Old Bae Seasoning
Ready for a super simple pantry staple? This “Old Bae” seasoning is a homemade take on the popular Old Bay seasoning. Traditionally Old Bay consists of 18 spices used on meat and fish, but oddly enough, it’s accidentally vegan. It would be easy enough to get from the market, but if you are like me and don’t have access to it often or are in a pinch, I have a simple 10-spice recipe that will do the trick.
Old Bay Copy Cat?
This isn’t an exact Old Bay copy cat recipe. I made it specifically to work with my vegan lobster rolls. In an effort to reach that unmistakable northeastern staple flavor, I came up with this while craving some American comfort foods.
What will you need to make Old Bay at home?
Like I mentioned, Old Bay has a hefty list of spices in it. You can reach a similar flavor profile with almost half the ingredients. Here is what you will need:
celery salt
paprika
ground nutmeg
toasted and ground allspice
ground cinnamon
ground dry mustard
ground bay leaves
dried dill
freshly ground black pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
What can you use Old Bae on?
Old Bae Butter for warm rolls
Corn Chowder
Vegan Calamari Ring
Fried Tofu Sticks
Vegan Fritatta
Vegan Crab Cakes
Baked Potatoes
Cajun Pasta
Vegan Benedict
Homemade Vegan Bloody Mary
How to blend Bay Leaves and All Spice
I have a dedicated coffee bean grinder to grind spices. Mine ran me less than $20 and is imperative to my cooking, and if you toast and grind your spices at home you may want to look into one for yourself. Bonus is that it doesn’t take up a lot of space and meals are noticeably elevated when you toast and grind your spices yourself.
For the bay leaves, you can just add them to the coffee grinder and pulse away until you get a fine powder, which doesn’t take very long. Let is sit a few seconds after the last pulse to let the fine powder settle.
Before you pulse the allspice, toast them in a pan for 2-4 minutes the remove from heat immediately. Once cool, pulse the allspice in your coffee grinder. The allspice takes a few extra pulses to get it ground to the right consistency.
How to Store Old Bae Seasoning
Ideally a glass jar in the fridge would be ideal. It will last you a few months that’ way. You want to keep moisture out to prevent clumping. If you store in your pantry, I wouldn’t recommend storing more than a month.
Old Bae (a take on Old Bay Seasoning)
A quick and easy version of Old Bay you can make in a pinch with simple and easy to find ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp celery salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp toasted and ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground dry mustard
- 4 ground bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Toast allspice in a pan for 3-4 minutes and then remove from heat, let cool and grind until fine.
- Grind bay leaves into a fine powder
- Mix all spices together.
- Store in a tight container in a cool dry place.
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Vegan Lobster Rolls - The Vegan Holiday
[…] seasoning. This would be the quickest route to achieving the typical lobster roll seasoning goal. I happen to make my own “bay” seasoning because it’s not available where I live and it’s a very quick, cheap, and easy vegan […]