + oregano usually just get tuscan sunsetted to death.

Mural of Flavor is good in basically anything savory.

Their jerk seasoning is tasty too, I make a "jerk" mango sausage based on the Vegan Brunch cherry sage recipe (sub dried mango for the cherry, jerk spices for the dried seasonings, adjust the rest of the recipe as desired). I like that I can spice things independent of salting them this way.

This warms my heart. I love this place so much.

Everyone else has great suggestions and really almost everything can be used for vegan stuff. I even use the Chicago steak seasoning on grilled potatoes and keep meaning to try the pork chop on faux bacon.

As far as what to try, get the Fox Point. It's the greatest blend ever. I know it's expensive but it's so unbelievably good I could stand on street corners feeding people bites of mashed potatoes with this in it. The Sate makes awesome peanut sauce. If you're a baker you owe it to yourself to get some vanilla and the Vietnamese cinnamon. And not to overlook straight spices, the Hungarian sweet paprika made me realize paprika has a flavor and the toasted onion is the secret to half my recipes. The smoky 4/s is also a great all purpose-set on the table kind of blend. Really just get anything that sounds interesting and start throwing it into all sorts of stuff. PM me if you have any particular questions.

I know! Have you tried it on grilled veggies? It's my summer staple, balsamic or red wine vinegar, olive oil, tuscan sunset, and a bit of salt on some zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, whatever is kicking around.

I just made this last night with tofutti sour cream and a bit of soy milk and it was tasty. I haven't had ranch dressing in a long time but it instantly made my want french fries to dip in it.

I love Penzeys! I usually get a small container of something random free with each order.

Greek oregano, chipotle powder, ceylon cinnamon, and vanilla are some of my favorites. I liked their taco seasoning because I could get a big bag of it (family eats a lot of tacos), but unfortunately it contains lactose (the chicken taco seasoning looks vegan).

I've had some luck using their bratwurst seasoning to make seitan bratwurst. The flavor was good, but the texture was not quite right. I'm still working on that one.

Why would someone put lactose in taco seasoning? It's like that time I found "dairy flavor" in a bag of frozen veggies.

We just got a Penzey's. Thanks for this thread!

I use any of their blends when I make Joanna Vaught's "nuggets". The fairly new "Mural of Flavor" is nice, mild. They carry the best and freshest cinnamon for baking. The store is fun to poke around in too!

Here's an Ask Metafilter thread dealing with the same question:http://ask.metafilter.com/176680/PenzeysPickandChoose

I still can't decide!

I received the baking mini gift box as a Christmas gift. It has a small jar of China Tung Hing Cinnamon, East Indes Ground Nutmeg, Powdered Ginger, and Ceylon Cinnamon. I've used the spices a bunch since then in making and cooking. For me, this has been a good variety. They have other gift sets that look good too..

The Balti spice blend is out of this world.

I love their various paprikas, and the Ranch stuff is pretty good, and we've subbed many of the spices from the Julie Hasson steamed sausage recipe for the Krakow Night seasoning mix to make "kielbasa". I think we have all the components of the blend individually (ooh except mace actually) but it is awesome to have it all mixed up, with no guessing at amounts.