All About Baharat: The Warming, Spicy, Sweet-and-Savory Wonder Spice

Baharat, pronounced ba-Ha-raght, is a Middle Eastern spice blend layered with sweet, earthy, spicy flavors, and a delicate florality. Learn everything you need to know about baharat spice in this essential guide, including: What is baharat? What’s in it? And my favorite ways to use it. 

If you could bottle the quintessential Middle Eastern dance between sweet and savory, warming and spicy, and bold and delicate, it would be baharat spice blend. Just a dash of this Mediterranean pantry staple will bring big boldness to your weeknight baked chicken and date night chocolate pudding alike! You’ll be amazed at how much incredibly fragrant, complex flavor you can get with simple a mix of spices.

Baharat varies depending on the region, family, and, honestly, what grandma is feeling that day. It demonstrates the concept I talk about in my cookbook of letting your “nafas,” or guide your cooking. Nafas means “breath” or “soul” in Arabic. It’s a hard concept to translate, but essentially it means to cook from your heart. Let your breath guide you rather than a set recipe. 

Of course, you can grind, toast, and mix paprika, black pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and more to make your own personal Baharat blend. But, if your nafas are still in development, you can find this spice mixture at specially stores and our online shop.

Table of Contents

1. What is Baharat?
2. What Does Baharat Taste Like?
3. Where to Find It
4. Best Substitute for Baharat
5. How to Use It
6. All About the Mediterranean Pantry! 

What is Baharat?

Baharat is a catch-all term for spice blend, from the Arabic word for “spices.” Like za’atar or ras el hanout, baharat spice is one of the many Eastern Mediterranean blends that has no exact definition or recipe. 

But despite the nuance and variety, baharat’s basic flavor profile remains the same. It’s a cozy blend of warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Plus layers of savory spices like coriander and cumin, and a slow and gentle heat from ground chili and black pepper. 

What Does Baharat Taste Like?

Baharat is a well-balanced mix of spicy, sweet, savory, and smoky. If you taste a pinch you might first notice the dominant flavors of coriander and cumin–earthy and a little bit floral. Then comes the warming, slightly sweet notes of spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

You may begin to sense the sneaky heat slowly building from smoky and sweet paprika and spicy black pepper. Finally, you may notice more of a sensation rather than a flavor. That’s allspice’s complex flavor, which tends to linger once the flavors fade. 

Where to Find It

Baharat is still a lesser-known spice that you can sometimes find in the spice section of your grocery store, either under “B” or with the other blends.

But if your grocery store doesn’t have a wide variety, head over to our shop. We carry a curated selection of hard-to-find Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spices, along with my favorite version of baharat. 

Best Substitute for Baharat

There’s really no great substitute for baharat, but the next best thing would be to use ras el hanout. 

Generally speaking, the two spice blends share warming, sweet, and aromatic with spices like cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. The main difference comes down to a small nuance in earthy versus peppery spices, with ras el hanout taking on earthy note typical of yellow spices like turmeric and baharat boasting a sweet chili flavor reminiscent of red spices like paprika.

You can swap the two spice blends in savory dishes and both will add a delicious flavor to your dish, just keep in mind the color and flavor profile won’t be quite the same. 

• READ MORE: Ras el Hanout: The “Top Shelf” Spice You Want In your Pantry
• TRY IT: You can find Ras el Hanout (and Baharat) in our shop. Both are sold individually or as part of our Exotic Spice Bundle

How to Use It

Baharat has a talent for fitting in, with sweets, meats, and more! Here are some ways to incorporate this aromatic spice blend into your everyday cooking: 

• Make an Egyptian-style “hamburger” with my easy twist on Egyptian Hawashi, which includes my homemade baharat seasoning blend. 
• Shake up your weeknight baked chicken with my Middle Eastern Baharat Baked Chicken Thighs.
• Give a Vegan Chocolate Pudding a grownup twist. 
• There’s more than just spaghetti and meatballs! Try a new style of meatballs with my Lamb Meatballs with Caramelized Onions.
• Up your snack game: Toss with popcorn, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, or Crispy Roasted Chickpeas.

All About the Mediterranean Pantry! 

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What is Za’atar and How to Use It (BEST Za’atar Recipes)

Pantry

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Ingredients

What is Saffron? An Essential Guide

Mediterranean Spices

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Browse all Mediterranean recipes.

Visit Our Shop.