Seven Spice Mix: The Secret to Palestinian Flavor | Olive & Spice Baharat

The Traditional Seven Spice Composition

What makes seven spice Palestinian blend so distinctive is its precise balance of warming spices, each contributing specific notes that combine into something greater than the sum of its parts. While exact ratios vary by family tradition and regional preference, the seven essential components remain consistent:

Cinnamon

Forms the sweet, warming foundation, not the harsh supermarket variety, but true cinnamon with its delicate, almost floral sweetness. In Palestinian spice mix, cinnamon provides depth without overwhelming.

Allspice

Contributes that characteristic warmth that makes people ask "what IS that flavor?" It tastes simultaneously like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, hence its English name, but possesses a complexity all its own. Palestinian cooks consider allspice essential for authentic flavor.

Cardamom

Brings aromatic brightness, that slightly mentholated, eucalyptus-like quality that lifts the entire blend. Green cardamom pods are ground fresh, releasing essential oils that transform ordinary rice into something extraordinary.

Cloves

Add pungent intensity and slight bitterness that balances the sweeter spices. Used sparingly, cloves provide backbone; too much overwhelms. Traditional Palestinian spices use just enough to create intrigue.

Nutmeg

Offers warm, slightly sweet notes with a hint of pepper. Freshly ground nutmeg makes all the difference, pre-ground loses those volatile oils that make Palestinian seven spice so aromatic.

Coriander

Contributes citrusy, slightly floral notes that brighten the heavier spices. Ground coriander seed adds complexity without asserting itself too strongly.

Black Pepper

Provides heat and sharpness, preventing the blend from becoming cloying. Palestinian baharat isn't meant to be spicy-hot, but pepper adds just enough edge to keep things interesting.

The magic happens in the proportions. Too much cinnamon and the blend becomes dessert-like; too much clove and it tastes medicinal. Traditional Palestinian spice mix achieves perfect balance, warm but not sweet, aromatic but not perfume-like, complex but harmonious. This is what Olive & Spice preserved when they brought their family recipes from Gaza to America: not just ingredients, but the generations of knowledge that created ideal ratios.

Gaza Origins and the Palestinian Diaspora Connection

Seven spice mix holds particular significance in Gaza's culinary traditions, where it flavors everything from daily rice dishes to celebration feasts. Gaza's position as a coastal trading hub historically gave it access to spices from around the world, and Gazan cooks became masters at blending these precious commodities into signature mixtures.

For the Palestinian diaspora, authentic seven spice Palestinian blend represents an edible connection to home. When Palestinians scattered across the globe, to Jordan, Lebanon, the Gulf, Europe, the Americas, they carried spice recipes in their memories and sometimes literally in their luggage. Recreating these blends in new lands became an act of cultural preservation, a way to maintain Palestinian identity through taste.

Olive & Spice embodies this diaspora experience. Founded by Palestinians from Gaza now based in the United States, the company bridges two worlds: authentic Palestinian tradition and accessibility for people far from Palestine. Their seven spice doesn't just taste right, it tastes like memory, like grandmother's kitchen, like Friday family gatherings that stretched for hours over plates of fragrant maqlouba.

For Palestinians living abroad, finding authentic Palestinian spices often meant traveling to specialty Middle Eastern markets or asking relatives to bring supplies from Palestine. Companies like Olive & Spice changed this, making traditional Palestinian spice mix available to anyone seeking genuine flavor. This accessibility helps younger diaspora generations connect with their heritage through cooking, even if they've never set foot in Palestine.

Using Seven Spice in Traditional Palestinian Dishes

Seven spice Palestinian blend appears in dishes across Palestine's culinary landscape, particularly in rice-based preparations and slow-cooked stews where its complex flavors have time to bloom.

Maqlouba (Upside-Down Rice)

Maqlouba practically demands seven spice. This iconic Palestinian dish layers rice with vegetables and meat, and the spice blend infuses every grain with warmth and aroma. Without seven spice, maqlouba is just rice and vegetables; with it, the dish becomes transcendent.

Plain Rice

Plain rice transforms when cooked with seven spice, butter, and broth. Palestinian families serve this aromatic rice alongside grilled meats, stews, or stuffed vegetables, where its fragrance complements rather than competes.

Roasted Meats

Roasted meats, chicken, lamb, beef, gain depth when rubbed with seven spice before cooking. The spices create an aromatic crust while their flavors penetrate the meat, especially in slow-roasted preparations.

Lentil Stews and Bean Dishes

Lentil stews and bean dishes benefit from seven spice's warming qualities. Added early in cooking, the blend mellows and integrates, creating layered flavor that makes simple legumes taste complex and satisfying.

Stuffed Vegetables (Mahshi)

Even stuffed vegetables (mahshi), grape leaves, zucchini, eggplant, include seven spice in their rice filling, lending subtle aromatics that elevate these labor-intensive dishes.

Featured in Palbox: Authentic Palestinian Seven Spice

When you receive your Palbox and unwrap the Olive & Spice seven spice blend, you're holding more than just another spice jar. You're holding a piece of Palestinian culinary heritage, ground with care and traditional ratios by a company founded by Palestinians from Gaza. This is the real thing—the same blend Palestinian cooks reach for daily, not a westernized approximation or a generic "Middle Eastern spice" that tastes of nothing in particular.

The seven spice in your Palbox carries Gaza's culinary traditions to your kitchen. Each spoonful brings together cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, and black pepper in proportions perfected over generations. Use it in maqlouba, scatter it over rice, rub it on chicken before roasting, or stir it into lentil soup. However you use it, you're cooking with authentic Palestinian flavor—the kind that makes people ask for seconds and wonder what your secret ingredient is.

Recipe: Traditional Palestinian Maqlouba with Seven Spice

Here's how to use your Palbox seven spice to create the most iconic Palestinian rice dish.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups basmati rice, soaked 30 minutes
• 1 lb chicken thighs or lamb
• 1 large eggplant, sliced and fried
• 1 cauliflower, cut into florets and fried
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2-3 tablespoons Olive & Spice seven spice blend
• Salt to taste
• Toasted pine nuts and parsley for garnish
• Palestinian olive oil

Method:

Brown meat with onions in olive oil. Season generously with seven spice (2 tablespoons) and salt. Add broth and simmer until meat is tender, about 45 minutes. Remove meat and reserve broth.

In a large pot, layer ingredients: Place meat at the bottom, then fried eggplant, then fried cauliflower. Rinse soaked rice and spread over vegetables. Add another tablespoon of seven spice to the rice.

Pour reserved broth over everything (liquid should come 1 inch above rice). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and cook 25-30 minutes until rice is tender and liquid absorbed.

Let rest 10 minutes, then place a large serving platter over the pot and flip dramatically (the "upside-down" moment!). Remove pot to reveal your architectural masterpiece: golden rice studded with tender meat and vegetables, all infused with the warming aromatics of Palestinian seven spice.

Garnish with toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley. Serve with yogurt and cucumber salad. This is Palestinian cuisine at its finest—fragrant, complex, and utterly delicious, all thanks to that essential seven spice blend now sitting in your Palbox.