Curry Popcorn Recipe

A friend made me this curry popcorn one year for my birthday. I thought it was the best snack food I’d had in a long time so I asked her for the recipe. She made a copy for me and I made it several times.

Then, as life happens, I moved and boxed everything up and didn’t unpack things as well as I packed. I was looking for this recipe and couldn’t find it. Recently I opened a box I’d stored in the closet in my office and there was the recipe for curry popcorn. I got the munchies just thinking about this popcorn.

The funny thing is that I wrote a lengthy list of healthy snacks in an earlier blog post but I didn’t mention popcorn at all. It must have been in one of my phases of avoiding grains.

This popcorn is no harder to make than regular popcorn. The advantage to it is that it’s got a lot of flavor so you don’t need to douse it in melted butter. Not that I don’t love buttered popcorn but it’s not the best snack for you.

This recipe calls for making the popcorn on the stove, which, of course, requires you to use some oil. I’m not sure that you could make this with popcorn popped in the microwave. I mean plain popcorn popped in a microwave popper, not the bags of microwave popcorn. Of course you can’t doctor the bags of popcorn. I often make popcorn in the microwave because it doesn’t require any oil. It’s like air popcorn.

What oil to use?

The ingredient list says oil of choice. The original recipe just called for vegetable oil but I used coconut oil in this many times and it works great. The popcorn also tastes great when popped in coconut oil.  My current batch was made with avocado oil because that’s what I had. It also worked well.

What popcorn to use?

You can use any regular popcorn that you can pop. I usually buy organic popcorn (Trader Joe’s carries this) or I buy Amish popcorn. I like to buy non-GMO popcorn but that’s a personal preference. I used to buy a tub of popping corn from the Boy Scouts but I no longer know any scouts selling popcorn.

Curry Popcorn

This popcorn is even better the second day, after making it the day before.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp cumin, ground
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup oil of choice
• ½ cup unpopped popcorn

Directions

Mix the spices together.

Heat oil in a large pot with a lid. Add one or two kernels. When the kernels pop, add the rest of the popcorn. When those kernels are getting ready to start popping, add the spices.

Shake the pan continuously until the popcorn quits popping.

Pour into a bowl and enjoy.

Important Note:

• Do NOT breath in the fumes of the heating spices and do NOT put your face over the pot.
• Use a sealed lidded pot if possible, one without a vent.

Storage

This does make a lot so if you’re going to not eat this in one sitting, you can store it in a large plastic bag or a bowl with a lid. If it doesn’t get moist, it will last for a few days.

Variations

Stir in two minced garlic cloves

Use a different spice combination. Mix together:

• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp coriander
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne

Or try a spice combination of your own creation. I wonder how a pumpkin pie spice blend would work.

I think this popcorn makes a great snack. It’s flavorful and not covered in butter. Let me know if you try it and what you think.