Cardamom

By Food & Wine
Updated January 13, 2017
© Scott Hocker
This aromatic spice native to India has a pungent aroma and a warm, spicy-sweet flavor. Here, a collection of recipes highlighting both sweet and savory cardamom-spiced dishes, including cardamom sugar cookies and cardamom chicken with rice pilaf.
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Eton Mess

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Named for the iconic English boarding school where it originated, the classic Eton Mess is a multitextured dessert featuring strawberries, meringue and whipped cream. For this modern version, add pink peppercorns to the meringue and cardamom to the whipped cream, and swap baked rhubarb compote for the fresh strawberries.

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Cardamom-Cheddar Straws

PHOTO PHOTO © CON POULOS
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Justin Devillier upgrades classic Southern cheese straws with Sharifi's Iranian spices at his New Orleans restaurant La Petite Grocery. He sometimes swaps out the cardamom for equal amounts of ground coriander or fennel seed. "I've always assumed cheese straws originated in the Carolinas," says Devillier, "but that may be because my mother-in-law always brings them when she visits from South Carolina."

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Fried Shrimp Flatbreads with Spicy Cardamom Sauce

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At his L.A. spot, Josef Centeno has done what few chefs do: developed a new kind of sandwich bread. Called the bäco, it’s a very supple flatbread. But his creative fillings, like the fried shrimp here with cardamom-chile sauce and herbed crema, are sensational on any kind of flatbread, or even rolled inside flour tortillas.

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Orange-Cardamom Date Bars with a Nutty Crust

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The Good News The crunchy, almondy topping for these clever bars is loaded with vitamin E. The filling is chewy like caramel and is full of vitamin C from the orange.

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Forbidden Black Rice with Ginger and Cardamom

© John Kernick
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This rich-tasting black rice from chef Akasha Richmond is fragrant with cardamom.

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Cardamom-Spiced Crumb Cake

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This moist cake, topped by a generous layer of cardamom-spiced, pecan-dotted crumbs, is a fabulous gift. F&W's Kate Heddings brought one to a holiday dinner party for her hosts to serve to overnight guests at breakfast the next day—"even though I wouldn't be there to eat it!" she says. Along with the cake, she gave the Calphalon pan she baked it in, fresh-ground coffee beans and a glass container of heavy cream.

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Cardamom Lassi

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Freshly ground whole cardamom seeds add extra flavor to this frothy sweet-and-tart yogurt drink, but preground cardamom powder is okay too.

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Cardamom Chicken with Rice Pilaf

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Sprinkled with cardamom, roasted until crisp, and topped with an apple-flavored sauce, chicken legs become extraordinary. The chicken is perfectly matched by the raisin-studded rice pilaf that's also flavored with cardamom.

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Watermelon Granita with Cardamom Syrup

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The Good News Watermelon is a great source of vitamin C. Here, Marisa Churchill turns it into a fat-free granita, which she drizzles with a fragrant cardamom syrup.

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Cardamom Thumbprints

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Adding cardamom to these crispy cookies gives them a subtle spiced flavor. You can fill the thumb print with other jams or with chocolate.

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Glazed Carrots with Cardamom and Ginger

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Most people cook carrots in water, Shawn McClain says, which dulls their flavor. His secret to keeping them supertasty is to cook them in carrot juice and orange juice until glazed.

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Pear Jam with Green Cardamom

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Rachel Saunders has developed hundreds of recipes over the years simply by flavoring her jams with different herbs and spices. To vary the pear jam here, for example, add a split vanilla bean or a cinnamon stick in place of the cardamom.

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Doughnuts in Cardamom Syrup

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These doughnuts, from Esther Sabach, Rachel Klein's boyfriend's mother, are a nod to Sephardic Jewish tradition.

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Cardamom-Vanilla Biscuits

© Christina Holmes
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F&W’s Kay Chun serves these easy, scone-like biscuits with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

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Strawberry Amaranth Porridge with Cardamom

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This amaranth porridge makes for a nourishing breakfast that will keep you comfortably full for hours. Amaranth is known for its impressive nutritional record, being very high in protein as well as calcium, iron and phosphorus. The addition of fragrant spices and stewed strawberries makes it almost desert-like and delicious.

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Cardamom Rosewater Iced Tea

© Adrian Gaut
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This will definitely up your iced tea game. Toasted cardamom and rosewater add warm, exotic notes to this creamy, honey-sweetened iced summer drink.

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Granola Bars with Sweet Potato Caramel and Cardamom

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These granola bars are packed with flavor and nutrients. Protein-rich buckwheat groats are bound together with a baked sweet potato and cardamom “caramel.” Cardamom is at it's best when freshly ground from green pods, but pre-ground cardamom powder can be used as well.

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Cardamom Sugar Cookies

© Scott Hocker
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Either use pre-ground cardamom seeds or—better still—grind the cardamom seeds fresh. If using green cardamom pods, discard the papery green sheaths before grinding the dark seeds.

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Cardamom-Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Food & Wine
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These spiced-just-right oatmeal cookies are the perfect texture for ice cream sandwiches—chewy and soft.

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Cardamom Sugar Cookies

© Scott Hocker
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Either use pre-ground cardamom seeds or—better still—grind the cardamom seeds fresh. If using green cardamom pods, discard the papery green sheaths before grinding the dark seeds.

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