Believe it or not, it’s been an entire year since we started this blog and we’re celebrating by posting about one of our all-time favorite snacks — Popcorn! If you’re related to us, you share this obsession. If you’re friends with us, you know all too well the obsession is real.
Growing up we always had popcorn for dinner on Sunday nights. Just popcorn. Nothing else. Usually with just a touch of salt and that’s it! (Don’t worry- no one called protective services) This was a tradition that started on our mom’s side of the family. It began with our grandparents when they met while studying at Purdue University. They would eat supper at the dining court together every night with the exception of Sunday nights. On Sunday nights the dining courts were closed and therefore, they would have popcorn. This continued after they graduated, had kids, and grandkids. What has resulted is a big family with a big popcorn obsession!
Popcorn is an awesome snack, not only because it’s crunchy and you can flavor it however you like, but it’s also a whole grain. (Check out our Carbohydrate post for more info on whole grains) The popular problem is that we take that unprocessed grain and cover it with excessively processed oil, butter and/or sugar and usually some salt. Suddenly that wholesome, plant-based food is not so healthy anymore. But no one wants to eat plain bland popcorn. So the trick is flavoring it with good stuff rather than bad stuff.
Since we’re the all stars of popcorn eaters, we have a few seasoning go-to’s:
- Nutritional Yeast
- Italian Seasoning
- Cinnamon
- Curry Powder
- The Classic Salt & Pepper
With most of these we first spritz the popcorn with veggie broth, balsamic vinegar, pickle juice or water. Spritzing is necessary to get the seasoning to stick to the popcorn. Although, you have to be conservative with the spritzing because over-spritzing will result in soggy popcorn.
Normally oil or butter is used to get the seasonings to stick. We don’t recommend using oil (see our Why No Oil? post), although if you’re going to use it, please use it sparingly.
Pickle Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup popcorn unpopped
- pickle juice out of a pickle jar
- 1 1/2 tsp dill
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Place dill, garlic powder, onion powder and salt in a small bowl and mix well.
- Pour pickle juice into a spray bottle.
- Air pop your popcorn. For more info on air poppers, see the Notes from the Chef section.
- Spritz the popped popcorn with pickle juice and sprinkle the seasoning over it. Do this quickly- if the liquid dries, the spices will not stick to the popcorn.
Notes
You can air pop popcorn with it, it's cheap and works well!
Make sure to not over-spritz the popcorn with the pickle juice as it will make it soggy. You want just enough for the seasonings to stick.
If you don't have pickle juice, water or veggie broth can be used in its place.
i like it