You can make sazón at home. All you need are some common kitchen spices.
Overview
Grocery store shelves are lined with so many seasoning blends, from taco seasoning packets to Cajun spice mixes and Italian herb combinations. The commercially made products are convenient, but they also are — in most cases — exceedingly easy to re-create at home.
And, homemade versions of these blends have the added benefit of allowing home cooks to adjust the proportions to taste, reduce sodium and added coloring and cut MSG, if desired.
This is true of sazón, the popular salty blend that adds a kick of flavor to vegetables, beans, meats and the fillings for tacos and burritos. It is a pantry staple in homes wherever Hispanic foods are loved.
[A Goya boycott has people sharing alternatives for adobo, sazón and more pantry staples]
In her cookbook, “Coconuts and Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South” (University Press of Florida, 2018), Von Diaz writes: “Maybe you’ve seen those orange boxes of Goya Sazón at your local grocery store. It’s a miracle ingredient, a punch of MSG with enough other spices to flavor just about any soup, stew, bean dish, or braise. It’s an incredible cheat, and so full of sodium it might give you a migraine. I’ll admit that I have a box in my pantry right now in case of emergency. But I think you can do better.”
[Sazón and struggle: In Puerto Rico and Cuba, food is a marker of resilience and creativity]
Her recipe below contains no added food coloring, so it may not have quite the bright, vibrant orange-y color of the popular Goya brand, especially if you use sweet paprika in place of ground achiote. Also, the first ingredient listed on Goya’s original sazón is the flavor enhancer MSG, or monosodium glutamate. We didn’t miss it when we tasted the two side by side.
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons ground achiote powder or sweet paprika
Steps
Step 1
Combine the garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, turmeric, black pepper, salt and ground achiote powder or sweet paprika in an airtight container, cover and shake well to incorporate. Store in an airtight container indefinitely.
Adapted from “Coconuts and Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South” (University Press of Florida, 2018) by Von Diaz.
Tested by Ann Maloney; email questions to voraciously@washpost.com.
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
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Nutrition
Calories: 4; Total Fat: 0 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 296 mg; Carbohydrates: 1 g; Dietary Fiber: 0 g; Sugars: 0 g; Protein: 0 g.
