This recipe, this is an important one. It’s homemade taco seasoning.

Of all that you find on these virtual pages, this is perhaps the recipe that I use the most. The one that I refer to you time and again when another recipe needs a little something extra. One that had, until now, been tucked away deep into year 1, birthday 1, when I made tacos. Tacos, so underrated, so perfect and so versatile for any mood or occasion, needs the perfect seasoning, and this, friends, is it. It was buried in a post, shared with cauliflower tortillas and my stand-by guacamole, but it deserved an upgrade. Some new pictures and of all the recipes, this one really needs to stand alone.

I’ll tell the story again on how it came to be. Standing in my tiny (so tiny) kitchen in my apartment on Prytania in the Garden District of New Orleans, long before I had many cooking skills of which to brag, I made tacos. Bored and waiting for my beef to brown, I read the label of the brand-that-shall-not-be-named taco seasoning and was appalled, appalled, by the indecipherable ingredients that I was about to put into my food. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t! I rushed to my computer and pulled up a few versions and from those, I created my own, and it’s been my stand-by since. It was also my wake up call to ‘clean’ foods; not that I was much for pre-packaged goods anyway, but it taught me to be more aware of what was in my foods, what I wanted to avoid, and how something as seemingly innocent as taco seasoning was so much more than that.

Except JIF. Give me those added sugars and hydrogenated oils any day. We all have our vices.

Moving on, years later, I always have a jar of this homemade taco seasoning on hand, at the ready to add to eggs or summer squash or a sprinkle on some avocado toast. So popular, I’ve even jarred it upon request for friends.