When learning to cook healthy food, it’s crucial to add flavor without adding tons of fat, sodium, or weird chemicals to your food. So when I came across Kernel Season’s popcorn seasonings, I had very high hopes. After all, popcorn is an awesome snack food–if you don’t let butter and salt trip you up. These seeasonings are low-calorie and seemingly pretty natural. The Web site had me sold, so I bought them at Wal-Mart (I know–UGH!!!!–but that’s what story carries them) for under $2 a piece. I got Kettle Corn and Parmesan Garlic to try.
The first night, I popped a mini bag of popcorn and added the Kettle Corn seasoning. And…it tasted like kettle corn! I love kettle corn, so I was pretty thrilled. The next night I tried the Parmesan Garlic, and it has the cheesy flavor that was reminiscent of some kind of shitty, processed popcorn that I remember eating as a kid…but without all the added crap! (Both varieties have practically no calories.)
If you’re sprinkling it on air-popped or low-fat popcorn, you do need to add something to make it stick–either spray butter or olive oil sprayed from a mister.
I am excited to try the other flavors! They didn’t have the chocolate marshmallow at Wal-Mart, but I might have to order it online. And jalapeno and chili lime look pretty tempting as well.
The other thing that’s great is that you can use these seasonings to flavor way more than popcorn–they are great for otherwise boring veggies! The Parmesan Garlic blend is great for broccoli, eggplant, and zucchini. Last night I sprinkled it on my dinner (a hot chickpea-broccoli-tomatoes-onion-chicken-sausage bowl) and it was good! And I really want to try the Chili Lime in stir fry or over sauteed onions and red and green peppers. The Web site lists recipes for each flavor, so that’s definitely worth checking out too.
For so cheap (the Web site has a buy four, get one free deal), you can’t go wrong with adding these guys to your pantry! And I also discovered that they were founded by a U of M student in his dorm room….now yes, I hate U of M as a rule, but it’s still good food karma, so I’m all about it. Definitely a WIN!
.jpg)
