6 Exotic Ingredients You Should Try Cooking With

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Admit it. Sometimes you find yourself in a fancy grocery store, staring at a fruit you can’t name or a sauce you can’t pronounce. You think to yourself, What would I even do with this? Will I ever be the kind of person that knows how to use star anise in a recipe?

Blue Apron makes learning about new (and delicious) ingredients fun. Their weekly recipes are designed to introduce you to new flavors while gently showing you your way around the kitchen. Best of all, these fresh ingredients from small farms and specialty vendors are shipped to you without a grocery store mark-up. That means the ingredients are more affordable, you don’t buy more than you need, and you won’t spend an hour trying to find them in your local gourmet supermarkets. And if you sign up now, you’ll receive two free meals on your first order.

Following are six of the more fun ingredients to be featured in recent Blue Apron recipes. There are a lot more where they came from!

Epazote
Done with kale? Let us introduce epazote. Traditionally used in a range of Mexican dishes, epazote has a pungent fragrance often compared to citrus, savory herbs, or mint.

 

Barberries
Although it’s widely used in Middle Eastern cooking, the barberry hasn’t exactly reached peak popularity in the States. Use it like citrus peel for an extra pop in your cooking.

 

Kumquats
They look like mini oranges, but you can actually eat the whole thing, peel and all. Blue Apron sources these lovely little fruits from Ripe To You in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

 

Ponzu sauce
This citrusy Japanese sauce is made from mirin, rice vinegar, tuna flakes, and seaweed. A citrus juice is added at the end, and it comes to you ready to add to a grilled meat or fish.

 

Star anise
You’ve seen these little beauties in the market and wondered what the heck to do with them. Well, don’t actually eat them. But you can simmer them along with your meal to infuse the flavor, and then keep them around for garnish. (But really… don’t bite into it.)

 

Madagascar pink rice
With a sweet, almost fruity flavor, the color isn’t the only distinctive thing about this rice. The taste and unexpected tint will add a touch of the exotic.

 

So be brave! Sign up for Blue Apron for a simple, healthy, and cost-effective way to get yourself cooking. You will be venturing into exciting new culinary territories, without setting foot in the grocery store.