Made a delicious healthy lunch of sauteed zucchini, rainbow chard, heirloom tomatoes, fried eggs, and bread. The veggies were seasoned with exotic spices called ras al hanout from a dear friend in a faraway land... funny how a meal can make such connections of the heart, mind and soul!
Ras al hanout is a spice mixture popular in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In Arabic, the name means "head of the shop", which means it is a mixture of the best spices the maker has. It is used in a variety of savory dishes, where it plays a similar role to garam masala in Indian cuisine.
Ras el hanout can be made of a variety of different available spices, with families and shops each producing their own unique blend. These blends typically contain over a dozen spices, in varying proportions. Some of the most common ingredients include cardamom, allspice, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, mace, turmeric, clove, cinnamon, chili peppers, coriander seed, peppercorn, sweet and hot paprika, and fenugreek. Other ingredients, such as ash berries, cubebs, chufa, dried rosebud, fennel seed and grains of paradise, are region dependent.
