Now that I have small boys to feed and am cooking with chilli less, I’ve been turning more and more to ideas like this chilli salt or Marcos chilli oil so the adults can get their fire power at the table.
In fact we always have a jar on the dining table and these days it gets more use than the plain sea salt flakes!
This is more of an idea than a recipe. Just keep playing around with the levels until you’re happy. I find as we eat through the jar the sea salt flakes float to the top and get eaten more quickly so I sometimes just top up with more salt before adding any extra chilli.
Chilli Salt
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sea salt flakes
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoons chilli powder or 1-2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes.
Instructions
- Combine salt and chilli in a small jar. Taste and adjust by adding more salt or chilli as needed.
Recipes to Use Your Chilli Salt
- Pan Fried Chicken
- Pan Fried Fish with Cashew Sauce
- Cabbage ‘Cabonara’
- Roast Cauli with Meatballs & Tahini Sauce
Variations & Substitutions
Smoky – add in 1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika – adds lovely colour too!
Peppery – add a teaspoon freshly ground black pepper for an all-in-one seasoning!
Different Chilli – you can crush your own dried chilli peppers in a spice grinder. I love experimenting with different chilli peppers. My current favourite is an Indian kashmiri chilli which is hot but not insane and has a lovely smoky complexity.
Regular salt – if you don’t have any fancy sea salt flakes, fine gound table salt will work even if it doesn’t look as pretty – just reduce the amount to 2 teaspoons fine salt.
Lime & Chilli – double the chilli and salt and add in the zest of a small lime. Amazing on avocado.
Larger batch – I usually make quadruple this amount at a time. Feel free to go as big as you like!
Waste Avoidance Strategy
chilli & salt – keep in the pantry.
Prepare Ahead
Yes! Just make as per the recipe but keep. Will keep in the pantry (or on the dining table) for months.
________
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
This website is amazing, because you constantly experiment with new ideas which I can use as inspiration or with some adaptation into something that works for me. There are ideas here I just would never have thought of, yet many end up becoming staples in my diet (e.g. the fantastic idea you had with cabbage tortillas).
What turbo-charges everything you write is the philosophy of keeping it simple (which makes all of the ideas accessible, rather than a tiny portion of them as is the case with other websites), combined with healthy adaptations / dietary requirements and videos of most recipes.
SMP/Stonesoup is a truly unique online resource… especially for men, or those who are hesitant to cook.
I hope you continue with the experimentation and sharing your successes!
So glad you’re finding this helpful David!
Would you mind if I used your comments on my website?
Hi Jules
Love the idea. As I don’t eat salt (I don’t like how it feels in my body), would garlic work?
I love garlic pepper (and am going to make my own so I’m sure there are no ‘nasties’ in there), are there other ideas you have for these seasoning combinations?
You can really go crazy with ideas David – pepper and chilli would be a fab combo – or ginger or lemon pepper using grated lemon zest.