If you are a spicy food lover and always looking out for different spices that can pep up the spicy flavour of your dishes, then you must use the Harissa spice mix. This spice blend is available in paste, powdered and liquid forms. It is a source from Tunisia, a northern country in the African continent sharing its boundary with the Mediterranean Sea. This spice mix is so flavour-rich that it is used all across the world including Italy, Spain, France, Egypt, Morocco, and Greece. The rich taste of this spice mix is because of its amazing ingredients.
What Is In the Harissa Spice Mix?
Harissa is an outcome of many spice trades, which belong to Tunisia. It is a rare and unique blend of spices taking inspiration from ingredients across the different corners of the world. All ingredients of the Harissa spice mix are blended together elegantly, thereby giving it a balanced flavour to let you put it on a scale. Whether used in powdered, paste, or liquid form, the spice mix is simply awesome. For this reason, it is considered an all-purpose blend liked by Chefs and cooks in the world. So, let’s check the ingredients used to prepare the Harissa spice mix.
Dried New Mexico Chilies
The dried New Mexico chilies have a pepper flavour, which is slightly pungent just like an onion. It also holds a subtly sweet, crisp, smoky, and spicy taste. It retains the flavour even when ripened, but adds an earthiness while aging mellows the front-heat.
Dried Birdseye Chilies
Bird’s eye chilies, popularly known as Thai chili pepper is a commonly used spice in Thai cuisine. These chilies have a rich flavour and hold a fruity smell yet extreme spiciness. These chilies have a pungent smell that is ideal to use in green, salads, curries, and other dishes.
Aleppo Peppers
This particular spice possesses a moderate heat level of approximately 10,000 on the Scoville scale. The pepper holds a mild, fruity, cumin-like taste and has a flavour similar to the ancho chile. However, it is slightly salty and oilier as salt is used during its drying process.
Kosher Salt
This salt is coarse edible salt-free from common additives like iodine. It is added to give a rich taste to the Harissa spice mix.
Cumin
Cumin seeds are extracted from the cumin plant belonging to the parsley family. It tastes similar to caraway but is much hotter. The cumin seeds have a spicy, strong, and curry-like with warm depth.
Coriander
Popularly known as Chinese parsley, coriander has a rich aroma having a lemony citrus flavour. It is an orange, spicy, warm, nutty, and spicy flavoured spice that gives a rich taste to Harissa spice mix.
Sumac
Ground sumac is a versatile spice powder with a tangy lemony flavour. A small pinch of it adds lemony and pungent flavour to the spice mix.
Caraway
Having a strong aroma and a rich flavour similar to aniseed, caraway seeds have nutty and mild earthy notes. The spice individually is used for flavouring biscuits, bread, cheese, and cakes.
Garlic
It is one of the most popular spices and herbs as it adds a strong flavour, rich aroma, and myriad of health benefits. It is a species in the onion genus and holds a pungent flavour.
Paprika
Paprika is known for its pungent taste and is great to give a strong spicy taste and rich red colour to a dish. It is prepared from ground bonnet pepper.
Maltodextrin
Holding its origin from the USA, it is an odourless spice with a bland flavour. It is a soluble ingredient used in Harissa spice mix as a binding agent, volumizer, and thickener.
Health Benefits of Harissa Mix
Due to a blend of aromatic spices and nutritious compounds, Harissa offers many health benefits as well.
- Both cumin and caraway are rich in iron that leads to healthy brain development and high immunity.
- Harissa spice powder also has a high content of calcium that strengthens your bones and provides rigidity to the spine. Calcium is found in ingredients like coriander and cumin.
- For healthy vision, it has vitamin A which is found abundantly in dried chili peppers. Vitamin A also converts carbohydrates into sugar to fuel the important functions in your body.
- Dietary fibers improve digestion and add bulk for a faster metabolism.
The authentic Harissa spice mix is prepared with a balanced portion of all these ingredients. You can either prepare this mix at home, or the best way is to buy it online from a reputed store to easily gain authentic Harissa spice mix and enhance flavour of your everyday cooking.