Food Hack: Homemade Everything But the Bagel Seasoning Mix!

Have you ever heard of Trader Joe's "Everything But The Bagel" seasoning mix? It's a delicious mix of bagel toppings all in one versatile flavour bomb. And because it isn't easy to get here in Australia I decided to make up my own batch. And you know what? It's absolutely delicious and such a simple way to add goodness and flavour to so many foods. If you love avocado toast, then this is a pushy recipe!

The Everything But The Bagel seasoning mix is a mix of toasted white and black sesame seeds, poppyseeds, garlic, onion and salt. The key to this mixture is that everything is around the same size (except for the poppy seeds). And better still, all of the ingredients can be easily found at an Australian supermarket. It took all of 3 minutes to get this seasoning mix together and admittedly when I first tasted the mix by itself, I thought it was too salty. But then I added it to my avocado toast and it made it sing with flavour.

Apart from on avocado toast it's also brilliant on breads (naturally being a bagel topping), sprinkled on top of pasta, on grilled fish and chicken, eggs (poached, scrambled, fried), on sandwiches and salads. The lovely person that originally got me onto the mix was Monica from Lulu's. She and I met a few years ago when we were dining at the same restaurant and we got to talking about food (of course right, hehe).

We've kept in touch over the years and we still discuss all things food. Food people are like that-we can talk forever about food and riff off each other. "Have you tried this? It's so good!" is a common refrain. She and I share a particular love for American food, calories be damned. I like to think that food people also have a good sense of humour too.

Like the other night when she posted a meme of Neil Degrasse Tyson explaining that mayonnaise is just sandwich lube (I'm 100% sure he didn't say it but it made the meme hilarious). When I saw that I snorted out loud and had to share it myself. And I'll never quite look at mayonnaise the same way. So while mayonnaise can lubricate your sandwich, this bagel mix can season it to perfection! As I said, this is a pushy recipe if you love extra crunch and flavour.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you agree that mayonnaise is sandwich lube? Have you ever tried this bagel seasoning mix?

Homemade Everything Bagel Seasoning

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Makes 1 small jar

• 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, toasted
• 1.5 tablespoons black sesame seeds, toasted
• 1.5 tablespoons dried onion flakes (not onion powder)
• 1 tablespoons dried garlic flakes (not garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1/2-1 tablespoon flaked salt

Step 1 - Mix all ingredients together and store in a jar.