British Mixed Spice Substitute Recipe

This mixed spice seasoning blend is quick to throw together and will give a boost of flavor. Use it on a variety of cakes, cookies, puddings and more.  This spice mix is free from salt and sugar giving you more flexibility when preparing your meals.

Whenever I’m a sweet dish like cookies or cakes, I always add in some of this homemade mixed spice seasoning and it transforms my meals from bland to seriously delicious. 

Video Demonstration

If you’d like to see how easy it is to throw all this together, check out my video where I walk you through the recipe step by step. 

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Benefits

• Saves you a lot of time when you’re cooking.  Avoids having to get out 10 different spices for each recipe. 
• Saves you a lot of money.  It is so much cheaper to make your own seasonings than to buy ready-made seasoning mixes. 
• Salt-free.  I don’t think it’s a good idea to use a spice blend that contains salt because the salt isn’t usually a good quality salt such as sea salt.  If the salt is already added it usually won’t be in the correct proportions for the recipe meaning you might end up adding too much salt. 
• Sugar-free.  For the same reasons, it’s not great to use a seasoning blend that contains sugar because the type of sugar won’t be good quality.  I prefer to add a more natural sweetener to my dishes such as maple syrup.  But sometimes you don’t want to add any sweetener at all, and you won’t be able to avoid it if there is already sugar in your spice blend.  If you increase the spiciness of the dish, you’ll always be increasing the sweetness if you use a spice blend that contains sugar. 
• Vegan.  Some seasonings contain milk powder, so it’s far better to make your own and be in control of all of the ingredients. 
• Gluten-free.  Some spice mixes contain a lot of fillers such as flour containing gluten, so it’s always better to make your own so you can avoid any ingredients you don’t want to eat. 
• Make a larger quantity.  When you buy seasoning from the store it usually comes in a very small jar, whereas when you make your own seasoning you can make as much as you like.  For the seasonings that you use a lot, you can make a big jar of them.  That means they’ll last months if not a year before you have to make the seasoning recipe again.  

The Structure Of A Plant Based Plate

Each of the recipes I create fits into my Plant Plate System.  This system incorporates 5 food groups into every meal. 

The 5 food groups are 1) Plant Protein, 2), Leaves, Fruit, And Veg, 3) Aesthetic Additions, 4) Nutrient Packed Carbohydrates, and 5) Taste

This recipe adds flavor to any dish.  It falls under the “Taste” category on the Plant Based Plate and is not a complete meal.

The diagram below helps you visually see how this element features on a Plant-Based Plate.

Click here to discover more about my Plant Plate System and some of the benefits of eating this way.

Ways To Use This Recipe

Here are some of my favorite ways to use my mixed spice seasoning: 

• Cookies
• Cakes
• Pudding
• Fruit salad

Ingredient Substitutions

Here are the main ingredients in this recipe and substitutions you can use if you want to replace something:

• Ground cinnamon. Cinnamon is my secret flavor in this dish.  It adds a rich, warming flavor.  If you don’t want to use cinnamon, add equal amounts of paprika instead.
• Ground nutmeg. This is an aromatic spice and enhances the flavor of the seasoning mix. You can leave this out if you want.
• Ground ginger. Ginger gives a slight sweetness and also provides warmth and a spicy aroma. Its best if you can add ginger but if not leave it out or substitute with allspice or cinnamon, however they won’t provide the same warm bite.
• Ground allspice. This has the flavor of a mix of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg. You can substitute allspice with any of those ingredients.
• Ground cardamom. This adds a warm flavor and wonderful aroma to this spice mix. I would suggest that you use this but if you want you can leave this out.
• Ground cloves. Cloves are subtly sweet and also give an intense aroma. You use nutmeg or allspice instead but you can also leave this out of you want.

Equipment

The equipment that you’ll need for this recipe is:

• Jars.  The size of jars that I used was 200ml/ 6 oz.  If you have a different size jar that you want to use, see below for my instructions on changing the quantity of the recipe.
• Measuring Spoons.  It is much faster to use measuring spoons than to weigh small quantities of spice.  Measuring spoons are very cheap and as most recipes use them, it’s a good investment to make.
• Chalkboard Labels. I like to use chalkboard labels for my jars so that I can change the label if I change the contents of the jar.  To remove the chalk from the label, just use soap and give them a little scrub with a cloth. 
• Chalk Pens. I use chalk pens to write the name of my spice blends on the jar. Once you shake up the jars, the contents will be unrecognizable, so it’s important that you label each jar. 
• Food Clips. When you are making your own spice mixes, you’ll end up with unused ingredients in bags.  I like to clip these closed with a food clip.
• Coffee & Spice Grinder. Although I didn’t use a coffee grinder for this recipe, you may like to replace some of the ground ingredients with whole spices and grind them.  Your spice blends will be much more flavorful if you grind your spices yourself.  I just didn’t take the time to do this myself.  However, I did use a coffee grinder to grind my onion and garlic powder that had solidified in the jars.  If you don’t have a coffee grinder, you could also use a high-speed blender, a mini chopper, or a small food processor. 

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients straight into your jar. 
2. Shake your jar until combined.  Or you can use a mini whisk or fork to stir the contents inside the jar.

Serving Sizes

The best way to make this recipe is to use a jar that you already have. 

Here’s how to calculate changing the quantity of the individual ingredients for the size of your jar. 

Here’s the calculation you’ll need to use.

Measurement of ingredient / 200 X size of your jar in ml. 

For example, if you have a 150ml jar and you are trying to change the quantity of 2 tablespoons of spice, the calculation would be as follows:

2 divided by 200 multiplied by 150 = 1.5. 

That would mean that you would need to use 1.5 tablespoons instead of 2 tablespoons of a particular ingredient if you were using a 150ml jar. 

How Much Seasoning To Add To A Recipe

I would start by adding 1 tablespoon to a recipe that served 4 and then increase the quantity to suit your own tastebuds. 

If you are making a recipe that serves 1, start by adding just less than 1 teaspoon of seasoning to your recipe.

How To Make A Single Serving Of This Recipe

If you’re not ready to make a big batch of this seasoning mix, and you want to make enough spice blend for just 1 recipe that serves 4, here are the quantities you’ll need to use: 

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch ground allspice
• pinch ground cardamom
• pinch ground cloves

Storage

Ground spices start to lose their potency after 6 months.  However, when you buy ground spices, you don’t know how long they’ve already been on the shelves. 

Personally, I would keep these spices as long as they still looked and smelled OK to me. 

Recipe

Other Homemade Seasoning Recipes

Here are some more of my favorite homemade seasoning recipes: 

• Mexican Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• Italian Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• BBQ Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• Chili Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)

Now it’s your turn to make magic in the kitchen.