13 file powder recipes

Homemade Cajun chicken seasoning with three kinds of pepper, garlic, onion, filé powder, and ground bay leaves. Mix it up in 5 minutes and keep it in the pantry.

Homemade Cajun spice blend with paprika, filé powder, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, and fennel. Ornish-friendly with no added fat. Makes 2 cups in 10 minutes flat.

A Cajun-style homemade beef seasoning blend with paprika, garlic powder, file powder, and bay leaf. Mix it once, jar it up, and season steaks, roasts, and stews all month long.

Fowl gumbo with boiled chicken, okra, tomatoes, bell pepper, and celery in a rich brown gravy, finished with file powder. Serve over rice or cornbread for a true Southern bowl.

Louisiana red beans and rice with kidney beans, andouille sausage, tasso ham, and pickled pork, thickened with file powder. A chef-level Creole classic with layered smoke and spice.

Cajun seafood gumbo with shrimp, lump crab, ham, and okra built on a dark cocoa-colored roux. Finished with file powder for authentic Louisiana flavor and body.

This is a nice and special gumbo, chicken mix sausage, very tasty.

Quick cherry turnovers made with crescent roll dough and canned cherry pie filling. Three ingredients plus a simple powdered sugar glaze. Ready in 30 minutes from start to finish.

A campfire coffee cake made in a cast iron Dutch oven with charcoal. Bisquick batter over pie filling, topped with cinnamon sugar and butter. Wake up the whole campsite with this one.

A deliciously light chocolate marbled angel food cake is filled with raspberry jam, and topped with coffee cream. It's sweet and rich enough to please your sweet tooth, but without too much guilt.

The quintessential Indian-Singaporean meal accompaniment. Unfortunately, all too often it is made using highly processed white flour and margarine. Here, the parathas are made with whole-wheat flour (you could also try using spelt flour) and stuffed with peas and potatoes, for a lighter but more wholesome take on the original. Serve hot with yoghurt and herbs.

Make your own banana flour at home by drying and grinding ripe bananas into a fine powder. Use it as a 1:1 substitute for regular flour in desserts and baked goods.

Pocket soup is a homemade instant soup powder: split peas, bulgur, dried vegetable flakes, sesame and sunflower seeds, and nutritional yeast ground to a fine powder. Add boiling water for a quick vegan broth anywhere.