I am so happy when something opens up on my local main street (Monkland Avenue in NDG) that isn’t a chain coffee shop, bank or ice cream store (NDG’ers I know you hear me) so when Spice Station opened up this summer I was so happy. It meant I could pretty much cook ANYTHING knowing I could get ANY spice easily. This is big. And… I’ll just let that sink in for a moment…
But I was even happier to go in and discover that the spices are affordable, and the people are so nice. I don’t know WHY those little jars of supermarket spices are so expensive, but most spices at Spice Station are around $2.50 an ounce, and really an ounce is all you need most of the time. $2.50! At that price you can pretty much go nuts choosing all sorts of spices, herbs and blends. They also have tea!
I recently went in to get some chipotle chilli, which they ground for me. It was for a wonderful recipe for Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream which was…. amazing! The smoked chipotle chilli went just so well with the chocolate. It was from David Lebovitz’s book The Perfect Scoop which I am, umm… eating my way through.
I also made this roasted vegetable salad which was based on a recipe from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers which I talked about ages ago. It was AMAZING and simple. BUT time consuming. I like to let my veg roast a very long time, which is why it took so long but there are a million things you can be doing while it’s roasting. I mean, you don’t have to watch it! And yes, it uses that same chipotle chilli. Enjoy the salad and CHECK OUT Spice Station!
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and sliced into 2cm slices
- 1 red onion - sliced into 1cm slices
- 1 basket cherry tomatoes - each cut in half
- 1½ tbsp chipotle chilli ground
- 1 tbsp mexican oregano
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- small bunch of coriander leaves
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 250 grams chorizo sausage
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1tbsp sherry vinegar
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Place the cut squash into a bowl along with the spices and ¼ cup olive oil.
- Swirl around the squash to coat.
- Place on a baking tray, leaving the leftover oil and spices in the bowl.
- Roast squash for about 1 hour.
- When done place squash in salad bowl.
- Place cut onion and tomatoes in bowl with the leftover oil and spices and swirl to coat.
- Place the red onion, and tomatoes cut side up on roasting tray.
- Roast for about 35 minutes.
- Once you are satisfied with the tenderness and carmelization of the vegetables, place in the salad bowl with roasted squash.
- While all this is happening blend up your coriander with some olive oil to make a sort of pesto. Set aside.
- Cut up your chorizo and fry until hot and a bit crispy.
- Place the chorizo in the same bowl as the rest of the roast veg.
- Drizzle over about 5 tbsp of the coriander (or as much as you want), and about 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (to taste)
If you like these photos check out my Instagram feed
Spice Station, 5610 Monkland and 174A Bernard St. West
Michelle Little
Writer & Photographer
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