5 Essential Spices To Have On Hand For Fall And Winter

When the weather turns cool and you’re ready to get in the kitchen and whip up a sweet baked good or pour a steaming cup of your favorite beverage, having those seasonal spices on hand is essential. Not just for sweet treats, these same essential spices play a vital role in seasoning savory dishes, too.

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Here are the 5 essential spices to have on hand for fall and winter recipes.

Ginger

Long known for its medicinal properties as a digestion aid, ginger is a spice that’s universally consumed year round. However, fall and winter cuisine seem to claim it as a de facto spice to use for its instant warming abilities and notable spiciness. It’s a fragrant spice that can be used in fresh or powdered form.

Ginger is used equally in sweet as well as savory dishes. It pairs well with onions and garlic as well as with sweet spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. From baked goods to beverages and from fermented foods to seafood, ginger is a versatile spice that’s good to have stocked in your spice cabinet.

Ground ginger is an integral spice in my Gingerbread Protein Smoothie and it wouldn’t taste the same without it!

Nutmeg

Nutmeg, a spice native to the South Pacific islands, comes from an evergreen tree that actually produces a peach-shaped fruit which is known as the nutmeg apple. When split in half, a nut is revealed. Upon drying the nuts and then grinding them into a spice, nutmeg powder is produced.

Nutmeg has a pungent fragrance but a slightly sweet taste. It’s used in savory dishes as well as baked goods. It’s also the prominent spice used in eggnog.

Cinnamon

Along with its timeless medicinal uses and warming, fragrance presence in fall and winter baking, beverages and even savory cuisine, it’s not surprising that cinnamon ranks as the number one spice in popularity as a superfood.

Cinnamon is made from the bark of a tree called Cinnamomum verum. This bark contains health benefits and properties which make it a potent ingredient that not only tastes amazing but can contribute to your overall well being. It’s used in a wide variety of holiday baking and beverage recipes as well as savory soups and sauces. If there’s one spice to always have on hand, cinnamon would be the one.

You can’t make pumpkin anything without including ground cinnamon, which is what helps make my Pumpkin Cheesecake so irresistible!

Cloves

Dark, pungent and aromatic, cloves are a spice that’s curated from the flower buds of the clove tree, an evergreen that grows in India, Madagascar and Indonesia. Cloves can be used whole or ground and are best used sparingly. They pack a lot of flavor and if too much is used, you can cross the line into bitterness rather than the aromatic sweetness that it’s known for.

From cakes and cookies to sauces and soups, cloves are an integral spice for fall and winter cuisine.

My gingerbread loaf recipe uses ground cloves along with all the other warming spices to make it rich and delicious.

Cardamom

Aromatic, sweet and warming, cardamom is often found paired with cinnamon and cloves for a depth of flavor and warmth in baked goods. Used prominently in Middle Eastern cuisine, cardamom is cultivated from the seed pods that originate from the ginger family.

The two prominent varieties are green pods and black pods. Green pods are either used whole or ground and perform best in sweet and baked goods. Black cardamom has a smoky flavor that works well in savory dishes. That said, both green and black can be used interchangeably between sweet and savory recipes.

Keep these 5 spices on hand for your holiday recipes. It’s worth it to purchase fresh spices this season so you’ll have the very best flavors and aromas to cook with. You can’t go wrong with a batch of fresh spices to make your recipes not only taste delicious, but worthy of rave reviews.

Need a way to keep your spices organized? Check out my Spice Storage And Organization Ideas.

You may also enjoy this Pumpkin Digital Recipe Card Bundle. Beautiful and colorful pumpkin recipes are available as digital downloads, sized in 4 x 6, for easy printing on your end. Five recipes are included in this downloadable PDF bundle. Each recipe is contained on one page. Learn more here.

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