Ras El Hanout

Warm and dusky, the luxurious scent of our salt-free Ras El Hanout whispers the promise of a fragrant culinary journey that will take you across the elements of land and sky. An ensemble of carefully proportioned herbs and spices, it brings the sunny warmth of peppery spices, from peppercorn to paprika, into harmony with sweet aromatics like cinnamon and anise. There is deep earthiness from cumin, caraway, and turmeric, that plays off of a bold, citrusy lift from sassy cardamom. The breezy, gentle floral flavors of lavender and rose petals round out the heat and savory sweetness in this complex seasoning blend. We blend our Ras El Hanout in small batches in our facility, to protect the freshness of this complex blend and provide our customers with the freshest product possible.

There’s a folk tale about the origins of Ras El Hanout that involves a clash between two angry camels, a pile of spilled spices in a caravan, and a clever Moroccan spice merchant who saw a pile of mixed spices as a business opportunity. This lemons-to-lemonade tall tale is charming, but it belies the esteem that Ras El Hanout held along the Spice Road. Ras El Hanout translates to "top of the shop" and it represented the best that Moroccan spices merchants, or souks, had to offer. It was a highly individualized blend—it still is, with no single recipe that defines it—and could have as few as 4 and as many as 100 spices put into the mix. Rather, it was a badge of honor to have the most sought after version of this blend. We feel confident that we’ve hit the right notes with 19 spices and herbs in our mix; Ras El Hanout represents how a carefully crafted mix of diverse spices can be married to create a spice blend where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Tips From Our Kitchen

Use the inherent warmth of salt-free Ras El Hanout to deepen the sweet flavors of carrot or butternut squash soup. Add to mashed sweet potatoes. Put it in a marinade for grilled chicken or lamb with some olive oil and lemon juice. Add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon to a cup of couscous or rice. It can stand up to long cooking times, so coat some short ribs in Ras El Hanout and braise until they are fork-tender. It’s wonderful on vegetables; toss cauliflower in Ras El Hanout and roast, or coat the interior of an acorn squash and put that in the oven. It’s wonderful with hummus, and we’ve even heard from a customer that likes to add some to mayonnaise, elevating the game for her day to day sandwiches and wraps.

Our salt-free Ras El Hanout is hand blended from paprika, mustard, black pepper, cumin, grains of paradise, turmeric, coriander, long pepper, nigella, caraway, anise, cardamom, mace, ginger, cinnamon, lavender, cubeb, ajwain and rose petals.

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