Condiments and spices can turn a dish from bland to mouth-wateringly delicious. Do you have a go-to condiment you use on anything to turn it from boring into an amazingly tasty meal?
My default condiment is a cashew sauce with canned adobo peppers, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I have to make it, but it brings a bit of heat, while adding creaminess. I like to cook up a huge batch and use it for pasta, salad, roasted veggies, sandwiches and as a dip. Toss the excess in a jar or plastic container, and I can use it for weeks — if it lasts that long.
Whether you stick with traditional, off-the-shelf condiments and spices, add variations to change up the flavours or make your own spice blends, share what you use the most so others can give it a try. If you have a special recipe, make sure to include that in your comment.
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19 responses to “What’s Your Favourite ‘Good On Anything’ Condiment Or Spice?”
Salt
I’ve got bottles of Cholula, Sriracha and a Tex-Mex red jalepeno sauce on my desk at work, which, between the three of them, wind up on just about every lunch I eat. The collection at home is more comprehensive, with the home-made chimichurri, ginger-scallion sauce, tomato relishes and eggplant kasundi being the most frequently used.
Very curious about this adobo cashew sauce… got a recipe?
Yes, yes and swap tex-mex for ABC extra pedas (extra hot) garlic chilli sauce.
I use it for everything pretty much. Most burgers, rolls, wraps, pizzas – anything Anglo basically here are bland as hell and while the sauce doesn’t need to be spicy it sure has to have SOME KIND OF TASTE AND FLAVOUR to be worth the usually ridiculous amount of calories they hold anyway.
Nandos Peri Peri Extra Hot!
Amen!
Hot Saaawce
Sriracha, Rooster sauce is good on nearly anything 🙂
Whole egg mayonnaise.
“Slap Ya Mama” cajun seasoning – nice bit of bite
Cholula. It’s like Tabasco’s much more attractive cousin.
Fresh, finely grated horseradish mixed with a little white vinegar, a pinch of salt and an optional splash of beetroot juice from a can of tinned beetroots. Goes great with fish and beef, mix with mayo for a great dip, add it to your Bloody Mary as an excellent substitute for tabasco, use as a substitute for wasabi and the leaves add a slightly bitter but hot complement to lettuce in green salads.
Do not for the love of god or gods grate horseradish by hand though unless you enjoy spraying mace in your eyes as a hobby! And don’t buy the store sh!t, just grow it. The active ingredient in horseradish breaks down over time so by the time it’s been made, bottled and delivered to the store it’s weak as and bitter.
A good grinder with roasted mixed peppercorns (black, red, green) can breathe a bit of extra life into almost any dish
Yeah, I’m a big fan of Tex/Mex hot sauces like Tabasco, Cholula etc. I don’t mind Sriracha with Asian dishes but I don’t really get all the hype that seems to go with it.
It’s not really designed as a sauce, but Coles brand crushed chilli paste makes a surprisingly handy condiment. It’s less sugary than the Continental/Masterfoods version and goes well with tonnes of stuff – stir fries, mixed into mayo, mixed into ketchup or straight onto roasted meats.
Three Threes Burger & Steak sauce. Its also a pretty good copy of the Big Mac sauce too. shhhhhh.
Sriracha, you simply can’t beat the cock sauce! Well, maybe you can beat it a little.
I also like 七味唐辛子 (Shichimi) which is coarsely ground red chili pepper, ground sanshō, roasted orange peel, black sesame seed, white sesame seed, hemp seed, ground ginger and nori.
Greek yoghurt. I’m yet to think of a savoury (i.e. non-sweet) dish that it isn’t good on.
Creaminess everywhere!
HP brown sauce.
Homemade Hot Chilli Sauce
Smoked paprika. So damn tasty.