Spices are the key to cooking cheaply at home: a well-stocked spice rack means that you can turn something as simple as a can of tomatoes and a few veg into a really tasty and satisfying meal. We’ve written here before about how to stock up your larder with Indian spices, and I thought I’d write today about how cheap and easy that can be.
Going to a supermarket and buying 20 different varieties of spices wouldn’t leave you much change out of €50, but you can get both better prices and bigger quantities if you shop for spices in Asian or halal shops instead. I stocked up on some spices the other day in one of my favourite food shops, The Spice of Life on Moore St, and kept my receipt in order to do a price comparison. I’ve compared with Schwartz spices, which are the market leader in supermarket spices. The differences in some of the per kilo prices are astonishing:
| Spice | Schwartz Unit Price | Schwartz Price per kg | Indian Shop Unit Price | Indian Shop Price per kg |
| Curry Powder | €1.67 for 90g | €18.56 | €1.29 for 100g | €12.90 |
| Turmeric | €1.94 for 34g | €62.59 | €1.49 for 100g | €14.90 |
| Paprika | €2.17 for 34g | €63.83 | €1.52 for 100g | €15.20 |
€62.59 per kilo for Schwartz turmeric versus €14.90 for East End turmeric from the Indian shop – see what I mean? Clearly with the Schwartz spices, you are paying for the jar – and if you’re the kind of person that likes to have all their spices in the same size jars, then that’s fair enough. We all have our little weirdnesses. However, I find those jars too small (teaspoons don’t fit into them, stupidly) and the quantities in them are so meagre that they run out really quickly. I just wash out mustard or jam jars and use them to store my spices.
I did recently read somewhere that chefs recommend keeping your spices in opaque containers, as exposure to light apparently lessens the strength of the spices. However, I think if you’re going through them reasonably quickly it shouldn’t matter too much.
The table above is just a quick comparison, but I’ve found that most spices are available at similar prices from the ethnic shops. They also have a much wider range than you can expect to find in the supermarkets. If you’re just learning to cook or just getting a spice rack together, I would highly recommend a trip to one of the ethnic shops with about €25 in your pocket – you’ll make out like a bandit.
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