Pantry to Dinner: A Deep Dive Into Spices with Caroline Saunders

What's actually in your spice drawer, and where did it come from?

In this episode of the Pantry to Dinner mini-series, host Victoria Riskin sits down with food writer Caroline Saunders, Le Cordon Bleu graduate, Bluedot Living contributor, and author of the Substack Pale Blue Tart, for a tour of the spices every home cook should have on hand. 

Caroline traces cardamom from the Western Ghats of India to the highlands of Guatemala, where farmers are developing their own heat-resilient plant varieties and moving operations higher up mountainsides to adapt to shifting climates. Vanilla, it turns out, is a climbing vine that grows best in forests — which makes it both fragile and a quiet argument for conservation. And sumac, which most shoppers walk past without a second glance, is a native North American plant with Indigenous culinary roots and a lemon-bright flavor that pastry chefs rely on for a very specific reason.

What you'll hear in this episode:

• How long ground and whole spices actually last — and what to do with the ones that have been sitting in the back of your cabinet

• Cardamom: where it grows, how it's changing, and why one Indian farm is breeding its own resilient varieties

• Vanilla as a climbing vine — and why forest preservation is part of its survival story

• Sumac: the native North American spice with deep Indigenous roots that tastes like dried lemon and solves a pastry chef problem you didn't know existed

• Cumin, thyme, and the case for building your own go-to spice blend

• Where to buy spices that support farmers directly, including Diaspora Co.

• Recipes: cardamom sugar cookie with cardamom glaze, and a vanilla date hemp shake from BluedotLiving.com

Explore more recipes and sustainable living inspiration at https://bluedotliving.com/sustainable-recipes/

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