Everything Bagel Seasoning

Add delicious crunch, flavor and health appeal to a long list of everyday foods with a quick sprinkle of this toasty, seedy, easy-to-make mix.

I’m a big believer in little things. The little things in life can truly make a big difference in the coarse of a day, whether it’s getting an extra half hour of sleep or simply extending a few kind words to someone.

Little things go a long way in the kitchen, too:  A good dressing that adds flavor to simple salads or reinvents last night’s leftovers. Waking up to a made-ahead breakfast. Having cooked chicken on hand when a recipe calls for cooked chicken!

The following seasoning mix is one of those little things that can go a very long way, effortlessly enhancing a long list of everyday ingredients and a variety of easy meals.

Typically thought of as the tasty (albeit somewhat messy) coating on an everything bagel, the seedy mix is worthy of broader use (and less messy applications!).

Trader Joe’s sells a similar spice blend called Everything But the Bagel, which I think is a fun name. The ingredient list reads as follows: sesame seeds, sea salt flakes, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion, black sesame seeds, poppy seeds.

My seasoning blend goes a tad lighter on the garlic compared to what one may be accustomed to on the classic bagel, as many people find that flavor overpowering. I also add a small amount of red pepper flakes for enhanced flavor without pronounced heat.

The best thing about making this easy mix at home is that you can adjust the various ingredients to taste. Plus its freshly toasted flavor works far beyond the traditional bagel coating. It’s inexpensive, too.

Keep this versatile blend in mind when a little extra texture and crunch would benefit your ingredients. Foods that are creamy or soft are perfect vehicles－think hummus, avocado/guacamole, cream cheese, tahini, pureed soups, baked or mashed potatoes (or low-carb cauliflower alternatives) and so on. But that’s just for starters. I’ve included a more extensive list below－and feel free to comment as to how you would use it.

As an added bonus, seeds are loaded with health benefits, so keeping this seasoning blend on hand offers an easy way to increase your intake. Generally speaking, seeds are a great source of fiber and contain healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, as well as important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

If you’d like to get creative, you may absolutely add some chia or hemp seeds, or create a chunkier mix with the addition of sunflower seeds or pepitas. The resulting mix may no longer be the traditional bagel coating, but it would offer an extra layer of flavor, texture and health appeal.

How to use Everything Bagel Seasoning:

• Sprinkle over hummus…
• …or avocado toast (with or without an egg).
• Double the pleasure by sprinkling over the cream cheese on an everything bagel (or a plain bagel or toast－delicious on buttered toast and other crusty breads, too).
• Dust over the other condiments in your favorite sandwich, sub or wrap.
• Use as a topping for lox, either on a cream cheese bagel or avocado toast.
• Or make an appetizer by assembling the traditional bagel & lox ingredients on crostini rounds.
• Sprinkle over salmon or chicken before baking, brushing with a little olive oil first.
• Use as a topping for roasted vegetables (like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and broccoli/broccolini).
• Add a few hearty pinches to a baked and buttered potato－or mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower.
• Add seedy, crunchy interest to salads…
• …or soups like butternut squash or cauliflower soup.
• Many lentil and bean dishes take well to this seasoning mix, too.
• Toss with freshly popped buttered popcorn (with an optional sprinkle of nutritional yeast, too).
• We like to keep a small jar alongside the salt and pepper on our kitchen table. If you do the same, you may be surprised by how versatile it truly is.

In the photo below, I sprinkled Everything Bagel Seasoning on avocado toast with a simple egg white scramble. I mentioned in a recent Instagram story that I used a cauliflower-based sandwich thin instead of bread. It was a new find that I really liked, both for flavor and the impressive ingredient list. Many expressed interest, so I included details along with a photo of the ingredients and nutritional stats below the recipe card. ⇩  (Also, I highly recommend dipping veggies into hummus, followed by the bagel seasoning!)

Everything Bagel Seasoning

Yield: ~¼ cup (recipe doubles easily)

Add healthy crunch and flavor to a long list of everyday foods with a quick sprinkle of this toasty, seedy mix. And it takes just minutes to make!

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1½ tablespoons poppy seeds
• 2 teaspoons dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
• 1-2 teaspoons flaky or coarse salt
• Optional: ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

Toast in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, stirring regularly, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn; stop cooking when the sesame seeds are lightly golden around the edges.

Cool and store in glass jar or airtight container for up to 2 months.

A few more things...

•Choose salt amount based on how liberally you’d like to use this, and how coarse/flaky your salt is (finer granules = saltier flavor), and how salty you like things in general. We like the happy medium of 1½ teaspoons…and it’s always easy to add more.
•If desired, you may use a mix of regular and black sesame seeds.
•If you enjoy a more pronounced onion or garlic flavor, you may add an additional teaspoon of either or both.
•For a chunkier, seedier mix, you may add 2 tablespoons of pepitas, sunflower or hemp seeds (or a combination).
•If you like the idea of baking the seasoning mix on top of chicken, salmon, a casserole, etc., you need not toast it on the stovetop first.

Helpful hint: I recommend against using table salt, as the fine granules will too easily settle to the bottom of the mix. If using sea salt that doesn’t seem especially coarse, turn the jar upside regularly and give it a gentle shake (or even store the jar upside down) to keep the granules evenly distributed.

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For the egg and avocado toast pictured in this post, I used Plantpower Sandwich Thins from Outer Aisle. They are soft, pliable and take well to toasting. There is a light but appealing cauliflower flavor, and the ingredient list is impressively clean. For those who may be interested, I have purchased them (they come 6 per pack) at Wegmans and Whole Foods; they are in the freezer section along with mini pizza rounds, which come 2 per pack.